Week 6 Response

The latest chapter in Creswell’s book focused on the specific procedures of mixed methods methodology, as opposed to (or rather combining) qualitative and quantitative methodologies. This is a relatively new area of research which attempts to combine the strengths and counteract the weakness of both “qual” and “quan.” As it is an emerging field, there is far less of a definite structure that must be followed for conducting and writing this research. You could start with either approach, or do both at the same time, depending on how much time, money, and other necessary resources you have available.

Beginning in Dyson and Genishi’s book, we begin to see the qualitative research method in more action. I can see how it was useful to read Research Design first, as this next book uses the methodology, but does not give the terminology for their research ideas. Still, I feel like I understand the motivations behind qualitative research better with the stories of case studies that this book presents. Factors that shape research, interpreting outcomes, conducting research in the field, and the researchers situating themselves in their subjects’ environments began to form into a clearer picture for me with the case studies of Madlenka and Lyron.

By the section of the first chapter where the authors talked about researching in a first/second grade classroom, I began to think of instances where I could do research. My mom is a first grade teacher, and her school district has recently been focusing on the teaching of writing. This could be a really interesting resource for study. I know in one of my other classes I will need to do an interview study, and I think going into the first grade classroom and talking with the students and teachers might prove to be a good topic for research.

The authors talk about how their qualitative research aims to study the “teacup” of the individual in a case study and understand the created “world” of the setting. While this is not the technical language of the first book, it makes a lot of sense in the context of the examples. Researchers “construct interpretations of other people’s interpretations” and in my own imagined case study, I could see myself trying to interpret the students’ interpretation of what writing is, and the teacher’s interpretation of how the kids both respond to new writing curriculum as opposed to past years, and interpret how she interprets the kids interpreting writing (18).