Creswell also offers the reader some basic guidelines for forming a qualitative study. He informs us that we should embrace our role as researcher and do our best to provide the narrative from our perspective. This approach is different now than it was just a number of years ago, he mentions.
What a breath of fresh air! Be ourselves, write from our gut. Is that what he's saying?
Well, in some senses yes, and others no. On one hand Creswell is identifying and articulating the dilemma of the qualitative researcher -- that of human interpretation in research. On another hand Creswell argues there are distinct academic standards which dictate a structure for the researcher.
Could he be arguing here for a both/and approach?
I think this is somewhat the case. There are standards set within academe that all qualitative writing should meet. My personal experience, however, is that each 'expert' in the field, in my case supervising faculty, hold individual opinion on the interpretation of the standard. In some cases entire departments are influenced by the viewpoint of the chair, or of a particular researcher.
The reality is that, as a student, I must become a cognoscente of the preferred style of my faculty. How else would I find true success? But is this the measure of true success?
Better yet, is this the end of education? -- haha, I love puns.
Of course it is the end, but then the means. . . oh the means I shall not bother.
Back to my previous point. Creswell is presenting a bit of what could be considered "benchmark" standards in the field of qualitative research. I believe he articulates that these approaches have come from a history and certainly lead to a future - such a future means these 'structures' are bound to change as techniques adapt and the academy reinterprets the structures and standards of qualitative research.
Moving a bit beyond what Creswell presents brings me to thinking about how these structures could be altered in the future. Certainly ever-evolving technology offers new techniques and realities to which qualitative researchers must adjust. Even in the past decade, modes of human communication have transitioned so dramatically with the advances in online technology and cellular communication. Our world advances, or at the least, changes (with care not to place a value judgement on calling it advancing or retreating).
Hmmmm...
So now we have to begin writing a real paper I guess. That shall prove interesting.
