I am supposed to be doing some reading related to my dissertation this month. Actually I have done some reading but mostly related to the summer courses for 2010. I am enjoying having a break and need some time to get mentally prepared for year 2 of the Journey.
These past couple of weeks I have been working on getting prepared for a workshop and presentation I have to do at eLearning Africa. I have the workbook prepared for the workshop, the eP presentation ready and am just finalizing details. How does this relate to my doctoral studies? Directly it does not since it is not contributing to my proposal or my dissertation but it is contributing to my professional development and giving me the opportunity to leverage some of the knowledge I have gained in the program. Another aspect of this month is that it has me thinking about my future and what I want to do with a doctorate. Here is where my love of travel, education and technology can come together! Ah, but first things first...do my two courses this summer and the final one next fall and then focus on the next phase.
G.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
End of year 1 (just about)
I am at a loss this week. For the first time in 10 months I have nothing pressing to do. The work for the doctoral seminar course has concluded with each of us developing a mock proposal with a focus on the theoretical framework and worldview and the design being only thoughts at this point. The comments from classmates and the exercise of reading and asking questions to our peers was very informative. I then took a chance and sent the mock proposal to my supervisor who indicated he liked what he saw. I am working on a reading list now to help develop my thinking.
The quantitative methods course is also at an end. It was a valuable experience as well since the focus was on understanding the material and not on actually doing the calculations. I have finished my paper for the course and we have our final elluminate Live session tomorrow evening.
For the rest of April and then May and June I can read, rest and refresh. This summer I will be taking two courses again. With some luck I will be done my courses by Christmas and can then work on my proposal. I am looking forward to the qualitative methods course in the fall because that is really the final piece that I will need prior to developing my own study.
G.
The quantitative methods course is also at an end. It was a valuable experience as well since the focus was on understanding the material and not on actually doing the calculations. I have finished my paper for the course and we have our final elluminate Live session tomorrow evening.
For the rest of April and then May and June I can read, rest and refresh. This summer I will be taking two courses again. With some luck I will be done my courses by Christmas and can then work on my proposal. I am looking forward to the qualitative methods course in the fall because that is really the final piece that I will need prior to developing my own study.
G.
Monday, March 1, 2010
March 1
The critique has been handed in and now we are doing our mock proposals. This is probably the most difficult thing I have done! The ideas are just not flowing. I have a sample proposal that I just read but in order to find something unique I feel like I have to read a lot more. The interesting thing here is that this is the first work in this course that we are doing individually. The rest of the work was group/team based, so it is different and a bit lonely.
I am not going to do a course in the spring and will use that time to read. Two courses this summer, so that will be busy but good. Am eager to get into the research side of the process.
G.
I am not going to do a course in the spring and will use that time to read. Two courses this summer, so that will be busy but good. Am eager to get into the research side of the process.
G.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Snow Day?
A winter blizzard has just started outside but I suspect it will end over night so no chance of a snow day!
Jean, Bob and I have prepared out quantitative analysis presentation and sent it in. The first part of the quantitative course went well I believe. It is really helping me in terms of setting the context of 'numbers'. It is also making me very critical and skeptical about statistics that are reported in various studies.
The doctoral seminar course is also going well. We are currently each reviewing a dissertation and will meet online at the end of the month to share our thoughts. Reading the dissertation has brought all of the items together. I see how the framework informs the methods and methodology and the linkages through the study.
Gerona
Jean, Bob and I have prepared out quantitative analysis presentation and sent it in. The first part of the quantitative course went well I believe. It is really helping me in terms of setting the context of 'numbers'. It is also making me very critical and skeptical about statistics that are reported in various studies.
The doctoral seminar course is also going well. We are currently each reviewing a dissertation and will meet online at the end of the month to share our thoughts. Reading the dissertation has brought all of the items together. I see how the framework informs the methods and methodology and the linkages through the study.
Gerona
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Semester 3 has started
I had a very restful break at Christmas and had the opportunity to re-read and consolidate the ideas from 700A and also read the thesis I am going to critique for part B, so I feel good starting the term. I feel confident that I am on the right track after reading the thesis because I can see how my worldview fits well with my area of interest. So basically I have a paradigm to work from. I also have the Community of Inquiry model which also sits within the Interpretivist/Contructionist area so I am confident about that part of the process.
I have just commenced the third semester of my Doctoral program. In order not to take too long with the program, I am doing two courses this semester. I was worried at first because I am not a numbers person but the quantitative methods course is really well organized and aimed an non-mathematicians. One of the primary texts is Statistics without Tears by Derek Rowntree. It is a very reasonable and readable book which makes statistics really user friendly. I can see the relevance to my thesis and in interpreting the work of others. It is primarily individual work-based but there is a group presentation. I am working with Jean Slick and Bob Sochowsy. I must double check the due dates for the assignments since it is a mostly asynchronous course.
Aside from required work, I am trying to read more to get some work done surrounding developing a proposal. At this point I need to think about research questions. My fear is that I am enjoying the reading and work so much that I am loosing interest in people. How will I be able to have a balanced approach to this program?
Gerona
I have just commenced the third semester of my Doctoral program. In order not to take too long with the program, I am doing two courses this semester. I was worried at first because I am not a numbers person but the quantitative methods course is really well organized and aimed an non-mathematicians. One of the primary texts is Statistics without Tears by Derek Rowntree. It is a very reasonable and readable book which makes statistics really user friendly. I can see the relevance to my thesis and in interpreting the work of others. It is primarily individual work-based but there is a group presentation. I am working with Jean Slick and Bob Sochowsy. I must double check the due dates for the assignments since it is a mostly asynchronous course.
