David+William+Ogdon

Wiki page entry 11/27/06 posted on POEs discussion board under Final product

I wanted to add to our rememberances of our disscussion on 11/15 of the dueling banjos video. One of the things that we discussed is how the guitar and banjo communicated with each other using the language of music. Both instruments played the same notes (language) but because of the differences in the instruments they each produced a charactheristic sound. When one reads Gary's vignette of the researcher debate one sees that the researchers are speaking the same language, the laguage of research, but they use different words to describe what they do. This gives each type of research a different sound, a sound that is characteristic of each kind of research much the same as the characteristic sounds of guitars and banjos. To the unitiated the two kinds of research may not harmonize becuase they do not understand the words used by one type of research. When developing evaluation criteria, the uninitiated may try to apply criteria developed for one field of research that uses the words of that field to another field of research. This could prove to be detrimental to the understanding of the evidence of quality in the other of research. Posted 35 minutes ago
 * [|dwogdon] writes:**

Wiki page entry 11/1/06

To answer the question posed at the end of the vignette "In deciding what is truly music, who gets to be in the room?" We need to ask the question, Which group of benefactors has the most money?" I hate to sound cynical, but ultimately all such decisions are driven by funding. Public radio stations especially derive funding from contributers not commercial sponsors. Making the choice to exclusively play one one kind of "music" or the other will likely alienate the other group of benefactors and reduce contributions. Obviously, the station must then select for the group of benefactors that provides the greatest funding possiblility or the station will become financially insolvent.

To address the second question, the arguments posed indicate that the programming board should not choose between one type or the other but should continue to play both types of music because both are just that, different styles of music, but still music. A decision to select on over the other would, according to Lincoln (pg. 19). . . silence an alternative voice.

My interest in the question of the politics of evidence yields to my subjectivities regarding politics and money and takes up the differences between the kinds of knowledge that quantitative and qualitative research produces. The answer that I gave to the first question illustrates my somewhat cynical if not realistic view that (to use an old cliche) "he who holds the purse strings wields the power and ultimately makes the choices." Lincoln illustrates this situation with her comments on the recent decisions by the Department of Education to limit the type of educational research that is made available on their website and the move to limit funding for ERIC (pg. 19).

In his article "Quality Criteria as Instruments for Political Control of Science" Uwe Laucken discusses the recent trend in Germany of developing standardized criteria for determining the quality of research conducted at Universities in Germany. These "Quality Criteria" will be used by German governmental bodies to determine who gets the funding and how much they get. Laucken, a psychologist, discusses the issue from the perspective of the different fields of psychology and from the different "modes of thinking" that he associates with the different fields of psychology. He identifies two modes of thinking, the "Physical mode" and the "Semantic mode." The physical mode of thinking in the field of psychology is associated with the neurosciences and the use of machines such as PET scanners to acquire data. The physical mode of thinking attempts to attribute all human behavior to electrochemical activity within the brain.The semantic mode of thinking is associated with the social science side of psychology and approaches human behavior from a perspective of interactions with other people which can be reduced to semantic units.

Laucken uses the two modes of thinking to illustrate a disturbing trend in the evaluation of the educaional quality of German universities that is that the quality criteria are structurally beneifitting certain branches of science to the financial detriment of others. Laucken discusses three quality criteria; The extent of economic usability; The breadth of scientific impact; and a Beneficial environment.

Laucken centers his discussion of the extent of economic usability around the idea that university research should produce information or technology that offers some immediate financial benefit to the community at large. Universities and colleges within the university that produce financilly beneficial information and technology are rated higher on the Quality Criteria scale. Because the physical mode of thinking produces devices, improvements to devices and information associated with devices it recieves more attention than the semantic mode of thinking.

The discussion of the breadth of scientific impact is centered around a comparison of which mode of thinking produces the greatest quantity of research publications and citations. Again, the physical mode of thinking has the advantage. The nature of research associated with devices produces more research to publish becuase of ongoing improvements to devices, processes and software used in the devices. The publications are usually short. The information is so transient that Laucken states that the average citation is usually less that two years old. The semantic mode of thinking produces longer articles and books that are the result of long periods of research. Thus, yielding fewer articles and fewer citations. This criteria does not consider the quality of the research but looks at volume.

