Today we had the second
on-line ‘campus’ session for Module Three. The title for the session was ‘Organising and analysing data’
We began by challenging
ourselves to think about – “What is data?”.
The problem we can have with
data is recognising it. Data is NOT someone giving you the answer to your
inquiry question. I think often that is what we expect. That the field data
collection period is to go out and look for someone who can answer the inquiry
question like an Easter egg hunt – going out in the feild and coming back with
exactly what you wanted. Then coming home with the answers(eggs) and write them
down - the end research done!!
Firstly, the data collected
in the field does not give us the answer. (See the Module two overview post
also – we are not looking for answers but looking to better understand our
question. We are looking to be able to ask better more informed questions).
The data collected in the
field is only part of the ‘answer’, your feelings and thoughts and impressions
are also part of it, the literature you read is part of it. You mix these all
together and see what you think of them all – that is the analysis. Then you write-up what you think having done the analysis,
along with explaining what you did so we can see the journey you took to get to
what you think. Analysis can be thought of as triangulation. A triangle linking
and mixing together: your experiences and
reflections, with what other people think
(the literature) and what the people you saw
in the field were doing (field data).
So if at some level you have
been thinking of the data as – the ‘answer’, and you have not found the answer
you might think you have not collected any data yet. In other words you might
have quite a lot of data and not realised it is data because you are only
looking for something that will be the direct answer to your inquiry. So we
asked ourselves “What is data?”.
I am suggesting it is
everything that happens between two points in time – when the module started in
February to late March when you stop collecting data and start analysing. Everything
that happens – not just the parts you planned or expected people to say.
For
example you might be looking at
Motivation in the students you teach and have plans to interview six of them…
but you haven’t yet. This doesn’t mean you haven’t started the research yet
because it is March (!) and the module started in February (!). It just means
its not going the way you expected. But the very things that have delayed you or
are making you hesitate are data. We talked about this – maybe it’s because you
are so busy. So ‘being so busy’ is
like a theme. You have got to this theme through your experiences and
reflections more than through the field data activity but you can see if this
theme happens in the field data too. For instance you could observe if the
students who you want to learn more about motivating also see themselves as
very busy (busy with relationships, busy thinking about after school events
etc… not having time for your class).
So if data is everything
that happens between February when the module started and end of March-ish then
how do we organise it?
I suggested you use themes
(as the example above showed). Notice what is jumping out at you as a theme.
Are there some things that keep coming up (even if they are negative things)? Start
to notice them and group them together. In the end you can take all the
experiences and reflection you have, all the field data (interviews and
observations etc…) and all the literature and almost colour code every time one
your of themes appears in them. You would be organising the data into themes.
Now to analyse you look at
all the bits under one theme and think about what they have in common how you
see them relating to each other. Ask yourself what story do they tell to you.
So to summarise the steps
1. Come to turns with it: the research has started and it might
not be doing or saying what you expected (great you what to learn something new
and to do that you have to encounter something new – something unfamiliar)
2. Reflect on what is
reoccurring – are you seeing themes yet. You can do this now as you collect
data or look for themes once you stop collecting data.
3. If you have a theme start
to see what its relationship is with all the data – field work, literature and
your feelings/reflections.
4. Know you will STOP
collecting data at a point in time and start looking at it and the
relationships there are between all the ideas.
Comments and questions we talked about:
As we talked people said
that a few things jumped out at them, they were:
You might be afraid you will not know what to do with
data that is unexpected. But this is
like saying you want to control what you will find and if so then why bother to
do research – you could just tell us what you want to find.
The process of research that
you worked out in Module Two will stop you from getting too lost. The research
project itself is like a path if you follow it even when you are not sure what
you are doing you’ll get somewhere.
The Professional Artefact, what is that???
We said replace the word
artefact with the word ‘thing’. It is a professional ‘thing’ explaining or
sharing your research. You can’t know what the ‘thing’ is yet because you
haven’t done all the research so how can you know what ‘thing’ will explain it.
The research doesn’t have to
be what you expected in Module Two as you planned it. The process is the more
important thing.
Last thoughts – the data is
not to tell you the ‘answer’. I hope after reading this post that makes sense.
Della and Pip are both
writing blog posts on the on-line ‘campus’ session too. Please have a look at
what they say.
http://pipspalton.blogspot.co.uk
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