Dissertation Update

I’m making progress but in a hiatus right now since I’m in the middle of data collection. Sorry, I’m a bit superstitious about discussing it at the moment…but next week is my last week and then I’ll have plenty to say about…

- Classroom observations

- Interviewing students

- Transcribing 

- Coding 

…and I hope to have a writing schedule for the rest of the summer and perhaps set a date for a first, completed draft. If anyone out there has a sample schedule, feel free to share.

I’ll be back next week :) 

Reflexivity and Positionality in #sadoc

Good qualitative studies include a section on researcher positionality and reflexivity. I’d argue that ALL research studies should include (at least) positionality because regardless of how you collect your data, you are situated within itsomehow and your readers deserve to know that. But I digress :)

There are several different strategies to write these two sections but I’m old school so I journal. After each substantial dissertation meeting or observation with my site, I write down my thoughts to help make sense of what I’m observing and seeing…but I am also writing down how I feel. Because how I feel informs how I make sense of the data.

Anyway, after what was, by all accounts, a very awesome meeting yesterday at my site…I realized that I’m pretty on guard and defensive about my research (I’ll explain why this is an important revelation in a minute). For those of you who don’t know, I study how students’ understanding and interpretation of race influences their experiences in academic settings. For the past six years I’ve read countless studies and articles about the harm that schools create and reproduce for many, many students in our public schools (and I’m not even talking about the harm that students create for other students…this is purely school policy, curriculum, and teacher interaction). Which means that a lot of my meetings with school administrators seem contentious or I feel like I need a whole litany of reasons why I am doing X and why X is important.

So yesterday I came prepared to battle and found nothing— all school personnel thought my research was exciting, I got free access to all the materials I needed, the classes, and the teachers. It was one of the easiest meetings I had regarding school research. As I wrote about my meeting I realized that I need to let go of my assumptions and wait for the data picture to emerge as it will…not expect it to emerge as an image of the literature.

What Privilege Looks Like

@PetePereira tweeted a link to this story about confronting rape at Notre Dame. This story represents some of the real world consequences of privilege, specifically male privilege (I also agree there is athletic privilege).  In this story, and so many others, people just assume that yes, of course, the women are to blame. That is the power of male privilege — that when women are assaulted, attacked, or harassed by someone male we have to expect that no one will believe us because of our position as women.

Another example of privilege in action is Trayvon Martin. While George Zimmerman is identified as being Hispanic, he benefits from the presumption of Whiteness* in that he is “more White” than Martin. About a month ago this story ran about a white teenager who claims he was doused in gasoline and lit on fire by two Black teenagers. There is considerable outrage on many conservative news sites about the apparent disregard for this attack while the Trayvon Martin case garners so much more attention. To start, I do not think that anyone should be attacked for any reason. BUT I think it’s fascinating that folks in America are willing to blindly accept this (White) young man’s story with no evidence aside from some burns (there is speculation that this is a hoax but there is no direct evidence of that). That is privilege. When a White person says “I’ve been attacked and it was a Black person”we believe him. Yet when we have evidence that someone who looks White killed a Black teenager,we find ways to make a lot of excuses for why that might have happened.

We owe it to ourselves to deconstruct these notions of privilege when we see them.

* There is some great work being done about race in America not being about actual racial identification but on the concept of “Whiteness” and “Blackness” and how if you are conceptually White you have more privilege than those considered conceptually Black. Maybe I’ll write a post about that at another time.

Combining #sadoc with #safam

I started thinking about this post last night when I was trying to read a book for my dissertation and my one year old kept trying to read my book with me. As much as I love collaboration, the experience made me realize how challenging it is to balance writing a dissertation with a young child.

I had every intention to be done with my proposal when Lily was born but with some situations being out of my control—I defended my prelims (December 2010) and she was born a month later (January 2011). While someone more focused might have used that time to work on their proposal I used that time to acquaint myself with our newest family member. I gave myself until August 2011 and then revisited my proposal.

Taking that mental space was so important (although I now realize it disadvantaged me when doing a faculty job search—a post for a different time) and when I came back to “work” in August, I felt refreshed and ready to tackle my topic.

The strange thing about babies is that they don’t stay little forever! So as I advanced in my writing, my daughter advanced in her development. I love her curiosity…although when she deleted pages from my proposal by clicking on a bunch of keys I wanted her to be curious elsewhere :) Add to this the fact that my husband is also writing his dissertation and blocking off the time to get these things done becomes challenging.

I think it would be easier if L was older and I could discuss with her what I was doing . But she’s just learning how to say “Doggie.” She has no idea why her removing the sticky notes from my library books sends me into a frenzy.

