The importance of methods courses: We began by going over Griffin's introduction. She emphasized the fact that methods courses were a new feature of training in English studies - and pointed out their importance. By studying methods prior to designing your senior research projects - or entering your careers - you will be set up with a range of methodological choices; and you will have had a chance to think about, discuss, and practice different methods - so you have a basis for making choices. As pointed out in Griffin's introduction and emphasized in class: your methodological perspective - and your choice of methods - influence both the kinds of questions you can ask - and the answers you will find.
Methodologies, methods, and skills. Griffin makes a point of distinguishing among methodologies, methods, and skills.
methodologies: the perspective, point of view researchers use to think about their work. Methodologies usually have a particular set of assumptions about how the world is; what it is possible to discover or "prove" (how knowledge is discovered or made); what is ethical; and which methods are best suited for discovering knowledge.
I gave an example of different methodological perspectives with respect to interviewing. In a positivist methodological approach the world is knowable (we can accurately perceive and represent it), facts are real, provable, and out there and research subjects (people) are containers with the "truth" inside them that interviewers need to "extract" without contaminating it. From a social constructivist perspective, our knowledge of the world comes to us through our representations - and those representations are learned and created through experiences with family and community. There are multiple truths, and new truths are created through interactions between people. From this perspective, interviewers are more likely to engage the interview subject in conversation that asks the subject to explore and reflect on experience - rather than report "facts" or "what happened."
methods: approaches to gathering information - how you carry out the research. The list of approaches in the table of contents are all methods.
skills: techniques or tools for carrying out a method.
As pointed out by Griffin - distinctions among the three classifications can get fuzzy. Also as pointed out by Griffin, your methodology = your assumptions about the way the world is, what counts as a "fact," how to treat research subjects, and what methods fit with these ideas - will shape the kind of research you do.
Methods covered in this course: In our course, we will cover methods for auto/biographical, creative writing, discourse analysis, visual analysis, ethnographic, interviewing, oral history, and quantitative studies.
The terms discourse and ethnography were both new.
- Discourse is "language in use"; we all participate in many different discourses and we learn them from the groups (discourse communities) who use them. At school - you learn academic discourse. You may have a different discourse (way of talking and being) that you use with your friends. Discourse is made up of both the words you use - and the assumptions, values, beliefs - and power structures - associated with your patterns for talk.
- Ethnography is the study of groups of people to discover their "insider" meanings for "the way the world is" (their discourses). Ethnographic studies use "participant observation."
Thinking about who you are as a researcher. I asked you to do some writing about what kind of research you might do. I suggested you consider the purpose of your research (what you might want to accomplish); to describe your opinions on how to discover and represent truth (is there one truth? when their is more than one truth - is one truth better than another? etc); how you think you should treat your research subjects; and what kinds of methods you think you might be interested in doing. We will spend more time on these questions (and your exploration of your answers) as we talk through the first couple of methods during the next weeks.
Preview readings for next class. You will be reading Judith Fetterley's textual analysis, and Renee Moreno's ethnographic study of a writing class. Fetterley's essay is a "typical" literary textual analysis, and Moreno's study is typical of studies done for writing studies.
The class was divided rouighly in half - with (most of) the teachers were assigned to read Moreno's essay, and the writers (mostly) were assigned to read the Fetterley essay.
Blogs: Clearly, we did not spend class time to set up the blog. Some of you stayed after class to get set up -I am assuming the rest of you can either figure it out on your own [go to blogger and create an account - - or sign into your kean gmail, hit more >> at the top of the page and when the drop down menu opens click on the blogger icon, and follow the directions].
Once you have created your blog, copy the URL (the www.blogger.comNAME OF YOUR BLOG address in the address bar) into an email and send it to the course email address = ENG3029@gmail.com.
If this is too many directions for you - stop by my office during office hours or before class on Monday and I will walk you through it. Because I didn't leave time for this in class - obviously I will cut you some slack on the deadlines for the blog post if you need it.
FOR NEXT CLASS
Read: Moreno + Fetterley. You need to read both essays - but you will answer the prompts only for your assigned essay. For the essay NOT assigned to your essay, you will write a list of questions or ideas you would like to talk about..
Create your blog and write your first post:
Prompt (for the assigned essay): 1. List what you see as the essay's main focus (what it "shows") and the points or evidence it offers to "prove" that point. 2. Discuss or describe the essay's methodological approach, its methods, and how the author analyzed her data. 3. What other kinds of research projects or problems would this author's approach be good for? What might you use this methodological approach for?
For the "other" essay: list any questions you think would help the class come to a deeper understanding of the essay's findings, its methods, its methodological approach, and so on. .
A note on your blog posts: As stated in the syllabus - I expect the blogs to be informal writing. I do not correct grammar in blog posts. I am looking for evidence of thinking - and questioning. If you do not understand something - try to make clear what you don't understand in your blog so we can talk about it in class, You will get feedback on your first blog posts - early and often - so you will get a better and better idea about what is expected. So just hang in for this first one and do your best.
Good class today - we really covered a lot of ground. Sorry for the long (yawn) post - but I figured at this point you might want some details. See you on Monday and if you have questions be in touch.
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