While not a method in my initial plan for my PhD, I find myself analysing documents in order to explore how often, and in what manner, public libraries are considered in official documentation related to the integration of refugees and people seeking asylum in Scotland. Once I finish data analysis, I will be writing up the results in a findings paper that will be submitted to CoLIS 2022, taking place in Oslo, Norway. I'm hoping that I will be able to write a full paper for that conference, as thus far I have only submitted short-papers and posters.
The process of analysing a document is both similar and dissimilar to analysing an interview. While similar methods can be used for both (like the thematic analysis I am using), I find that analysing a document is like analysing an interview you didn't conduct. Though you have the words that were said, you don't have any knowledge of inflection, tone, or the type of conversation. As has been told to me in undergraduate psychology modules, public speaking trainings, and all-staff meetings, a large amount of human communication is based on non-verbal cues. Losing those non-verbal cues means losing some of the meaning of a conversation. You have to take the words at face value and hope you're not misinterpreting something. Analysing documentation feels very similar to deciphering a conversation without non-verbal cues. What does this mean for my analysis? Well, it means that what I find is based purely on what was written down and the way that I view the world. My biases and background will always have some bearing on what I think a piece of data is telling me. However, when I don't have additional information about how something has been said, I am made even more aware of how my own interpretations drive the conclusions of my research. The field of academia often emphasizes objectivity, and in academic writing findings that are published often have to be framed as certainties. If the process of analysing documents has taught me anything, it is that those of us who write research need to always keep in mind just how certain we are that conclusions mean what we think they mean. It isn't just readers of research that need to take everything with a grain of salt, those of us who write research should also take our own outputs with a grain of salt.
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A Second Blog Page?This is the part of the blog specifically about my PhD. It will include updates, musings, and advice. Archives
August 2022
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