Summer's here!

After a fabulous break in Turkey - two weeks of unadulterated sun, sea and fabulous food ;) - (I'm about to post some stuff about my trip on my personal blog) -anyway - I've finally caught-up a bit with my reading. Mostly it was fiction of course (well, I was on holiday), but EVEN (?) this was relevant stuff. (my personal favourite was David Lodge's "How far can you go?" - an hilariously funny account of young couples in the 60's struggling with the rules of Catholicism).

But perhaps the most relevant was Laurel Richardson's Fields of Play, which is kind of a retrospective look at an academic life that is constantly fighting against the bureaucratic hierarchies of the institutional madness that is Sociology in HE. It was thrilling to reading about the impact of Symbolic Interactionism on Richardson's thinking and inspiring to see how successful she'd made crossing the boundaries in such a radical way. A fabulous read and thanks to my supervisor, Liz Hoult for the tip:)

Now on with the transcribing and other stuff - like writing a proper methodology section and perhaps a proper paper which brings together some of this stuff.

The fiction-writer in me is secretly looking forward to the results of my latest 'Challenge' in my local writers' group.

Maybe there'll be some more inspiration there too?

There's something about having a clean and clutter-free room to work in. I can't stand mess. I had a light-bulb moment yesterday, whilst indulging in a (small) packet of licorice allsorts (delish) from my favourite Deal shop The Sugar Boy. It was about this Grounded theory business that has been sitting - unaddressed - at the back of my mind for a year. I've been meaning to look up and 'officially' claim it. But it wasn't until yesterday, whilst reading the brilliant Antony Bryant when I really grasped the connections between what I'm doing and how I'm going to get there (if you know what I mean)....

I've also often (vaguely) thought how relevant Symbolic Interactionism is to my research - for instance the fact that the teachers are 'labelled' with the term 'Grade 3' after they are observed (sometimes by their managers who do actually know them as a person)! There's also lots of other (perhaps more ambiguous) symbolic parallels between my research and these theories as a whole - like the agentic factor i.e. that teachers feel they are 'in control' sometimes and therefore perhaps are more resilient to the stresses of being observed. Also the importance of studying comes through in these theories as central - and of course reflexivity in teaching practice is a crucial point of the observation process - hopefully both for the observed and the teacher and finally the importance of the act of observing itself. The 'Data' and the context are an integral part of the process....




I might be a bit slow, but I've only just read about the connection between these two approaches (i.e. that Strauss came from the same place in Chicago etc. and it kind of adds some weight to what I THOUGHT I already knew (maybe subconsciously)!

Anyway, time to dash and get reading for this meeting. Thought I better add something here as so neglected for a few months. More later....much more to share.

busy month!

Wow - not a single day free in March and not much written on here for a while.
Geneva was a mixed experience - great city. Pictures of the place here . About four of the presentations contained possible relevance to my work...more stuff to follow-up (where do I get the time)?! Their theories of resilience, self-identity and emotions in learning all have lots of overlap with my interests... such as this work from Leeds Met (although focused on students rather than teachers)...

Next month should be a better time - less teaching and events to attend. I'm in London three times in five days next week - although at least being on the train is good reading time...

MMMMMmm onwards (and sidewards).

presenting our thoughts

Here's a short powerpoint that may or may not make sense - but it's a start. Enbedding this powerpoint has been a learning experience in itself!