Initial Research Proposal

It does not look like I have posted my developing thoughts on my research. I have submitted a short research proposal through the Partnership for Theological Education in Manchester. The college that I am asociated with (Northern Baptist College) is a part of PTEM. I am meeting Richard Kidd (blogging here) to talk about it on Tuesday when I am on my way to the Incarnate Houseparty. My proposal is here: Initial Research Proposal

Summer Reading

Summer Reading

Looking at the dates of my recent posts you’ll see that I haven’t made any over the summer. That does not mean I haven’t been reading though, just that my notes haven’t been quite so detailed… actually my notes are non existent. However for the record I have read.

A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren.

It looks to me that Brian has written this particular book as some kind of explanation or defense of his views. It is written in a popular style and is very easy to read, and follow his thought process. The experiences and perceptions are born out of his own experiences of church life in the States. He argues for drawing the best from all Christian Traditions. In every way it is an supreme example of a post-modern approach to Christianity.

A New Way Of Being Church (Phd Thesis) by Steve Taylor.

Steve’s Phd thesis is very easy to read. It is an interesting analysis of Cityside Baptist Church in New Zealand, a church that deliberately chose an Alternative Worship approach to its regular worship.

Out Of Bounds Church by Steve Taylor.

It is difficult to divorce Out of Bounds Church from Steve’s Phd thesis. This book has used the same core material but instead of applying it to one church, it has applied it to many different communities across the globe. Having read the thesis first, I often found myself thinking “I’ve read this before somewhere”. It is a cleverly written book, following a narrative of an imaginative journey across the globe to visit Emerging Churches. Not only does it serve as a good introduction to the Emerging Church scene, it also provides some thoughtful background to the changes in culture. I have found it a good book to lend as an introduction to incarnational missional thinking. However, having said that in my own community I am keen to avoid the term “Emerging Church”, a term that is used liberally throughout the book. I don’t want to give the impression that I am jumping on the latest bandwagon, but simply encouraging the community I am involved with to think incarnationally and missionally.

Church after Christendom by Stuart Murray.

I thoroughly enjoyed Stuart’s book, particularly his approach and writing style. It is an easy book to read and gives a thorough summary of the current thinking regarding changing culture and mission in Britain. I noticed that he offers some gentle critiques of the other prominent literature in this field. I think this is a book I should go back to, unfortunately I leant it to my friend Graham at Caton Baptist church, so I can’t go back over it until he has finished with it.

Kvale, InterViews: Part II: 7 Stages of Interview Investigation

7 stages of an Interview Investigation

1. Thematizing
2. Designing
3. Interviewing
4. Transcribing
5. Analyzing
6. Verifying
7. Reporting

Steinar sees the qualitative research interview as a process where knowledge is created in the interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee. The project should be planned with the whole process in mind.

The final report should be envisaged from the start, and much of the analyzing and verifying tasks should be pushed forward to the earlier stages. The implications of the researcher becoming wiser during the interviews should be considered. P. 99

1. Thematizing
   • The interviewer should already know the subject, so that they can tell if the interview is discovering something new.
   • The purpose of the study should be clarified.
   • The means of gathering the information should be considered as well as the mode of analyzing.
2. Designing
   • Think about the number of subjects. Too few make a study unreliable, to many make it unwieldy
   • Think about the time involved and the resources available
   • Think through the ethical dimensions of the report
3. Interviewing

   The research interview is an interpersonal situation, a conversation between two partners about a theme of mutual interest. It is a specific form of human interaction in which knowledge evolves through a dialogue. P.125

   • Provide the interviewee with a context for the interview providing a briefing before and a summary at the end.
   • Have an interview guide indicating the topics and the order they are to be addressed.
   • Keep the questions dynamic providing positive interaction and flow.

