S570: Session 6

The Same Thing Studied in Different Ways

Jal Mehta

October 4, 2011

Goals for Today

Overall Goals Examine different ways of approaching the same question,

considering strengths/weaknesses and tradeoffs

Understand different approaches to sampling and apply it to your research

Consolidate the feedback you got last week and formulate next steps for your project

Plan

Discussion: Three different ways of approaching the same topic (10:10 – 11:00)

Sampling: Mini-lecture + application (11:00 – 11:45)

Your work: Reflection, consolidation, and feedback (12:00 – 1:00)

Sampling (The Big Picture)

Any study is always a subset of a larger phenomena

Key question is always “what is this a case of”

How you sample is entirely dependent upon what your question is – can’t answer in the abstract

Five different kinds of sampling

Random sampling – I.e. treatment and control

Representative sampling – I.e. national surveys

Stratified sampling – With particular attention to groups who are important for the overall study (is a version of representative sampling)

Theoretical sampling – I.e. “deeper learning” schools

Connects to “grounded theory”

Choose sample in ways that allow you to test developing hypotheses

Convenience sampling – Who you can get

Snowball sampling – Use some respondents to find other respondents

Lareau Challenge

1. What kind of sampling does she use?

2. Do you think her sampling strategy affected her results/conclusions, and, if so, how?

(Be specific – which sampling decisions affected which conclusions?)

Revisiting Your Work and the Feedback to It

Take 15 minutes to write some notes on the following:

What were the most helpful suggestions from last week?

What are you most sure about going forward?

Step Back Protocol for Workshops

Step 1: Designate a timekeeper

Step 2: Presenter discusses where they are, what kind of feedback would be most helpful (2:30)

Steps 3 – 5: Individual feedback – 2:30 minutes each

Step 6: Open discussion (20 minutes for groups of 4, 30 minutes for group of 3)

A Short Mini-Lecture on a Very Important Topic

And that topic is…

How to make progress when you don’t know what you are doing

And that topic is…

How to make progress when you don’t know what you are doing (yet)

You Never Know What You’re Doing When You Start

You never know what you’re doing when you start

You don’t know which literature is relevant

You don’t know the best questions to ask

You definitely don’t know what you are going to find

But…

You may need funding, which is premised on convincing someone you know what you are doing.

You also are going to start somewhere, and there may be opportunity costs to making the wrong choice

So What Do You Do?

Pilot data, pilot data, pilot data

Allows you to formulate better, field-informed questions

Allows you to make a better proposal (drawing on the pilot data)

Saves you considerable time in choosing literatures because you have a better sense of what’s relevant

Particularly important for Pasteur’s quadrant – research driven by problems rather than by theory.

So What Do You Do?

Fake it until you make it

Write a proposal anyway, with what you have

Make it internally consistent -- fit between question, literature, and research plan – even if externally you may be all wet

Use that to get funds; make changes later as you learn more.

Funders want you to change later – it means new things are being discovered

So What Do You Do?

Get started, but you don’t have to decide everything at the beginning

Choose an initial case or starting point that will be relevant to you under multiple scenarios

Make subsequent decisions drawing on what you learn in this initial case and your overall goals

Iterate and memo

So What Do You Do?

Accept that a project changing over time is a good thing

You will probably find the right frame for your project no earlier than halfway through

Can apply for additional funds at this mid point if necessary (most funds come when a project is midstream)

From this point, aggressively shape the project so that it meets your revised question

And write up the research with the revised question as the one you are trying to answer

So What Do You Do?

A good test for completed research is “Did I know this before I started?”

If the answer is yes, then you probably haven’t learned much

For the answer to be no, it has to be the case that new things will come up through the research.

The question is whether you can take these new things, organize into a frame or account, and set them up against a literature/question to which it speaks

A Couple More Practical Tips

Writing is hard and it is not going to get easier

Gene Fowler: "Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.“

Dorothy Parker: “I hate writing; I love having written.”

Most academics find writing very difficult.

Dissertations are particularly hard b/c

You are not just doing a piece of writing, your identity is wrapped up in it.

You are working on one thing, rather than multiple things, which magnifies the task, in ways that are not always helpful

A Couple More Practical Tips

1. Lower the stakes: No one is rushing to publish what you write tomorrow.

Just start writing something, and it will get easier

2. Separate goals from research questions No project is going to do everything you care about

3. Sequence or parallel process: Just because you are not doing it now doesn’t mean you can’t do it later (or

along side of)

4. Don’t get paralyzed by making the “wrong” choice: Pick as best you can, make adjustments over time, and keep in mind that you

can do other things alongside or later

A Couple More Practical Tips

5. Make it a social process/use your writing group

Everyone struggles: use your group when you are stuck; not as people you need to please

Talking it out almost always helps: easier to see what to do for others than for yourself

Send your outlines/ideas/paper drafts to whomever you can get to read them

6. Find a way to write that works for you

Place (find a place to work)

Credit yourself for modest progress (8 paragraphs, 4-5 hours/day)

Eliminate distractions (internet blocker, macfreedom.com)

A Couple More Practical Tips

7. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle

Once you put down some of the pieces, it will be easier to see

where to put the other ones.

Focus on making progress: When can I start, not when will I finish!