Kyndell Stewart

For me this final coding process started out extremely difficult since I felt that I had no sense of connection to the content. But with the help of my learning consultant, I was able to draw some similarities between the research topics between the late Ghana group and the Jordan group.

This way I am able to sort of focus my interest through the research topic rather than the country dynamic. For example, both groups were interested in looking at the imagined futures and their post-graduate outcomes and both are part of what we call the Global South-non-Western. In addition to those similarities both research teams were looking at the effects that western globalization had on the institution and the future outcomes of their students. With that in mind I was able to digest the data and the interviews without relating it to the loss of the Pan-Africanism aspect in my research content. Actually, I could draw on the similarities between the students who are from other countries in the Middle East other than Jordan. Connecting the cultural themes and values throughout those students’ imagined futures would mirror that aspect. I had my interest back and that boosted my energy level.

Instead, my research group kept coming across themes characterized by both local and global considerations as well as Western influences playing a role in many decision-making moments for the students. alumni, and even the teachers. We decided to settle on the two themes of “glocal tensions” and “elite western identification”. However, we struggled with pinpointing what Olive Grove community values more, their local identity or their global one. This was in question because there were many contradictions within the interviews about what space the school identity was pushed to thrive in versus what they externally claimed. To take into consideration, the majority of the students come from Jordan and other countries in the Middle East but many of the students do in fact come from many different nationalities with varied interests and cultures. The problem is that most of them identified themselves somewhere within the Jordanian context and not their own nationality.

But hold up, Olive Grove claimed to be more global than local, thanks to a statement made by a teacher that reinforced the true intentions of the school in emphasizing global relations. Especially seeing as he was from overseas and not from Jordan. So, what is the true focus? Global identity or local identity? Well that is what we want explore by creating the theme of “glocal tensions”. Interesting word play isn’t it?

So plot twist, the Ghana research team no longer . We were originally 3 but, one of our members moved out of the class leaving us one person short. Initially, I have to admit I was really upset that I wouldn’t get to research how the Pan-Africanism ideology impacts the success of global citizenship from the students of the Ghanaian school. It was the only school that had a transcontinental value involved with its students’ future paths. Not to mention my close ties to the country. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t let this disappointment cloud my judgement for what was to come next.

See, at the beginning of the semester Adam explained how there is too much data for just two people to tackle meaning now that we were only two, we had to choose another group to join. This also meant we would also have to choose a different country to research altogether. This presented two problems. One, we couldn’t work in the same group. And two, we would have to choose which country we wanted to join by the end of next class period which was two days away. For me it really meant that I had to figure out which country and which research question interested me the most. After going through the rest of the research teams’ questions, Australia interested me the most. The only problem was that my ex-partner was also interested in Australia. This is where the “uh -oh” moment happens since we couldn’t be in the same group. One of us would have to choose another group yet again. I really didn’t want to give up the chance of being in the Australia group because of their unique involvement with the Aboriginal people. Coincidentally, that was also the aspect that my ex-group partner liked.

To make a clear, fair decision on which one of us got to be in that group we played paper, rock, scissors for it. Sadly, I lost, leaving me to make a quick decision on which was the second most country I wanted to research. This wasn’t really a hard decision because I was only remotely interested in one other country which was Jordan. I wasn’t really that interested in the country. There was nothing that seemed to tie me in any relation to the Jordanian culture like with Ghana and Australia. No intra-African ties, which at the time I didn’t realize was what I was looking for in a country. But I knew I needed to make a quick decision on the spot, so I chose Jordan.

Now on top of regular class readings and assignments, I had to carve out time to go through yet another set of data that I know absolutely nothing about. I basically had to start all over again unsure how I would be able to do something like that in such a small amount of time. I had to learn the reasoning behind the research question for this country in which I had no involvement. I hate that. I really do. My actual interests aren’t really involved with this study anymore. I will say the Ghanaian and Jordanian system do share many of the original aspects of what I wanted to study, i.e. future paths of students in a global citizenship context. However, like I previously stated, it’s hard to find a passion and motivation when you are stuck researching something you really don’t have that much interest in. Furthermore, I felt like a nuisance now since my new group members had to redistribute the data for data analysis and start the coding process all over again. They didn’t ask for a new team member. They didn’t ask to be slowed down by me. The anxiety behind this change and the information it brings is the very thing hindering my level of interest. Just learning new codes and coming up with them was a separate affair that I had to get my mind and heart okay with doing on Jordan.

When one puts all of these aspects together, you can clearly see how my heart wouldn’t be in the project. Yet, this project counts for a huge chunk of my grade and deadlines and due dates don’t wait for anyone. So how do I find and increase my interest for Jordan? Will it happen while I am coding? Will it happen when we are discussing the relevant data for the research question? Or will it never happen? I guess that’s something I have yet to discover on this research study journey.

Getting to do research on Ghana is kind of like a dream come true to me. And it all goes back to the $100 spit test that I sent to AncestryDNA.com. Ever since I found out that  my genetic heritage is from Ghana and Ivory Coast, I have been looking for more  opportunities to learn about their culture. About my  culture. Entering this class I was already somewhat familiar with the work that Adam was doing with elite schools around the world: I took a previous  class with him last semester where he would pull from his research in Taiwan. Seeing the information on the other 5 schools made me realize just how much work and time Adam had been putting into this project.  I was very anxious to see what he found out about the elite school system in Ghana. I have to admit when I first opened up the data file for the first student interview, I was so intimidated. In the student tab, it ranged from 1-3 interviews for each student. This was no surprise to me but when I clicked on the file the shocking part was that there was 12 pages worth of dialogue just for one interview.

I did not expect there to be so many pages of dialogue. My mind raced at the thought of what the other student interview files held , let alone how many interviews to each student there was. Immediately, I frantically clicked between the students’ files trying to get an overall glance at how many pages there were  for every interview between each student. I found that 3 out of 5 students had 3 interviews and 1 student had three interviews condensed into two documents. Let’s not forget that on top of the student interviews there were alumni interview s, teacher interviews,  and just general debriefing information that I needed to read all the way through in just two weeks. I questioned if I would get this done but I knew if I took a more aggressive approach to reading through the data then I might be able to pull it off. That being said, I literally scheduled out time onto my Google calendar designated to sit down and just read through the transcripts. I scheduled an hour each day whether it was in the morning or at  night or at the end of reading for my reading responses. Luckily, my weekends are pretty free so I was able to get a huge chunk of data reading out the way and ended up finishing sooner than I expected. It very quickly came clear to me that the value of Pan-African-ism was something that each and every student, alumni, and teacher held paramount. This value  could be due to the fact that in most African countries the Pan-African ideal is a huge part of  the schooling system. Despite this, most of the students went to American or European universities for college instead of remaining in Africa at an elite college. Could this be due to the fact that  the school we are researching does not offer the placement test necessary for entry into those Ghanaian and other African colleges? Could the western influences that globalization bring along result in the inevitable exit of their involvement in the Pan-African culture? How could we not explore its ties to Western influences on globalization within the Ghanaian elite school system?I’m simply glad that my research team also picked up on the theme. That made coming up with the research question that much easier.