So here is my little ugly duckling of a dissertation proposal, with data collection planned for this Fall. Wish me luck! Of course my hope is that it grows into a swan that helps push the field forward on theoretical, methodological, and practical levels, but, to be perfectly honest, I’ll be glad even if it… Continue reading It’s on like Donkey Kong: Dissertation update
Tag: boring grad school stuff
My Epistemological Leanings: or how I know I know
Recently for my Introduction to Qualitative Methods course, I was asked to identify my own epistemological leanings, specifically in the context of how I design research studies. I thought it would be useful to post those musings here and check back in a bit to see if they still hold. As always, comments and criticisms… Continue reading My Epistemological Leanings: or how I know I know
Damn, I’m a writer
When I went through the Red Cedar Writing Project in 2005, I was a teacher of writing who was becoming a writer. At the center of the Writing Project experience is the notion that to teach, one must do. One of the first steps was to own our identities as writers, even though calling myself… Continue reading Damn, I’m a writer
Phd update: reflection and goals
Summer is coming to an end and as I wrap up both my own courses and the course I’ve assisted in this summer semester, I thought I would pause to reflect and identify places for moving forward on this journey. I blogged a bit this summer about my own growth as a researcher, which was… Continue reading Phd update: reflection and goals
Festival of Awkward: First Committee Meeting
According to my handbook and my advisor, an initial gathering of my committee would have a few, relatively painless elements: I would discuss my career goals, talk about my research interests, and end up with a plan of courses I pledge to take over the duration of my program. So in the past weeks, I… Continue reading Festival of Awkward: First Committee Meeting
Social Needs and Learning
I have been reading up on theories about social needs, and my favorite one so far is Baumeister and Leary’s 1995 article” The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation.” It is a tad long, so be forewarned. What Baumeister and Leary do in this article is to survey the… Continue reading Social Needs and Learning
I think I’ve found religion, or was that stats?
One of the goals I have identified for this blog is to chart some of my growth as a student over the course of my program. I feel like I need to state that from the beginning of this post, because I am going to proceed to explain my new love and obsession: methods of… Continue reading I think I’ve found religion, or was that stats?
Know thyself, Researcher
I’ve been thinking a lot about research design lately, mostly because I am a graduate student (and really, what else do we think about?) but also because there are so many interesting studies I’ve been reading that employ a wide variety of design, philosophy, and methods. In the first chapter, Creswell lays out a general… Continue reading Know thyself, Researcher