Diving into the Research Process
I am currently in the beginning phases of making sense of and analyzing the research material on Olive Grove Academy in Jordan, having completed an initial read through of the data available. My research experience is limited at best, and I have definitely never been a part of a research project that has spanned over the course of years. When I first received access to the research materials, I was overwhelmed at the scale of data collected. I didn’t know where to start and I found myself jumping between different transcripts trying get a feel for what I was about to dive into. After getting a feel for the scope of the data, I was able to establish a starting point and stick to it, for the most part.
What I realized as I read through the transcripts and documents on Jordan is that working with data that other researchers already collected is a very different experience than working with data that I had personally collected. For example, the context of an observation might be obvious to the researcher who recorded the moment, and when rereading their notes they may easily recall that information, but for someone who has just the written record to work with, filling in the blanks becomes a lot harder.
Because this research material is the main source shaping my understanding of the school, I need to trust that the data available is constructing an accurate and thorough portrait of the school as possible. I don’t have my memory or familiarity with the research to rely on if the information I am reading through becomes confusing or unclear, which means I need to form my understanding of the school around these uncertainties. Occasionally the audio files for interviews cleared up some of the confusion because the audio revealed changes in tone of voice or emphasis that an interviewee might put on certain words which helps inform how they are positioning the meaning of their words.
In addition, I have learned that I need to be critical of the selection of data I have available. This means taking into account how similar and different the positions of students, past or present, are in regards to their social class identification, nationality, gender, and other concerns. From these comparisons, I can get a better sense of how the experiences of these specific students relate to the experiences of other students and whether the range of students interviewed adequately represents the school population.
While analyzing unfamiliar research materials is on one hand more difficult, I think there is also some value in this position. I don’t have any past experiences with the project that could skew my understandings and conclusions about the data. Especially as I first read through the transcripts and notes, this meant that I wasn’t looking for particular findings at the expense of skimming over seemingly unrelated material; instead, I could view the information more holistically. Of course, as I continued my initial read through of the data set for Jordan, common threads and focuses started to construct my expectations for what I would read next. So this maybe means that I’m now officially part of this very overwhelming but very exciting research project.
