So here is what's up with my project. I have re-read my field notes, my interview notes, and all emails sent back and forth with the interviewees. I am keeping track of my analytical notes by using the comment feature on word. Is that bad? What are the ramifications of using such a digital way of making notes?
I finished another transcription (though the first is still painfully long and in the works). I developed a method of typing insanely quickly and sloppily but intelligibly to try to make the process faster. Afterwards, I was able to line-by-line edit as well as analyze.
I have a preliminary outline established, though it is quite weak on its knees. I see some common threads forming, though; I just do not know how I will weave them all together. So far, identity construction and community construction intersect less than I expected. People do not self-identify as healthcare workers as much as I would expect. They do not wave the "health" banner on a high horse. Most seem more focused on getting through the day and dealing with normal social aspects of life. Some common ideas, though, I have found in my field notes and my interviews include the team or family nature of the clinical staff, the use of food to bring people together even at the work setting, the dependence on take-out and junk food, the easy and unintentional co-mingling of Spanish and English, and the use of the bureaucratic and hierarchal structure to deal with problems. Contrasting conceptions of stress and health have also emerged to some degree.
I am still perplexed about the structure of the final paper. Any suggestions??
Also, what kind of literature have people been able to drum up? Most articles I find are only tangentially related...I will try to weave them in with the aforementioned fraying threads as well.
Good to luck everyone. :)
Sounds like you're on a roll! Oh transcribing
ReplyDeleteAnd as for the structure of the final paper, I think your outline can help you, along with the last chapters of the Ethnographic Fieldnotes book. I've also found it helpful to look at some of the example assigned readings/ethnographies for inspiration
And sometimes you just have to free-write I think and see what you can come up with - that intro is always hard but fun
Good luck with the literature - I think I have it a little easier than you...
Hey! As far as literature goes, I'm finding it really helpful to look at my own ideas in the context of larger paradigms of thought. I'm working with identity and disability as relevant to the process of recovery; not much out there specifically pertaining to that. There is, however, a lot of material published on the critical race theory as well as how identity is impacted by the 'race, class, gender' triad. I'm sort of piecing my own ideas together with that and working from the ground up this way. Hope that helps!
ReplyDeleteAs for structure--I thought the Ethnographic Fieldnotes book was EXTREMELY helpful. Also, I'm sort of trying a couple things out that I'm not sure will work in an 'academic' paper;; with the intro and a little with the analysis. That's what tomorrow's for though!
:D See you then!
Krystina