Re: the biographies of quals and quants

Katherine Goff (Katherine_Goff who-is-at ceo.cudenver.edu)
Fri, 21 Nov 1997 14:05:07 -0700

xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu,External writes:
>Anyway, the original issue was something entirely different, if I
>remember
>correctly. Mike asked for xmca-ers who were currently in some way
>integrating individual and collective levels in their research, a few
>people (Phil and Martin and??) responded with some really interesting
>ongoing stuff -- which, as Mike has already noted points to practice as
>much more than a field for data collection: a basis for methodology he
>suggests.

Eva,

I am struggling with my response, but will reply although my ideas are
still moist and murky, just starting to wiggle and move.

My research will be with my students. I want to focus on the girls and
understand better how they learn that computers are boring, boy stuff.
I know there's lots of data out there on this, but I want to see how
_my_ students do it, because I want to encourage _them_ (the ones I
know and relate to) to take a different path.

So I am studying anthropology and ethnography and want to include
structures, history, cultural constraints, psychology, sytems theory,
activity theory, cognitive science (or, I should say anti-cognitive
science), and some frame for agency and interpretation. Ecological
models that address scale look tempting right now.

It's a mess, I know, but bits of everything I mentioned show up on a
daily basis as I work with my students in my computer lab. (Sorry
diane, I don't like the way that sounds, but other options are so
awkward, i.e., the students in the classes in the computer lab where I
teach (and that took me three tries before it made sense.))

And I do see that my research is a reflection of who I am and it's very
scary sometimes to expose that tender flesh to the sharp arrows of
academia. Also it's frustrating to jump through institutional hoops
when all day long my motto is "Just Do It." I realize that that's not
always the best way to operate either, but schools are not designed to
encourage teachers to reflect on what they do or who they are. Some
days it feels the the worst of both ways of operating are all I am
allowed. Fewer days I feel like I can find a thread of harmony between
the two, loud marching bands; I can dance between the marchers and get
where I want to go without bumping anyone hard enough to be elbowed.

Kathie

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Katherine_Goff who-is-at ceo.cudenver.edu
http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~kegoff/index.html