Let the Research Speak to You

Module 3 Data and Analysis with Helen Kindred, Pedro De Senna & Sam Murray (07/03/2022)

In this meeting, the supervisors discussed some core ideas for analysing our data and then we had the chance to individually share where we were in the data collection process and receive feedback. 

Analysis = meaning making 

- consider ALL the data
- look for relationships and patterns
- analysis is transforming information 
- your experience IS data

Method: Coding Data
looking for themes in transcripts (key words)
try putting transcripts into Word Cloud

Next, I will summarise where I was in my data collection at the time, and what advice I was given.

I'm just starting my 4^th week of observing my cast, so I'm still collecting data. I'm doing a voice note after every act and we do 10 shows a week, so it’s a lot. I was planning to transcribe afterwards so I wouldn’t be swayed by reading what I had previously said, but it’s going to take me a really long time to write it all out so I have had to start transcribing them. 

What I've realised is I'm not actually very good at observing what people are thinking. I will say in my voice note ‘oh yeah these people are definitely feeling this way’ and then I talk to them and they're feeling an entirely different way. So actually it's ended up being much more about me and my experience. I was going to do a reflective journal as well, but then I realised that my observations really are a reflective journal because they are my thoughts on other people. Although I am observing them and talking about them, it’s way more about me. 

I thought that there would be a clear pattern to be seen, for example, bad warmup = bad show, good warmup = good show. But that's not the case at all. Sometimes we don’t even warm up and it’s the best show we’ve ever done. I'm trying not to analyse it in my head before I finish, but I can't help but notice things. Mainly, that we have a really good cast relationship. We're all genuine friends and that seems to be the only thing that genuinely impacts the performance. For example, if we have a really good lunch break altogether and we all play games, then we have a really good show. There is a really nice cast dynamic which actually wasn’t my main focus coming in, so I'm going to have to look at some new literature to do with that.

Thoughts from Helen:
- the research is speaking to you - you have to sit back and listen to know how to complete the work
- it’s good to question the assumptions you went in with – almost thinking you knew what the research was going to tell you – and it's fantastic that it’s telling you something different
- keep a note of all these twists and turns for when you share the inquiry process in your presentation - we want to hear about what you’ve learnt
- the position of participant observer is difficult – what are you observing – actually you're self reflecting
- when you feel like you’ve hit a brick wall but you haven’t, you’ve just hit a turning point in your research - talk about that
- what is the framework for your observations? How driven is it by your mood on the day? How are you judging peoples joy?
- go back to the theory to re-understand the terms of ethnographic participant observer (what are the known difficulties in that role?) – you may see things differently now that you’ve experienced it

Thoughts from Sam:
- most important thing to remember is you're doing participant observation – your perspective is incredibly valid
- so don’t be afraid of using your interpretations of situations
- theory: intersubjective dialogue (Goulet) it's about having a negotiation between yourself and your participants about how you handle that data and how you represent what's going on
- use other people's perspectives, but don’t dismiss your own.
- there can be more than one opinion about how something happened – but you may have more of an objective distance than they may do as a researcher
- people usually look back at things with rose tinted glasses because they don’t want to admit that things may not have gone to plan. You have observed in the most objective way you possibly can by maintaining a distance (although there are external factors you cant control)

Overall, I found this call extremely beneficial. It's really exciting to find that my research is different to what I was expecting and actually far more interesting than I thought it would be. Now I just need to finish transcribing all those voice notes so I can properly get started on analysis! 😅