Hi and welcome back to another week! Last week’s breakout session was a good way of breaking down a large group into a smaller and more intimate working group. It’s interesting that zoom has this feature and I would love to continue using this form of planning. This week I continued working on my lit review and I read two articles and reread another article that I discussed last semester, however, during the summer I had more time to dissect the reading and take better notes (this was a plus).
In the first article Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis author Kathy Charmaz presents a detailed outline of how to conduct qualitative research in an autoethnography. In the second chapter of the book “Gathering Rich Data,” she explains how intensive interviewing is a method of research. In the chapter, she also presents a sample diagram of grounded theory interview questions about a life change. The purpose of the diagram is to show how textual analysis contributes to a competent research study. Furthermore, this chapter describes the proper procedures and techniques necessary to understand this research concept. Though the process seems extensive and requires much time it has to be done accurately and precisely to do good case analysis. The book did a great job explaining how methods of grounded theory are essential when conducting auto-ethnography.
In the second article Voice As Process author Lizbeth A. Bryant, brings forward the discussion of voice as a process of construction. In her study, she shows how students with varying voices can still be successful in the classroom. I plan to use this argument to prove that ESL students although they do not have the English language they are still capable and competent to succeed in the classroom. Although there may be a language barrier this does not mean that they are not able to make a connection using reasoning from their language. Additionally, I will use Bryant’s argument to make the point that ESL learners are smart and good students the only issue is the language barrier that holds them back. If schools continue to provide ESL classrooms to support these students they will begin to have a voice and language to support their studies. The highlight of this article is the part where Bryant shares some individual ethnographic stories about her students that are for research purposes. These stories show students using their voices. I want to use this example for my observation and pinpoint how I see my participants engaging their voice in a classroom environment.
Feeling Stuck!
Although my lit review is coming along. I am unsure what to do now as far as an observation. One of my research tools involves observing an ESL classroom and specifically identify how teachers interact with ESL students. Unfortunately, now that classes are all conducted online this will be a bit of a challenge. There is no way that I can complete this observation unless I join in on personal zoom calls which sometimes involve both students and parents. I hope to be able to figure out how to move forward in this step. Even so, I have outlined my plan for completing my thesis is this small calendar below.
| September | Continue working on proposal and research outline |
| October | By October I expect to have my Literature Review completed because I have been working on it for a while and I believe have enough adequate resources including books, articles, and journals. This month I also present. So I would like to create a PowerPoint description of my thesis including the participants and interview data that I conducted during the summer months. (it was a lot of audio but I transcribe all the interviews in document form) |
| November | Begin writing thesis full: Introduction, including research methodology and discussion.I free wrote a background of my ESL experience last spring and I plan to include this part in my research thesis as a part of the methodology section. It is important to include my own voice in this study. |
| December | Continue working and revising to all sections in the proposalCompleting Research thesis |
Darline's Thesis Creation 