Karen+Carpenter+Thurmond

What is Evidence?
What is the relationship between data, evidence and knowledge in qualitative research? How is scientific rigor established and maintained in qualitative research? The politics side of the issue, at this point, seems to relate not so much to how evidence is used but rather to what consititutes evidence. In the article titled, On [|The Nature of "Evidence" In Qualitative Research Methods]the authors Steven Miller and Marcel Fredericks explore how qualitative research data becomes evidence. Their discussion parallels Yvonna Lincoln's article, [|On the Nature of Qualitative Evidence], describing how data becomes evidence i.e. that data does not constitute evidence but that data becomes evidence when it can be used to support a "claim." Much of what we call "data" is itself phenomenological -- that is, socially constructed and "there" only because we are attuned to looking for it. (p. 3) No "evidence" is evidence until we see it from some theoretical, paradigmatic, or metaphysical framework ... Thus what constitutes evidence, and therefore, what justifies it, is the result not only of what questions are posed, but of the framework within which they are posed. (p. 4). The Collins' quotation that leads into the Lincoln article discusses the paradigms we use to interpret and measure "reality". It seems to me that is the crux of our conversation -- shaping the paradigms by which we understand and speak about our "reality". What evidence is there for holding on to, or surrendering, the paradigms that help us to make sense of the world? I'm intrigued with this question from a couple of vantage points: I work in the behavioral sciences, which often are referred to as "soft" sciences. That old dualism of "hard" and "soft", however, is the same false dichotomy that feeds the polarization of quantitative as distinct from qualitative research, "measurable" data as distinct from "interpretive" data, and facts as distinct from stories.

A paradigm for knowledge (epistemology) is coexistent with the rules of seeing and rules of measuring and thinking that give it its physical objects and scientific laws. Different natural objects are precipitated by different paradigms. What may be true in one, may be false in another. H. M. Collins, 1983, p. 90. New paradigms will be necessary that can help bring these various "ways of knowing" together instead of pushing them apart.

Introducing different ways of knowing into research may provide the opportunity for the new paradigms to emerge. In a series of discussions concerning graduate education and the nature of evidence, Pelligrino and Goldman propose that providing new researchers with a broad introduction to modes of inquiry may prove valuable. They suggest this can best be accomplished in coursework devoted to differing epistemologies and philosophies of inquiry.This commitment sets the stage for graduate training that is substantially broadened. Some suggest that a methods core include a balance of quantitative and qualitative methods. Although we are concerned that trading breadth for depth may lead to less methods expertise, the notion that qualitative and quantitative methods are complementary is an important improvement in how the educational community talks about differences. We propose that enabling a mutual respect and regard for different methods is the greatest priority. We suggest this can best be accomplished in coursework devoted to differing epistemologies and philosophies of inquiry [|(Pelligrino and Goldman, 2002 and 2003).]

__Articles for 11-22__
Reflections on Feminist Methodology Questions I was supposed to answer > > It stikes me hard that in each case these readings describe feelings, experiences, tensions, challenges, and struggles I have to other in order to understand. In what sense can I relate to the story of a woman has moved from India, to NYC, back to India, and then back to NYC? How can I understand? I found myself feeling angry at the author for her naval gazing and angry with myself for my inability to empathize. The whole thing made me very uncomfortable. How can this thing make me so uncomfortable? Perhaps, like Vasu's sons, "I am what I am what I am" because I don't really have a deep assurance that I am one thing or another. Do I belong so strongly that I have no doubt of who I am? I don't think any of us does. That is not to equate being a yankee woman in Memphis TN with the issues presented in these articles. Not the same thing. But there may be "homes" many of us no longer recognize in this mobile world. > > I also think the words Visweswaran quotes from Gouri Bhat are so telling: "In the classrooms of radical discourse, the darkness of my skin is like a badge of honor. I am marked as an Empath. Guilty and solicitous white male scholars tip-toe around my privileged understanding of cultural texts. And I think: I was not raised in the barrios, in the ghettos, under the British colonial empire, so how is my color a window?" > Sometimes we get asked to "represent" a group because of something about us that is unchangeable. How does anyone know how a whole group of people might think or feel? We have to check these understandings...by asking "so how is my color a window?" She may be confirming that though she is a person of color she has no way to understand all the experiences of all people of color because her experiences cannot possibly be parallel with all of theirs. There may be aspects of experience we share, but we owe it to each other to ask for understanding rather than assuming it from our the looks of our outsides. > > On Sunday I taught a lesson centered on the experiences of the Hebrew people (descendents of Abraham through Isaac) in exile under Nebuchanezzer in Babylonia. The occasion for the exile from Judah was the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (Babylonians) in 587 BC. The Assyrians had been there in 598 BC and had done some damage but the city didn't fall. At that point some Hebrews were taken captive by the Assyrians. Later these captives were transferred to Babylon and began constructing a Hebrew society within the Babylonian society. I told the story of Vasu to illustrate the condition that must have been experienced by the Hebrews in Babylon. Born in Judah, worshipers of Yahweh in a society where Yahweh was not the only game (lots of Baal worship parallel to Yahweh), exiled in Babylon where many cultures had converged, eventually returned to Judah under Cyrus (after the Persians conquer Babylon). What a mixed up cultural bunch those latter generations must have been! The class wanted to know what happened to Vasu. When I related her suicide attempt they were not at all surprised. I had the feeling that there was some ruptured cultural identities in the crowd. It doesn't take much to feel like a stranger in the south. Can't even move from Greenwood Mississippi to Memphis without paying the debt. > > When Chaudhry reflects on her conversation with Fariha concerning the forbidden boyfriend she finds her researcher self preeminent. When Appa asks, "What if it had been your own sister?" Chaudhry realizes what has happened. She has chosen her researcher role rather than one that might have been more natural of big sister, friend, and kin. This has to be deliberate, but she seems to regret it after the fact. In addition, she quotes Abu-Lughod by saying in note 1 "the moving back and forth between the many worlds [I] inhabit is a movement in one complex and historically and politically determined world." Moving between worlds is common for us; she has done it on vastly divergent levels. She asks later, "how do I date the rupturing of my own ethnic identity?" Is this rupturing a historical and political inevitability in a mobile world? What will we worry about after we don't worry about ethnicity any more? > [|Semantic Relationships]
 * what stood out to you in the readings?
 * what could you tell from the way data was represented?
 * how does it inform your understanding of feminist methodology?
 * Read your peers' page and offer some thoughts and comments that shows critical engagement with your peer's reflection

