Reflective Piece – Guidelines for Assignment (PS-M39)
The purpose of this piece is to reflect on your experiences of interviewing, being interviewed, transcribing and analysing the data. Reflection is an important aspect of qualitative research, and helps to improve credibility and transparency, and manage subjectivity to avoid unnecessary bias. The seminar week 7 explores reflection, reflexivity and the difference between the two in some depth, so do refer to the recording and slides to help you understand these. In addition, reflection and its importance has been discussed throughout teaching materials from weeks 1 to 5, and it is important that you have a good understanding of its place before you start this piece. In addition, you should look at the marking criteria below to see what is expected in the content of this piece.
Word limit = 400 words
There are some questions below which are aimed at helping you to focus your thoughts to write the reflection. Please note that these are not supposed to be answered directly as responses to questions, but used as a guide to help formulate your thoughts to a personal, freeform piece. This is not a question-and-answer piece, but a prose piece, which should be composed of your own thoughts, in a fluid way. If you answer the questions directly, in three separate parts, this will be reflected in your marks in a negative way. In addition to, or instead of, the prompts below, please do feel free to include anything you feel is relevant and which constitutes your development in this project. There are no rights and wrongs, it is about how you express your thoughts, feelings and development. It is vital that you refer to the marking criteria below to help you understand what else is expected from this piece.
Prompts to help you focus your thoughts
What thoughts, expectations or pre-conceptions do you think you may have had at the start of the project which may have had an influence on your participation (either as an interviewer, or as a respondent, or both)?
How were your initial thoughts and attitudes affected by the process of interviewing and/or being interviewed? How did your ideas change as a result of conducting and participating in the process?
In what ways do you think you have changed as a researcher as the project has progressed? How has hearing about the experiences and thoughts of other students influenced you? What do you think you can take into the final stages of analysis from your experiences so far?
In what ways do you feel you may have changed as a researcher or participant for future projects? What have you learnt from your experiences of this research project, in terms of any of the following – devising a research question and interview questions, interviewing and transcribing, being interviewed, analysing the data and drawing conclusions from the findings? Have the experiences had an influence on you as a student or a person?