a "doc" chronicle

The word obsession has made me think about what I meant last week. Using a word that has different connotations as the ones I want to imply is something I need to work on. Probably it has to do with English being my second language, but in any case it is me who needs to be more careful. When you learn a new word, you usually here it from somebody else or you read it in a book or article. The word has a specific connotation; based on the emphasis that particular author wants to give to his/her writing. So, later on when you think of using a specific word you need to go to the dictionary and review its meaning. You can not do this with every word that comes to your mind, but once in a while you need to verify what means that word that makes a specific point.

And there goes “obsession,” which according to my Webster (1973) dictionary means “a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling” (p. 786). Completing my degree does not has to do with any “unreasonable idea or feeling,” although it might be a “disturbing preoccupation” because at the moment it is a goal that has not been met yet. But as with anything else, if you want to fulfill a goal you need to make a plan, take the time, and follow it. And that is what I am doing this summer. My plan is to finish writing my dissertation. So I have taken the time to analyze my data, write, and investigate as needed; that is, I am following my plan to finish my Ph.D. degree.

One of my classmates once asked me why I wanted to complete a doctorate degree and I said it was something I had started before and then had changed my mind to do something else. I was talking about my second Master’s Degree in Secondary Mathematics Education, from the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, IA. The courses that program offered in the second half of 1980’s where more interesting and more important for my job as a Math teacher, so changing programs was the right thing to do then. But the idea of completing a doctorate degree always stayed in my mind.

As time goes by, career changes occur, and this program at the University of Florida, in Gainesville, FL, did the same thing for me in the 2000’s; it has given me the opportunity to read and study research that explains why you use technology in education. The standards, good practices based on research, distance education principles and practices; that is, using technology in education to help students learn instead of using it as a recreational tool, are just a few ideas that come to mind now. Learning about new research and conducting research is moving away from trial and error practices and improvisations without fundamentals.

So completing my dissertation is not an obsession, it is a goal that I am working on, one that will be done in a few months. Chapter seven is about 80% done already and after that only the Conclusions chapter will be left to write. And after completing final revisions, the dissertation defense will be the next step. :)

Labels: working on goals

One more week of intensive work is over! Sometimes it feels like I have this obsession. I wake up and before having breakfast, I turn on the computer and organize my notes for the day's work. However, I am trying my best to balance my life. So, I try to go to the gym at least twice a week and to spend time with my husband and kids. Life will continue after my dissertation, and having a happy family is at the top of my list.

During this week, chapters 5 and 6 were reviewed once more with what it seems will be the last revisions. They are now already in the editor’s hands. This leaves me the space to concentrate on Chapter 7. Theorized transcripts for this chapter are also done and analysis is on its way. The good thing is that the structure of the chapter is similar to that of the previous two, so it seems easier. What I am supposed to do now is to confirm or reject my outcomes. Still, there are a few new things that will be incorporated into the Preliminary Mathematics Discourse Model.

As I work with my data I feel more and more comfortable with it. I believe in the future I will do more qualitative research, it is so different than quantitative data, it says so much!!

Revisions to chapters 5 and 6, the first two data analysis chapters, are done now. I received the revisions and comments from chapter 6 right away and worked with them immediately. Now I am back to chapter 7's data organization and analysis. The good thing is that I am still finding new activities. There is no doubt that data is rich. This chapter is the last of data analysis. And with it, the preliminary mathematics discourse model will be reviewed a second time, the last one for now. Then, only the conclusion's chapter will be left to finish writing.

The process is slow, a lot slower than what I would like. I keep working, although not ten hours as I wanted to, that was unreasonable. However, I work several hours every day, which puts me closer to the end of this project. Wow! The end of my dissertation is approaching. Now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, like my advisor said.

I finished chapter six and send it to my advisers. It is the first draft and as so I might have to work more with it once they read it and evaluate it. But as one of my advisers says, now we have something to work with! :)

I started working with Chapter 7’s data already. First I created most of Table 7.1, the list of threads that will be included in this chapter with their general characteristics. This will help when writing the introduction of the chapter, where data general characteristics are presented to the reader. To complete this table I need to assign a title to each thread, one that I will have once I analyze closely its content.

In order to work faster with the organization and analysis of data, I am taking each thread, one at a time, and working with it so that I don’t need to go back again to it, only to reread and reanalyze it.

The steps include: eliminating redundant intertextuality and signatures, assigning pseudonyms, organizing the data into stories, identifying the stanzas, identifying the story parts, and creating the tree diagrams with the corresponding stanza titles.

When working with chapter six, I completed the tree diagrams at the end of chapter six and then realized it would have been helpful if I had done it before. One advantage of such is that I had all the stanzas in a single page and redundancy was not a limitation because of repeated data when stories have the same messages. Also, this was about the same as having a list of stanzas by story, but better because again, there were no repetitions.

I already have a preliminary analysis of the threaded discussions for November and December, one that I did when downloading the data. That helps me a lot to work faster because I already have a guide.

My goal is to finish organizing all the data (18 threads) in a week. Yes, that means I am working extra hour, about ten hours a day! I want to finish this summer and I am putting the time to do so.

Labels: data analysis

Yes, only two more diagrams and chapter six will be ready to send out. Tomorrow afternoon by sure!!!

;-)

I am about to finish Chapter 6. Right now I am working with the review of the preliminary mathematics discourse model. And then, I need to finish the threaded discussion diagrams by adding the stanzas to each node, which is just a little time consuming.

What I’ve been reflecting on lately is how alternative data representations are used in my dissertation. I reread Eisner’s article (1997) because I am incorporating a “poem” in Chapter 6, one that comes from my data, word by word. But I am not sure about it yet. According to Eisner, the diagrams I’ve used to organize the threaded discussions are also a form of alternative data representation. This I just realized!

Eisner wrote:

“In addition to stories, pictures, diagrams, maps, and theater, we use demonstrations, often unencumbered by language, to show to others how something is done. And, perhaps above all, we have poetry, that linguistic achievement whose meanings are paradoxically non-linguistic: Poetry was invented to say what words can never say. Poetry transcends the limits of language and evokes what cannot be articulated” (p. 5).

The problem is I am not a poet and I don’t know how to organize these lines of data that say so much, evoking “what cannot be articulated” in another way.

For now, the poem will stay as it is. I might even try to see what happens with data from November and December. This is an unexpected outcome of my research, something I was not planning on finding. That's why I still feel troubled about it.

Reference:

Eisner, E. W. (1997). The promise and perils of alternative forms of data representation. Educational Researcher, 26(6), 4-10.

Labels: alternative data representation, Elliot W. Eisner