{"id":5444,"date":"2018-11-13T13:19:08","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T18:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/?p=5444"},"modified":"2018-11-13T13:19:15","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T18:19:15","slug":"a-first-time-coder-the-struggles-of-coding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/2018\/11\/13\/a-first-time-coder-the-struggles-of-coding\/","title":{"rendered":"A First Time Coder: The Struggles of Coding"},"content":{"rendered":"

I looked over the list of 32 codes that my group has developed on a google doc. Our codes consist of words related to community service, our topic of focus. Words like donations, poor communities, fundraising and impact are all apart of our list. We created the list of codes following our initial scan of the data and our creation of our research topic. Now that we have divided up the data among the four members of our group, we are going back and reading the interviews more in-depth and assigning codes to certain sections. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This research project is the first time I have ever coded data. \u00a0It was frustrating to only assign codes to parts of the data. For me, the interviews provided so many interesting comments on social class and elitism, that it was hard to skim over those sections and to not assign them a code. \u00a0I specifically looked at the interview transcripts for two students, Angelo and Alejandro. Both talked mostly about their relationships with their teachers, their social class status, friend groups at the Croft School, and school expectations. \u00a0The interviewers addressed the topic of Community Service in one or two questions directed towards each student, which brings up my original frustration of not being able to conduct my own interviews and ask students my own targeted questions that relate to our research topic of community service. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another issue I have run into while coding my data is the issue of overlapping codes. \u00a0Many sections of data fall under many of the codes. Some sections that I code social class, also discuss family, privilege, socio-economic gap, and money. \u00a0It seems awkward and redundant to list all of these codes next to a section of data. I find myself wanting to take notes in the margin that best describe the section of data, instead of just assigning a simplistic one-word code. \u00a0In addition, as a group, we all contributed independently to a list of codes on a google doc, which meant that we did not discuss each code and its meaning. I find myself questioning if other members of my group are using certain codes in the same way as me. \u00a0For example, I have found extensive data on school punishments for what they determine is bad behavior. I have coded these sections under \u201cschool\u2019s definition of a good student.\u201d To me, if the data outlines what the school thinks is bad behavior, they are also defining the opposite as the behavior of a good student. \u00a0However, I am not sure if other members of my group would use that code in the same way, and I think this will have to be something we will need to work through when we enter the next phase of our coding and research. <\/span><\/p>\n

As I continue to code my own data, I want to make sure I avoid trying to make the data fit into what I want it to say. \u00a0Our research topic will explore the disconnect between what the school and what the students think of the community service they are doing. \u00a0I think our group has a preconceived idea that the school believes that the community service their students do is important and makes an impact on the greater Chilean community, while the students recognize they engage in minimal service with little impact. \u00a0I want to make sure that I am not finding data only to support my opinion or I am not skewing a student\u2019s response to match my own thoughts about community service at the Croft School. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I looked over the list of 32 codes that my group has developed on a google doc. Our codes consist of words related to community service, our topic of focus. Words like donations, poor communities, fundraising and impact are all apart of our list. We created the list of codes following our initial scan of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7947,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5444"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7947"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5446,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5444\/revisions\/5446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}