The physical mode of thinking also benefits more from the beneficial environment of the mass media. Often times discoveries and developments in the fields of devices and technology are spectacular and easily presented by mass media. Thus, they have a high public interest factor. "The mass-media eligibility of discoveries is increasingly becoming a sigificant quality of research." Laucken, (2002) [64]. to be continued. . . =Domain analysis and Intepration (10-4):= __Domain__ __Included terms__ __Semantic relationship__ __Cover terms__

Strict Inclusion puns, double entendres, alliteration, onomontopoeia are a a kind of word play game that Alex uses in his writing Spatial a crack in the pavement is a place in the sunshine for a weed Cause-Effect writing, relationship, creation, forming, shaping, moulding are a cause of meaning in Alex's writing for Alex Rationale gaining their place in the sunshine is a reason for weeds breaking through cracks in the pavement Location for action Uniform lawns is a place for pulling up weeds Function Saying something is "Deep" is a way to Say, "I don't understand but, I don't want you to think I'm an idiot." Means-end Multiple interpretations of the same piece is a way to get meaning for the piece Sequence Leave more room for the reader and text to play together is a step in is Alex's development as a writer Attribution being a little vague about meaning is an attribute of Alex's poetry

I see Alex at present as a private and close writer in relation to his poetry. I think that he writes his poetry for himself and then releases it into the world to find its own way.I base this his statement that he will refuse to explain his meanings to his readers and that he will leave the meaning making to the reader. This is a change in Alex's development as a writer because he states that in his early days as a writer he would cram meaning down the throats of his readers just to make his point. I also see Alex as very purposeful in his use of what he calls "wordplay games," using puns, alliteration, double entendres and onomatopoeia. He says that 99% of the time his use these writing tools is deliberate. Alex speaks as though he wants to be very transparent but I believe that there is a lot to Alex that is hidden behind a veil. So, am I saying that Alex is "deep"? No, I think that I do get it and yes, I don't want you to think that I am an idiot.

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= = = = = = =David (10/3):= Another article that discusses data, how data becomes evidence and what constitutes evidence can be found in the //International Journal of Qualitative Methods 2(1) Winter, 2003.// In the article titled, **The Nature of "Evidence" In Qualitative Research Methods** the authors Steven Miller and Marcel Fredericks explore how qualitative research data become evidence. Their discussion parallels Lincoln's article 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" (hypothesis?, belief?). Miller's article also parallels Lincoln's in the premise that evidence is only pertinent to the question when analyzed in the paradigm in which the data was gathered and the question was asked. In our opening statement we spoke of the relationship between data, evidence and knowledge as being an iterative relationship but, I am a linear thinker and there seems to be a flow to the relationship. "Data becomes Evidence when it is Analyzed within a specific Paradigm or Method, Evidence supports/leads to Findings which support a Claim or Belief which, when supported by Evidence adds to the body of Knowledge. I may be way off base and I've only just scratched the surface in my readings but this pattern seems to fall out of these two articles. Miller's article was retrieved from http://www.ualberta.ca/-iiqm/backissues/2_1/html/miller.html

