GRRR

“I found this dissertation to be one of the best I’ve read in a long time. I’m troubled by it, but I really liked it. It read almost like a novel in places. I really like it…but I’m troubled by the first person references. I tell my students, Never use ‘I’.” “A second committee member then said he found the writing to be refreshing, but that candidate was lucky to have committee members who were sympathetic to her approach. ‘Not all faculty,’ he added, ‘would be so understanding’”(Two faculty committee members’ comments in Piantida and Garman, 2009, p. 65). Grrr! Why should a doc candidate be “lucky that her members were sympathetic”? Why can’t some see that you can (and should) use “I”! This drives me insane. The main reason I have become drawn to qualitative research, particularly ethnographies, is because they do read like a novel and they are extremely accessible to scholars and non(?) scholars alike. They are informative, engaging, and allow the reader to draw his or her own conclusions to the findings (if indeed that would be what they would be called). It is unfair to the researcher if the committee members aren’t familiar with the various forms that qualitative research can take. I have likened the idea of ‘justification’ as covered in Ch. 5 to the split of the Catholic Church in 1066. In short, Catholic Priests felt that they were elite and they should be the only ones able to read the bible, and talk to God. Orthodox priests believed that everyone should be allowed to read the bible and talk to God. In academia, I feel that there are people in the proverbial ivory tower that believe only scholars should be able to discuss research and write in a language set to archaic rules and standards (I think of quantitative researchers—using my own background and experience). Outsiders need not apply—they’d never understand it. However, others (in this case, I default to qualitative researchers) realize that there are many ways to find out “truths” (not “T” truth, if you’re a constructivist) and many ways to observe and explain what they make of things. This is accessible to all—scholars and laymen alike. Someone said, “If you can’t explain your work to your mom, you don’t know what you’re doing.” Why can’t I have a well-informed, well-written, involved piece that my mom could read (and understand) AND be “valid research” to the elite scholars?! It shouldn’t have to be one or the other.