6:00pm
Seminar--- make sure they are piloting their instruments and know to delete all practice data--- end by 7:45pm & reconvene in lecture hall by 8:00pm
8:00pm
Students facilitate announcements
8:15pm
Have big picture questions for the evening:
1) What should drive research in public administration? Ex. Context, customer, funding, audience, participants, practitioners, peace, war, politics, voting behavior, ‘hard' sciences, social sciences.
2) What is a key question any public administrator should ask of any research, data, or information before using it in decision making?
3) How do you assess the 'fit' of selecting a methodology & method with a problem & research question?
Do you remember you research question?
Tell story about plane flying above Microsoft. It can be difficult to get to the point of information that is both accurate and useful!---but how can info be accurate and useful if the population being studied had no participation in your research?
We encounter this all the time in public administration. That even after we spend a tremendous amount of time trying to address problems and develop action plans, a common piece of citizen feedback is “You didn't get at the heart of the issue.” Really?---- is it possible there is more than one issue here? Absolutely!
Why? Because: “Statistics are no substitute for judgment.” and “Bad data is worse than no data.”
Sometimes it takes PUBLIC, uncomfortable discussions about what is the problem, what questions do we need to ask, and how are we going to investigate those problems so that we can help ensure strategic information gathering and decision making.
Just like making decisions….. we need to recognize that there are many ways of approaching and conducting research . None are necessarily right or wrong- they each have pros and cons related to the purposes and contexts of your research. I can produce a table or graph for anything……. but is it meaningful for that research project?
By attending to the context of the situation as central , researchers can choose methodologies and methods that will best represent situations and experiences. The situation should guide the methodological choices, instead of having a trust in the method as appropriate for every context and situation. Sometimes, not being able to generalize or run certain statistical tests is the point.
Read quote from Illusions. -- perhaps research is our attempt to hold reality, even for a moment, even if the answers change over time--- to translate the world of ideas into the world of behaviors and action----I think this is why I'm passionate about research. It's the seeking combined with the element of change. Arguably no research is ever done. We may have enlightened continuations of meaning based upon our findings. But these “answers” always yield more questions.
Some key points of Smith's book :
Relate Smith to Lambright.---- government or political influences on “science”---can include our own paradigms we bring to a research project
Question your understandings of colonialism. More often than not, we think of colonialism as something that happened a really long time ago in India and across Africa . Somehow we forget that before we were states, we were colonies. These colonies were constructed by colonialists.
Colonialism is not just about one moment of conquest. It is systemic in nature and can last indefinitely because the colonized become the colonizers. Generation after generation is assimilated into the ways of the colonizer until we aren't even aware that there ever was a different way. This is the real power of colonialism= world making. --the way we eat, talk, sing, dance, organize ourselves, govern, relate to each other, religion, science, etc.
A couple years ago I had a research article published in “Administrative Theory & Praxis.” The call from the editor was to use contemporary theory as a lens for assessing the government response to Hurricane Katrina. I chose post-colonial theory and used content analysis and secondary analysis of existing Louisiana state documents. The results found that state officials were “colonialist” in their plans for rebuilding the devastated areas. “Restoring the Soul of America” campaign--- state budget was dependent on a forecasted 80% tourism increase. Rebuilt tourist attractions first--- libraries, historic sites, schools, and even hospitals came last. PA is both a site for struggle and for emancipation. This showed me what our approach to research can reveal--- a postcolonial lens----record of priorities in decision making
This is why considerations towards “decolonization” are so important (prefix “post”=in challenge to: disagree with Smith's assessment of post-colonialism). It can help us to name issues, reclaim cultural aspects of our lives, and identify the cycle of colonialism in hopes that we can slowly break it. Perhaps the biggest contribution Smith gives us is the opportunity to re-think what we see as “science.” Based upon what I've seen in Indian country here in the U.S. , I can tell you there is a lot of science going on. Elaborate irrigation systems to grow peach trees near the Grand Canyon , generational evaluation systems of community well-being, leadership studies, economic forecasting, environmental impacts of coal slurries, and analysis of language patterns. All done by natives for natives.