Regarding the "politics" aspect of Lincoln's article I have to agree with Gary that it seems that the issue is being "politicized" by the recent actions of the Department of Education. While this is my personal view the actions of the Federal Government seem to define what is acceptable educational research. To remove all references to Pre-Bush education research from Department of Education Web pages and to possibly limit funding for ERIC amounts to Government censorship of any educational research that does not support the administration's views. As Lincoln stated, this is certainly chilling. = = =Expanded narrative from Mall Observations on 9/20/06= As part our experience in Advanced Qualitative Research Methods we went to the Oak Court Mall on Wednesday September 20 to conduct participant observations. The focus of my observations was on the question, "What activities do parents with school age children (5-15) engage in on a Wednesday night at the Mall?" We generated our research questions in class before we left for the mall. My thinking in asking that question was that students should be at home doing homework instead of hanging out at the mall so I wanted to see if families did in "hang out" at the mall or if their visits were more purposeful with the intent of shopping for a specific item. I arrived at the mall and parked on the south side near the railroad tracks. I entered the mall on the second level near the food court. I immidiately noticed that murmuring sound that the voices of many people in a closed space make. My previous experiences with malls told me that the mall was not very crowded because the volume of the voices was fairly low. As I headed for the down escalator to the food court to meet with my class I noticed a table where 3 girls (9-10 years, African American, city school uniform type clothing) and a man (30's, African American, ball cap, t-shirt, shorts, basketball shoes) were sitting and eating fast food from the food court. A woman (30's, African American, casual business type attire) was standing at the tabe and talking to the man and girls. As I drew closer to them the woman walked to a nearby kiosk and entered it. Questions: Were all of the people related or was the woman just socializing? What were the man and girls doing at the mall, were they going to purchase something or were they having dinner while they waited for the woman to get off work? I walked on to the escalator and rode it down to the food court where I met two of my classmates. This was about 6:45 p.m. As I was talking to my classmates I scanned the food court to look for parents and children eating. I spotted a man (30's, caucasian, casual dress) and a boy (8-9, casual dress) eating. At another table I observed a woman (late 20's, caucasian, casual dress) and two small children also eating. I observed a woman (30's, caucasian, casual dress) and a girl ( 9-10, white top, navy skirt-school uniform? and lime green Croc shoes) exiting the escalator. They appeared to be a mother and daughter (M&D#1). Neither was carrying any shopping bags. The woman carried a purse under her arm and she walked purposefully down the hall toward the west end of the mall, the girl walked along and they appeard to be carrying on a conversation. I watched them walk down the hall and saw them enter a store on the right side of the hallway about 150 feet away. I told my classmates that I was going to go down the hall to see where they went. I walked down the hallway and found that they had entered Journey's shoe store. The girl appeared to be browsing around the store and looked at different kinds of shoes.I did look to see what the woman was doing. I watched them in the store for perhaps a minute and went back to the food court to meet with my class. After the class met at the food court and KB gave us our assignments I went back to the Journey's store to see what M&D#1 were doing. This was about 5-7 minutes after I had left to meet my class. M&D#1 had left the store and I did not see where they went. I decided to hang out by the store and watch people hoping to see more parents and children. I was using some space on the T-Mobile kiosk in front of Journey's for a writing surface when a woman (20's, African American, business attire) approached and asked me if I worked in the kiosk (I guess my shirt and tie made me look like a kiosk worker) I told her no that I was just people watching. Shortly after that I saw two little girls (4-5, African American) exit the Lane Bryant store across from Journey's. A woman (20's, African American, casual dress) followed them out of the store and went to the T-Mobile kiosk where she started talking to the woman who had asked if I worked in the kiosk. At about 7:02 I noticed a woman (30's, caucasian, casual attire) and a girl ( 9-10, white polo type shirt with the letters L-E-E embroidered on the left side and khaki skirt-school uniform?) (M&D#2) strolled down the hall from the west end of the mall toward the food court. It appeard that they had already been shopping as they were both carrying bags. The woman was carrying a large Macy's back that had some bulky items in it and the girl was carrying a smaller brown paper sack from another store. They walked slowly and appeared to be unhurried. They entered they Journey's store and the girl browsed the store and looked at different kinds of shoes. After a few minutes they left Journey's and continued toward the food court. They stopped on front of the Finish Line shoe store which is one door down from Journey's the girl entered the front part of the store and looked at the shoes on the wall display just inside the entrance for about a minute and exited the store to rejoin the woman. Question(s) Was the girl looking for shoes that night or was she just thinking about getting new shoes at some later point in time? Her behavior indicated that she was just looking at this point but would buy at some time in the