For Research Methods (On the case: Approaches to Language and Literacy Research by Dyson and Genishi)

Generalizations Can Be A Good Thing?

            I think that the word “generalization” caught me off guard in this last chapter. I tend to want to disregard any type of generalizations as weak inferences based on perfunctory stereotypes, and/or limited knowledge or experience. Whenever I encounter a particularly obscure generalization I feel most obligated to expose any ignorance. Of course, not all the time…just usually when I am involved in a discussion about sexism or racism, and someone says something reeeeally stupid. Like when a black guy says that he only dates white/asian women, because of black women’s’ xyz (usually an independent, emasculating attitude), and never admit that his attributing a personally negative experience(s) to all black women is just an excuse to not take any personal responsibility for the failure of his past relationships and the women he chose to be with. I think it bothers me more when someone presents a generalization as an absolute fact, and not a general truth based on limited information (or personal opinion).  

            Anyway, when I really thought about it I realized that generalization isn’t as bad as I thought. I know that I generalize as well, since it is something that all human beings do in order to make sense of the world. Our brains want to place people/things into organized, categorized compartments, so we can associate new information with old information we have already placed in these spaces. That way we can “become more sensible in our actions…[by] modifying, extending, or adding to [our] generalized understandings of how the world works” (Dyson and Genishi 115). This is what is called “naturalistic generalization” in the book (Dyson and Genishi 115).

            The “propositional generalization—assertions about how a studied phenomenon was enacted in a case” was a little more confusing (Dyson and Genishi 114). Unless I read it wrong, I thought that this concept was the whole point of a case study (in general I mean), because you are relating the study of something or someone in particular to something of a broader context. Isn’t that the goal of research anyway? I don’t know, maybe I am overthinking this. I do that, too. I was also confused with the statement about where lines between the case and the phenomenon are blurred: “The detailed work of case study research thus detracts from, rather than contributes to, the analytic, comparative construction of knowledge” (Dyson and Genishi 118). The example of a study leading to the implication that a child should run around unsupervised talking to strangers seemed to be a bit of a stretch. Maybe I missed something…

For Research Methods (On the case: Approaches to Language and Literacy Research by Dyson and Genishi)

Data Collection and Analysis

It’s interesting that the reading for this week covered data collection--more specifically audiotape. I went home last week to check on my mom after she got out of the hospital, and she let me know about yet another book idea she had for me to write about. This time she wants me to write about my aunt going from rags to riches by becoming a madam. Mind you she gets a new book idea, or reworks an old one, every few weeks--and we haven't written anything yet. This is due to the fact that she still has ideas in her head, and has not put any notes down on paper for me. The problem is we haven't been able to find an easy way for her to get the words out of her head. She decided to get Dragon Dictate so she could just talk and have the words typed directly into the computer for her, but as my boyfriend was setting everything up I realized that this was getting way too complicated for her. Then he made the suggestion of her using a digital voice recorder to take notes, and found a wireless digital recorder with DNS (Dragon Naturally Speaking) that we can set up to download files directly into Dropbox. That way I can have the audio file be transcribed directly by Dragon without having to type anything. How freakin' awesome is that? I think at that moment the Heavens opened up, and angels started to sing. I think this might actually work (if she actually uses it), so be on the lookout for my first novel. 

As for data analysis, what caught my attention here is the coding. I don't think I've ever done it before, but when I think back I have seen and heard about it without knowing what it was. I remember one conversation with my dad about his study habits, and how he was working on his dissertation. He told me he had used tons of index cards, different colors, labels, etc. to organize his information. I never really thought about this again until I was helping a friend write her index cards. She had the responses from people, and had noticed patterns of certain words. She color coded each response, and used different color index cards/highlighters/pens for the different words. It was pretty interesting how she had this rainbow of data, and how easy it was to see patterns this way. I'm not all that excited about going through all of that work myself, but it seemed to pay off in the end.