Week 7 blog

 

Flashback to the beginning of the week prior. I spent the week prior talking to each of my co-workers, about what different ideas I had to focus my research. None of my co-workers have a good idea of what autoethnographic qualitative research looks like. So I was really confused. When I wrote my IRB and got it approved, the journaling and self-reflective nature of the research seemed so natural and I thought I could easily find a path to focus the narrative on as the semester moved forward. I’ve been reading snippets of several books. I fall asleep to Bird by Bird, by Anne Lemott, a beautifully written memoir on writing, teaching writing and . I alternate bed time reading with Community, by Peter Block, which is an interesting take on how to change urban communities for the better. Like many of my research experiences, I spend way too much time deciding what to focus on because I find the process of information gathering and learning so interesting. Even with my art making, I find the process of organizing, conceptualizing and working up to the moment of creation so engaging, frustrating and time consuming. It is hard for me to finally commit, in my writing, in my artwork and by making a decision on what is worth focusing on in research. The infinite possibilities of choice sometimes leave me frozen in a kinetic loop.

 

So, frozen and confused, I drove up to Cedar Falls on Monday to talk through things with Wendy. Ultimately, I was unsure that the journaling and drawing I was doing was sufficient data collection. I was unsure that simply telling my story was enough. I was unsure how to include students, or whether or not to even include students at all. We looked at my IRB, which I will continue to revisit and pull ideas from. I will continue to read the books I am using for inspiration about autoethnographic research, narrative writing and artist based research. Wendy assured me that the point of this paper was to learn something, and between working at this amazing and mind-bending school, experimenting with an unfamiliar type of research, and attempting to use arts based research as part of my experience my heart, and my mind are racing with challenge and are absorbing and processing so much new material I can barely keep up. Wendy helped me outline the introduction, and this week’s framework. It was so nice to meet face to face. My intentions are always good, and I think that body language, facial expression and natural conversation really get lost in the online format.  I came away from the meeting with an outline of what the framework and the introduction should look like.