Bournemouth, Summer 2006. A autoethnographic approach to field work in the "Centre for Qualitative Research" ... scientific motivations From my time as PhD student I have been strongly interested in a variety of forms of scientific research have the questioning of common purpose and tangible merely applied to the interpretation in / with social phenomena. Since then, my interest in qualitative methodologies, constructivist, and socio-historical criticism has increased in parallel to the theme of my research focused on education and cyberspace. Increasingly, questions about behaviors in the virtual space of a cultural demand answers. The analysis of social and educational events are open to a kind of research that puts the interest in interpreting the attribution of meaning among individuals who are part of a cultural network between the local and global, and in my case, also between the physical and the virtual. Among others, the lattice structure of relationships, assumption of distinct social practices, groups with different degrees of structuring, thematic links that maintain community cohesion, the motivations that drive the action, the logic of communication in person, delocalized and timeless, are levels of analysis interested, and still interested, in my line of research in cyberspace and learning. These issues and topics of research made in recent months, I approached the ethnographic method in an attempt to delve into the key performance as integral parts of cultural movements, whether they are susceptible to macro analysis (Internet as an object of ethnographic study) or micro (ethnographic analysis of virtual learning communities).
scientific motivations "?
The English system of performance appraisal of teachers / university researchers established a set of guidelines that are necessary to prove the adequacy of the quality of their work. Prove this sufficiency is essential to move up the career of teachers / university researchers. The responsibility for evaluation rests with a national government agency that determines the performance of a set of quality criteria. One of the key criteria is to stays at research / teaching abroad. The applicant must prove that they have on your resume stays with a minimum of four continuous weeks in a foreign as a step to obtain a positive assessment of its scientific performance. My class at the teacher level / university research required, at the time of stay in Bournemouth, this type of stay abroad.
derived enrichment culture shock, the exchange of ideas, theories contrast, the redefinition of concepts or simple exposure to different views, are reasons amply justify the demands of internationalization by the evaluators. Therefore, since I'm in college has continued to surprise the suspicion with which departments observe the departure abroad of their teachers / researchers. When you raise in my department will travel to Bournemouth, complications were only possible to use my vacation time, ie unable to go to a foreign research center provided there is a mandatory requirement during the time of my work, but should respond to the lawsuit imposed to promote my work for it using my vacation time. Nonsense. No doubt due to cultural lie behind these practices and an ethnographic study would do much to decrypt the keys justifying them. This is not the space for such analysis, but to justify the reason for my trip in the summer of 2006 in August and early September.
But where? science for me has always been something very serious. However, this perception is contrary to my character. And so I usually had to resort to subterfuge to accommodate me in my work. Somehow, I have been subjected to this contradiction in my landing in "the academy", which has led me to consider the rules and formality of the construction process scientist with a wide margin, overlapping methodological freedom and interpreting specific arguments in an open, sometimes even going beyond the meaning given by their authors. But despite this penchant for the banal, had never been able to dismantle arguments the "seriousness" of the principles of science. The search for reasons for my tendency to the desecration, but in the harmony of the umbrella of the academy, were also key in the selection of Bournemouth as a place to stay for international research.
Another main reason was that the target was an Anglophone country. My English does not stop being good and a continued stay may help auparlo.
And How? From my time as PhD student, I have been working as an editor at the online magazine
"Forum Qualitative Social Research" (FQS). Given my interest in qualitative methods, I always thought it would be through the platform and get FQS travel contacts. The touch of my colleagues in writing would be key in this role. But they only knew the information that shone through the contact information in their profiles on the website of FQS. Kip Jones
Well, the object of research during the stay would be something like the epistemological foundation (with a field work on theoretical) of the Internet culture and cultural phenomena in cyberspace, considering that this is an appropriate setting for the educational interaction. Therefore, the contact person should have some attachment to the cyber. And Kip Jones was the only one of the editors of FQS
that included in your personal profile
a Web page.
