Small Numbers = Big Problems

Response to Appadurai, A. (2006). Fear of small numbers: An essay on the geography of anger. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

 

Arjun Appadurai discusses the Fear of Small Numbers in the context of national populations, identity, and minority groups.  The “small numbers” represent the minority groups present within nation-states.  Interestingly, Appadurai addresses these “small numbers” in a very negative light attributing them to acts of terrorism and violence, and causing overall problems for the governance of nation-states.

Appadurai argues that minorities “create uncertainties about the national self and national citizenship because of their mixed status” (2006, p. 44), this view on minorities causes intolerance and tension on governance.  In general, the “small numbers” not only represent the minorities but also the marginalized, stereotypes and scapegoats of society; causing the disruption of the everyday balance of life of common (majority) citizens.

While Appadurai argues that these “small numbers” are a disruptive force he argues that these demographics are carved into the fabric of society, not born into it.  This “Fear of the Weak” is a concept derived from the counting of populations, enumeration and census representations, divisions created by the nation-state itself.

Appadurai also mentions that these “small numbers” retain a cultural identity often linked to the nation-state and religion, language is another component which needs to be added.  Taking a look at the case of Singapore, one truly sees how the “small numbers” were created and its effect within an education system.

The case of Singapore is a prominent one.  Early in its history primary and secondary schools were restructured to fall in line with the British-English system.  Notice in the table below, Westerners were not a majority, but this was implemented as a measure to ensure global competency. The goals of new education policies actively drew children from Chinese-medium schools, since English-medium schools provided a means of education for smaller fees.  Although the 1956 White Paper on Education pushed for Chinese schools receiving the same grant-in-aid there was an increase in enrolments of English schools while no efforts were made to improve employment for Chinese school graduates.  On the contrary, Chinese students were no longer able to travel to China for further study.

Singapore

Official Language(s) English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, and Tamil Religion(s) Buddhist (33%), Christianity (18%), Muslim (15%), Taoism (11%), Hinduism (5.1%), and No Religion (17%) Ethnic Groups Chinese (75.2%), Malay (13.6%), Indian (8.8%), and Other Eurasian (2.4%)

Notice in that table that Chinese make up the majority of the citizens, yet they were treated like the “small numbers’ described by Appadurai.  There was intense pressure to govern border travel, to the point where study aboard was restricted, and there was a strong “urge to purify” (2006, p. 53), that Chinese schools were slowly pushed out of the mainstream system.  The result of this back and forth clash was the establishment of a linguistic identity paralleled with a cultural identity.

The Singaporean-Chinese citizens were viewed as the disruptive force that required supplementary efforts from the governing parties.  The case of Singapore clearly follows Appadurai’s argument on the creation of minorities and the fear of “small numbers.”  However, Singapore represents a nation-state where the majority was not tolerated by the government.

 

Importance of Teamwork in Mixed Method Research Projects

With the implementation of survey instruments there is little movement of quantitative data, and minimal opportunity for varying interpretation of responses, as well as questions items (Bryman & Burgess, 1994).  With qualitative instruments integrated into mulimethod studies, the case is not as pronounced and therefore difficulties may arise in interpreting and evaluating qualitative data (Maderson, Kelaher, & Woelz-Stirling, 2011).  Hence in constant data collection phases, the management of information can become problematic when data are qualitative, collected by more than one researcher, and are intended for multiple users (Bryman & Burgess, 1994).

As two researchers working on individual projects are compounding data within a single research endeavor, the aspect of teamwork becomes crucial to the success of data analysis. Teamwork paired with reflexivity leads to improved productivity, effectiveness, and more robust research – overall higher quality (Barry et al., 1999). At the qualitative stage specifically, West (1994) reports that teamwork enhances the rigor of the methodological design, analysis, and interpretive elements of a research project.

