photo from Unsplash - Marek Pinwicki
I have been part of a group called qualitative messes run by Dr May Seitanidi, stemming from a chance meeting on a post grad course I attended as part of my initial PhD training provided by the University of Kent. Whilst the majority of the group are members of the Kent Business School at the University and are PhD students, there are a few of us from other professional backgrounds. One of the real benefits that I get from liasing with this group is that every month is like a mini viva when I present my work. It is part of the discipline of the group that members present work on a piece of writing and relate it to their current research, this might be closely involved or it might meant that you provide a critique, which is equally valuable as I am then being challenged to think about why I will use some approaches and importantly why I will not use some. The other people who form part of the group ask questions that come from a place that I had not envisioned and that encourages me to think critically about the quality of the work I produce which I believe to be having a positive impact. The second reason why I like to be part of the group and in an odd way why it is therapeutic for me, is that for many years I have held a negative view of business. By nature I find finance not interesting, my attitude to money is that as long as I have enough to get by then that is OK. Influenced no doubt by reports of sleaze in government and leading businesses I have felt antagonistic towards industry at times. My involvement with the members of the group is showing me a different side to people involved within a business mindset which is useful and helpful not only in my professional role but in my private thinking as well when I try and tease out how news items are reported and why we continue to live in a society that is at best imbalanced in favour of a minority and at worst verging on immoral.
As an example I would like to share the following powerpoint I created and delivered to the group which I think shows an example of how looking from the outside can help in both quality of material but also additional insights into methodology. One of the key skills I am developing is a keener understanding of Grounded Theory.
for the powerpoint click here:
For the accompanying notes click here: