remembering video qualitative critique

 Nov 2012 Methods... qualitative critique
1.The video allows you to see a story about a women who gave so much for her family and her community. Right away you get a personal feel on her life through the pictures being shown. You get a sense of a person with a "warm" heart, as a big part of her life was advocating for the mentally ill. The video showed us the Posthumously, the Sussex County NJ Freeholders award that thanked her for years of advocacy. The short video recognizes some of her achievements that any one would look up too. In the text your can see she was highly respected and very involved in her community. The church donated a glass window in her passing and the sheriffs had an "honor" at her funeral for all of her advocacy about the jail time the mental health treatment. It seems she had good values and morals that have shined thru her children. 

2.  I think the effectiveness of meeting its purpose was caught and delivered in a good way. You get to know ones life and achievements thru a personal touch rather than a researcher. As in we get to see the emic focus as opposed to etic focus. The narrative and photo time line help the audience understand her life as they unfolded in a meaningful progression. The video summed up her life using pictures for "before and after" involving the mother. Sensitivity to context is a good way to focus on her life meaning. 

Methodology 2012 team raw data analysis

Social and behavioral science research starts at many different places. You have all gone through that in your team meetings. Salut to you all for presenting a finished project at this class session.

I have been going through data collected from the SO348 teams since 2002. The raw data is attached for you to review. Your teams are part of the history of this course at Mercy. Every social and behavioral science major in an accreditated US college also takes this class in whatever form. You are part of and maybe even making history!

You are participant observers in today’s team presentations. There are three questions that I would like you to write about.

1/ From today’s presentations and the attached listing of teams, please give me some categories. Think qualitative. The projects are rich in descriptions but how can one organize them into themes. Think “The Caregiver’s Tale” and how Dr. Burack-Weiss constructed categories of caregiving from memoirs. What themes, i.e, the nominal categories of measurement, do you identify,

Bullying meta analysis  questionnaires  youth at risk  action research

Poverty poor parenting behavior issues substance abuse budget

The categories I can identify are social and emotional issues and methods of research

2/ What independent variables seem relevant to understand the whole corpus of research teams in this course? I have several variables listed, particularly in the sample columns (geo, age, N). What would you add?

Socioeconomic status

3/ Another variable is the method. I am going through the projects and listing methods. I note that some teams are off in their method. Research may be multi-method but there is usually a predominant method. In your assessment was the choice of team project methods the best choice? Do some critical thinking.

Observation and Interview

Thanks much!

Re-reading Victor Klemperer

Re-reading Victor Klemperer

Mention VK as a memoir among types of methodologies to explore issues in the social sciences.

April 1945.. VK et Eva to: Munich to Dachau (5 April), back to Munich on 8 April. I was there in April, 1989, years before I read Klemperer.

Noting mention of Cassirer, Muhsam, and Laocoon.

Through YouTube, I have seen films mentioned by VK: "Der Betelstudent", "Habanera", "Vier Gesellen", and watched Jan Kiepura. 

Re-reading Jurgen Habermas "The New Conservatism", bought 9/11/91 whilst a doctoral student at Columbia. ($19.99 new, now $30.)

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=7868&ttype=2

Thinking about my upcoming online course "Methods of Research". Many ways of knowing yet must use a methodology that has an absolute baseline of an empirical understanding.

Excellent reading about concern for the poor and oppressed in the welfare state schema. Support for the lifeworlds of people. Thoughts of Polyani.

Concept of geist in relation to identifying "the intellectual" ... public advocacy of a college graduate who is not an elected official or representative. I always remind students of their being part of an "elite minority", the 33% or so of those with a real accreditated college degree.

The functional organization of higher education (per Talcott Parsons).

Bataille, dada, Fassbinder, Walter Benjamin cited.

Subjects not discussed since the world has changed since 1991. The end of the Soviet regime, German re-unification, issue of a role for Islam in the world.

welcome to ethics and the family

hello!
glad we are starting this adventure!
will be posting supplemental materials;
will post take-home assignments here.
best
ProfMike