It is a
truth universally acknowledged that conducting research is a necessary evil. As
a student, one and a half years of your life will be dedicated to conducting
research. Last week were 4th year research presentations, and as 3rd
years we were invited along with the hopes that we would be inspired. I suppose
some of my classmates were indeed inspired, but I was left filled with dread.
Its obviously a very long road ahead.
If I had to
do an activity analysis on Research (it deserves a capital letter as it is A Big
Deal), I would find that this activity requires exorbitant amounts of attention
and concentration, intact memory, good
social skills, an ability to multi-task, good thought processing ability, and,
last but never least, good volition. The above are in high demand but extremely
hard to come by. Nevertheless, there is no escaping the clutches of research. I
predict many Red Bulls, late nights and much duress. But I’m getting ahead of
myself. Let us not go into 4th year with all doom and gloom. I shall put on my
optimist hat (it’s bright yellow and brimming with flowers and unicorns), plaster
on a smile, and face the challenge head on. Just one last note of pessimism
before we move on: I have this vivid image of Research being a bright blue
double-decker bus just about to plough me over, as I stand in the middle of the
Fourth Year Road wearing my optimism hat and beaming at the driver.
What is so
daunting about Research is that the process requires a whole new way of
thinking. As a student, I’m used to absorbing information like the happy sponge
that I am, nodding away, and regurgitating spiel. Research takes that comfortable
pattern of events, turns it on its head and shakes it silly. Now, I’m required
to critique the findings of others, look for missing pieces and generate my own
opinions. Not an easy change of gears. Therefore, being able to attend 4th
year Research Presentations was a great chance to take notes and look at Research
from a new perspective. The first thing I was struck by was how unique and
thought-provoking the topics were. My favourites were one group’s presentation
about action research that they had implemented and another group who had
studied the impact of albinism on occupational participation. Both were
interesting and relevant, with the Research itself being presented in a way
that was attention-grabbing and understandable. I found that I could apply a
lot of the sampling methods and methodology used to the Research that my group
will be performing, and this made the Research seem more realistic to conduct. I
also learnt about what not to do. Every group was brilliant, and I have huge
admiration for their achievements. However, I now know that when I’m presenting,
I need to SLOW DOWN. Almost every group spoke a mile a minute, making the
research very difficult to comprehend and forcing the evaluators to ask them to
return to slides. Lesson learnt.
Knowing that
Research Day ignited a great fear within me, the need to conquer this was
paramount. The 4th years were kind enough to share some pearls of
wisdom with us after the event (I think they could see us shaking in our boots).
Some advice that stuck with me was “know your strengths and the strengths of
your groupmates”. This is very important because we are privileged enough to have
a team to weather through the storm with, we need to take advantage of that. My
skills are organisation and problem-solving, and I also enjoy working with people.
Jacob & Furguson (2012), had some great tips for conducting qualitative Research
(the type of Research that we will be conducting); which includes “close your
mouth and listen” as well as “do a ‘test 1-2-3’ to check that the device is
recording”. Sound advice to be taken on board. Furthermore, I’ll need to
remember that “the researcher as instrument can be the greatest threat to
trustworthiness in qualitative research if time is not spend on preparation of
the field, reflexivity of the researcher, the researcher staying humble and
preferring to work in teams so that triangulation and peer evaluation can take
place” (Poggenpoel & Myburgh, 2003, p. 320). Already in the early stages of
our proposal drafting, we have had challenges involving bias. One 4th
year group was given questions by the evaluator regarding how they eradicated bias
from their study, and I noted that this appeared difficult for them to answer.
Another take-home lesson to store for next year!
Here’s some
advice from the only resource that Millennials take seriously: Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXyiYqwM6XY This video is about writing a
dissertation in 2 weeks. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to this! But its from an
undergraduate’s perspective and very funny. Worth a watch. Her advice about searching
for case-study based research is something my group has taken on board.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh0pJdgY6Lc The idea of condensing 1.5 years of
research into 10-minutes is crazy. This researcher condenses it into 3-minutes
and sets a great example of how to give context to your problem and explain
your methods and findings with clarity. Goals!
Overall, Research
Day was a much-needed event in the 3rd year calendar. Being able to
see an entirety of 1.5 years of work presented in 10-minutes was certainly
overwhelming but was the wakeup call we needed to start seriously formulating
our game plan. Research is daunting, but scores of students have survived it. Somehow,
I’m sure we’ll figure out how to dodge the bus that is hurtling towards us. My
optimism hat is now firmly in place.
https://mugglestudiescom.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/bab23495-a50e-4532-94c0-befdb26b86b2.gif?w=1000
References:
Berverly, G
(GraceBeverly). (2019). How I wrote my dissertation in 2 weeks [video file]. Available
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXyiYqwM6XY
Jacob, S.
A., & Furgerson, S. P. (2012). Writing interview protocols and conducting
interviews: Tips for students new to the field of qualitative research. The
qualitative report, 17(42), 1-10.
Poggenpoel,
M., & Myburgh, S. (2003). The researcher as research instrument in
educational research: A possible threat to trustworthiness? Education, 124(2),
418-21, 320.
University
of South Australia. (USA). (2014). 2014 3-minute thesis winning presentation by
Emily Johnston [video file]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh0pJdgY6Lc
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