Wednesday 4 June 2014

The First Draft Response

You have no idea how happy I was to complete my first draft only three days after my first blog post. Dutifully, I spent the remainder of that day completing my research (or my research thus far), and then the two following days typing up the paper. I knew as I was typing that I was forgetting things, such as concrete citations for all of the facts about theory I had read earlier in the research process, but I knew that I could add those in later, after a quick skim through my notes.

Overall, I was concerned with getting the 'critical review' part of the paper done; the part that actually required me to think and analyse, interpreting the strengths and weaknesses of a peer reviewed paper, thus proving that I had come to terms with the terminology and language surrounding educational research.

I must admit that I am not 100% there. I still can't confidently tell you about the difference between methodology and methods (which my supervisor pointed out in her feedback - I'm working on it).  I know more about doing phenomenological studies, as that's the type of study I want to do. I can also tell you about ethnography, ethics, and methods of qualitative and quantitative data collection. Ask me about triangulation, validity, reliability, and I will totally be able to fill you in. Ask me about trustworthiness though, and I'll fall short (yet another area highlighted by my supervisor, I mighty add).

Clearly I still have some way to go, but I'm not at all intimidated by what remains. I know I can find the information I need. I probably have the sources in my house, having bought many of the texts myself; I'm a pack rat, and I love a good textbook on my shelves. In fact, I've even been known to re-read them purely for pleasure. Yep...I'm a sucker for knowledge.

After submitting the paper to my supervisor, I did a dance around my house. I was extremely pleased with myself, and I wanted everyone to know. My boyfriend got an earful of my whoops and hurrahs when he got home from work, and I'm sure he thought I was insane. I almost felt like cracking open some wine to toast myself, but seeing as I had to attend a fitness camp shortly after submitting, that didn't seem like a good idea. Counter-productive on more than one front, really.

I knew I was going to get feedback on the work, feedback that would highlight my inadequacies, but somehow that didn't  bother me because I already knew what they were. When I did receive the paper back, heavily marked up with suggestions and a few brief moments of praise (which I lapped up eagerly), I was both pleased and relieved to see that she had only, as I had thought, picked up on the areas that I already knew I hadn't fleshed out. I was again extremely relieved. In fact, I'm still feeling confident now, which is nice. I hope it lasts.

I've got a one to one supervision tomorrow, where we get to talk through the paper in person. I'm going to spend an hour before hand going over things, adding things in, and generality try and tackle some of her suggestions head on.

Overall, positive things happening at the minute! Nothing more to report, so I shall end here.

KC

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