future. They continued strolling toward the food court until I lost sight of them. I turned around to look up and down the hall and saw M&D#1 walking (still purposefully, no shopping bags) down the hall toward the food court from the west end of the mall. they walked past me and entered the Finish Line store where they browsed for about two minutes and left the store and headed back toward the west end of the mall. I decided to follow them and wondered if they would go to another shoe store. They walked down the hall, mom with her purposeful gait, handbag under her arm and girl skipping and dancing alongside. They entered the Dillard's store at the west end of the mall. I was far enough behind that I did not see where they went but I continued on hoping to find them in the store. Immediately inside the entrance to the Dillards on the right were women's party type dresses on the left side were women's casual jeans outfits. To my front was the women's shoe department on the wall opposite the entrance. In between the wall and the entrance were women's socks, and hosiery. M&D#1 in the women's shoe department. Mom was taking a brown casual type shoe off the wall display. She took the shoe down and joined the girl who was sitting down. At this point I decided that they were most likely at the mall to buy some shoes but, for who? I had been thinking that they were shopping for the girl but the mom had taken a woman's shoe off the display. I decided to stay and try to observe what they would purchase. I felt a little odd hanging around in the ladies department and kept looking over my shoulder to see if someone was going to come and ask me what I was doing. No one ever did. I moved around the department and tried to not obviously watch the woman and the girl. Shortly after I entered the department I noticed a man (40's, caucasian, polo shirt, walking shorts, casual shoes) and three girls (14-15, shorts, t-shirts, casual shoes) exiting the party dress section. One of the girls was carrying a party dress. They walked around the wall into the laldies lingerie section. I wondered if they were going to purchase an appropriate undergarment for the party dress ( I used to try and not do that kind of shopping with my daughter and I felt for the man.) I peeked into the section and saw one of the girls lifting an undergarment from the display. Did this answer my question about the dress? I can't confirm that it did but it did appear that she was looking for something to wear with the dress. I checked the shoe department again and saw that M&D#1 were still sitting. Had no one waited on them yet? The shoe department did not seem to be that busy.They got up and moved to the other side of the section. Was this to get better service? At about 7:12 p.m. another woman (40's, caucasian, casual attire) and girl (15-16, causian, shorts, t-shirt, no shoes) (M&D#3) entered the shoe department. The girl was carrying a green party type dress in a plastic bag similar to the kind in which dry cleaned clothes are returned. The girl browsed around the the shoe displays and the mom followed. The mom seemed to be impatient. At one point they passed near enough that I heard the mom ask the daughter, "Can't you do this tomorrow with (did not catch the name)?" The girl answered, "No mom I want to do this tonight." As they walked away the girl asked another question and I heard the mom respond, "Because it's getting late!" The girl continued to wander around the shoe section picking up different types of dressy shoes and examining them. Meanwhile M&D#1 were still waiting. I continued to drift around the shoe department and observe the two mother and daughter pairs. Eventually Mom#3 must have gotten someone's attention because I heard her say, "We need some shoes to go with this dress." and looked to see a salesperson bending to look at the dress. I checked my watch and saw that it was about 7:17. The class was supposed to regroup and debrief at 7:20 so I checked to see if M&D#1 were still waiting or if they had purchased shoes before leaving the store. They had left and again I did not see where they went or whether they had purchased shoes. I left the store about a minute later and as I was re-entering the mall M&D#1 exited the Dillards store too. They were not carrying any bags so I surmised that they had not purchased any shoes. They moved down the hall toward the food court, mom still walking very purposefully and the girl still skipping and dancing alongside. They entered the escalator in the middle of the mall and rode to the second level where I lost sight of them. As I passed the T-Mobile kiosk I noticed that the two african american women and the two little girls were still at the kiosk talking. The class regrouped and we began to discuss our observations when a security guard appeared. He very politely asked if we were a group having a meeting. We explained that we were from UofM and doing a class project Karen was closest to the end of the table where he stopped and did most of the talking. I watched KB to see what she would do, thinking that she would come to the rescue and clear things up. Instead she had a funny smile on her face and she seemed to go into nose defilade behind the table. When the guard asked who our teacher was we all, almost simultaneously and in a "she did it" manner pointed at KB and said, "That's her!" The guard explained that someone had called and reported a group meeting and that he was responding to that call. Satisfied that we were OK the guard bade us good evening and left. Apparently, the mall has a policy that groups cannot meet on mall property without permission. That sounds reasonable as the food court would be an attractive gathering place for small groups to conduct meetings. Shortly after our brush with the mall authority we dismissed and headed for home with KB's admonition to write our expanded field notes as soon as possible so as not to forget any details.