Additionally teams can foster deeper conversations and higher levels of conceptual thinking than researchers working alone hence enriching the coding and analysis process at each stage (Barry et al., 1999).  This will include: integrating differing perspectives and ease at identifying bias (Liggett et al., 1994); a better standardization for coding and improving accuracy in theme creation and application (Delaney & Ames, 1993); and advancing the overall analyses to a higher level of abstraction (Olesen, Droes, Hatton, Chico & Schatzman, 1994).  In an effort to have a more rigours data analysis process and the reduction of personal bias, teamwork is crucial to the multiphase research model.

During the analysis phase of both the quantitative data and the qualitative information, the team aspect is crucial to the development of coding schemes and information interpretations.  The multidisciplinary discussions will act as a mindset for the two main analysis phases, sharpening the researchers to code of themes they might not have individually considered.

 

References

Barry, C. A., Britten, N., Barber, N., Bradley, C., & Stevenson, F. (1999). Using reflexivity to optimize teamwork in qualitative research.Qualitative health research,9(1), 26-44.

Bryman, A., & Burgess, B. (Eds.). (1994).Analyzing qualitative data. New York, NY: Routledge.

Delaney, W., & Ames, G. (1993). Integration and exchange in multidisciplinary alcohol research. Social Science and Medicine, 37, 5-13.

Friedman, T. (2005). The world is flat. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Liggett, A. M., Glesne, C. E., Johnston, A. P., Hasazi, B.,&Schattman, R. A. (1994). Teaming in qualitative research: Lessons learned. Qualitative Studies in Education, 7, 77-88.

Manderson, L., Kelaher, M., & Woelz-Stirling, N. (2001). Developing qualitative databases for multiple users.Qualitative health research,11(2), 149-160.

Olesen, V., Droes, N., Hatton, D., Chico, N.,&Schatzman, L. (1994). Analyzing together: Recollections of a team approach. In R. G. Burgess (Ed.), Analyzing qualitative data (pp. 111-128). London, UK: Routledge.

West, M. A. (1994). Effective teamwork. Leicester, UK: BPS Books.

 

Global classrooms promoting citizenship

As schools tout their mission to create global citizens competent in 21st century skills, as loosely defined as they are, the mission of schools must also be to create globally responsible citizens. Noddings (2005) writes that knowledge by itself is not sufficient for success; it can be used on the behalf of global concerns as well as self-interest, thus referring to a value based understanding of global citizenship. A sense of social justice, active civic engagement, and partaking in service learning leads to globally responsible citizenship.  Teachers are able to collaborate worldwide to develop curricula that help establishing global classrooms.

Teachers and students often view “good citizens” and “good persons” as synonymous (Ladson-Billings, 2004).  School-based institutions and instructors are essential in promoting these transformative ideals, and in developing the students’ capacities and commitments for effective citizenship and global awareness (Davies 2006; Westheimer & Kahne, 2004a, 2004b).

Looking at a historical anthropological perspective, all fundamental education is citizenship education (Ladson-Billings, 2004). This might be due to the historic nature of attempting to create students who would become active citizens in a better society.  Citizenship education focuses on students’ lives once they leave school and go out into the world: classes focus on proportional knowledge rather than critical values, attitudes and skills (Ladson-Billings, 2004).

Much akin to ideas of global competency and 21st century skills, terms such as global citizenship, transformative approaches, and global classrooms are difficult to define. There have been many attempts to define these terms based on research, etymology, and personal opinion. However, the terms are often contextual, and as such, the emphases change as necessary. There are broad conceptualizations of each term, but also additional goals that should be incorporated into the definitions.  Global citizenship is defined as the awareness of membership to the global community and environment to work towards the benefit of all members of the global community; and the goal of integrating this into education is to develop the skills and attitudes necessary to engage in other cultures and the global community in addition to the national community (Banks, 2004, p. 7).  Citizenship education is a means to establish important democratic ideals and develop students who are active, informed and critical global citizens.  The basis of one’s citizenship and active participation in the nation is “an outgrowth of the prevailing worldview of his or her society” (Ladson-Billings, 2004, p. 100).

