A little post on focus groups

Focus group research is designed to have a setting that feels natural and comfortable for participants. Moreover, a successful focus group should model successful discussions. For me, it seems like focus group research is primarily different from other types of research because of the environment. There is not a white-coated expert asking questions in focus group research; rather the group of participants (hopefully) feed discussion.

McNealy describes focus groups as having a very specific, controlled group of participants. In this way, then, focus group research may not yield results that apply to mass populations. However, not all research questions call for generalizable conclusions. 

As discussed in class, I think focus groups could be great if participants are already involved in the activity (word choice?) the researcher is inquiring. This way, the participants can lead a successful discussion without much moderation or instruction. In this way, focus groups could be useful as a capstone for the participants—a way to give back to participants. I do not, therefore, think focus group research can be used for all research questions. I think that the time component of research (where a researcher is at) can limit focus group research, too.

Writing (and adopting language) for a CFP

CFP

I’m thinking about submitting a proposal for the conference held by the SW Texas Pop Culture and American Culture Association. The theme of the conference is “Food and Culture in a Global Context.”

Drawing me in

A few things draw me to this call. First, the suggested topics are interesting, especially some of the panel categories. Also, the call seems rather broad, which eliminates some pressure of submitting the perfect proposal. Instead, by looking at their CFP, I gather that they value multiplicity from a broad range of scholars and scholars-in-training (me!). Also, the conference is local and I know Jen has said that the folks are nice. That’s good to know. I have yet to attend a conference, and I’d like the first one to be with people who are friendly.

Audiences

Like I said, the conference calls for many voices on a large array of topics (each category has its own CFP). The overall conference theme seems to be targeting folks who are interested in cultural studies work. And while that kind of academic work should be included in an abstract, different subject areas value different kinds of voices. I’m interested in quite a few areas, but mainly the ones I see myself submitting relate to the classroom. That said, for each category, I will have to see what kinds of knowledge it seems like they value.

Language

For the purpose of attempting to co-opt some language, I will look at the Rhetorics of New Media CFP. Clearly, I would want to include the words: “rhetoric” or “rhetorics” and “new media.” Beyond that, I think words like digital, networked, global, culture, social media, and space would be appropriate when putting together a CFP.

(Re)Search for Research: Where I've Came From & Where I'm At

This is a tricky question for me to answer, and one in which I had not even thought about before graduate school. An undergrad education, by and large, prescribes to the Postpositivist paradigm. We were given information -- assumed it was Truth -- and were smarter and informed of the Truth because of it. If only...

In a grad program that differed greatly from my previous experiences, slowly and uncomfortably, I started to see the human element involved in knowledge construction. Perhaps my strategic word placement should indicate where I stand now.

A question has been posed in many of my grad classes that at once interests and troubles me: Does knowledge exist in the world, waiting for someone to discover it? Clearly, this is a philosophical question, but in trying to answer it I have discovered what I believe about knowledge and the formal process of constructing it.

Have I said it yet? I think knowledge is socially constructed. Boom. And I particularly like how Creswell stresses the importance of understanding in the moment, the situation one is in.

I also hope that my research is pragmatic. As a new writing teacher, I am constantly thinking of questions about effective teaching methods. In that way, then, I would hope to find more effective methods in the classroom.