Aside from required work, I am trying to read more to get some work done surrounding developing a proposal. At this point I need to think about research questions. My fear is that I am enjoying the reading and work so much that I am loosing interest in people. How will I be able to have a balanced approach to this program?
Gerona
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Gerona's Radical Change
These past three weeks have been devoted to Radical Humanism! Like Interpretivism, according to Burrell and Morgan (1979), radical humanism also flows out of German idealism and consequently both are considered subjectivist in orientation and share the notion that the “individual creates the world in which he lives” (p. 279). The large distinction between the two paradigms is the notion of understanding versus critique: the Interpretivist observes and seeks to understand while the radical humanist seeks to critique and change.
There are two main lines which critique may follow:
a) subjective idealist = the external world is created through the stream of ideas. (p. 278)
This is the projection of individual consciousness on the external world which does exist.
b) objective idealist = reality exists in spirit…absolute knowledge suggests that consciousness is spirit and the object of consciousness is itself.
Marx comes from the objective idealist tradition originally but took the ideas of Hegel in a different direction; towards the individual. Here is my story of ‘radical’ awakening in terms of not listening to the status-quo…
Now I have to admit that I have (now had) a deep seated bias against Marx. I grew up in the 1970s and early 1980s when the Cold War was raging and we were being told nuclear war could happen at any time. The doomsday clock (remember that?) was ticking down towards midnight. Then along came Gorbachov and in 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. So much for Marxism! Having never read Marx I just had been taught or learned to associate Communism with him and thus I basically summarily dismissed him as a theorist. Craib who was writing in the early 1990s mentions that one should not confuse the fall of Communism with the temptation to dismiss Marxist thought. Then I actually started being open to learning about what Marx actually wrote/expounded and gained a totally different appreciation for him as a theorist and seminal influencer of our thought systems today. This has been an important lesson for me to not be so closed-minded about something that I only know about through the statements of societies/organizations/individuals with agendas.
Next we are going into Radical Structuralism...I think Interpretivism really was the paradigm for me. Maybe there is something I can do with Hermeneutics and Garrison's Community of Inquiry model? Hummm...lot's to think about in the coming weeks.
There are two main lines which critique may follow:
a) subjective idealist = the external world is created through the stream of ideas. (p. 278)
This is the projection of individual consciousness on the external world which does exist.
b) objective idealist = reality exists in spirit…absolute knowledge suggests that consciousness is spirit and the object of consciousness is itself.
Marx comes from the objective idealist tradition originally but took the ideas of Hegel in a different direction; towards the individual. Here is my story of ‘radical’ awakening in terms of not listening to the status-quo…
Now I have to admit that I have (now had) a deep seated bias against Marx. I grew up in the 1970s and early 1980s when the Cold War was raging and we were being told nuclear war could happen at any time. The doomsday clock (remember that?) was ticking down towards midnight. Then along came Gorbachov and in 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. So much for Marxism! Having never read Marx I just had been taught or learned to associate Communism with him and thus I basically summarily dismissed him as a theorist. Craib who was writing in the early 1990s mentions that one should not confuse the fall of Communism with the temptation to dismiss Marxist thought. Then I actually started being open to learning about what Marx actually wrote/expounded and gained a totally different appreciation for him as a theorist and seminal influencer of our thought systems today. This has been an important lesson for me to not be so closed-minded about something that I only know about through the statements of societies/organizations/individuals with agendas.
Next we are going into Radical Structuralism...I think Interpretivism really was the paradigm for me. Maybe there is something I can do with Hermeneutics and Garrison's Community of Inquiry model? Hummm...lot's to think about in the coming weeks.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Ah ha moment
I have come to the realization that perhaps I am worrying too much about a "Grand Paradigm" at this point in the course and my research. I have been reading Anfara and Mertz's Theoretical Frameworks in Qualitative Research by Sage Publications (2006). They state that theoretical frameworks can be found at three levels: grand, mid-range and explanatory (p. xxvii) and that can be applied to understanding phenomena. For some reason this gave me a bit of an "ah-ha" moment because I started thinking that there may be other frameworks we can use that are not tied expressly to the four super-structure (am I using that word correctly?) paradigms we are studying now. Many of the studies that are mentioned in the book resulted in articles, not doctoral theses, but they do discuss a variety of frameworks like Chaos and Complexity Theory and Liminality Theory for example.
So this got me thinking about how students have done theses on Dr. Michael Moore's "theory of transactional distance" and Dr. Randy Garrison's (et al) "Community of Inquiry" model. So ultimately, while we have to know the different streams of the paradigms, I am coming to understand that I can relax to some degree about slotting myself into one of the four dominant paradigms we are learning about. There are a plethora of theories out there from the social-sciences at different levels that may be useful to us as we narrow down our research topics. My understanding has changed now to the point where I will find a framework suited to my area of interest and not worry so much about which methods to use or which paradigm it is located in.
G.
So this got me thinking about how students have done theses on Dr. Michael Moore's "theory of transactional distance" and Dr. Randy Garrison's (et al) "Community of Inquiry" model. So ultimately, while we have to know the different streams of the paradigms, I am coming to understand that I can relax to some degree about slotting myself into one of the four dominant paradigms we are learning about. There are a plethora of theories out there from the social-sciences at different levels that may be useful to us as we narrow down our research topics. My understanding has changed now to the point where I will find a framework suited to my area of interest and not worry so much about which methods to use or which paradigm it is located in.
G.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
