Outreach and Engagement

Well it has been an interesting couple of days. I'm actually at the Hampton Inn in State College, PA. I'm attending the 9th Annual Outreach Scholarship Conference at Penn State. It is interesting this world that I walk between; the academy and the community through my work with United Way. I'm here because my way was paid for as a result of the research I'm doing on Boar's of Directors at school. The faculty person I work with and I are one of four pairs of faculty/student researchers. All of our projects are doing research that is based in our local communities and the four pairs are being studied. A friend of mine labeled it "rats studying rats." In many ways that is true because we are actually participants who are helping design the research as we go. It is what is labeled Participatory Action Research. It is fascinating stuff.

Anyhow. I've been going to sessions that focus on how the academy does community based research. I feel like saying, "Hello. I've been doing this kind of community building work for the last 18 years of my professional life. It is fascinating to me how the academy is so much in the forefront of so many things, but challenged by the ability to work in community. In so many ways the social change meetings I've attended. Shoot, even my homeless conferences, are all about building partnerships. My work helping Wake, Durham, and Orange County to develop their 10 Year Plans to End Homelessness were all about building community partnerships. It is quite fascinating. Why is the academy so far behind? And this is the engagement and outreach folks at Universities; many of whom have land-grant missions.

Anyhow, this is one of those times where I'm not sure why I am here. There is a purpose for me to be here. However, I've no clue why. This is one of those where I have to trust spirit and go with it. I found myself shutting down yesterday, but today, I've really tried to stay open to possibilities. Mystery has put me here for a reason. I'll see where it takes me.

The challenges of being qualitative in a quantitative world

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?

Child of Mine

Time for a bit of uplifting music.

Subjectivity in Research

Click on the link to the right on Nonprofit Leadership. There is a paper I've added today on Subjectivity in Research. It's a small assignment that could have been a lot bigger. But check it out.

Qualitative vs Quantitative

Qualitative research focuses on explaining the “how” and “why” of human behavior by using techniques designed to gather rich, detailed data. These techniques include: observations, interviews, and archived documents. These techniques can be used across many disciplines within the social sciences and the research includes not only the behavior, but the context for the behavior. It is often times an iterative process, whereby data analysis and conclusions leads to new research questions and refinements in research methods.

In quantitative research we take a sample of a population and statistically determine if the phenomena we are studying is generalizable from the sample to a population. You have to have a large enough sample size in order to have any sort of valid findings.

As I start this semester at school, I'm taking my first qualitative methods course and I am taking another course that requires me to write the first three chapters of my dissertation. In the methods course, I'm already facing assignments that are making me think about my own style of how I observe and how I reflect. Many of you know that one of my own strengths is my ability to observe, both my own and other's circumstances. I'm terribly excited about this work and I can't wait to keep you posted as to how this intersects with magic.