Choose Your Readings Wisely: One of the Four Realize Path© Pillars
Hello Qualitative Mind,
Back when we wrapped up the first QRB course on December 1st, 2020, I started reflecting on everything that I had heard from QRB members during live Zoom meetings, one-on-one coaching calls and over email, and thinking how a big part of my work and passion lies in supporting qualitative researchers to fulfill their potential. That’s when the idea of the Realize Path© started to form in my brain. You can read more about the Realize Path© and it’s four pillars in this blog post. We now offer a bonus inside of QRB called Maximizing QRB: The Realize Path© that is based on those four pillars.
Today marks the completion of our third “class” of QRB, and I am happy to say it was once again a success! The process of creating, and subsequently teaching QRB, has taught me two key, vital, crucial, super important (you get where I’m going here...) lessons that I want to share with you today. Are you ready?
Lesson #1 -When studying complex concepts and topics, read published articles from well-known authors and go beyond book chapters.
The best example I can give here is studying phenomenology. In my humble opinion, phenomenology is hard to explain and comprehend. It’s both a philosophical and a methodological scholarship that is evolving over time. Phenomenology creates unique accounts that try to emulate the scholarly and reflective methods of scholars like Husserl, Heidegger, Nancy and others. It’s the study of the lived experience but be aware that other qualitative methodologies are also concerned with human experiences {by simply saying a study is exploring participants’ lived experiences does not make it phenomenology}. In order for me to better understand and teach phenomenology, I dedicated time and attention to reading articles authored, for example, by Michael van Manen. By going to his published studies rather than sticking to book chapters, I felt less foggy about phenomenology and more qualified to discuss it with the QRB community.
Lesson #2 –Intentionally avoid the qualitative circus.
It’s very common for me to hear in entrepreneurial circles things like “don’t chase another shiny object” or “don’t chase that squirrel”, which basically means “don’t get easily distracted by all the possibilities out there”. The distraction may be a new technology, marketing strategy, social media application, etc. Rather, focus on what you’ve planned for your business that can bring the best results, also described as best ROI (return on investment).
Let’s use rigor to illustrate Lesson #2. There are dozens of terminologies to describe rigor. Some embrace rigor as known and used in quantitative research; while others use alternative terms, terms that are specific to certain methodologies, or terms that highlight the epistemological differences between qualitative and quantitative research. Needless to say, we end up with way too many squirrels running around the qualitative circus!
We encourage the students inside of QRB to choose their readings wisely, and we carefully select resources to share with them with that in mind. A few of the resources we shared with our most recent class have been shared in other blog posts, but we wanted to include them for you here as well. I hope you will find them interesting, but if they add to the “circus” in your mind please feel free to skip them.
I think these two big lessons I learned while creating & teaching QRB can greatly benefit your qualitative research journey moving forward. Don’t be afraid, choose your qualitative readings wisely and don’t get trapped chasing “squirrels” in the circus!
Talk soon,
Maira
*This blog post was first published on December 1, 2020 and was edited and re-published on July 27, 2021. QRB is now available as a self-study course. You can learn more or sign up here.