My first blog post
- What kind of topics are you interested in researching?
I am very interested at university identity. Both the philosophical and the empirical approach can bring some powerful insights to my research. I would like to explore how the conception or " idea" of university that the authorities possess (both academics and managerial team) can influence the decision making process regarding the mision and vision, the quality manangement, budget prioritization etc.
There are also different kinds of universities: nonprofit private, for-profit, public. These categories also influence the conceptual idea and the practical decision-making processes.
- What initial research questions might be starting to emerge for you?
I am thinking two types of questions: the first one related to what is the perceived identity or the conceptual idea of university that the institution (by " institution" I mean a certain type of universities in Peru, Latin America, or any other segmentation) community bears in mind. The second one would what are the types of university (that would come from the systematization of the answers of the previous question) and how they differ in they decision-making processes/priorities regarding... (quality management, or other area that could be interesting and appealing).
- What are you interested in researching - people, groups, communities, documents, images, organisations?
I would say the by now, my main focus would be researching documents (identity and Mision and Vision statements, Strategic Planning, codes of ethics, organizational designs, policies, etc.) and, on the other hand, it would be interesting to observe the real world, day to day, behaviour of the university community and other relevant stakeholders.
- Do you have an initial ideas for the kinds of methods that might help you to gather useful knowledge in your area of interest?
I am very interested at the etnography as well as the discourse analysis. I think it would be of great help to incorporate some kind of content analysis or AI software (I am not so familiar yet with programming but I think it could help tremendously) to process the documents I need to go through.
- What initial questions do you have about those methods? What don't you understand yet?
I am a little bit more familiar with the etnography although I don't know exactly some operational characteristics (how long should it take?, how do you immerse in a reality -do you interact or do you observe only-, how do you register the information, which are the better ways to organize the information gathered).
I don't know very much about the discourse analysis (besides what the name says of itself) and I am very interested at attaining a deep understanding of it.
- Do you perceive any potential challenges in your initial ideas: either practical challenges, such as gaining access to the area you want to research, or the time it might take to gather data; or conceptual challenges; such as how the method you are interested in can produce 'facts', 'truths', or 'valuable knowledge' in your chosen area?
I think that my main challenges are to establish an adequate scope for my research (a PhD dissertation) or research papers that can help me as milestones. On the other hand, trying not to be too ambitious and the latent ignorance of hundreds of years of history of the university institution, the wide variety of forms and management ways, the differences of shape, age, size, focus, etc. of universties could be also too broad to include in a study of this nature.
This sounds like a really interesting research topic, Rafael. I get the sense that you already think that universities have different identities, based upon their nature and purpose? Or perhaps considering 'the university' as a whole, it has a complex and shifting identity? Either way, lots to think about, and also very current in light of the way that universities are evolving in response to online pedagogy and networked society (including MOOCs like this, of course).
ResponderBorrar'I am very interested at the etnography as well as the discourse analysis. I think it would be of great help to incorporate some kind of content analysis or AI software (I am not so familiar yet with programming but I think it could help tremendously) to process the documents I need to go through.'
I could certainly see how ethnography and content analysis might offer insights into university identity. Something that immediately struck me was that content analysis and AI software would be useful, although might benefit from being used in conjunction with other methods. For instance, I would imagine that a lot of the public documentation that university's create is designed with an eye to marketing and to project a particular message. If this was reflected in content analysis, it would be interesting interrogate these ideas, for instance through interviews or perhaps an ethnographic study as you suggest.
'I think that my main challenges are to establish an adequate scope for my research (a PhD dissertation) or research papers that can help me as milestones. On the other hand, trying not to be too ambitious and the latent ignorance of hundreds of years of history of the university institution, the wide variety of forms and management ways, the differences of shape, age, size, focus, etc. of universties could be also too broad to include in a study of this nature.'
I thought the same when I read through the interest of your research. It would seem that you are asking some really big questions which it might be difficult to adequately address even with the scope of the PhD dissertation. Perhaps there's a case for narrowing down what you want to achieve in order to allow you really get to the level of insight that might enable to contribute something really original and interesting. Is there perhaps an over-arching question at the stage that you might wish to address? This might in turn help you to narrow the scope of what you undertake? Which isn't of course to say that this question might not change over time.