In Search of Subjectivity-One’s Own, Peshkin (1988) discusses the value of researchers systematically seeking out their own subjectivity while their research is actively in progress, not retrospectively.
As a beginning qualitative researcher, Peshkin’s message was both enlightening and also the cause of some angst. This week, while I was processing and reflecting on this article, I became acutely aware of (and amazed by) how many times I heard the personal pronoun “I”. Of course, everyone, is speaking through his or her unique lens from the political arena, educational and social media to everyday conversations where people communicate from the lens of their personal life experiences, whether giving an opinion, stating what they believe is a fact, or offering advice.
Thinking about my own “I’s”, the mother “I” and the teacher “I” are difficult to separate. Both roles are nurturing, caring and ultimately wanting to do what is best for children. I always wanted to be a teacher and had some wonderful teachers growing up (both inside and outside the classroom) and unfortunately, other teachers, that even as a young child, knew that when I grew up, I would teach differently. As a teacher and a mother, the “I” wants my own children and the children I work with to have the best education (academic, social and emotional), to become life long learners and to be all that they can be. The optimistic “I” sees things in a hopeful and positive way. I know that being aware of this tendency and mindful of my own subjectivity will be important when listening, observing and collecting data in my own research.
I am not sure if this “I” would be considered a cultural “I” or a creative “I” but yesterday a short phone conversation turned into an “aha moment” for me. A couple of days ago, my daughter asked me for the recipe of her very favorite soup so she could make a home-made dinner for her roommates. Because I have been making this soup (from memory) for years now, I wanted to make sure that I gave her the original recipe (since it tends to taste a little different every time I make it). Since my good friend had borrowed my Williams Sonoma Soup Cookbook some months ago, I called her to get the exact recipe. As she proceeded to read me the list of ingredients, I actually stopped her after each one to say, “but I think it is better with more of this, I use less of that and I always forget to use…” We both started to laugh because she was reading me the original, published, right there on the page recipe but as I was writing down the information, I was imposing my own opinion and prior cooking knowledge to the situation. I know this light-hearted conversation was just about soup, but it caused me to stop, midway through the conversation, to think about the implications in the context of research. If researches are not cognizant of their subjectivity and their personal experiences, data could reflect the researchers subjectivity and bias. While this example is innocuous in cooking, it is serious in research and could cause results to be reported from the researchers point of view instead of the participant’s view. Peshkin (1988) advocates for “the enhanced awareness that should result from a formal, systematic monitoring of self” (p. 20). He explains that this keeps the lines of his subjectivity open and straight to avoid presenting data as autobiographical.
It's interesting how you have connected cooking to the I's. Too often we do forget the recipe and start putting in a pinch of this and a dash of something else. The greatest chefs in the world to do it. However, the researcher has to remove the I's out of it and go according to the recipe. They have to record things the way they see them so as to not let their lens take control of the situation. I think it is one of the most difficult things to do.
ReplyDeleteAs I reflect, I am thinking about the time I made a carrot cake and let me say it did not look like any carrot cake I had ever eaten before. It was gushy and gooey because I did not stick to the script and follow the plan. I felt that I could do it better as the ingredients in my mind were not appropriate. I started adding in and subtracting different components and the end result was not pleasing. I threw it away before anyone had the chance to taste or even see it. So in research, one has to be careful to see the whole and not just pieces based on their personal I's. Once again, it is a difficult task to remove the I's. Hopefully, by identifying the I's we become aware and can monitor our thoughts.
In this week's readings, Maxwell states that "eliminating the actual influence of the researcher is impossible (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1995), and the goal in a qualitative study is not to eliminate this influence, but to understand it and to use it productively" (pp. 108-109). It seems as though you did just that by applying your prior knowledge of this recipe!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what other Is are lurking in you. Perhaps you will find some this semester.
ReplyDelete