Research Methods Class

Katie D.

April 8, 2011 - 8:53 PM

This term, I am taking a Qualitative Research Methodology class as an independent study with Shaul Cohen. Research methods is a required class for CRES, and there is a course offered through the masters program, but I chose to design a course fitted specifically to what I need to learn in order to conduct the research and writing of my Masters Thesis.

That's right, folks. For those of you who have been reading for a while, you'll possibly wonder that I'm talking thesis again. After all, it was around this time last year that I was gearing up for the final stretch of writing for my undergraduate honors thesis. I was probably hovering around one hundred pages about this time last year. I was looking ahead to my thesis defense, and desperately arranging my days around the writing of this first massive project.

Well, friends and readers, the time has come again.

This time I'm feeling extremely prepared, and becoming more so every day. I'm planning to write a qualitative thesis, based on interviews and interacting with some debate in current academic and social events. There will, of course, be a conflict resolution element of the thesis.

I'm being deliberately vague for now because I want to give the planning another couple of weeks before I unveil the full plan. But my (not terribly humble) opinion is that this next project is going to be something worth waiting to hear about. Something to cap off these two years of masters work, and to use while looking forward into my future work.

But back to the methods class. I think I'm so scattered in my writing just now because I am so excited to be reading and learning about research. I know that's an incredibly nerdy thing to write, but I'm in the grip of enthusiasm for research design and interview preparation--in the ideas of how to obtain and interpret data from the experiences of other human beings. I am currently reading Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies by Robert Weiss. I love this kind of book: it is raising so many questions about my role and potential as a researcher, and my responsibilities in approaching a qualitative study. Essentially, I will not be conducting experiments nor generating census statistics. I will be interacting with the statistics on a human level, using the stories of individuals to illuminate the experiences of the group.

As I'm moving toward envisioning my Masters Thesis, I am so grateful to have already experienced a large-scale thesis project, and to have this opportunity to design a class to help me prepare. I need to learn so much: how to select interview respondents, how to initiate an interview, what questions to ask, how to know when to wrap up an interview, whether I should plan to use a tape recorder or take notes... These are some of the logistical and seemingly mundane pieces of planning a research project.

Usually this is the part of a project I like the least: I enjoy being in the midst of the project, already writing, already talking with people. I like to write the draft first, and worry about the outline later. Not this time. This time I'm pushing for a project with deep academic rigor. With a fluidity and legitimacy of something which has been defined and plotted in advance. I hope that this thesis will launch me into future studies and employment. I also hope to design something useful: some research area which could be employed to create some change in the world, rather than merely satisfying my graduation requirements and personal curiosity. So I'm undertaking this thesis process with the deliberation it deserves, and the enthusiasm that arises naturally from the launching-point of something you are uniquely responsible for creating.

As I move through this methodology study, I am finding myself with an increasing number of questions, accompanied by a few answers. I know that the task of this spring term is to discover what other questions exist for me, and to find the process by which to answer them.

Then I just need to find whoever has those answers. And then I suppose I'll ask.