QualMIP Week 8: narrowing research question and unit of analysis
Part of the QualMIP series, introduced here.
Sparse notes again because of the busy time, but today each person:
- Gave an overview of the data collection/analysis they did over the past two weeks
- Had someone else in the group write an "abstract" consisting of 3-6 points they saw throughout our reported data. After a time of trying to diverge and divest ourselves of as many filters as possible, we are starting to converge and filter once again -- but this time, much more consciously.
- Figured out what research paradigm they seemed to be working in (everyone is interpretivist for this project; I re-presented a version of the main paradigms for this discussion).
- Honed down on their unit of analysis and research question (by me giving examples and then everybody iterating on theirs with studio critique).
This is the last week before our Data Collection Cutoff. A constant part of our iterative focus is trying to make sure that our data and questions coevolve in such a way that the data can answer the questions. (I'm also thinking on how this dynamic scales up the next time I teach this as a course; I suspect more scaffolding and possibly even some readings will appear.)
We also looked at the classic paper "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" as an example of... well, I'll leave it to the reader to decide what one could use it as an example of -- quite a few things, as it turns out. (It wasn't assigned reading; we read parts of it aloud in studio, so my "no readings" rule stands unbroken.)