My Research Relationships

The Memo on My Research Relationships

         The Memo on My Research Relationships

         Being a new international student on the Manoa campus highly preoccupied with the coursework, I have not established many relationships yet. Besides, with my husband being away, I spend every spare moment I get calling or skyping him. I am fully aware that this context might make it more difficult for me to establish necessary research relationships with the participants. However, being more of an extrovert than an introvert, I mostly feel comfortable with starting a conversation with a stranger or a person whom I do not know very well, especially if this person is around my age or younger. Besides, I get on well with my roommates - we already had some rather personal conversations. One of my roommates introduced me to a friend of hers who is as concerned about her studies as I am. Over the month that I have been here, we really bonded.

         As to the study that I am going to conduct, I hope to establish meaningful continuous relationships with future participants that would be ethically and politically appropriate. I also intend to work with them as mutual partners in the process of the research material production. In the memo below, I will argue that my inquiry needs to be ethically and politically correct, give my reasons for establishing meaningful and ongoing relationships with people contributing to the research, and discuss the level of closeness I am expecting from the research participants.

         To begin with, I acknowledge that my research, like any other research, has to be appropriate in ethical and political terms. I must be sensible when interacting with research participants in order not to hurt their feelings. I must be aware that their beliefs, religion, ethical values and sexual orientation might be different from mine and respect their personality and culture. Therefore, it is my ethical obligation is to put my efforts into understanding each participant as a person and the participants in general as a group.

         First of all, I should put myself in their shoes and ask myself how I would respond to the researcher's actions and words if I were in such position. Secondly, I should constantly monitor what I am saying and how I am saying it when communicating with the participants and adjust my behavior according to their reactions. Then, I should analyze each conversation and try to understand if I have done something wrong and what could have been said or done differently. Besides, if any difficulties in communication occur, I have to analyze the participant's behavior and do my best to understand reasons for these actions. Then, I may be able to improve my relationships this person.

         Moreover, I should help the participating students open up trust me. In order to do so, I myself should be honest with the participants and explain clearly the purpose of my study, what I want them to do, and what I will do with the collected data afterwards. It is also essential to thank the students, give them something in return for their willingness to be involved in the research. I feel that it would be appropriate to decide what to give them as a thank-you present after I get to know them better. However, it is necessary to let them know that they will receive some gift in appreciation of their efforts. I believe my home-baked apple pie and a letter of appreciation could be a suitable-for-all present. And, of course, after the research is published I will mail them their own copy.

         I also feel that it is very important to establish meaningful reciprocal relationships with the participants. I will be learning a lot about their lives, their beliefs, deepest thoughts and fears, obstacles they have gone through and things they are struggling with. After getting to know them so well, I see myself becoming if not friends then at least good acquaintances with the participating students. I will do my best to let them know that I see them as mutual partners in the inquiry process, not just research respondents. Besides, I feel that after spending so much time with the participants, one cannot stay indifferent to their lives. Thus, after the research is over I will keep in touch with them and hopefully they will keep me posted on meaningful events in their future.

         As stated above, I hope to become very close with the participating students, and I expect them to reveal deeply personal aspects of their lives. In order to do so, I am planning to spend one month in the setting before actually starting the research. I want to let them get used to me being around, to know me as a person first, and only then as a researcher. I will take part in campus activities with the participants, go to the cafeteria with them, and attend their parties and get-togethers. After they start trusting me, I will begin to give them more information about the research and ask them what else they would like to know about it, what doubts they have, and what they do not feel comfortable with. If necessary, we will make some changes to the research design working on it together. Thus, they will know that their opinions are valued and will become more comfortable with participating in the study.

         As to the participants' perception of me as a researcher, I think they will see me as their peer as I am not much older than they are. Sometimes they might see me as an old-fashioned person who is different from them. However, they are living and studying in a community of people with different backgrounds, beliefs and values and yet they have fun together and learn from one another. Therefore, I do not see the fact of me being a researcher to be an obstacle in building relationships with my participants.

