Bill Barowy writes:
>I have taken this tack: To bound a study around a research question that
>occurs in coordination with the conceptual systems, and phenomena within
>practical reach. The coordination with the conceptual systems situate
>the study within the ongoing theoretical dialogues, and a study may be
>further bounded by situating it within other dialogues concerning issues
>that have practical relevance to society. Within a study, one can form
>"cases" and these can be built up with the aid of qualitative case study
>methodology, although traditionally case studies in education have not
>included intervention on the part of the researcher or others, and so
>there is some work to be done linking case studies to "design
>experiments", "transforming experiments", and the like.
i saved this message, Bill, to read more closely later (which is now)
and i don't read all the xmca messages, so if this was discussed already,
please be patient with me.
i like the perspective you are taking here in how to frame a study of
complex, inter-connected systems,
but i assume you are talking about something quite large -
by that i mean that you are working with a team of researchers,
i remember you writing about working at the level of school systems
previously.
anyway, i am recalling bronfenbrenner talking about overlapping systems or
levels (it's on the tip of my mind) and that the individual person was the
interface or overlap or carried one system into another
(i have this image that his writing evoked, but i can't remember the words
he used)
anyway, i am wondering if an individual researcher (or more specifically,
a teacher/researcher) can be the container that bounds the study
bringing her/his personal history, embodied cultural constraints, belief
systems, perspectives, willingness and/or ability to notice some
"observations" and not see others, tolerance for multiple systemic
understandings, etc.
and this person may be transformed by the process as much (probably more)
than any other participants in the study.
the goal in something like this would not be to claim generalizable
conclusions about other people, but rather, to illustrate how an
individual (the researcher) struggles with the experiences of
researching/learning, to illustrate the process we each must participate
in as we learn and attempt to put into practice what we think we've
learned.
(is that a question? it started out feeling like one, but not any longer)
also, i like your list of criteria for a transforming project.
>
kathie
<><><><<<<><><><<><>>>><><><<<<><><>>><><><>><<>><
The spirit . . .
. . . could float, of course,
but would rather
plumb rough matter.
Airy and shapeless thing,
it needs
the metaphor of the body. . .
---Mary Oliver Dream Work---
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Katherine_Goff@ceo.cudenver.edu
http://ceo.cudenver.edu/~katherine_goff/index.html
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