Cotton’s (1996) criticisms of the current citizenship literature incorporate elements of gaps and lack in meaningful content, life experience relevance, and action-based learning.  In an attempt to remedy these criticisms, networks such as Round Square, TakingITGlobal and Flat classrooms incorporate innovative approaches and collaborative techniques.   The goals of integrating global classrooms into the teaching context is to move from mass curriculum to assist in creating more than personally responsible and/or participatory, but rather establish a justice-oriented sense with the motivation to effect such social change.

As discussed by Westheimer & Kahne (2004b), there are three main kinds of citizenship, within the confines of these three kinds of ‘good citizens’: personally responsible citizens concern themselves with the ways their actions will affect themselves; participatory citizens go a step further by actively participating; however, the ultimate goal is to create justice-oriented students who seek to eradicate problems.

 

References

Banks, J. A. (2004). Democratic citizenship education in multicultural societies. In J. A. Banks (Ed.), Diversity and citizenship education : global perspectives (pp. 3-15). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Cotton, K. (1996). Educating for citizenship. School Improvement Research Series. Retrieved from http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/10/c019.html

Davies, P. (2006). Educating citizens for changing economies. [Article]. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(1), 15-30. doi: 10.1080/00220270500185122

Ladson-Billings, G. (2004). Culture versus citizenship: The challenge of racialized citizenship in the United States. In J. A. Banks (Ed.), Diversity and citizenship education: Global perspectives. (p. 99-126). San Francisco, CA US: Jossey-Bass.

Noddings, N. (2005). Global citizenship: Promises and problems. In N. Noddings (Ed.), Educating citizens for global awareness; developed in association with the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century (p. 1-21). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Westheimer, J., & Kahne, J. (2004a). What kind of citizen? The politics of educating for democracy. American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 237-269. doi: 10.3102/00028312041002237

Westheimer, J., & Kahne, J. (2004b). Educating the “good” citizen: Political choices and pedagogical goals. Democratic Dialogues , 38(2), 57-61. doi: 10.3102/00028312041002237. Retrieved from http://www.democraticdialogue.com/DDpdfs/WestheimerKahnePS.pdf

 

 

IRB approval & cloud storage

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval process drives even the best of faculty and researchers a little batty. The entire process can be confusing, convoluted, and inconvenient, depending on the institution and potential partners. The common push back to IRB approval processes is grounded in the belief that it is the researchers, not members of the IRB, who hold the specialized experience and knowledge required to make final decisions (Howe & Dougherty, 1993).

Our university recently underwent changes to move the document creation and submission process online. While the green effort was noble in attempting to streamline the application process and digitize documentation, the constant shift and recent changes proved to further irk faculty. In fact, one of my personal mentors was so troubled by the system that we called our local IRB office; and then refused to let them hang up until we had completed the application process.

While annoying, it is important to remember where the IRB process stemmed from: Recall only a few decades ago, we were giving people syphilis (Gjestland, 1954) and convincing them that they were responsible for electrocuting individuals (Milgram, 1963). Oh how we have progressed in standardizing research methodology?

While irksome, the IRB is in place to ensure that all participants are protected and appropriately informed of their rights. Over the past two decades IRBs have transformed the conduct of research endeavors involving any human subjects. Researchers are no longer able to implement research projects without weighing the risks they are asking participants to assume (Edgar & Rothman, 1995). As people hold a special status, their participation in research projects is a “means to a higher end, they also deserve to be treated with a particular kind of moral regard or dignity” (Pritchard, 2002).

IRBs have often shared a concern for information exchanged, stored, and analyzed via cloud storage (Carrell, 2011; Kumbhare, Simmhan, & Prasanna 2011). In fact, in a recent application for IRB approval our research team received much push-back when proposing to host research files on a cloud-based server. Through conversations with IRB members our research team was able to reach a compromise and ensure secure storage of data.

References:

Carrell, D. (2011, January). A strategy for deploying secure cloud-based natural language processing systems for applied research involving clinical text. In System Sciences (HICSS), 2011 44th Hawaii International Conference on (pp. 1-11). IEEE.

Edgar, H., & Rothman, D. J. (1995). The institutional review board and beyond: future challenges to the ethics of human experimentation.Milbank Quarterly, 73(4), 489-506.

