How do I …?

Just this week I was working with some other PhD students and we were discussing ways we keep track of our research.  Because there is a lot of research – books, journal articles, blog posts, web pages, and we want to have quick access with as little effort and duplication as possible.

First of all, I have a file naming convention (a throwback from my systems engineering days) that helps me quickly identify which articles I have already collected.  I name my files with 3 pieces of information:  last name of the first author, date of publication, and article title (or an abbreviated version).  Here’s what it looks like –

APA citation of article:  Gentikow, B. (2007). The role of media in developing literacies and cultural techniques. Digital Kompetanse, 2, 78–96.

My file name for the above article: Gentikow (2007) Role of media in developing literacies & cultural techniques.pdf

This makes it very easy for me to do a quick search of my saved articles to see if I already have a copy.  I just type in the name of the author in my search box and I can tell at a glance if I have the article, even without seeing the full title.  It is rather rare that an author will have 2 articles published in the same year with the same first few words of the title.

Unless the article is buried in many layers of folders, I can have a pretty long title but I try to make it as simple as possible.  I usually leave out all the articles like ‘the’ and ‘a’, replace ‘and’ with ‘&’, and use dashes to connect title to sub-title (or leave one of them out entirely).  Plus I have a lot of shorthand acronyms like OL=online, DE=distance education, and SM=social media.  [Eventually, I think I may have to create a cheat sheet of all my abbreviations & shorthand so I know what they mean, but so far it’s been working fine.]

Secondly, I have multiple copies of my research collection scattered across several computers and platforms.  At school, I use a PC and at home I have an iMac.  I also have a PC laptop that travels back & forth plus I use my iPhone & iPad for research (mainly quick searches & reading).  On all machines, I use Dropbox to synchronize my research.  This way if I add & start reading an article while I’m studying in the Library, it will already be in my collection at home when I want to finish it later that night.

During our conversation, there was a corollary to the above statement: “What would you recommend for …?” and someone asked about citation management systems.  I’ll save that answer for another post.  ~swb

Reflective vs. Reflexive

To be more in line with the purpose of this blog, I changed the tagline to read “Contemplations from a Reflexive Researcher”.  However, many may wonder, what the heck does she mean by reflexive?  Why didn’t she just use reflective?  What’s the difference and why should it matter?

My first introduction to reflexivity was when I needed to write about my positionality as a researcher in one of my research methods classes a few semesters back.  I was a new PhD student and I had no clue what to write.  These were new concepts for me: positionality and reflexivity.

In my search for answers, I came across many worthwhile journal articles and books.  A few stood out and have shaped my knowing; the rest are listed on my Resources page. From my readings, I have come to understand positionality to be the background, experiences and history plus feelings, opinions and biases that a researcher has and how it may impact their research (Pillow, 2003).

As graduate students, we are continuously encouraged to cultivate reflective practices about our learning, à la Schön (1983), and to look at how what we are learning is changing how we think.  However, reflexivity goes beyond reflection to critically evaluate our interactions with our research.  Reflection implies thinking about while reflexivity takes it one step further and produces action as a result of the reflection.

One of the ways to explore positionality is through reflexive writing.  Reflexive writing helps a researcher examine their positionality, define/refine their lenses, and establish their identity.  I realized I should know more about reflexive writing before I could actually apply it.

The most influential and useful article on reflexive writing I found was Ann L. Cunliffe’s On Becoming a Critically Reflexive Practitioner (2004).  Cunliffe (2004) identifies three recursive phases a researcher should go through to become more critically reflexive: reflex interaction, reflective analysis, and critically reflexive questioning (p. 413).

• Reflex interaction is characterized by in-the-moment reactions governed by our prior experiences and habits.
• Reflective analysis includes “creating order and making connections, often using theory to help us see our practice in different ways” (pp. 412-413).
• Critically reflexive questioning is the most intensive phase, gathering input from the previous phases that allows us to “surface differing interpretations, underlying assumptions, and taken-for-granted actions” (p. 417).

In the final phase phase, researchers can shed light on and explore their positionality and engage in conversations with the theories and theorists that are critical to their research.

It is my goal, as a researcher, to be as critically reflexive as possible.  Cunliffe (2004) has created a set of questions to help guide the reflexive process.  I use these questions as guideposts for my reflexive research journal.  In this way, my writings will encourage my growth as a novice researcher and cultivate this essential skill necessary to becoming an effective researcher.

References

Cunliffe, A. L. (2004). On becoming a critically reflexive practitioner. Journal of Management Education, 28(4), 407-426.

Pillow, W. S. (2003). Confession, catharsis, or cure? Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research. Qualitative Studies in Education, 16(2), 175-196.

Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York, NY: Basic Books.