Generally my greatest problem when it comes to research is finding a topic. One reason is that I am someone who has trouble directing myself when i’m not sure what is expected of me and where i’m going. Because of that, the initial phase of finding a research topic can sometimes prove difficult for me. I tend to spin my wheels a lot. Once i’ve got a topic I am generally proficient at building a research project but I'm a little less confident about this project because I really haven’t done this sort of research before. I’m used to more traditional historical research based on documents and not research based on interviews, observation, or raw data.
What worries me the most about the project is that i’ve never been someone who is very comfortable in settings where I have to approach complete strangers to enlist their help in any sort of project or to solicit information. I’ve had jobs and internships where i’ve had to do a fairly heavy amount of contacting people out of the blue to help with various political issues and it is something that I’ve always had real trouble with and always put off as long as possible.
I am most interested in doing something related to primary source material in history classes, how teachers use them, how much they use them, and how effective it is in both teaching the content of history and in teaching the analytical skills that students need outside the classroom.
While I have a general area that I'm interested in, I don’t really have a great idea about how to go about looking at this topic. It seems that regardless of how I choose to go about my research my sample size will be too small to draw any valid conclusions and I have no idea how to quantify topics such as how effective someone uses primary sources or how students respond to them. Because of that I may well have to switch my basic topic.
3 comments:
Alex, you are allowed to spin your wheels for a while longer. If you don't feel comfortable with interviews, you might prefer to think about a survey study...maybe even using the internet. You could construct a nice survey about use of primary sources, and send it to several teachers. You would not need big numbers necessarily. And if you ended up doing interviews, you would only need a very few participants. There are many different ways to approach a topic. Think about how to do it rather than changing the topic.
I'm right there with Dr. McCoy. I wrote my dissertation on teacher uses of digital primary sources...so I have no shortage of literature to share with you.
As for approaching people for interviews...more than likely you will have to write an 'introductory' email anyway, so it won't be in person. I think the next step might be to develop a specific question you want to explore: what do you want to know? How do students use (and interact with) primary sources? (this one might be tricky, as you need to find teachers who use them) Maybe what are teachers' attitudes toward primary sources? To what degree are they used?
Alex,
I really like your idea! I think that using primary sources is one way to make history more real for students. In my "England Under the Stuarts" class this spring, my professor used a plethora of primary documents, especially propaganda pictures, which were in abundance during that time period. Such materials I think could be utilized more in the secondary ed classroom especially with the accessibility of materials on the internet. I would be interested to know if teachers use many primary sources, which sources they use, how often, and to what extent do they encourage students to approach history in a more "hands on" fashion. One of the reasons I majored in history was because I wanted more interaction with primary source materials. I think that things like letters from Pompeian citizens/vacationers during and right after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius are fascinating! Through such resources, students can really get into the minds of historical figures and relate to them, learning invaluable lessons in the meantime.
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