Gjestland, T. (1954). The Oslo study of untreated syphilis; an epidemiologic investigation of the natural course of the syphilitic infection based upon a re-study of the Boeck-Bruusgaard material.Acta dermato-venereologica. Supplementum, 35(Suppl 34), 3-368.

Howe, K. R., & Dougherty, K. C. (1993). Ethics, institutional review boards, and the changing face of educational research.Educational Researcher, 22(9), 16-21.

Kumbhare, A. G., Simmhan, Y., & Prasanna, V. (2011, November). Designing a secure storage repository for sharing scientific datasets using public clouds. In Proceedings of the second international workshop on Data intensive computing in the clouds (pp. 31-40). ACM.

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience.The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 371 -378.

Pritchard, I. A. (2002). Travelers and trolls: Practitioner research and institutional review boards. Educational Researcher, 31(3), 3-13.

 

What package do you pick?

My research partner and I were having a conversation about what programs we should use to code our open-ended survey data and interviews. So we began listing out all our options from Google documents to complex CAQDAS packages and then some. We soon discovered an issue…we didn’t have a shared skill set, meaning that software my partner had experience with I did not and vice versa.  So instead of trying to find common ground we started looking into what packages offered trial versions long enough for us to complete data coding over the course of a semester.

That narrowed down our list some…only then we ran into another issue. I am a window/linux user and my partner is an apple user that works off their mobile device more often than not. In the end we couldn’t really make a decision because of our differences…we decided that we would have to compromise.  And then for the third time we rewrote our list and began a conversation anew. This time it was guided by functionality and a discussion by Taylor, Lewins and Gibbs (2005).

Since the size of our data set is fairly small this wasn’t too much of an issue, so that didn’t knock any off our list.  The next topic was collaboration: we want to be able to either send documents back and forth via email/cloud or collaborate directly without much hindrance. Surprisingly, we didn’t think about our data type until the third conversation.  Since we have text, audio, and pdf artifacts we needed a CAQDAS package that could support coding directly in the platform for audio elements.  Our fourth criteria was based on using frequency and comparative matrices across our data types.  Because we are doing a mixed methods study, we are very concerned about convergence (or even divergence) across themes.  Additionally, we are very interested in working with quantitative data (for minimal descriptive statistics) within a single package as well. Finally we settled on two possible software options.

What a hassle? There has to be a simpler, comparative chart that would have allowed us to check properties across various CAQDAS packages and cross off options that didn’t meet our criteria.  Turns out that these charts are already floating around the web, we just didn’t look hard enough. Here is an example from UNC that compares ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA, NVivo and Dedoose, and another Stanford site that compares Nvivo, HyperResearch, Studiocode, Atlas.ti, and Tams Analyzer.

 

References:

Taylor, C., Lewins, A., & Gibbs, G. (2005, December 12). Debates about the software. Retrieved from http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/Intro_CAQDAS/software_debates.php

Real-Time Audio Reflection of Video Analysis for Action Research

A right of passage for many teachers is a foundational video case analysis of their teaching, recorded and previewed by external faculty and staff members.  This practice is in place for pre-service teachers, teachers under review at new schools, and even associate instructors at the university level. While often viewed as a slightly intimidating process, the video review process is integral in establishing action research ideals for teachers.

The reflection process is crucial to not only the teacher’s development but also for enhancing their instructional approaches.  Many teacher preparatory programs strive to teach future teachers reflective practices that directly inform their action (Hatton & Smith, 1995).  Teachers need to think critically about, and learn from their past experiences through meaningful reflective practices.

While reflections can take place through listening, speaking, drawing, and any other way imaginable, the most meaningful reflections often take place after watching yourself perform tasks.  The idea is for teachers to video record themselves and capture objective descriptions of what happened, discuss feelings, ideas and analysis, and discuss how they reacted as a result of the experience.  The figure below represents the reflection process (adopted from Quinsland & Van Ginkel, 1984).