As to the question, I did not get the sense that people were just hanging out in the mall. Everyone that I observed seemed to be in the mall for an express purpose to purchase something specific. Which is what I thought that I would see. A trip to the mall on a school night should be short and purposerful.
 * Reflections:** I found the participant observation to be very interesting. As Spradley said I felt like an outsider looking in even though I was at the same time a knowledgeable insider. I felt almost detached from the scene and even at some times almost invisible even though I was accutely self concious about hanging around in the ladies department. An odd dichotomy of feelings. Spradely said that it would be difficult to get all of the details and I now have to agree. It would take a lot of practice and many observation sessions to get an accurate idea of what goes on in a particular setting.

=9/22/06= I parked in the south side parking lot near the railroad tracks and entered the mall through the upper level door nearest the food court in order to get to the food court quickly to meet my class. While I was walking down the hallway to the escalator to the food court level I observed 3 african american girls one in school uniform, each about age ten sitting at a small table with an african american man in his 30. They were dining on food that appeared to be from the food court. They were talking to an african american woman late 30's. The woman spoke to them briefly and then went back to the kiosk near their table.Were the girls and the man realted to the woman? I heard the noise of many voices that you normally hear in a mall, the volume was fairly low and not objectionable (my prior experiences with malls told me that the mall was not crowded due to the low volume of voices). I saw two of my classmates standing at the bottom of the escalator and went to talk to them. I scanned to food court to look for parents and children eating and saw two tables with children and adults eating (man & boy) ( mother and 2 small children). While talking to classmates a woman (30's, Caucasian, jeans sweater and Teva sandals) and a girl (9-10, Caucasian, white top navy skirt school uniform lime green Croc shoes) ( mother and daughter?) exited escalator not carrying bags and walked purposefully down the hall. I watched to see where they went, they turned into a store on the right side of the hallway about 100 feet from me. I decided to follow and saw that they had entered Journey's shoe store. Girl browsed around and looked at several different kind of shoes. Went back to food court the meet with class. About 5-7 minutes later I went back to see if W&G-1 were looking at shoes they had gone.When approaching the store observed another woman (30's casual dress) and girl (9-10 white polo type shirt with large blue letters "LEE" emroidered on left chest and Khaki skirt - school uniform?) (mother and daughter?) Moving toward me they both were carrying bags and strolling along (large Macy's bag with bulky objects). They entered the Journey shoe store and I Stationed myself outside shoe store near T-Mobile to observe. A Young African American woman (20's, business wear) approached and asked me if I worked in the T-Mobile booth. I told her no. Mother and daughter in Journey's browsed the store. Daughter picked up several different kinds of shoes. They stayed in Journey's for about 5 minutes exited the store and headed toward the food court. They next stopped in front of The Finish Line shoe store one door down from Journey's the daughter stepped into the front shoe display area and looked at athletic shoes for 1-2 minutes while mom stayed outside. Two young African American girls (ages 4-5) stepped out of the Lane Bryant store across the hall from the Journey's store followed by a young African American woman (20's) and walked over to the T-Mobile kiosk to talk to the woman who had asked me if I worked in the T-Mobile kiosk. W&G#1walked back down the hall toward the food court (no shopping bags) and entered The Finish Line where they browsed the store for 2-3 minutes. They left the store and started walking toward the Dillard's store. Woman was still moving purposfully, the girl skipped and danced as they went along. I followed them to see where they were going. Lost sight of them for a brief period. I entered Dillards and saw the woman's shoe section directly ahead on the wall opposite the store entrance.To my left inside the entrance were casual outfits and to my right were what I would call party dresses. Between the shoes themselves and me were the socks, stockings and hosiery. I spotted W&G#1 in the woman's shoes, W#1 was taking a brown casual shoe off the display on the wall to look at, she took the shoe and sat down with G#1. I stayed to observe them further. While I was waiting a Caucasian man (40's polo shirt, tail out, casual shorts, casual shoes) and three Caucasian teenage girls (14-15, t-shirts, shorts, sandals) moved out of the party dress section. One of the girls was carrying a party dress. They moved to the lingerie section around the wall. After a minute or so I looked into the lingerie section and saw the man and three girls. One of the girls was taking an undergarment off a display rack to look at it. I went back to observe W&G#1 who were still sitting in ladies shoes. They got up and moved to the other side of the section and sat down again. I noticed another Caucasian woman (late 40's to early 50's, casual dress) and a Caucasian teenage girl (15-16, shorts, t-shirt and no shoes) walking into the ladies shoes. The girl was carrying a green party dress with a spaghetti strap top. The girl browsed around the shoe section and the woman followed her. The the woman looked annoyed. They passed near me and I heard the woman ask "Can't you come do this tomorrow with (didn't get the name)." Girl said, "No Mom I want to do this tonight, what's the problem?" Mom said "It's getting late . . . " at this point they had moved far enough away that I could not hear them. A minute or so later an African American woman store clerk approached the Mom & daughter and I heard the Mom say, "We need some shoe to go with this dress." I checked to see if W&G#1 were still waiting for service and noticed that they had left but I did not see where they went. I left the store to rejoin my class. As I was leaving the store W&G#1 left the store (no shopping bags) and moved (walking purposfully, still skipping) down the hall toward the food court. Still observing I saw them take the escalator in the middle of the mall to the second level. When I passed the T-Mobile kiosk I saw that the 2 African American women and the 2 African American girls from earlier were still at the T-Mobile kiosk.
 * Mall observations from Wednesday September 20, 2006.**
 * Time of observations approximately 6:55 p.m. to 7:20 p.m.
 * Location: Oak Court Mall, Food Court area and lower west hallway from the food court to Dillard's Department store
 * Purpose, to answer the question: //What activities do parents with school age children engage in on a Wednesday night at the Mall? (School age is defined as 5 - 15 years old).//
 * Expanded Field notes: **(rewritten from handwritten expanded notes)**

= =

= = =It all sounds so simple now!=

September 20. OK. So that was my comment on September 13, to finally figuring out how to access this page and post to it and to figuring out how to download and view the videos.

