Write in manner that makes the reader turn the page

''The writer's object is - or should be - to hold the reader's attention. I want the reader to turn the page and keep on turning to the end. This is accomplished only when the narrative moves steadily ahead, not when it comes to a weary standstill, overloaded with every item uncovered in the research.'' 

- Barbara Tuchman, New York Times, February 2, 1989

"Unlike quantitative work, which can be interpreted through its tables and summaries, qualitative work carries its meaning in its entire text. Just as a piece of literature is not equivalent to its "plot summary," qualitative research is not contained in its abstracts. Qualitative research has to be read, not scanned; its meaning is in the reading." (p. 924)

Reference
Richardson, L. (2000). Writing: A method of inquiry. In Handbook of qualitative research. Edited by N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln. 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Bildung

Bildung is about the formation of the individuality. It is a term used in German didaktik that is unfamiliar to educators in the Western world. I am looking at my life, and even as I am doing my PhD now, I am also working on other aspects of my character and personality, like courage, assertiveness, confidence. I think my recent going for this basic padi scuba diving course is one part of it. I think as an adult, I hope to give myself that holistic education, not only of mind, but of body and spirit as well. I don't believe a PhD alone makes me an educated person, I believe being educated is so much more -- connecting with others, being sure of yourself... these are also what I am working towards while I work on my PhD. I hope I will be more ready for the world out there when I'm done.

Benedict Anderson's Research Tips!

"I began to realize something fundamental about fieldwork: that it is useless to concentrate exclusively on one's 'research project'. One has to be endlessly curious about everything, sharpen one's eyes and ears, and take notes about everything. This is the great blessing of this kind of work. The experience of strangeness makes all your senses much more sensitive than normal, and your attachment to comparison grows deeper. This is why fieldwork is also so useful when you return home. You will have developed habits of observation and comparison that encourage or force you to start noticing that your own culture is just as strange -- provided you look carefully, ceaselessly compare, and keep your anthropological distance. In my case, I began to get interested in America, everyday America, for the first time." (pp. 101-102)

 Fieldwork can heighten your sensitivity to differences and make the familiar seem strange!

"It is important to recognize that comparison is not a method or even an academic technique; rather, it is a discursive strategy. There are a few important points to bear in mind when one wants to make a comparison. First of all, one has to decide, in any given work, whether one is mainly after similarities or differences. It is very difficult, for example, to say, let alone prove, that Japan and China or Korea are basically similar or basically different. Either is possible depending on one's angle of vision, one's framework, and the conclusions towards which one intends to move." (p. 130)

"... The fact that young Japanese are learning Burmese, young Thais Vietnamese, young Filipinos Korean, and young Indonesians Thai is a good omen. They are learning to escape from the coconut half-shell, and beginning to see a huge sky above them. Therein lies the possibility of parting with egotism or narcissism. It is important to keep in mind that to learn a language is not simply to learn a linguistic means of communication. It is also to learn the way of thinking and feeling of a people who speak and write a language which is different from ours. It is to learn the history and culture underlying their thoughts and emotions and so to learn to empathize with them." (p. 195) 

"The ideal way to start interesting research, at least in my view, is to depart from a problem or question to which you do not know the answer. Then you have to decide on the kind of intellectual tools (discourse analysis, theory of nationalism, surveys, etc.) that may or may not be of a help to you. But you have also to seek the help of friends who do not necessarily work in your discipline or program, in order to try to have as broad an intellectual culture as possible. Often you also need luck. Finally, you need time for your ideas to cohere and develop. As an illustration, the research that resulted in Imagined Communities began when I asked myself questions to which I had no answers. When and where did nationalism begin? Why does it have such emotional power? What 'mechanisms' explain its rapid and planetary spread? Why is nationalist historiography so often mythical, even ridiculous? Why are existing books on the subject so unsatisfactory? What should I be reading instead?"(pp. 154-155)

I must say my ears pricked up when I read this, I wanted to know his secrets to research. But as you would have figured out from an earlier post, Ben had a very interesting childhood, a very thorough elite gentlemen education, the kind they gave government officials in the past. So he was already starting out at a level beyond many of us. So take what you read with a pinch of salt. Though I really like his idea of always seeking "as broad an intellectual culture as possible" and valuing the comments and views of outsiders. I think this is very important to prevent a very myopic kind of research that has little relevance to anyone besides you.

Reference
Anderson, B. (2016) A life beyond boundaries. London, New York: Verso

Writing as Weaving

There are many metaphors we use to describe the act of writing. Today, I experience writing as weaving. I looked at the different ideas I have collected over two months and sorted over four days, and put like ideas together, and today, I started weaving some of these like ideas together, chaining them logically to other like ideas, and then putting this chunk in a position relative to other chunks.

It feels like weaving, knitting, or sewing, because I am doing intricate work. I look at the words of each idea to find similarities. For example, I see something in common between what Jackson (1995) says that teachers may deliver more than promised when they tell stories and what Benjamin (1968) says about how narrative achieves an amplitude that information lacks. Both ideas tell us that stories can give us more than what we are expecting, that there is potential in stories. So I will allow these two separate threads to intertwine into a thicker and stronger thread that will form an argument in my literature review.

Idea Synthesis Day

Tomorrow is the day! Tomorrow is literature synthesis day. I've been reading up on narratives and storytelling and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) the past two months. Tomorrow is the day I print out the various ideas I've collected and do a manual sorting, organization of these ideas to make a case for my study and I'm pretty excited about it. I think the way things unfolded, how my interest developed told me that the better methodology to use is the case study method rather than narrative inquiry, which can be still used as some sort of lens.

I have been waiting for this day for two months... to be finally able to make some sense out of what I've read. I hope I have read enough to do this. But even if not, this initial analysis would show me where the gaps of my reading are and help me be more directed in my search for the literature.

I've also discovered the German Didaktik through the module I'm taking with Prof. Deng Zongyi, which excites me because this method/model/theory is pretty in line with the kinds of outcomes expected in incidental storytelling in the classroom and it is also sometimes compared to PCK. :) I think when a teacher tells a story, there is a move away from hardcore knowledge transmission to some kind of there's something different for every student to gain. And this... is that potential of storytelling as a tool and also stresses on the autonomy and professionalism of teachers. How cool is that!

Retirement

What do scholars do on their retirement?

"For many men, retirement is, initially at least, a rather painful time. The days can seem very long without a regular work schedule, frequent drinking sessions with colleagues and friends, and regular trips to the golf course. But teachers and scholars are often an exception to the rule. If they no longer teach, they can attend conferences, give speeches, contribute papers, pen reviews and even write books. Many also keep in close touch with former graduate students, since the teacher-student bond is something one can find the whole world over. In this way, academic retirees can also follow new trends, look for new research agendas, and find new problems to ponder over. In fact, they have more time to think than their younger colleagues, who are immersed in administration, committee assignments, teaching, advising, and sometimes buttering up the government officials in control of research funds. Retirees can also, if they wish, free themselves from disciplinary and institutional constraints, and return to projects left undone in the distant past." (p. 165)

Wow, what an intellectual can possibly accomplish on his or her retirement! :)

Reference
Anderson, B. (2016) A life beyond boundaries. London, New York: Verso