According to Quinsland and Van Ginkel (1984), processing is a practice that encourages one to reflect, describe, analyze, and communicate their experiences. The processing and reflection will not only allow for an enhanced learning experience but will also contribute to the teaching and learning of future students.  Past literature has shown that critical reflection will increase learning, understanding, and retention (Daudelin, 1996).  Additionally it invokes a process of taking meanings and moving them into learning (Mezirow, 1990).

The process of reflection is critical to action research (Kemmis, 1985), and action research need to be systematic (Gore & Zwichner, 1991; Price, 2001) that creates questions and answers them in the teaching context.  Historically, many teachers use a variety of tools such as observation logs and reflective journals (Darling-Hammond, 2012).

This activity will walk you though that process:

The first step is to insert the video observation into ELAN.  Give the video an initial viewing and add in annotations.  Annotations should be reflections of your teaching and immediate methods, they can also be ideas that you wish to further explore and revisit.

The second step is to create an audio-based discussion. As the video is playing, create an audio recording of your immediate reflections.  During the second video run-through, stop the recording periodically to voice record your thoughts.

Place the audio recording into the ELAN platform, synchronizing the wave with the video observation.  Once you silence your observational video you will be able to listen to your thought process overlayed to your observational data.  Another way of looking at this overlay: The reflected audio file replaces the audio component of the video observation.  This will allow you to pair your analysis to the observation, reflecting the moments of instruction.

Once audio and video, with annotations, are embedded and synced, add a second layer of annotations based on the alignment between your audio reflections.  This can be areas for improvement, implications for future practices, and moments that surprise you.  By integrating aspects of verbal, visual, and kinesthetic cues, teachers can establish retrieval systems that will allow them to change practices on the fly.

These approaches will allow teachers to self-reflect and create keys that indicate needs for change.  This systemic approach to identifying problems and providing solution, take a critical approach to teacher-based action research.  The benefit of using video and audio based reflections is the fluid and organic nature of reflection that allow teachers to improve their instructional techniques effectively (Altrichter, Feldman, Posch, & Somekh, 2013).

References

Altrichter, H., Feldman, A., Posch, P., & Somekh, B. (2013).Teachers investigate their work: An introduction to action research across the professions. New York, NY: Routledge.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2012).Powerful teacher education: Lessons from exemplary programs. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

Daudelin, M. (1996). Learning from Experience Through Reflection. Organizational Dynamics, 24(3), 36-48.

Gore, J. M., & Zeichner, K. M. (1991). Action research and reflective teaching in preservice teacher education: A case study from the United States.Teaching and teacher education,7(2), 119-136.

Hatton, N., & Smith, D. (1995). Reflection in teacher education: Towards definition and implementation.Teaching and teacher education,11(1), 33-49.

Kemmis, S. (1985). Action research and the politics of reflection. In D. Boud, R. Keogh & D. Walker (Eds.),Reflection: Turning Experience into Learning(pp. 139-164). New York, NY: Routledge.

Mezirow, J. (1990). How critical reflection triggers transformative learning. Fostering critical reflection in adulthood, 1-20.

Price, J. N. (2001). Action research, pedagogy and change: The transformative potential of action research in pre-service teacher education. Journal of Curriculum Studies,33(1), 43-74.

Quinsland, L. K. & Van Ginkel, A. (1984). How to Process Experience. The Journal of Experiential Education, 7 (2), 8-13.

 

Organic writing process requires audio recorder?

During my digital tools class the discussion moved from representing findings in innovative ways to constructing meaning via organic processes.

A small group discussion began with the idea of leveraging digital tools to support a non-linear writing process. The first issue that was brought to the table was related to this idea of non-linear.  So let’s talk about that notion first (like any good writer we must define our terms first, no?).  So let’s go with the construction of a typical research article.  So what do you read first in a paper: the abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and then the conclusion.  Well more often than not, the paper is constructed in this manner. In fact, students are often encouraged to write the abstract last and to rewrite the introduction after the conclusions have been reached.

