Sunday, February 26, 2017

BTAR chap. 6

This chapter begins simply by helping the reader define "interpretation". Reading the following passages, I thought more about my insecurities regarding action research. Through the process of learning about how to be a consistent and reliable researcher, I have learned more about how the data we collect can influence our own perspectives regarding our research. Near the beginning of the chapter the text cites the words of Tilden who said that "information, as such, is not interpretation." I get the feeling that a great deal of researchers have fallen prey to this aspect of research and attempted to make meaning from the information alone. I agree with the authors who discuss how interpreting data can be a daunting task to even the most seasoned of researchers. I have no doubt that I will have a hard time with this aspect of data interpretation. It almost seems wrong making a judgment about a population based on my observations. Who's to say that my data collection was flawed or skewed in any way? I think that is what will worry me the most when I perform my action research in the fall. Even later in the chapter the authors discuss the voice in your head that says that you don't know enough. What put my mind slightly at ease was reading about the steps of data collection. I figure if I successfully perform the steps, I should have enough information to make a basic inference.  

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