1. What surprised you about this thesis writing?
I was surprised by the form of this thesis writing. To be very honest, I felt a little bit confused about what the author try to explore in this thesis at the beginning, since the author put several kinds of writing, such as narrative, analytical as well as poetic writing styles in one thesis. These kinds of writing are interleaved and play their own role. In addition, the author also quoted some sentences from students in the Indian residential school, so that readers might understand their living conditions deeply and cultivate their sympathy with those kids.
2.What are three ideas you can take away from this to bring to your own research writing?
The author mentioned “map” and “border” quite frequently in the thesis. When we are children, we knew little about the world so we follow the teachers and instructions map everything. When we grow up we start to break the regulation and look the world in a different way, and this kind of process is un-mapping and re-mapping.
Moreover, the border is a double-edged sword. It is a clear line to distinguish two areas or two things. However it also brings struggles and privileges and it affects the communication and trades between two areas. Educational borders also impede the development of education.
The author also mentioned the educational space, such as the school buildings and classrooms. I never consider this problem before, I just received the common sense that schools should be built like that with brick walls and closed doors so that it could provide students with a strict phenomenon. However, this kind of space might have some negative effects to students, such as restricting their imagination. I will also consider the learning space as an aspect in my research.
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ReplyDeleteThanks Crystal!
ReplyDeleteInteresting how the thesis you read explored different research approaches - narrative, poetic, perspective of the student. In contrast, the thesis I read really focused on interviewing and observation, relatively more “scientific” research approaches. The topic of the thesis you read could be very complicated and I feel (without actually reading it, so can’t say with certainty) would require some learning and unlearning- perhaps this is why the writer chose to pursue different approaches in their writing? Whereas, in the thesis I read, it seemed clear simply through the writer’s story, interviews, and literature review what her research problem was. I presume depending on how complicated one’s research problem is, there may be a need to use different approaches to help people understand the problem.
It’s encouraging to learn that different approaches are practiced. Your point on poetry and combinations of different approaches reminded me of our last couple of presentations in class by researchers, particularly Diana, and the tensions she faced in the beginning of her research work exploring creative approches to inquiry. I feel it wouldn’t be easy to apply non-traditional research approaches as the researcher going against the grain. At the same time, inherent in these approaches being new, there would be a learning curve, and bumps along the way until one gets to the right recipe for them. So I can see how the approach may not come out perfect, or may appear confusing. But hopefully it’s just part of the process and through practice will improve!