In this discussion of non-linear writing a student brought up the idea that their writing differed greatly between personal and academic writings.  They wanted to adopt their creative and fluid system of poetic writing to their construction of research papers.  How do you do that? The easy answer – use the same medium across all your writings.  What does that even mean? Well, if you discover that you write better by outlining sentences on paper and then digitizing notes, do that.  If you find that you think best on whiteboards that allow you to construct plans, reorganize and scribble, well then do that.  One of the writing processes that really struck a cord was the notion of writing through recording audio thoughts while out on contemplating walks.  Taking natural conversation and moving them into typed words.

 

On a side note – another idea that came up in the conversation about representing findings was the idea of video.  An example of video representations is prominent in projects like the 1000 Voices project.  This online archive collects, displays and analyses life stories of individuals with disabilities from around the globe.  The not only allows users to upload video but also encourages them to submit images, films, audio, text, or any combination of medium.  Recently one user even passed along personal art projects that told their story.

Another great representation of video based finding presentations are the PhD Comics 2 minute thesis contest videos.  This short animated clips encompass introduction, research questions, methods, and sometimes conclusions in the manner of two minutes.  Here is an example, that talks about how distant reading techniques can be used to acquire information.

Pictures are worth a 1000 words, but you don’t get that many when coding.

Mitchell (2011) claims that there is no roadmap when trekking through visual data, and there is no set way to engage in fieldwork or analyzing multimedia information (Pink, 2007).  Through the course of my development as a budding researcher I have often felt lost when trying to carry out carefully constructed research projects. Things don’t always seem to go as planned, and interpretations of procedures and information can sometimes become muddled.

In an attempt to explore how to best carry out such tasks as interpreting visual data, engaging in field work, and analyzing information I have turned to several texts and scholars.

One of the first courses, taken during my doctoral studies was grounded in evaluation research and needs analysis.  My journey through the semester allowed our research team to work with a client to establish goals that needed to be investigated. Surprisingly this course was very much a cookbook style that prescribed specific steps and assessments be taken in precise order.

Interestingly enough, none of my following methods courses truly provided the same structure.  During one qualitative inquiry course we worked through the Merriam (2009) and Seidman (2013) texts.  While these are great resources that provide starting points they provided too much variety in approaches.  It seemed that every unique project had a different approach to engaging in field work and analyzing information.  To further explore qualitative research designs, methods, and approaches, several students turned to Creswell’s (2012; 2013) texts.  While these cookbook resources are a great base to understand and compare qualitative, and mixed method, approaches to fieldwork, they don’t cover too many approaches to visual data analysis.

While text such as Emmison’s (2010) chapter on visual data offer great insight into the history of visual data and analysis approaches, they could be improved upon by commenting on best practices, and providing guidance for budding researchers. Other book chapters (i.e. Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2011) provide an introductory discussion about visual data interpretation; but the larger lesson is that ‘it depends’ on the research questions and context.

 We seem to hear, “it depends” a lot in our field, no?

 

References

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2011). Visual media in educational research. In Research Methods in Education (7th ed., pp. 526-534). New York, NY: Routledge.

Creswell, J. W. (2012). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Emmison, M. (2010). Conceptualizing visual data. In D. Silverman (Ed.), Qualitative Research (3rd ed., pp. 233-249). San Francisco, CA: Sage.

Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

Mitchell, C. (2011). Doing visual research. London, UK: Sage.

Pink, S. (2013). Doing visual ethnography. London, UK: Sage.

Seidman, I. (2012). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. New York, NY: Teachers college press.

 

 

 

