My Freshman Year (Reflective Reading) II

In my previous post I indicated that I liked the way author Rebekah Nathan wove information about the qualitative research into the story of being a student in My Freshman Year. Continuing with my newly learned skill of hovering above the story in order to note themes and broad stroke connections, I liked the way Nathan educated the reader regarding her alcohol violation and its implications for qualitative research.

Within 48 hours of moving in to the residence hall, Nathan was "busted" by the RAs. Nathan writes that the situation reminded her of another qualitative researcher, Clifford Geertz, who also found himself in a "bust" situation when police raided an illegal cock fight. Geertz ran away from the police alongside other villagers and this proved to be his ticket into the culture.

Nathan writes: there were other unexpected elements as well that reminded me of doing overseas fieldwork. One of these was language. In her study of student language, Connie Eble (1996) found that in a seven-year span (1980-87), only 10 percent of a college slang lexicon remained in use, and over fifteen years (1972-87) only four out of two hundred words stayed the same. I saw very quickly from the banter of the first week that I did not have my lingo straight, and that to increase rapport, I would have to master the current speech conventions."

I am amazed. Over and over I finish reading a passage and not only am I "into" the story and can't wait to read more, but I walk away with a lesson on qualitative research plus a bit of historical context!  In the above section, I learned about the current lingo:  "hooked up, lame, awesome" are cited as current student verbiage, I take away how two incidents provided researchers an "in" into a culture of study (illegal cockfight, alcohol violation) plus I learn about researcher, Eble, and the work she's done on language.

Maybe the magnitude of qualitative research is hitting me so strongly because I have actually read very little of it in my life. Rarely have I read anything other than quantitative articles, self-help books (hey, I'm pretty broken and they promised to fix me) and *blush* the Oprah magazine.  HA!  

I didn't know I would love this type of reading so much. The doctoral program has provided me plenty of opportunity to read the quantitative stuff. I've trained myself to think that the now seemingly (ok it's not just seemingly, it IS) dry, bland, sterile Cronbach Alpha was the stuff I should read to be an learned individual. I am loving that in addition to Cronbach, there is a place, a neat and cool place for a story that weaves, flows, and enriches the perspective. Since reading My Freshman Year, I am coming away with a very full picture:  of the 2003 student life, of a qualitative research example, and a context for other research that's been done.

If others (Jake for example in his blog) are having the same experience I am, there is a possibility that qualitative research ends up being the method for the dissertation. I won't get too carried away as even my initial research questions were slanted as quantitative, but maybe that's because I only know that example. As I do my own ethnography of this stuff, maybe I'll "go native!"