So for people contemplating #sadoc and #safam…here are my tips:

1) Complete your degree before you have kids :) Just kidding! There’s never really a “best” time to have a family or complete a degree. Just think about how you want to structure your time.

2) Figure out how to maximize your writing time. For us, we split time on the weekends. I also worked it out with my office to take one day off per week which I use for dissertation writing. I’m not a night person so writing at night is out of the question. I use night time to read articles.

3) Think about how your coursework will impact your family. I completed all of my coursework pre-daughter so I don’t really have experience with this. However, I did take a class that got out at 5 on Thursdays. My husband works until 7 on Thursdays. It was a mad rush to get her picked up from child care by 5:30. It also meant that by the time we got home it was too late for us to go to story time at the library.

4) Look at the totality of your family events. We signed L up for “swimming” which met on Mondays and Wednesdays. Fun for her, tough for us because that meant we were out two nights a week.

5) Think about how your academic department supports families.

6) Prioritize. Time with L is important to me so last night when it was clear she wanted to play, I put my book away and focused on her. I do not feel guilty for prioritizing her over my book.

7) Prioritize. Working on my dissertation is important to me. Sometimes that means L gets extra Dad time and Mom goes away. I do not feel guilty for this.

8) There is no room for guilt in this process. Most people get pulled in many different directions with/without family and with/without dissertation. We just have to do the best we can.

9) Find other support people who you can process with.

Good luck!

What to ask your #sadoc committee

Earlier this week @carolyngolz asked for suggestions on what to ask your dissertation/doctoral committee. That’s an excellent question. At Iowa State, you start out with a Program of Study committee (they approve your coursework). You then have a committee that approves your preliminary oral exam. Then you have a committee that works with you on your dissertation. Some people use the same five people throughout their doctoral process.  Others, like myself, go through a few iterations of their committee based on faculty leaving and/or a change in direction. Given the importance your committee plays in your success through this process, selecting a strong and supportive committee is fundamental.  I am fortunate that I’ve retained three of my committee members through the first two components of the process. However, after I defended my prelims I decided that two of my committee members interests did not fit the direction of my research and I needed to choose two different folks. That put me in a unique position to interview and select two new people. Here are some of the things I asked…

1) My topic is XX. Is this something that interests you?

2) What are your time commitments for 2012-2013 regarding conferences, sabbaticals? Do you think you can support my timeline of graduating by X day? (this is important—I did have someone indicate they thought I was moving “too fast.” Since that was not the consensus of my chair, I didn’t think it was a good fit)

3) What type of support do you provide the students whose committees you sit on? (Examples - editing, resources, willingness to meet and discuss ideas, options). I have a member of my committee who is great at big picture conversation and he told me that from the start. 

4) What do you think is the most important component of the dissertation? Some people will say everything, but many faculty members I know say that they have certain chapters they first. Two of my committee members are methodologists and really dissected that chapter. One committee member focused on my historical framework and literature base. My chair is excellent at editing, pointing out gaps in my thinking, and making sure I am linking my ideas. It’s important for me to have these various perspectives chiming in.

5) Here are the other committee members you’ll be working with. Have you worked with them before?

6) What expectations do you for communication?

7) Based on what you know about my topic, what are your perspectives on my current line of questioning? When I asked both committee members this they had fabulous ideas that I ended up using.

8) What else should I know about working with you?

Of course, much of this is dependent on your major professor. My chair is very collaborative but not very structured so I use another committee member to help structure my argument. He always defers to my chair but my chair really doesn’t care how my literature review is organized…this committee member does.

Having a strong committee is really important. You want people who get along but who will support your development as a scholar. I appreciated during my dissertation proposal meeting when my committee spoke about where my dissertation could take me in terms of publications. It meant they were thinking about my future…and it’s nice to know I’m not the only one.

What other suggestions do you have regarding committee selection? 

The IRB Process

Before I start writing about my own IRB process, I acknowledge that not all IRB’s are created equal. At Iowa State, new, non-exempt research projects take approximately 6-8 weeks for approval. I know that this seems like an extremely long time. My study had to go before the entire IRB board for two reasons: I am studying a protected population (minors) and the data I plan to collect falls outside the scope of “educational activity.” I am interviewing young adults about their perspectives on race and racism in schools. If my research was quantitative and I was using a secondary data set the approval might not take as long. With the IRB meeting twice a month, there isn’t much I could do about the time frame.

One of the helpful parts of our process is that your application is reviewed by a staff member to catch some of those errors that might delay a decision on your project. My study is such that I plan to interview students and school personnel—but given the differences in those interviews, I actually submitted my initial form for the students and filed a modification for the adults. Keeping them as two separate components made it easier for the IRB.

