Disrupting the frenzy of data collection
Location
1049
Format Type
Event
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
January 2019
End Date
January 2019
Abstract
Just the other day I was asked to teach a student ‘how to interview people’, as they had already booked in several interviewees, but didn’t know what to do.
Whenever I am asked to undertake such tasks (which lately, seems more often than not), I do feel some disappointment at the speed at which students might be persuaded to conduct their work; to act quickly when an opportunity presents itself. Who benefits from such qualitative methods if the person conducting it rushes headlong into data collection, with little chance to practice reflection about the role they play as collection instrument, and the impact their own ideas, expectations and beliefs can mean to ‘the kind of truth’ they may discover.
Perhaps we should disrupt any attitudes that cause a depreciation of qualitative research. An interviewee told me once “I’ve been waiting for about 20 years now, no one else has ever been interested” – so why rush? How about we teach our students how to practice ‘slow research’. Let us nurture student enthusiasm together with observing their own humanness, being mildful of what it takes to do a job well, without the frenzied need to be 'doing' simply because they should.
Keywords
teach, disrupt, slow research
Disrupting the frenzy of data collection
1049
Just the other day I was asked to teach a student ‘how to interview people’, as they had already booked in several interviewees, but didn’t know what to do.
Whenever I am asked to undertake such tasks (which lately, seems more often than not), I do feel some disappointment at the speed at which students might be persuaded to conduct their work; to act quickly when an opportunity presents itself. Who benefits from such qualitative methods if the person conducting it rushes headlong into data collection, with little chance to practice reflection about the role they play as collection instrument, and the impact their own ideas, expectations and beliefs can mean to ‘the kind of truth’ they may discover.
Perhaps we should disrupt any attitudes that cause a depreciation of qualitative research. An interviewee told me once “I’ve been waiting for about 20 years now, no one else has ever been interested” – so why rush? How about we teach our students how to practice ‘slow research’. Let us nurture student enthusiasm together with observing their own humanness, being mildful of what it takes to do a job well, without the frenzied need to be 'doing' simply because they should.
Comments
Breakout Session H