         I will encourage the participating students to speak up their ideas and not be afraid to say something wrong. There are no right or wrong answers in qualitative research. It is important for the participants to know that. I do not want the research participants to feel that there is a power differences between us as I will learn from them a lot more than they will learn from me. I will encourage them to see me as a learner who came to their community to get more understanding about life and gain unique experiences by participating in their community. Thus, they will feel that they have the power rather than me.

         Finally, apart from sharing with participants information about the research and what will be done with acquired data, I believe there will be some implicit agreements. For example, each of us will know that it is important to be respectful to other people involved in research, to tell the truth and be judgmental-free.

Memo on the Paradigmatic Perspective and the Methodology for the Research

       

            Now I came to the point when I have to make a decision as to what paradigm to use in designing the inquiry. It might not be my final decision because the flexible nature of the qualitative approach allows the researcher to combine paradigmatic perspectives or decide to use a different paradigm in the research process if the situation will require it. However, I believe it is important to decide on a paradigm at the beginning of the design phase as it will guide and inform the study. I acknowledge that I should choose the paradigmatic perspective which does not contradict with my beliefs and values and is close to my worldview. Otherwise, I might end up confusing myself and muddling the study.

            After reviewing the paradigms, I feel that the interpretivist paradigm fits both my worldview and the goals of the study. Below I am going to discuss the reasons why I believe so.

         To begin with, I feel that the interpretivist paradigm goes along with my ontological and epistemological beliefs. To illustrate, in my view reality is socially constructed, complex, constantly changing and difficult to measure. I believe that it is impossible for a researcher to be completely objective and that human interpretation of the world is important and therefore should be regarded as valid knowledge. Furthermore, in my opinion, there is no absolute truth; truth can be understood in different ways depending on who is interpreting it. Thus, from this it can be concluded that I see the world from the interpretivist perspective.

            I also believe that interpretivist paradigm fits the goals of the research, which are to understand what role classroom practices play in the occurrence of stress in the first-year female students and to illuminate how this academic stress affects their life-style choices and participation in community life. These goals clearly show that the study is aimed at understanding the female students' perception and interpretation of the phenomenon of academic stress. As understanding and interpretation are the purposes of interpretivism, it is clear why this paradigm fits the study best.

            My next step in designing the research would be to choose a suitable methodology for the study. This choice is influenced mainly by the goals of the study and the selected paradigm. I feel that for this inquiry the most suitable methodology would be collective case study. I have several reasons to believe so. Firstly, using this methodology I will be able to get an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of academic stress by looking at multiple cases. Each "case" will be comprised of a female first-year undergraduate student suffering from academic pressure. Secondly, case study will allow me to set boundaries and decide what will and will not be included within the boundaries. Thus, I will be able to narrow down or broaden the focus of the research when/if necessary. Finally, this methodology can be used with the interpretivist theoretical perspective. From this it is easy to see why I chose the case study. 

            

Memo on the Topic and Purpose of the Research

            This week, when I was thinking about the purpose statement for my research, I came across the Cooperative Institutional Research Program Survey (2011), which made me narrow down the topic of my study. According to the survey, today’s first-year college students experience record-high levels of anxiety and nervous tension. However, female students were about 12% more likely to report low levels of emotional health than male students. This helped me decide to focus on studying academic stress among female first-year students rather than on first-year undergraduate students in general. Thus, the research would contribute to further study of emotional health in women.

            After I revised the topic (Academic Stress among American Female First-Year Undergraduate Students), I reread my Researcher Identity Memo several times and came to a decision that valid evaluation of the University's need for including stress-management course in the undergraduate curriculum based on exclusively females' perceptions would be impossible. Such evaluation requires examining the perceptions of both sexes.

            I feel it would be more relevant to the research to explore how academic pressures affect female students' social lives within the campus community. I have two reasons to believe so: Firstly, there is not enough literature on this subject. Secondly, it would provide a better understanding of female nature. Therefore, taking these relevancies into account, I believe the topic of the research should be Academic Stress among American Female First-Year Undergraduate Students and Its Effect on Their Social Lives.