The IRB did raise concerns over my interview location—it needed to be private enough that no one could listen to the interviews, but public enough that student safety was not compromised. We agreed on a location and I resubmitted—approval came one month after my original submission (so shorter than expected).

Having IRB approval is a relief when doing qualitative research because it gives me permission to speak to people without fear of compromising data. I can now freely speak to people about my research (before IRB approval I could only speak to the superintendent).

There is a lot of anxiety that qualitative researchers experience—when you do quantitative research you don’t worry that your data set will pull out of your study. I fear that often. I look forward to the point where the data is collected.

Daily Dose of Dissertation:

- continue reading

- reorganize literature review

The Meerkat Model: A Student Affairs Philosophy

(the following post is a philosophy I created in 2003 when I did my first professional job search…I did zero editing :) )

The Meerkat Model: A Philosophy of Student Affairs Work in Residence Halls

People often ask me what I do for a living.  The simple answer is that I work with students.  For some this suffices.  However, I found myself wondering how I could explain exactly what a residence hall community is and what role I play in that community.  While Student Affairs encompasses many facets, there are three main areas that impact residential settings: community development, support, and challenge.  Looking to nature for inspiration, I discovered the meerkat.  Considered one of Africa’s most social animals, the intricacy of the meerkat society gives insight into what makes a successful community, and offers a creative perspective on the work Student Affairs professionals do within the residence halls. 

Community Development:  Community development is the mainstay of work within the residence halls.  Meerkats also have a strong sense of community development and structure.  Each community consists of alpha and beta members who live together for the duration of their life.  Meerkat young are introduced to a new babysitter every day that teaches the group a new skill.  This unites the young meerkats with those established in the community.  The meerkat understands the important role of peers and how peer relationships influence growth. Outside of the classroom, students naturally gravitate towards their residence hall home.  It is our responsibility to capitalize on the time spent in the community by providing programs, services, and a safe environment.  Community development is so fundamental that we create learning communities - places where students with similar academic interests can live together.  Learning communities strengthen the type of learning that takes place outside of the classroom and gives students the opportunity to learn from his or her peers outside of traditional classroom settings.  Interactions based on shared interests strengthen the bonds one feels to the community.

Support:  Student Affairs also offers students strong systems of support, both personally and academically.  The meerkat community has built-in support systems as well.  Every three or four hours, a meerkat “sentinel” is chosen to watch over the community.  This meerkat pays attention to the surroundings and alerts the other meerkats of nearby danger.  This sense of security is illustrated in the residence halls – we have resident assistants, peer mentors, and resident directors who look out for the “dangers” that students might encounter, ranging from poor academic performance to emotional and psychological issues.  As with the meerkats, everyone contributes and participates to keep the community and its members safe and involved.  We develop programming models and efforts aimed at assisting students in the transition from high school into college.  Oftentimes, our support encompasses behavior and decision making skills.  The concept of whole student development allows us to focus on giving students the tools they need to succeed after leaving the residence halls.  We want students to feel as secure as the meerkat community – that someone is looking out for the best interest of the community.

Challenge: One of the most amazing things Student Affairs professionals can accomplish is challenging students to grow beyond what they imagined.  As young meerkats develop, their training in life begins almost immediately.  Scorpions are a main food source for the meerkat.  Rather than kill food for the young, meerkat teachers educate the young meerkats on how to kill their prey.  Learning occurs immediately – the meerkat is thrust into an adult environment earlier on.  The same is typical of residence halls.  Students are expected to live on their own without having any practical experience.  By working closely with students, we are in the position to challenge them on decisions they make regarding their behavior (and the consequences of that behavior); we challenge their way of thinking when we introduce new ideas or concepts into their lives; we challenge them to be better students by providing academic support services; and we challenge them to be community members by planning floor activities and meetings.  At the end of the year our hope is that we have challenged them to be leaders and better people.

Student Affairs work, especially in the residence halls, is looked to as the means of creating successful, well adjusted students.  By promoting community development and offering support and challenge, Student Affairs professionals will impact students positively.  We take each student individually, reach into our toolbox, and give him or her what is necessary to flourish.  After much research in the field, Tim Clutton-Block stated the meerkat motto to be: “I get by with a little help from my friends.”  Whether little or large, the help offered within the residence halls facilitates the growth of our students, and gives purpose to the work of Student Affairs. 

The Proposal…

Last Wednesday I defended my dissertation proposal and submitted my IRB application. As I mentioned in a previous post, doctoral programs are not standard institutionally, and certainly not regionally or nationally. For the people on my committee you pass a preliminary exam and THEN you can write your proposal. I know that some people do this simultaneously. I also know that some people submit IRB before completing their proposal meeting…good for them, but not allowed according to the five people I report to.  

