29/05/2011 by admin.

Finished the second of four analyses - well, ‘finished’ in as much as I don’t need to rewrite it just yet.  I know I have mentioned this before, but I will again, just to make the point - I have rewritten most of my work several times over… adding, deleting or reworking paragraphs.  My sups have made their own comments which have prompted clarification, or rewording, but most of the writing has been as a result of moving things around to make a more logical and readable order.  In doing so, weaknesses in the writing become apparent and so needs a bit more attention.

Despite declaring I had about 30k words several months ago, my current total of about 40k just doesn’t reflect the sheer amount I have written since that time as some of it will go into the appendices (and therefore not contribute to the overall wordcount) and some of it replaces bits I became unhappy with etc etc.  So an additional 10k words after four months, is actually not too bad.  And hey… I have 40k words and am on track to complete!

I met a colleague from the Ed.D scheme on Friday, in circumstances where we couldn’t really talk at length.  She told me she had been forced to let her Ed.D candidacy go as her work had become too intense.  What a shame!  Despite the fact she was about four years (technically) behind me, she was streets ahead in terms of subject knowledge and contacts… I had previously approached her for advice.

I thought about this and started out by reflecting on motivation and barriers to learning…  I considered whether it was a matter of luck or motivation?  I think I am very lucky in having time to write, but then again I make time to write - I don’t have any kind of social-life anymore and my other interests now take a back-seat.  I came to the conclusion it is not so much a case of being single-minded when it comes to study, rather it is a case of being bloody-minded in not allowing anything else to prevent it. And there is so much to prevent it!  I respect her for her knowledge, skills and for being a decent and approachable person and I hope she finds time to return to her studies.  I guess the Ed.D (or any other Doctorate) needs to take an equal (if not higher) rank alongside everything else in life - it won’t be something that gets done in your spare time.

Ach well, onwards - analysis 3 to work on now.

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24/05/2011 by admin.

Well, ok maybe a bit of an exaggeration.  I have quite a lot of editing to do, but Chapters 1, 2 and 3 are pretty much complete now.  I am still working on the second of four analyses, but mainly because I have spent time on getting the first three chapters into a coherent whole.

Finding time for writing is, as ever, a matter of being organised… I get up at 5.30am every morning now in order to get a couple of hours of writing in before I have to start work.  This has made a real difference, partly because I have acquired 14hrs extra every week, but also because  I am thinking about the thesis every day, rather than just on the days I get time to write.  I have become pretty obsessed about finishing - I now tend to avoid things like thick, well written, books because they demand attention that I just am not willing to give.  Come to think of it, I can see paralleles with my children here too…

Of course, being organised is only an ‘enabler’ to writing, meaning that it won’t prevent life intruding.  This past fortnight has been a bit of a nightmare for real-life getting in the way of research as my Mum has been diagnosed with cancer and my (well-loved btw) mother-in-law has had a series of falls.  Obviously, they have priority and I am not complaining - this is merely a recognition of the practicalities and difficulties of finding time to write.

Right… back to work then!

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26/04/2011 by admin.

So far, I have completed the analysis in terms of identifying four emergent themes (IPA).  I have written up one of the four and have sent it off to my sup(s) for comment.  I have the other three to do which will take some time as each one is about 6000 words, but it is enjoyable.

Today I also went back through Chapter 1 (intro) and Chapter 2 (lit review) to tidy them up in line with my current thinking  - I hadn’t really expected this to be quite such an iterative process as it is, but it is time well spent as I can see the process of gradual improvement in the overall cohesiveness of the chapters.So now Ch1 is all but finished, Ch2 needs two sections to finish, Ch3 (method) is finished, and I am working on Ch4(analysis + comment) now. Progress at last!

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12/04/2011 by admin.

Ok, so there is nothing like additional work to let you know you are alive! Hehe, after a meeting with my sup(s), it was suggested I write a case study on each respondent in my survey. Oh goody.  Actually, although it was a pain in the arse, it set the context for each interview and has made a difference to the way I write about each person.  Clever chaps these sups eh?  So, I have written about 9000 words that I wasn’t expecting to and that are unlikely to be counted as part of the overall thesis wordcount, but it has been a useful exercise. Hey, onwards with the analysis!

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19/02/2011 by admin.

This is the time I have looked forward to the most - getting to grips with the data and forming new ideas based on what I find.  Unfortunately, for personal reasons (death in the family), it has become quite difficult to get started and I have lost about three weeks.  Never mind, this Ed.D has been an uphill struggle in terms of finding any kind of continuity of learning and I shouldn’t really expect anything different at this stage.

I have  made a start.  I have made initial notes against three of the ten transcripts I ended up with.  I want to have completed this by the end of next weekend, which is pushing it a bit.  Of course, initial notes means just that - there are several iterations of the same process to come.  Hopefully this will throw up some themes and it will all start to come together.

I am acutely aware that time is running out.  I had hoped to complete by July this year, but I accept now it may take slightly longer.  However, I need to keep on pushing.  It is still enjoyable, but as the pressure mounts I suspect it will become less so.  I am beginning to understand why some people never submit - wanting to continually rewrite and improve. What is ‘good enough’? I’ll let you know…

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30/01/2011 by admin.

Yeah, ok.  It has been pointed out that perhaps, just perhaps mind you, my last post was a little harsh.  Conceded.  Actually the new post holder for the Ethics Chair, very kindly sorted out the problem quietly and with a minimum of fuss.  Kudos Ethics Chair and thank-you.  This means that all is in order and, apart from being about three weeks behind on everything, all is moving swiftly on.

