[EDLING:475] Re: Qualitative Research Question

[Moses Samuel]

Dear Miriam,

Articles in major journals like _Qualitative Studies in Education_ or _Anthropology & Education Quarterly_  reveal the use of first person interpretative accounts of research.  This is now pretty much commonplace in the field.  But I would make a distinction between the researcher's interpretive "voice" and the "voice(s" of participants, which could be represented by verbatim quotes or excerpts from transcriptions.

Moses Samuel






On 14.12.2004 07:29:39, Miriam E Ebsworth <mee1 at nyu.edu> wrote:

>Is anyone familiar with the practice of presenting qualitative data in
>the form of first person stories informed by interviews, discussions,
>notes and so forth with participants who are second language learners?
>
>I have come across stories constructed by the researcher which are
>written in the first person as part of the results section of a
>dissertation. While they have aspects of the "flavor" of a second
>language learner, to my eyes, the actual language use presented
>appears somewhat more fluent and native than the interview transcripts
>
>and other data sources would indicate. The actual sources of specific
>language used are not listed except in a summary way- the stories
>appear to be an amalgam which dramatizes the experiences of the
>participants.
>
>I have been told by some fellow faculty that this approach is now well
>
>accepted in qualitative research circles and it's about time I got on
>the bandwagon. One colleague shared that 95% of participants in a
>bilingualism and literacy conference she has just attended favored
>this approach.
>
>I appreciate the opportunity to learn about a new way (to me) to
>analyze and present data, but I have some concerns about how the
>participants' words, language, and order of ideas is transformed
>through this process.
>
>Your thoughts, experiences, analysis, opinions, sources for these
>ideas- in short anything you could add to the conversation will be
>appreciated.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, Ph.D.
><MEE1 at nyu.edu>
>Director of Doctoral Programs in Multilingual Multicultural Studies
>
>

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