9/20 Mall reflections
[|VS Observation]

[|**Karen4**] **writes:** I think we have the makings of a beginning in our discussion from this past week. We have uncovered the elements of the ongoing controversy concerning evidence, data, and knowledge. We know what "both sides" are saying. Perhaps this is our first wiki entry: framing the problem. Posted Oct 8, 2006 1:01 pm [|**Karen4**] **writes:** What about this? What is the relationship between data, evidence and knowledge in qualitative research? How is scientific rigor established and maintained in qualitative research? These questions are at the heart of our discussion of the politics of evidence as it relates to qualitative inquiry. Add something here from the articles we read last week.

"For over three decades a quiet methodological revolution has been taking place in the social sciences." (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003)


 * "All of this is my agenda."-In research it is always the agenda of the researcher that is important. Somehow we forget that in quantitative research because the researcher is hidden from the process in more subtle ways.=== =========
 * "On the spot member check." - This is important to remember. Check your understandings to make sure you don't go down a trail that isn't really there.

In Depth Interview
//this follow up question asks Alex to add to the knowledge already gained by telling about another type of inspiration...KB doesn't assume that the "critical events" are his only inspiration but asks him to talk more about it.// //this is not something about which KB asked, but it is interesting and a new thought so she explores it. He didn't really answer the question but the result was a new piece of the puzzle revealed.// //how did she know to ask about this? Would this be part of preparation?// //KB and Alex are both interested in this so she pursues it more...seems like there is something important about staying true, being yourself, acting normal, just being you, etc.// //good thing for rapport; I thought he might be offended.// //this is introduced without being on the agenda; wonder where that thought comes from? Does it come from something he said? I don't think so.// //he reveals earlier that he usually writes in the first person and she explores it here.//
 * 1. Could you tell me about a time when you were really inspired to write? (D)**
 * 2. Could you describe some writing strategies you use when you write? (S)**
 * 3. When you think about the process of your creative writing, how do you see writing song lyrics, poems, music, novel, comparing with each other? (C)**

Asking Questions - Spradley

 * Spradley, J. ( 1979). The ethnographic interview. Chicago: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.**
 * The developmental research sequence**
 * 1) Locating an informant
 * 2) Interviewing an informant
 * 3) Making an ethnographic record
 * 4) Asking descriptive questions
 * 5) Analyzing the ethnographic interview
 * 6) Making a domain analysis
 * 7) Asking contrast questions
 * 8) Making a componential analysis
 * 9) Discovering cultural themes
 * 10) Writing an ethnography
 * 4 Asking Descriptive Questions

Autoethnography
__Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social__ __Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social__ __Ways of Reading: An Anthology____for Writers__ __Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self____and the Social__ hsu-engl611-1@redwood.humboldt.edu100fac@redwood.humboldt.edu __Social Issues in the English Classroom__ //International Journal of Qualitative Methods//http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/backissues/2_1/pdf/holt.pdf