The challenges of being qualitative in a quantitative world
Saturday, September 27, 2008 at 07:16AM So this week, I presented my Chapter 1 in class. The instructor is, shall I say, of the old school. So what was interesting was the limited world view that I experienced as he asked his questions. The assumption I have when I hear his questions are that the only way to analyze something is to break it apart, measure it, and see if there is a correlation.
Epistemology is a word that means the study of knowledge. It asks the question, so how do we know? How do we build a base of knowledge? Certainly, one way of doing that is by the process I mentioned above. However, I feel like that is such a limited way of knowing and understanding. Starhawk defines immanence as all of life being connected to each other. When you have this world view, it makes it really difficult to think about cutting a part of that world off to understand it. It is as if you are saying that the best way to know and understand the human body is to examine the circulatory system. That's fine, but the circulatory system interacts with so many other systems and when you isolate it from other systems you miss out on so many other opportunities to build knowledge of the human body.
Anyhow, I also turned my chapter in and received the written feedback. At first, I was furious. It was probably some of the most critical feedback I had ever had about something and it was from that limited world view. I have to understand that feedback is just that-feedback. I can't take it personally, but I need to use it to my advantage to help me find my way over the hurdles I'm experiencing. How do I turn this feedback around and help others understand the bigger world view?
Reader Comments (1)
You can't. You're in school. Just learn what the guy wants and give it to him. Sounds horrible but we all go through this if we go for more education. It is unlikely you will be able to convince him of anything. Obviously he is critical of your view. Once you have your degree, THEN is the time to start helping others expand their worldview.
Even then, change is usually incremental for most people, in my experience.