A collaborative research "un-interview" with a holistic, authentic researcher/educator for sustainability, creativity and innovation.
First things First...
This page has been created as an extension of this interview assignment from EDUC 6115 (Research Methods for Education). While I designed this page to stand on its own, it will make the most sense if viewed in context of that assignment, which was a collaboration between:
Amy Allison
Nancy Pollard
Beth Sampson (me )
Gwenda Thompson-Willows
(& of course, Dr. Liz)!
If you wish to start with that work, it will link you back to this page at the "right" time to place this work in the context of that project. 😊
Who is Dr. Liz as a researcher?
To me: A rose, by any other name...
To my group: in the context of our time shared together.
In her own words: In a more traditional interview with Kristen Jawad from June, 2021.
don't miss: 0:58 - 4:05 is a perfect introduction to who Liz is as a human, educator, & researcher, in her own voice!
Through her artwork:
With her permission, I have grouped and titled these pieces (changing her name on each) in a way I feel visually represents the story of her research journey.
Where does this work "fit" in educational research?
We interviewed Liz as part of our research methods course, and as we kept paddling together and gaining more knowledge as the weeks passed, the following questions kept returning:
What sort of research was our canoe trip?
How would I describe the type of research I engage in as I move through this CBU MEd SCI program, and build this website?
How does Liz conceptualize her work in terms of research methodologies?
At this point of the journey, this is our understanding...
The canoe trip: participatory action research and grounded theory (constructivist approach)
Within our project, we discuss the reasons our interview design is participatory action research. I will not replicate this work here.
However, as I started reading my group's assigned chapter for week 10 on grounded theory, I felt as if our work could also be described this way.
Grounded theory seeks to explain "an educational process of events, activities, actions, and interactions that occur over time" (Creswell & Guetterman, 2019, p. 434) and involves a cyclical process of data collection and analysis, from which you will ultimately develop a theory (or find where your observations connect into/modify existing theories).
Use it when:
There is no existing theory that seems to explain your observations
Your population has not been represented in current research/statistics
OR: when as an in-group member, you feel your community has been misrepresented by existing research or statistics designed, carried out, analyzed and reported by out-group members
This project involved 2 "official" rounds of data collection and analysis in some form, with our pre-interview and interview. We also all agreed that we would love to continue this process together. I didn't have enough time to learn Atlas.ti well enough to run queries, but I would love to!
My work:
Liz's work: Liz considers her work to be Living Theory
Dr. Liz is actually part of a network of Living Theorists from all over the world who work in different disciplines but who share a commitment to the process of unveiling embodied knowledge through the emergent process of continuous iteration of data collection and analysis that characterizes Grounded Theory.
When I asked if she had a favourite lecture or resource on Living Theory she shared:
9:57 - "I've held together the experience of valuing inquiry learning or at certain times academic freedom and justice but at the same time I was actually negating those values in my practice"
10:25 - "as I build an explanation of my educational influence in my learning of the learning of my students, (and I then went on to look at the social formations that influenced my practice), I am a living contradiction and I insist on placing that living contradiction in my explanation of my educational influence"
10:43 – "I don't know if you can imagine what a shock this is to university research committees that for example get a research proposal which for a start has got ‘I’ in the title- ‘How do I Improve What I'm Doing'? The first time these kind of inquiries have been put forward at various universities, the research committees asked for the personal pronoun to be removed. Now I don't know if you can understand how literally silly that sounds to someone like myself who says, ‘look, my question is how do I improve my practice?', and the research committee is coming back, ‘remove the personal pronoun’… well what sense do you make of the question when the ‘I’ has been removed?”
In additon to a focus on reflexivity (Creswell & Guetterman, 2019, p.486), Living Theory has a strong focus on action. It isn't about gaining knowledge for its own sake, but is fundamentally concerned with creating an actionable, "now what"?
References
Creswell, J. W., & Guetterman, T. C. (2019). Educational research : planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (6th ed.). Pearson.
Jawad, K. (2021). Dr. Elizabeth Campbell - Love, Hope & Joy [Audio podcast episode]. In Illuminated Lifeways. https://anchor.fm/kristen-jawad/episodes/Dr--Elizabeth-Campbell---Love--Hope--Joy-e10b148/a-a5fn8el
Walk off the Earth. (2019, October 25). Little Boxes [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/LM8JhvfoqdA
Whitehead, J. (2019, October 25). Jack Whitehead on Living Theory research at TEDx on 24-10-19 [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Jf1kFHLdiPY
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