   When preparing an interview it may be useful to develop two guides, one with the projects main thematic research questions and the other with questions to be posed during the interview. P. 130

   • Keep the questions brief and simple.
   • Ask clarifying questions. This is a form of analysing the data as you go. It checks that you have understood the interviewees intention.
4. Transcribing

   Transcribing involves translating from an oral language, with it’s own set of rules, to a written language with another set of rules. P.165

   • Use a common style.
5. Analyzing
   • Do not consider analysis to be a totally different stage. Persue analysis and learning throughout. Then, when it comes to drawing your analysis together the stage is much easier.
   • Steinar suggests 5 methods of analysis:
     1. Condensed Meaning
        The researcher interprets the meaning of the interviews by rewriting the meaning of the interviewee.
     2. Meaning Categorisation
        Categorising the meaning of the interviewee.
     3. Narrative Structuring
        Focus on the stories told and work out their plot.
     4. Meaning Interpretation
        simmilar to 2 but the interviewer interprets the interviewee.
     5. Ad. Hoc. Method
        Various approaches are used as deemed appropriate by the researcher
6. Validation/Verifying
   Steinar changes the title of this stage of his seven stages part way through.
   • He sees the quality of the research depending on how it can be validated. Including:
     • Methods used
     • the researcher
     • moral integrity
     • quality
   • Quality can be verified by:
     • Checking
     • Questioning
     • Theorising

   The understanding of validity as craftsmanship, as communication and action, does not replace the importance of precise observations and logical argumentation, but includes broader conceptions of the nature of truth in social research. P.251

7. Reporting
   • Conduct your study with the final report in mind throughout.

   An interview report should ideally be able to live up to artistic demands of expression as well as the cross examination of the courtroom. P.259

   • Ways to improve a report:
     • Turn the interviews into pluralistic writing.
     • Report the interviews as edited dialogue.
     • Take a therapeutic case history approach.
     • Use narrative technique.
     • Use vivid metaphor
     • Visualize the data

Kvale, InterViews

Steinar Kvale
Interviews: An introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing
London: Sage
1996

Part 1: Interviewing as Research.

Using the illustration that can be seen in two ways,either as two faces, or as a vase. Steinar suggests that the qualitative research interview can be seen in the picture. The two faces represent the interviewer and the interviewee. The vase in the centre can be seen as the main body of knowledge that is brought about by the interaction.

Part 2: Conceptualizing the research interview.

Steiner uses three examples

• A Philasophical Conversation.
• A Theraputic Interview.
• A Research Interview.

Using these examples he suggests 12 principles for understanding the research interview:

1. Life World
   The interview is conducted around a theme that is of interest to both interviewer and interviewee. In this sense it becomes a dialogue between two interested parties.
2. Meaning
   The qualitative research interview will seek to find the meaning in central themes of the interviewee as they explore the life world together. The researcher will explore both facts and meaning.
3. Qualitative
   One of the aims behind the interview is to give descriptions of the interviewee’s world.
   

   Precision in description and stringency in meaning interpretation correspond in qualitative interviews to exactness in qualitative measurements.

4. Descriptive
   The researcher will facilitate the interviewee in accurately describing their experience, feelings and actions. The task of the researcher is to gain a description so that they have accurate material from which to draw and interpretation.
5. Specificity
   The interviewer will use their questions to carefully describe specific situations The interviewer will arrive at a description of the interviewee’s opinion without specifically asking what their opinion is.
6. Deliberate Naivete
   The interviewer will avoid presuppositions about the interviewee’s situation and circumstance. In order to foster deliberate naivete the interviewer will ovoid predefined questions and predefined categories for analysis.
7. Focus
   Although avoiding predefined questions and conclusions the interviewer must have some focus. They will question the subject using themes as a guide.
8. Ambiguity
   The interviewer listens for any ambiguity in the statements made by the interviewee and seeks to clarify what they have said. Ambiguity may have been intended or it may have been an accurate understanding of the interviewee’s environment.
9. Change
   The process of questioning may lead the interviewee to change their opinion or conclusions as they reflect upon the situation they are describing.
10. Sensitivity
    Different interviewers may themselves have varying levels of knowledge and experience of the subject they are examining.
    

    A qualitative research interview would instead seek to employ the varying abilities of he interviewers to obtain different nuances and deoths of the themes of the interview p.35

11. Interpersonal Situation
    The relationship between the interviewee and the subject matter, as well as the interviewee and interviewer may affect the data gathered. It should be taken into account during the analysis.
12. Positive Experience
    It can be a positive experience for the interviewee to have the attention and listening ear of the interviewee. It is also helpful to see it as a conversation where a mutually interesting subject is discussed.

There are three different levels of interaction happening during the interview:

1. A professional Conversation technique
2. A basic mode of knowing
3. Human reality is understood

There are some useful extracts from this book in my study library.
http://building.stanleyroad.org.uk:8080/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?bib=111