             Through my research I will explore the connection between classroom practices at the University of Hawaii, stress among its female first-year undergraduate students, and the impact of academic stress on the students' social behavior within the university community. I seek to understand what role classroom practices play in the occurrence of stress in the female students.  Further, I hope to illuminate how academic stress affects their life-style choices and participation in community life.         

RESEARCHER IDENTITY MEMO FOR A RESEARCH PROJECT ON STUDYING- RELATED STRESS ISSUES AMONG FIRST-YEAR UNDERGRADUATE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES

Researcher Identity Memo for a Research Project on Studying-Related Stress Issues among First-Year Undergraduate University Students in the United States

Ekaterina Grebenyuk

University of Hawai'i at Manoa

  Every student at some point of his or her academic life is exposed to stress related to the learning process. It does not matter if one is a third-grader or a first-year graduate student - no one is immune to nervous tension and anxiety. I have a strong personal interest in the topic of stress because I have often experienced anxiety attacks as a student. Looking back at my academic career, I believe my freshman year at the Russian State University for the Humanities was the most stressful. Adaptation to a new learning environment as well as to unfamiliar educational approaches constantly made me nervous. Moreover, large amounts of homework, assignment deadlines and lack of educators' control caused me to stress out. At that time I did not know how to cope with anxiety. Often I did not even realize that I was under stress; I never sought out counseling services for help, and my tension grew. 

When I was in the middle of my freshman year, one of my friends told me that she was taking a stress management class. So I decided to join as well. I immediately found this class very helpful, especially the stress-relief exercises. Additionally, I started reading a lot on ways to prevent nervous tension. Eventually, I learned how to cope with anxiety. I also learned how to tell if a person is stressed-out. I began to raise stress awareness among my peers as it was clear to me that many of them were under some sort of tension. Therefore, from my experience, it is easy to see what drove me to choose the topic of stress and why my research focuses on undergraduate students. 

Observing students in the United States, I see first-year undergraduates going through similar experiences. However, for a young adult it may be hard to recognize that he or she is under stress and even harder to realize the possible consequences of not dealing with these feelings. Thus, I feel that the main goal of my research is to raise stress awareness among students and educators here at the University of Hawai'i, and as a result contribute to the improvement of the learning process as well as to making classroom environments more open and friendly. 

My experience shows that studying stress management techniques helps with fighting nervous tension and anxiety. In my view, including stress management in the undergraduate curriculum as a required course could be beneficial for first-year undergraduate students. Nevertheless, I must be aware that the students might not agree with this idea. So I must be careful not to project my own opinion onto them. I must control my emotions and constantly monitor what I say and how I say it, as I risk confusing students' opinions and ideas with my own. This brings me to the other goal of my research, which is to evaluate the University's need for including stress management course in the curriculum.

Writing this memo, I have come to see other validity threats my personal background could cause. First of all, being an international student, I must be aware that I might be under stress caused by language differences between myself and the research participants. Therefore, I must regularly monitor my stress level and do stress-relief exercises. Furthermore, I risk misunderstanding students participating in the research due to our cultural differences. This means I must constantly seek validation for my perceptions of the participants' words and actions in order to avoid making false assumptions. Finally, I feel that my bias might affect the process of selecting research participants. I might want to pick students who I am most comfortable speaking to instead of those who could give me a deeper understanding of the stress issue amongst first-year undergraduate students. Therefore, I must always put goals of my research first and be aware that this may require doing something out of my comfort zone. 

However, I believe that my personal base could contribute greatly to the research. To begin with, my own experiences of coping with stress can help me relate better to the people I interview, thus helping them open up and trust me. Moreover, having an inside perspective will guide me during the process of interviewing and help me alter interview questions according to each participant's story. Finally, being a new international student, I feel I can capture participants' stories more vividly and pay attention to every single detail, as I am very excited by the novelty of this new experience. 

In conclusion, I acknowledge that it will not be easy for me to prevent validity threats. Nevertheless, I believe that constant monitoring of my own actions, peers' feedback and advisor's guidance will help me avoid any revealed threats. Besides, my passion for the research topic will motivate me and help me commit to the project.