The Web
Kip Jones is not conventional. In fact, Kip himself is not a conventional type. His case is one of the few in which a Web reflects the personality of the author. Enter your site is more than enter their world, "Kip-world." For me, it meant an experience, of novelty, freshness, innovation, non-academic (because, after all no longer the Web from a scientist). Even today I feel that impression when I visit your page. From the outset, it is easy to see that Kip Jones has captured the essence of the original culture of the Internet: the web as free space communication as a platform to share knowledge, as a binder of people around common interests, to do different things , that would be impossible without the Internet.
Undoubtedly, Kip Jones was the key person. My contact for the stay.
Kipworld.net opens with the headline "Narrative Research & 'Performative' Social Science ', just under the name of Kip. In Spain there is no tradition of scientific research on performative aspects. There is in art and artistic representation, but less so in qualitative research that it represents and how it can be applied in other areas of knowledge. My knowledge of the subject came from lateral fields, not scholars, such as video art, cyber-performance after visiting some art exhibitions in Spain and London
Tate. He was also assigned to any Internet distribution list as
w3art , which deals with aspects of art on the Web then my interest in the scientific aspect grew from first visits to Kipworld.net, but decided to leave for my trip to Bournemouth (and my ability to inquiry there) the deepening of the matter. In fact, later never got to ask what it means Kip field study of the Performative Social Science, and let out my own experience in the field where I opened the doors.
I began to discover the real world of Kip in our first exchange of e-mails. The conversations in these messages rarely revolved around academics, but tried to sensations, images and recollections of places and spaces. The imagery of Kip revolves around image, representation, meaning, the figurative, and experimentation and innovation in qualitative methods. He enjoys sailing and passionate seascape, and I come from a coastal city in northern Spain, so that in our brief chat was common to include pictures and references to websites from the beaches of Bournemouth and the coast of Asturias ( region I come from.) Kip This view is particularly suitable for carrying out qualitative research. This cluster of sensations
was the baggage with which I came to Bournemouth. Then it was aware that the focus of Kip Jones was not the usual in science in my environment. As I said, everything around me is characterized by a tendency to seriousness and the absolute lack of risk in research.
"Please, just pay attention and leave your comments and then ..." In that sentence Kip condensed my learning about "what qualitative research is" for six weeks in Bournemouth.
a few days of my stay, Kip invited me to watch his latest work, a performative representation of an in depth interview with three women who spoke of the same phenomenon traumatic life of all (
"I Can Remember the Night "). The work consisted of a video released in a few minutes Powert-Point. The presentation was in office. Incidentally, Kip shared space with other colleagues. For the sound does not disturb other people, Kip gave me headphones. Although the context was not conducive to introspection, the video claimed some attention from me. The film is shocking from the first shot. The combination of images, the contrast of dark colors, sharp surround sound, the dripping of the rain ... everything is intended to create an atmosphere where the women interviewed verbalize their feelings and stand out above the rest of the sentence that evoked his trauma, " I can remember the night. " The re-construction of history and representation in video of Kip were perfect. Of course, it is not necessary to know these women, nor need to know details of the story to get a clear view of the crossroads in their lives. To access the actual image and the image that the viewer is able to build with the meanings evoked by the video. For the video
generate those feelings is necessary before paying attention to the combination of images and audio. That is enough. And that's something I just did it for ten seconds. The first images I acted like a spring. I wanted to know how Kip had been able to do something like this: - "Ouauuu ... this is great, what program did you use?, Where did you get the picture?, How did you record the interview?, Who are these women?, You will have taken a long time to do this, right ?...". Kip was always very diligent with me, being courteous at all times. But in that moment, his expression twisted. He turned and said in a serious tone: - "Please, now you just have to watch the movie. I ask you to leave out your vision of research and all your expertise and technical concerns. Now that it has no value. Then you can ask me anything, but now, just pay attention and then leave your comments! What matters is what the pictures will tell you, what you see in them and the sensations that provoke you. ".
By disinterested, Kip had given me a lecture on Performative Social Science and, while on the intent of qualitative research.
Building the field: the thin red line between "(cyber) field ..." and Dani-blog The focus of my work for the length of stay was not very conventional. My idea was to conduct a field theory. Working in the field and theoretical intervention, which is somewhat antithetical in principle, should translate into a blog called "
(cyber) ... field." The blog would serve as conventional field diary, time, theoretical space from my experiences during the stay.