Reflections on the In-depth interview.
I found it interesting the Kakali's three main research questions fell into each of the three categories of Structural, Descriptive and Comparitive questions. 1. Could you tell me about a time when you were really inspired to write? This question is structural in nature as it opens the interview and lays some groundwork for the participant to begin talking about his writing. It also gives the interviewer a starting point from which to develop probing questions. The next question was a probe that asked what other kinds of events inspired writing.

2. Could you describe some writing strategies you use when you write? Clearly a descriptive question this question also opens the door for follow up and probing questions to go into more depth in Alex's writing career.

3. When you think about the process of your creatinve writing, how do you see writing song lyrics, piems, music, novels comparing to each other? A comparitive question as it asks the participant to compare some aspects of his writing. Again this question also opened the door for probes and follow up questions.

I thought that the relaxed atmosphere that Kakali established with her casual manner of dress, body language and location were very conducive to Alex feeling relaxed and more open to giving rich responses to Kakali's questions. Alex struck me as being very laid back and informal and he initially appeared to be a little nervous. Had Kakali presented herself in a more formal manner of dress and body language/posture I feel that Alex would have been less open in his answers. The interview process was good to watch as it really exemplified to me the process of probing and following on up on participant answers to allow the interviewer to gather a rich amount of data. That is a skill that I know I am weak in which I hope to learn to strengthen. I see the In-depth interview as being pretty straight forward and designed to capture a rich field of data. It has inherent in it the flexibility to probe and expand into new areas as they reveal themselves during the course of the interview. The interviewer has to be skilled though, so as not to totally stray from the interview objective.

Reflections on the Feminist interview:**
I found the feminist interview style very refreshing. There was an atmosphere of two people who were comfortable in each other's company carrying on a conversation. Kakali's joking intro to the interview "Welcome to morning coffee with Alex" set the stage for a relaxed atmosphere. The way that she introduced the first question with a reflection on a previous conversation was almost like someone asking a friend a question out of curiosity. It did not sound like someone trying to gather data, rather it sounded like someone who was trying to understand the meaning and thinking behind a comment that was made earlier by the participant. The atmosphere was also casual enough that Alex felt relaxed enough to ask Kakali a question in response to one of hers. In this exchange there was a definite atmosphere of power sharing. I also thought it interesting that Kakali, in talking about being a writer shared some of her experiences in writing her dissertation thus revealing a little about her background to Alex. Again more of an atmosphere of give and take and sharing of information as opposed to trying to gather information through formalized questioning. This interview style is definitely for someone who is experienced and who can share a little of their power as interviewer. The interviewer must remain focused on the desired result of the interview and know when to reclaim control in order to prevent the interview from wandering onto a divergent path of discussion. I found Alex's response to Kakali's closing question "What whas this interview like?" very interesting. He said that he felt more at ease because she wasn't firing questons at him. He also said that he felt that it was more conversational than the previous interview.

Reflections on the Phenomonoligical interview:
I first thought that this interview style would mirror the In-depth interview style but as the interview progressed I realized just how different the two are. While they are similar in their more formal approach to gathering data with the interviewer clearly leading the way they diverge in the focus of their questioning strategies. The In-depth interview seeks to gather a depth and breadth of information whereas the the Phenomonolical interview is more sharply focused on one particular piece of information or the essence of the experience or thought. I kept thinking of Kakali's analogy of peeling back the layers of an onion in seeking the heart or core of the onion. Her questions took that track and always came back to three main themes, learning to write. . ., the processes used to write. . . and do you see yourself as a writer? Oviously, the interviewer had an idea of what she thought the writer's essence might be as indicated by the initial line of questioning. Kakali's skill and experience were evident when she semi concluded the interview and explained to Alex what whe was trying to find out. It appeared that she did this because she didn't seem to be getting answers that she thought she would get in her intitial line of questioning. When she asked Alex what he thought was his essence as a writer he became more expressive and began to answer in with richer details.