Data, Analysis, Reflection, Interpretation

 Today's session was with Module three students talking about data and what to do with it...  

I shared an short passage from Harry Wolcott's Transforming Qualitative Data, 

'No one ever flunked fieldwork...it would seem unusual for anyone to intitate fieldwork yet gain nothing from the experience. On the other hand it is not at all uncommon to complete fieldwork, accumulate a mountain of data, and have nothing to show by the way of a completed study...the greater problem for first-time qualitative researchers is not how to get data but how to figure out what to do with the data they get'. (Wolcott, H. 1994:9)

An articulation of this that may be helpful

 

'No one ever flunked fieldwork... YOU CANNOT GET IT WRONG!

...it would seem unusual for anyone to intitate fieldwork yet gain nothing from the experience. YOU WILL LEARN SOMETHING FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF GATHERING DATA EVEN IF THE DATA WAS NOT WHAT YOU HAD HOPED OR EXPECTED

On the other hand it is not at all uncommon to complete fieldwork, accumulate a mountain of data, and have nothing to show by the way of a completed study... ON THIS PROGRAMME WE ARE INTERESTED IN THE PROCESS OF YOUR LEARNING THROUGH CARRYING OUT AN INQUIRY NOT CREATING THE PERFECT RESEARCH OR FINDING ANSWERS

...the greater problem for first-time qualitative researchers is not how to get data but how to figure out what to do with the data they get'. (Wolcott, H. 1994:9) THIS IS ANALYSIS - WHAT YOU DO WITH THE DATA - INTERPRET WHAT YOU GATHER THROUGH THE LENS OF YOU/YOUR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE - WHAT DOES IT ALL SAY TO YOU? WHAT ARE THE PATTERNS YOU SEE EMERGING, RECURRING THEMES ACROSS ALL THE DATA SETS (LITERATURE, YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES, FIELD DATA)?

Those that shared their data stories and processes as part of this discussion please do blog, comment and share your thoughts further from this session below...