Day 9: Going Quanti? I Must Have Gone Crazy!
It's not difficult to guess that math and I do not look eye to eye!
In fact, thanks to the educational system in Thailand, I did not have much chance to make any eye contact with math and stuff since Grade 9 in High School because I happened to choose the English-French major.
So, the idea of trying to do my dissertation based on a quantitative reseacrh laden with math and statistical equations is a bit appalling, if not surprising.
But, worse comes to worst, it may be my only remaining option?
Today, this idea sort of presented itself to me. Reluctantly, I made a note of it in my Google Notebook. Well, who knows, I may really have to use it later, when all else fails, that is!
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Factors involved in this study are:
- Mindfulness
- Bushido
- Budo
- Transformational Leadership Development
How about:
2. Find the relationship between Mindfulness and Bushido during Tokugawa period (by content analysis in the period's Bushido literature)
3. Find the relationship between Mindfulness in Koryu Budo (by observant participation.)
If it can be proved that
- Mindfulness is an important factor that contributes positively to transformational leadership deelopment, and
- that same "mindfulness" exists abundantly in Bushido way of living and Budo practice,
- then, it may be possible to say that Bushido and Budo contribute positively to transformational leadership development.
Oh...the suffering of having to go through all this!
Kids, don't try Ph.D. studies at home! :-p
I'd rather be in my Meditation Retreat! :'-(
3 comments:
1. Frankly, if you can statistically prove that mindfulness is positively associated with leadership...it's not that surprising and all you can do with the stat is "association" not "causation"
2. mindfulness is very hard to measured quantitatively.
3. The issue you're explored will fit more with phenomenology jing jing na ka and you will be able to offer more answer on HOW that (mindfulness ---> transform leader) happen instead of just conclude that it is the association is statistically significant.
4. Your experience alone can write a dissertation....in autobiography sense but I'm not sure if it's allowed there.
5. Or you can do granded-theory ka.
Building your own theory grounded from the information you've got.
6. Can you convince your committee that you have enough material to analysed...(i.e. do you have a journal you enter regularly?)So you don't have to go back to Japan.
I'm just throwing ideas here ka : P
Thank you very much ja for your articulated input. Wow! Just what I need!
1. I have a question on this, but may be I have to consult my advisor(s) also. You mean the reason the most the stat could do is to prove "association" and not "causation" is because there are also many other external factors that could perhaps cause the development of transformational leadership ja?
Well, I was hoping actually to prove that, mindfulness practice is all you need to make things happen regardless of what kind of characteristics background a person has.
I mean, transformational leader need not to be unique or one of a kind like charismatic leader, they are more like someone who has "transformed", you know, those who has been there before, at the same struggling point with you, but, with constant mindfulness practice, they have transformed themselves and now they want to use their own experience to help others transforming themselves also, something like that na.
2. I agree ja, that mindfulness could be hard to measure quantitatively. I was thinking of using the "mindfulness development process" as we have in the Tipitaka (Pra Traipidok) to show how it is developed and use it as constructs to measure na. From what I saw in Bushido literature, it seems as if they were using the same kind of mindfulness development from Tipitaka! I mean, they are aiming for round-the-clock mindfulness practice!
3. I would certainly look into phenomenology again ja. Thanks for your advice na. I would also look into the possibility of studying people who practice Budo as a separate culture. But the problem is, people who practice Koryu Budo are very small in number na. This could pose big problem for me later na. It could backfire....hmm...
4. Oh, I really, really wish I could do that! :-P
5. At first, I was reading (as usual) in a hurry, and was reading it as "Grand Dad Theory." And I was wondering what he has to do with my thesis! hee hee hee I see! Granded Theory sounds very appealing for a sucker like me. Sorry for the language. Couldn't find a more appropriate word at the moment. Hypothyroid took a lot of my memory away. hee hee hee Oh, if I only could do that! I have to ask my advisor how could one do that. But I guess we have to have enough data and re-test it over and over again to confirm the result, right? I don't know if I could do that na see...
6. If they let me do the content analysis, I think I have enough material to analyze la. I do keep some kind of journal, legible to me alone! But of course, would me more ideal if I could teach somewhere on Bushido and stuff and hop back to Japan for some last part of my thesis! The thing is, for the past three years, I was stuck with teaching something that was not directly related to my thesis! It was International Law! See, I had my master's in international law and diplomacy! Don't ask me why! Anyway, it's really tough to teach one thing and do your thesis on another. It really drained all my energy!
Please help keep throwing ideas na ja. Gee, I wish I could help you, too. But I could barely survive myself....
oops...typo ka...it's supposed to be Grounded Theory : P
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