Following the canons of qualitative research, in addition to the initial objectives, the proposal to make a blog was open to events. In fact, this degree of uncertainty ended up being mostly virtual. Input, use a blog, whose content is public on the Internet, to collect the field work involves assuming a level of transparency, and risk, which has different implications for the development of research. Anyone can comment on the text prepared by the investigator, thereby altering the original discourse. The subjects involved in the action also can see themselves in real time, deconstructed, dissected by the investigator as plasma their meanings on them in a text open to the entire Internet community.
latter is what happened to Kip. He was an agent of the action and my main source of inspiration for the post sent to the blog. Somehow, when accessing my comment was being reflected on the screen in an unexpected way for him. What is interesting cycle of events was the game itself interpretations. Kip read the posts in English, a language unknown to him. To understand the meaning used an online translator and the result gave rise to amusing misunderstandings. So there was a first event, my interpretation and reading and reinterpretation by Kip helped by a translator.
Everyone in Bournemouth willingly accepted my field journal on the Web, to the point that for me Kip coined the nickname "Dani" blog. " So much so that the pleasure of researchers from Bournemouth to join my dynamic interpretation, marked a new milestone in my learning. A cultural milestone. I remember commenting to a colleague from my university approach to research and use of the blog. I showed him a post
where researchers commented meal we finished analyzing the television series, movies, jokes and types of coffees in the world from scientific approaches such as phenomenology, grounded theory or performance. The first reaction of my colleague was to warn about the possible negative impact on these people. Could be wrong fact be cited in a public blog. That prevention - which is also the center of ethical debate in qualitative research subjects - is part of the research culture in the context around me. A scientific environment in which raw certainty and security on innovation, experimentation and fun. It means that in Spain we are outgoing and friendly but, however, had never seen so many people laugh at work and the Center for Qualitative Research Bournemouth. It is difficult to imagine a researcher in my area of \u200b\u200bscientific category referring to a colleague Kip-learner with a nickname like "Dani" blog ", with the baggage of connotations that implies. Transfer the thin line between one and other behavior may explain the differences between the two models that were confronting scientists in my head during the weeks of my visit.
"Pretty amazing"
In the last phase of my visit underlined the participation in a scientific meeting held at Bournemouth University, organized by the Research Center Qualitative. The event was a conference on qualitative research followed by a Masterclash by Professor Steen Halling
, the
Seattle University (USA), which would deal with the phenomenology dialogue between experts.
The findings of the two acts came to reinforce and contrast in practice my previous perceptions. But it was in the Masterclash which verified that it is possible to do things differently also in the way of conducting the group dynamics in a class session, ie, in a structured classroom learning situation. Certainly, the issue was not conducive to transmissive approaches, and yet Halling approach became completely dislodged (later I could see a Masterclash
Kip prepared using a similar approach in his philosophy, I catalogaría as characteristic of Anglo-Saxon teaching strategies).
And is that the approach based on giving prominence to the experiences and impressions of attendees rather than the expert who imparts knowledge of the meeting, not very common in my environment. Steeen Halling was billed as an expert in the field, but had not bothered to make even a presentation PowertPoint; was supposed possessor of a wealth of research for many years, but was only left a few generic items as preparatory material for the session, his approach was innovative and yet, did not cite recent developments or work colleagues at the forefront of knowledge. Something is wrong, I thought. This man is fooling us.
certainly did not. The key seemed to be that Hallin had fully internalized the meaning of his speech, what was your proposal. This did not need more additions to the learning process that would be generated with the methodology, in this case phenomenological. There was no content that would be the "key" of knowledge in this occasion. The process would be participatory and the participants would who built the practice, offering results and raise their own conclusions. All that was unique to that occasion. Was localized, contextualized. No chance of replicating that process, just to do similarly. The content is written for, is not given in advance. Just
to follow a basic educational principle, adequate means (methods) at the end (learning), Halling had done something that breaks with the following canons of these sessions in my reference context. Of course, that means giving older structures and designing the intervention specifically for each frame of action.
often used a Halling catch phrase to mean a material fact. - "This is pretty amazing," he repeated insistently. That same expression was around my head to leave the Masterclad. In my case applied to the experience we had just experienced. original
