Reaction Paper # 2

What is your gut rection to the reading(s) and in-class discussion(s) during the past weeks?

(e.g. agree, disagree, surprised, puzzled, intrigued, inspired, enlightened, etc.)

Everything looks different now that I have been studying the qualitative research thus far.

To illustrate, the more I have read, the more I have learnt that my life is like ‘a parody of

qualitative research’. By acknowledging the qualitative researcher is considered as a primary

instrument, I must be more tolerant to high ambiguity. Simultaneously, I should learn to become

a more thoughtful observer in compliance with the characteristics of good qualitative

researchers.

Chapter 6: How to become a careful observer has brought the light to my darkness of

hope. Before my first trial on writing fieldnotes, I never observed anything with care and

caution. However, after my instructor’s assigned task, I have learned to observe for a

meaningful purpose, search for an insightful interpretation, and manage to justify my

verification. All this experience has awestruck me and myself since such observation and

fieldnotes help me expand my horizons and change my perspectives towards the world in a more

subtle manner than ever before. Such experience taught me to become more independent, yet less

pessimistic, at the same time. The lesson I learned from observation and fieldnotes is that

everything must have been there for a reason, and such reason can be varied for a specific

purpose, for a temporary situation, and for a particular group of people or individuals. Thus, I

should not take anything for granted even if it was just a trivia or small matters.

My most favorite lecture is Chapter 7: Mining data from the document and artifacts. I

learned to differentiate between documents and artifacts as well as verify the qualitative data

from the ground. It is illuminating that collecting the data from documents and artifacts is not

1
only considered as an unobtrusive manner, but it is also an actualization in the pursuit of truth.

Especially, I found myself more foolproof in determining the authenticity and accuracy of

material investigation to strengthen the trustworthiness of collected data. Like an eye-opening, I

was enlightened by various types of documents and artifacts to clarify the data such as public

records, personal documents, popular culture documents, visual documents, artifacts and

physical materials, and researcher-generated ones. In addition to balancing between merits and

hindrances of such material investigation, prerequisite ethical issues and conceptual congruence

should also take into my account.

Furthermore, the guidance of how to analyze the qualitative data triggered my curiosity

when I began to read Chapter 8: Qualitative data analysis. Favorably, I noted the steps and

strategies in analyzing the qualitative data consist of an open (descriptive) versus analytical

(axial) coding, naming, numbering, determining, and classifying the data into categories and

themes. By the time, I was reassured by my instructor that all the qualitative data must be

‘responsive but consistent’; ‘exhaustive yet sensitizing’; and ‘mutually exclusive and

conceptually congruent’ while thinking from “trees” to “forest” was the moment of my

enlightenment.

Because the methodology in qualitative data is viewed as an intertwining process as the

whole stages can always be reconnected interchangeably, it helps to ensure the pursuit of truth by

making sense of contextualized phenomenon and verifying the justification of lived experience.

The qualitative collected data should be thick, rich description combined with subjectivity and

stances, or even biases. Despite personal dispositions, the truth and trustworthiness of qualitative

research can be ascertained by triangulation including observation, interview, and material

investigation as well as other principled methods such as member checks, audit trails, peer

2
review, and researcher’s reflexivity, to maintain the validity, reliability, generalizability, and

ethics for collecting the qualitative data rigorously.

In fact, I was struggling to make myself comprehensible when I started reading Chapter 9

since seeing unfamiliar terms such as Validity, Reliability, or Generalizability have me a hard

time. Indeed, I was awfully baffled at first because I did not understand their definitions, nor

could I differentiate between the similarities and differences among those technical terms. Yet,

after labelling the tables completing the discussion questions on worksheets, I was able to

differentiate between validity and reliability. Also, I could identify the internal validity from

external validity but no sooner than had I managed to understand the term ‘Generalizability’ at

last.

Finally, while studying Chapter 10: Writing up qualitative research, I came into my

conclusion of such previous critical issues in preparation for writing and planning the qualitative

research thoroughly. I realized that determining the audience, selecting components, outlining,

and visualizing on displays are ‘golden rules’ when reporting or disseminating the research

studies. Thus, there are certain codes of conduct, strict etiquettes, and ethical manners, to be

guaranteed by the researcher prior to doing so.

Theoretically, the steps for writing up the research in Chapter 10 did refer me back to

Chapter 4 regarding the research design and sampling for data collection. Personally, writing up

the qualitative research can be seen as an alternative form of arts and sciences since it critically

requires both breadth and depth in identifying the qualitative data, justifying the methods of data

analysis, selecting the sampling, as well as choosing the data collection tools, materials, and

instruments before collecting the data in the field.

3
 Apart from listening and reading, I was given a chance to share my discussion and oral

presentation to the class from time to time, all of which strategically enables me to become better

knowledgeable and more infallible in the field. It is not only that all the lectures illuminated my

ignorant heart, but the most touching part was when my instructor told us about spectacular

anecdotes by sharing her retrospective voices and her past struggling experience, all of which

have made up my day. All of these academic and non-academic related lessons have given me

strength and inspiration to strive and thrive over my obstacles no matter if it will rain or shine.

Since I have never done any qualitative nor quantitative research professionally before, it

may be safe to say that this course stratifies me with key concepts and characteristics of

qualitative research paradigm. Over the past 15 weeks, all epistemological knowledge in

theoretical framework, methodology, samplings, data analysis, and qualitative research designs

as well as precious research guidance from my sophisticated lecturer and in-class discussions

with my classmates have provided me such a courage to conduct my own research for a try.

Although I may be novice and ignorant, I strongly believe that this qualitative research course

will empower me to start a small study again.

As far as this qualitative research course is concerned, I slowly begin to see a little light

of hope to shift my longitudinal perspectives from all previous trials and errors in a block of

blind alleys over the yesteryears. I hope all my memories of being deaf-and-dumb will be gone,

and may the future be fixed from the present. To simply put, I dare to say that my life is like ‘a

parody of qualitative research’, so I should not only be acknowledged to become more

perseverant and more tolerant for high ambiguity, but also to be a more cautious interviewer and

a more thoughtful observer. I must remember to be ethical and moral because life is dynamic yet

diplomatic, so I should be aware to keep monitoring, reflecting, and pulling myself together to be

4
negotiable, transferable, and multi-dimensional to cope with the expected and unexpected

phenomena in search of a universal truth and meaningful interpretation of my life, just like a

person conducting her own private study in a qualitative research paradigm.

*******