Class Notes

Qualitative Methods 10.29.2013

We need to craft our websites into single documents with navigation and such. It should demonstrate expertise. We should decide what the objective of the portfolio is, and that should guide our work in making the portfolio. It can include our statements on our understanding and problems with the materials of the class. We should include our analyses of articles and notes from texts.

For the upcoming weeks, we should look at 14 and 15 in the Anderson text. They are about ethnography and writing.

What are the outcomes of qualitative research? Our goal is to reveal, construct, and correct. It is entirely possible to go through the steps and never come up with an argument or claim. Sometimes the data never coheres. The argument is the lowest level outcome. Coding reveals practices and patterns. It can reveal the things that are not durable (like looking at the 1943 Guidelines to Hiring Women). We can construct things, such as counter-narratives. We can also correct destructive ideas and narratives or expand and advance positive ones. The arguments central to Communication need to be re-enacted and refurbished.

When we are coding, we need to keep in mind intentionality, competence, modality, instrumentality, and effectiveness. The intentionality should be assessed on multiple levels—what parts are intentional and what are not. There is also always a level of competency. Texts do work, and that kind of work can be described as instrumentality. Finally, every text is effective to a certain level.