Struggling a bit with one of the most simple chapters - the method.  I have over-analysed what I am doing and, instead of a practical this-is-how-I-did-it piece that describes the method, I have produced a more philosophical consideration of the merits and demerits of the method.  Which, needless to say, is not required.   It is just as well that I don’t mind scrapping work in favour of rewriting isn’t it?  I have about 30,000 words at the moment but I would say conservatively that I have written at least 40k.  But, and it is a big but, what I have now is better than what I had before the rewrites.  This is important to remember, if only to retain some semblance of sanity.

So, onwards with the analysis.  My sup pointed out that although I have produced some good depth to my text, I haven’t yet applied the practical.  This means that what I have seems quite unsubstantiated.  Therefore, I need to get down and dirty with the data.  Woohoo! The fun part!  This is my favourite bit because your imagination and knowledge are being used to their fullest extent to find links and themes.

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09/12/2010 by admin.

Mobile update: well, I have studied at this university now for almost 10 years and it still manages to surprise me with its sheer incompetence.

I have just been told that my ethics approval, handed in October 2009, cannot now be found. This, presumably, affects the data I have already collected and will almost certainly delay my completion.

Why didn’t I wait for formal confirmation? Because in this university if you waited for every piece of work to be marked or validated before you continued, you would never complete. For example, and this is routine and run of the mill, I sent five emails over the course of four months asking for a short (1500) essay to be marked, without which the entire module could not be completed.

So you learn to press on. I told my sup in February that I would be collecting data in March and no eyebrows were raised, so I assumed (incorrectly as it turns out) that all was well. How to lose interest really easily.

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23/11/2010 by admin.

Today was a good day for progress as I managed to get a lot down on paper.  I am doing the literature review using a systematic method of searching - similar to a systematic review in that each search term is used across all the selected databases so that results are comparable.  Well, that is the theory of course.  Anyone who has done a systematic review will know that despite using search terms and inclusion/exclusion criteria that tightly control which studies are returned in the results, there are always a number of false positives.  This means that I have quite a large number of studies to read and ‘grade’ to see which ones I want to use in the discussion section.

I also started writing about a second method I was going to use to triangulate my findings, but after some careful consideration, it became clear that this would take an enormous amount of time and return a huge amount of results so I have tentatively ditched it.  I am not sure whether is is right or not at the moment, but it is something I can address later in the day if I feel the need to.  Sadly this meant that I had to cut about a thousand words right at the end of the day, but I suspect it was worth it.  I also managed to create and write up a study analysis ‘tool’ which will allow me to evidence the criteria I will use to discern which studies to include.

I have also started writing an ‘agenda’ (for want of a better word) for my next meeting with my sup.  Although we cover a lot of ground in our meetings, I sometimes get a bit bewildered at the degree and depth of the changes I think he thinks I should make.  I am sure this is not his intention, and that he probably wants me to have merely considered the different angles rather than adopt them, but it can be a bit depressing sometimes to take such a large amount of criticism - even when it is constructive (as his always is).

So, although I have always approached the meetings (all two of them!) with a list of topics I would like to cover, we have never had a formal agenda and I am hoping that this might keep us on track a little better.  We appear to be very good at going off on a tangent  when we could do with being a bit more focussed even if it mean having more meetings of a shorter time.  We shall see - meetings not for a couple of weeks yet, so I have time to get some decent work together.

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20/11/2010 by admin.

I went through the chapters again this morning - looking for inconsistencies in layout.  A lot of my early work still uses the original format (rather than than the one recommended by my sup), so I adjusted it all to bring it in line with my current work.  Putting everything together (see Consolidation post) into one document has had the benefit of being able to see the differences between chapters, which has been a good thing.

So, each chapter now has the same index.  Each chapter also uses the same conventions for quotes and they all refer to the same appendices where necessary.

I looked at the systematic literature review chapter (chapter 2) and have decided to remove the ’systematic’ title.  My sup has pointed out in the past that I don’t have to use conventional titles for methods as they may well hinder what I am trying to do.  By not calling it systematic, I have more freedom to adapt it.  Which, of course, is what I need: after all, I am only using the systematic method to identify papers for review - not necessarily to provide evidence of best practice.

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19/11/2010 by admin.

Even though I had a clear day yesterday, I just didn’t get a great deal done.  I guess that is the way it goes sometimes.  I was trying to discuss the idea of managers personality profiles affecting learning but it wouldn’t flow.  The trick I have found is to reread what I have written several days later - it then becomes easier to criticise more objectively.

I put everything I have written so far into one document just as an exercise… I deleted the multiples of indexes (one per chapter) and set it together just to get a feel for the overall cohesiveness. Once consolidated it felt… weighty. Distictly weighty and a bit unweildy, but I had a pleasant surprise in that I have written more than I had thought.

Of the two analyses, social constructionism and cognitive paradigms of learning, I am going to leave the cognitive analysis until after Christmas, but will try to get the interviews completed before then if I can.  This may be stretching it a bit, but it would be worth doing if possible because then I can do the transcription over the Christmas period.  Christmas is a funny time for me because I work through it, so whereas most people could expect to get quite a bit done atthat time, for me writing inevitably takes a back-seat.

I am rereading ‘How to get a PhD’ by Phillips and Pugh - I really should keep this book to hand because it is so relevant, but I am making a concerted effort now.  If you haven’t read it, I would really recommend it as it gives plenty of advice on the nature of being a student, as well supervisors’ expectations.

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