Smith wrote: “In positioning myself as an indigenous woman, I am claiming a genealogical, cultural and political set of experiences.” (pg. 12) In this statement she authenticates herself as justified in this research. Do you often see such declarations in other pieces of research you read? Question who has the “authority” to conduct research on anybody. Do you have to be a “member” of the group being researched in order to have the authority and authenticity to research that group? Does Smith have more credibility researching indigenous peoples because she has an “indigenous” perspective?
She has been applauded for squarely challenging social science research as a whole to engage in decolonizing practices, but she recognizes that our self-righteous forays into research and dialogue do not prevent people from dying.
Some key critiques of Smith's book :
Lumping all “indigenous” peoples together.
Creating an “Indigenous” Research Agenda.
Revealing cultural and religious secrets or traditions. Big no-no.
She demeans “mysticism” related to some belief systems in various indigenous cultures.
Smith perpetuates “othering” through her discussion of the “West” and “traditional” science. By the way…… “west” of what? She also perpetuates “other” by claiming there are set ways to conduct research in all indigenous populations.
Difficult to bridge passion for decolonization with realities of functioning in colonialist systems for basic needs= DOI. Gets at complicated tensions of sovereignty and the “nations within.”
Audience. Smith received criticism for being a hypocrite because she did not write the book for broad consumption. She wrote for academia.
Ethnography ----handout --Approach, not a tool--
Last week your student colleagues started the class by asking how many of you travelled over the break. In the past, I've asked you to remember how you described your research projects to family and friends because these descriptions would become part of your “research story.” This is very important in research because it can help us think through whose story is being told. Is it the participants' story? Is it your story? Is it an organizations' story? Ultimately, these are your “traveler's tales” that can be accurate stories or exaggerated ones.
I'm focusing on this point because it is so important to research, but also to understanding ethnography. Here is a saying that might help explain why ethnographic research is so valuable: “Until lions have their own historians, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunters.” Ethnography, ideally, is a vehicle for the subjects of research to tell their own stories.
Whether we realize it or not, most public servants are engaging in a type of ethnography at all times= we embed ourselves within the culture of our jobs, we observe our employees, we observe those who we serve in the community, we document our observations, we interpret what we've observed, and we report. The “reports” could take the form of strategic plans, employee evaluations, or even public policies.
GO OVER HANDOUTS---field notes and ethnography---- field notes are very messy and cryptic. Field notes can include direct quotes, time of day/night, weather, descriptions of the surroundings, body language, what people are wearing or eating, your own thoughts and impressions--- you are taking everything in for thick description. This is not what gets published, the ethnographer writes memos about their observations from each day, then the ethnographer has to index the observations from the memos. By indexing you are looking for themes and patterns in observations or outliers--- one time occurrences. ---show book “Love, Sorrow, & Rage.”
Note elements of content analysis in the indexing of field notes in ethnography: latent content & manifest content.= COUNTING VS. CONTEXT
Manifest content : the visible surface content----- count how many times the word love appears in a novel to get a measure of how erotic the book is. "Manifest" describes what (an author or speaker) definitely has written. The words, sentences, or texts themselves, rather than their meanings.
Latent content : the underlying meaning. Places the analysis in context. Latent meaning describes what an author intended to say/write.
Ethnography appears to be about observing others. However, instead of focusing on why others are doing what they are doing…… ethnographies can make us question why we do what we do.
So often people think of ethnographic research as happening some where really far away. Yet, there is an ethnography of YouTube going on right now! The study has been happening for about the past two years in order to observe members' behavior.
9:15pm
Observation Workshop (30 minutes, need some time at end to de-brief)-- have left hand side of class move to foyer & right hand side stay in classroom. Go to each group and give instructions. Need 8 volunteers to participate in round table discussion while others observe. Only those discussing get the snow removal policy handout. Instruct observers that "how" and "what" they observe is up to them...... stand far away, be close, stand on a chair, sit in middle of discussion circle, mess with the field (coughing, etc.). It's up to you.
-- Learning objectives: 1) Observation (good science= good observation: Avatar), 2) problem identification, 3) Select research methodology & method, 4) assess fit between the problem, question, and the research method/methodology selected.