I realise it's been a very quiet couple of months on this blog, so my apologies first of all for not keeping to the First Law of Blogging - update regularly.... I must admit i've found it pretty hard going and i've not been that inspired by the whole process recently. But that doesn't mean i've been sitting idly doing nothing. I may not have written up brilliant chapters on theoretical perspectives, or made as much "progress" as i thought i was going to a few months back, but i have been doing some things.
Firstly, i've been talking to people - learned types who know stuff about my research topic: senior doctors/medical educators, both of the champion and sceptic variety, doctor-managers, doctor-leaders and trainee managers who work closely with doctors and they've given me some brilliant insights into this world.
Secondly, i have been reading a lot (and i mean a gargantuan amount about management research approaches/strategies/methodologies etc etc), moving effortlessly between confusion, enlightenment and confusion again, whilst i try to work out the significance of the much vaunted "-ologies" to my project. So, today, for the first time, i am going to share with you where i think i'm at. It won't appear as much of a breakthrough to you as it does to me, but at least it means i can look back at this blog in months to come and say "yep, that was where i was then..."
I will be doing ethnographic research, asking doctors of various ilks about a particular curriculum development. I will watch them at work - as well as asking them irritating questions and i will be trying to work out what they say and whether they mean it, without trying to cast any aspersions as to their veracity, and what the hell difference it makes to them as doctors, people, learners and educators. My epistemology is essentially a social constructionist one (but please don't ask me to explain that to you if you stop me in the corridor, i'll act nervously and start shaking) and my ontology is pragmatic realism....exactly!
That brings me to the book/shelf thing. As far as i'm concerned, there are things called books and mankind has worked out a rather neat way of storing them and/or showing them off on things we call shelves. They exist and most folk call them by those names. But as to how we decide to use them for that purpose or not is really up for grabs. We put pot plants on them, or photos; we organise them so that we can see at any one time how many library books we've borrowed (or not). They might also be put into our offices and workplaces to help organise us, to constrain us, to restrict us or for many other reasons; it's all a matter of how we interact with them. Now if only i'd have decided to do a PhD in shelving....
Firstly, i've been talking to people - learned types who know stuff about my research topic: senior doctors/medical educators, both of the champion and sceptic variety, doctor-managers, doctor-leaders and trainee managers who work closely with doctors and they've given me some brilliant insights into this world.
Secondly, i have been reading a lot (and i mean a gargantuan amount about management research approaches/strategies/methodologies etc etc), moving effortlessly between confusion, enlightenment and confusion again, whilst i try to work out the significance of the much vaunted "-ologies" to my project. So, today, for the first time, i am going to share with you where i think i'm at. It won't appear as much of a breakthrough to you as it does to me, but at least it means i can look back at this blog in months to come and say "yep, that was where i was then..."
I will be doing ethnographic research, asking doctors of various ilks about a particular curriculum development. I will watch them at work - as well as asking them irritating questions and i will be trying to work out what they say and whether they mean it, without trying to cast any aspersions as to their veracity, and what the hell difference it makes to them as doctors, people, learners and educators. My epistemology is essentially a social constructionist one (but please don't ask me to explain that to you if you stop me in the corridor, i'll act nervously and start shaking) and my ontology is pragmatic realism....exactly!
That brings me to the book/shelf thing. As far as i'm concerned, there are things called books and mankind has worked out a rather neat way of storing them and/or showing them off on things we call shelves. They exist and most folk call them by those names. But as to how we decide to use them for that purpose or not is really up for grabs. We put pot plants on them, or photos; we organise them so that we can see at any one time how many library books we've borrowed (or not). They might also be put into our offices and workplaces to help organise us, to constrain us, to restrict us or for many other reasons; it's all a matter of how we interact with them. Now if only i'd have decided to do a PhD in shelving....