(I will say that I appreciate the order of things—I wasn’t prepared to write a dissertation in my second year of coursework. Being a practitioner lends itself to a certain way of problem solving that I needed to hone. And my Ph.D was not in student affairs.)

Anyway, I presented my proposal. I was more nervous than expected but after initially introducing my study, my advisor threw me a relatively easy question…and then the flood gates opened. What I appreciated most was the collaborative nature of the meeting and the introduction to new sources/references that I hadn’t encountered before but definitely need to cite. However, when they say that the dissertation you propose is not the one you write….that can be accurate.

For example, my committee had me change my methodology.

I’m still doing interviews, observations, and content analysis but rather than framing my study as a phenomenology, I’m framing it as a case study (using ethnographic methods). It makes sense and I look forward to this new direction AND it opens up some publication journals that don’t fit a phenomenological perspective. So it’s good. But that also means scrapping about 10-15 pages of writing (I haven’t gone back to really evaluate the change).

I was also surprised by some of their feedback in that my study was TOO academic and there was not enough emotion. I was being too polite about the historical context. All true. I can imagine that other committee members might feel differently, but each of my committee members is a critical studies scholar. Being nice has no room in a dissertation about the oppression involved in school environments.

Anyway, the scope of my study is strong and I am excited to begin the process of collecting data. I won’t go on hiatus but plan to focus entirely on “doing” qualitative research methods. I can’t talk about the site or participants but do plan to acknowledge the challenges and benefits of field work.

There’s a post about IRB and protected populations on its way but I don’t want to jinx myself!! 

The proposal draft…

…is complete. 

The first draft received this nugget of feedback: “You are totally confusing your reader here! WHAT DO YOU MEAN? This is totally different than your stated research question. None of this makes sense!”

Okay, I added the last sentence. But it was implied. It didn’t make sense. My first draft was the result of me putting together three separate sections I had written over time. My third chapter I wrote in 2009 for a course. My introduction chapter? 8 months ago. My second chapter? Technically an ongoing endeavor since I started my PhD in 2007. Even though I read through it a couple of times, I needed the outside eyes to help clarify what my issues were. They were there, I just couldn’t see them.

I just finished reviewing the third draft. This was written at the end of each newly added section: “Excellent.” 

The turn around time from draft 1 to draft 3? Ten days. I (quickly) figured out how to write smarter, and faster. I also realized I needed to apply the whole “hard things” first philosophy. I couldn’t skip to fix or edit sections I wanted…so I edited in order. I couldn’t move on to the next section until the first one was squared away. 

Another tip—when I was stuck I reached out to scholars more senior than I and sought feedback. I struggled with a section on terminology. I couldn’t find what I needed so I contacted another faculty member in that area. Within minutes he sent me back the name of a book that helped out tremendously, as well as offered to help review my material. Score!

In some ways, writing a dissertation is checking my ego at the door, even though I actually love the red pen—so the more critical feedback I get, the better I like it. Feedback is actionable and gives me an opportunity to sharpen my skills (that’s the activator, achiever, and maximizer strength hard at work….thrown in with some significance).

Even though my topic doesn’t directly relate to my advisor’s area of research, he knows his stuff. So much so that he added some citations to my dissertation that I overlooked (and included the reference in my list).

Monday it’s to the committee…and hopefully I get to see more red pen.

Daily Dose:

- Reading a book on critical theory on race (not the same thing as critical race theory)

- Made my work-day to-do list (I devote one day per week to writing, in addition to one weekend day and some evenings…evenings are hard with a toddler). 

- Made final revisions to my proposal

The daily dose is back!

I know that people would much rather read about my dissertation process than my thoughts on the philosophy behind “professional” dress :)

Also, in case you’re wondering…when you’re working on your dissertation, sometimes writing on your tumblr is too much…

Anyway, today I want to talk about revisions.

Given that one of my strengths is activator, revisions are my friend. Ideation is #34 on my list so I could sit for hours (days) trying to think of what to change and never get very far. But when I get back drafts with lots of comments it invigorates me! I have something to do! And then those comments spark better writing. It’s very motivating.

In reading other people’s dissertations its clear that they have bad editors, so I’m thankful for the chair I have and his very rigorous look at each draft. 

I am very much looking forward to the proposal defense and seeing what other suggestions the committee has for the next direction to head in. 

Today I:

- Organized all of my literature, literally. I filed it away.

- Made some notes regarding my literature review and what needs to be added for the dissertation.

(Side note: I am growing to love the ever evolving dissertation…)