Photo Description: A picture of the author in her Zoom room waiting for her interviewee to join.
Week Four
I am thankful for my network. I haven’t had a lot of jobs in my adulthood but each one has provided exposure to a pretty expansive network and they have come through for me as I look for people to share their experiences.
The best part of my week has been emailing and connecting with folks I worked with almost two decades ago up to the present. This is an unexpected perk of casting a larger net and I’m excited to catch up with people and hear about what they’ve been up to since we last talked and their perspectives on my research topic.
I know that some researchers prefer their “subjects” to be anonymous to avoid bias but we all know that bias is there anyway so why fake the funk? For my last book and for this one I have leaned on the “portraiture” research approach defined by Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot as “Portraiture is a method of social science inquiry distinctive in its blending of art and science, capturing the complexity, dynamics, and subtlety of human experience and organizational life.”
As I have dived deeper into this approach, I am thankful that I have videos of my interviews. I think the telling of stories will be enhanced by reviewing the visual elements of each interview and rehearing the voice of the person.
Other than interviews, I’m still reading and researching.
My mind is going a little haywire and thoughts about where I should go with this topic pop up in my brain at random times-mostly when driving and/or running- either one is problematic for capturing thoughts as they come to me. I haven’t tried voice recording yet but may need to soon as my ability to remember things is getting weaker and weaker (hence this weekly posting!).
Week Four already?!?!