Day 41-42: Lantern - - A Great Concept to Explain Quali Research

Orange Juice
Originally uploaded by Hadjek.

I've not been well for these past few days, so I'm combining the 2 days' worth of blogging together.

And because I'm not feeling well, I feel I need some huge injection of Vitamin C. And look what kind of photo I found! Don't you just love Flickr? This photo is so amazing! It literally made me thirsty! heh-heh

Now, back to business. I just wanna continue on Shank's book. I really like how he differentiate among the 3 types of "seeing." The "mirror" way to see things is more of a speculative style while the window type is more scientific. Neither of which is going to be my focus.

Lantern, however, is what qualitative research is all about. On page 11 of his book, I found what I need to use to defend my decision to go for qualitative in my ph.d. study despite the "norm" in my school to go quantitative. I would probably be the first, or second, to have this so-called "deviant behavior!" hee hee hee

Here is some excerpt from p.11:

• "...When we look at qualitative researchers over the decades as they have struggled to craft conceptual tools for their trade, we find an implicit reaching for illuminative concepts. We see them use such words as "illumination" and "insight" and "understanding."

• "...We see researchers going to faraway places and to ordinary settings, seeking to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange. We find researchers struggling to see the world through the eyes of others, to understand acts in terms of strange motives, and to fathom cultures in terms of strange presuppositions..."
  

• "...We find other qualitative researchers using interpretative tools and techniques to decipher cultural codes and social mores ranging from marriage rituals to dealing with uncommunicative students..."

• "...Therefore, the goals of qualitative research are insight, enlightenment, and illumination. We are neither contemplative mirror researchers nor unbiased window researchers. We are searchers and discoverers and reconcilers of meaning where no meaning has been clearly understood before, and we do not feel that our understanding of meaning is complete until we discover and understand its role in practice and experience...."
  

Wow, I'm literally moved by his words. Thank you, Professor Shank! You have made me feel good about my determination to do what I'm doing! Gee, it is really uplifting reading your book! It's not just a "how to do a qualitative research" book, if you ask me. It helps give the readers more the "sense of purpose." And that's why I like it so much!

(p.s. I already gave it a 5-star and positive comment on Amazon.com!)