New Media Information Display

Throughout this discussion of possible new tools for data interpretation and display remember that the purpose is to communicate not to impress; don’t get caught up in how cool something looks. Think critically about if the options below truly represent the best means of communicating your meaning.
With the rapid centralization of journal article to interactive databases there has been a steady push for incorporating new media in research articles as novel forms of data representation. Often researchers consider tables and other graphical displays completing the discourse, report, or narrative. Typically information is represented in graphs and charts that include: bar charts, pie charts, line graphs (Minter & Michaud, 2003). Other data types can include realistic artifact such as, diagrams, maps, drawings, illustrations, and photographs.
Cidell (2010) took this idea of content analysis and incorporated word clouds into the mix. While word clouds can be effective displays and allow viewers to see what terms are prominent, they don’t allow researchers to display complete phrases. This is where poetic representations (Cahnmann, 2003) can be useful in place of word clouds (for more information check out MacNeil, 2000; Sparkes & Douglas, 2007).
Russ-Eft and Preskill (2009) discuss some very interesting information analysis that includes drama, cartoons, photography, checklists, and videos. These image based constructs of data analysis are further discussed by (Banks, 1998, as cited by Prosser, 1998).
Some interesting approaches to data analysis and display can include the following: cartoons and photo stories, such as graphic novel representation, using recreative images to synthese meaning and convey dialogue; enhanced audio elements as elaborated by Silver & Patashnick (2011); and interpretative live action, as described by Carter (2004), can include dance, plays, and other stage performances. Recently there has also been a push for multimedia video reports, much like this Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) project report.  Additionally, other interactive elements such as infographics and webpages are becoming more common place. And lastly, reflective blogs have also proved to be a useful tool (Paulus, Lester, & Dempster, 2013).

 

References

Bank, M. (1998). Visual anthropology: Image, object, and interpretation. In J. Prosser (Ed.), Image-based research: A sourcebook for qualitative researchers. (1st ed., pp. 6-19). Psychology Press.
Cahnmann, M. (2003). The craft, practice, and possibility of poetry in educational research. Educational researcher, 32(3), 29-36.
Carter, P. (2004). Material thinking : the theory and practice of creative research. Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Press
MacNeil, C. (2000). The prose and cons of poetic representation in evaluation reporting. American Journal of Evaluation, 21(3), 359-367.
Minter, E., & Michaud, M. University of Wisconsin – Extension, Program Development and Evaluation. (2003). Using graphics to report evaluation results. Retrieved from: http://learningstore.uwex.edu/Assets/pdfs/G3658-13.pdf
Paulus, T. M., Lester, J. N., & Dempster, P. (2013). Digital tools for qualitative research. London, UK: Sage.
Russ-Eft, D. F., & Preskill, H. (2009). Communicating and reporting evaluation activities and findings. In Evaluation in organizations: A systematic approach to enhancing learning, performance, and change (2nd ed., pp. 399-442). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Silver, C., & Patashnick, J. (2011, January). Finding Fidelity: Advancing Audiovisual Analysis Using Software. In Forum: Qualitative Social Research (Vol. 12, No. 1). Retrieved from: http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1629/3148
Sparkes, A. C., & Douglas, K. (2007). Making the Case for Poetic Representations: An Example in Action. Sport psychologist, 21(2), 170-189

 

 

Support, Acknowledge & Respond

In writing researcher papers the authors should “make a claim, back it with reasons, support them with evidence, acknowledge and respond to other views, and sometimes explain your principles of reasoning” (Booth, Colomb & Williams, 2003, p. 108).  These four criterion need to be shaped by the literature and the existing conversations about your topic of interest.  I think the key to having a convincing argument is an informed description and discussion of current research.

During graduate school students spend a majority of their time writing, and often rewriting pieces.  During a recent classroom discussion, it was brought to my attention that a majority of students either write expository bits or persuasive morsels – hardly ever in the same space. Expository writing conveys discourse that explains, describes and informs the audience (Ball, 1999). Unlike persuasive writing, the primary goal of exposition is to simply deliver information about a subject, method, theory or issue. In persuasive writing the author makes a case and encourages the readers to follow a specific course of action or thought (Frost, 2013).

Often we have big ideas that we want to convey to our readers, and sometimes we have to build off limited literature in up-and-coming themes…but more often than not as writers we end up describing what others have said and then expanding their notions to fit our models of thought.  A great way of conveying your point is to have well structured key sentences.

 

 

References

Ball, A. (1999, June). Information about expository writing. Retrieved from http://www.stanford.edu/~arnetha/expowrite/info.html

Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (2003). The craft of research. (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Frost, J. (2013, November 3). Ten important triggers for persuasive writing. Retrieved from http://www.grammarcheck.net/ten-important-triggers-for-persuasive-writing/