I am thinking about trying to figure out how to conduct research “properly” in the regions beyond the boundary of post-positivism. Think of a farm that now borders the deep dark woods. In the beginning we have a farm, surrounded by other farms, and over time, we haved figured out through trial and error, what […]
Tag: Military
reflecting on the forest past the boundary of post-positivism
Creswell talks about the 4 worldviews that shape the research goals, objectives, methods, interpretive measures, and sense making of researchers. I inherited a post-positivist outlook from my formative years working in a machine shop with designers, engineers, craftsmen, and other shop rats. My years of experience as a planner in the Army helped me appreciate […]
an exercise in “sense-making”: grappling with “design” and “planning”
a number of faculty and officers gathered around a whiteboard to try to create their own practical sense of the distinction and relationship between design and planning. The series of diagrams reflected in the image unfolded over a discussion of several hours as we tried to connect the doctrinal and scholarly terms to our own […]
New feature: indexed links to Youtube videos
I should have done this a long time ago. I created 2 new pages on the blog to collect an indexed list of the videos of mini-lectures for my doctoral research and my Army classroom professional stories. These will be a more organized way to layout a menu of choices for students and interested parties […]
Lifting our voices: a reflection on Voice in curriculum, in doctoral research, in life
“Lifting our voices” by Ken Long (PAR journal entry J20090724.doc) In this essay I will describe a construct we are calling “Voice”, my background, my research, and some implications for the doctoral research process in general and how it is affecting Dr Alana and me in our mentor-mentee relationship. I am a retired Army officer, […]
Reflecting on theory and practice, and how research questions connect them; part 2
A continuation of the reflection on theory and practice in our doctoral cohhort discussion. Weick (1995) talked about the continuum from mature, accepted dominant theory to the first conjecture arising out of some anomalous observation. There is a continuum between the generalist inquiring into the purest of theoretical distinctions, and the pragmatist seeking to add […]
Reflecting on theory and practice, part 1
From our doctoral cohort discussion group. I first want to describe my reaction to the articles on theory referenced below and then conclude with some thoughts about the relationship between theory and research. I began with the Feldman article, an editorial piece included at the front of a special edition of the Journal of Management […]
Reflection 2 on the practitioner-scholar divide: a case where it was the thinnest of veils, unknown to any of us
I will answer this from my preferred pragmatist and action research perspective I believe most interesting problems originate in the practitioners world, and that most chief decision-makers (who approve projects, set priorities and allocate resources) MUST be practitioners first, if only to satisfy political and social constraints. I believe our action groups that solve problems […]
A thought experiment in leadership and identity
Here is a thought experiment to get your mental juices flowing Who am I? a multi-billion dollar enterprise with a long and distinguished history, filled with notable achievements, and some dismal failures have for held a position of international leadership for decades associated with a core function of any modern nation and economy provides products […]
Reflections on Validity in qualitative research
Was working on my final draft for my research proposal and had the following reflection about the issue of Validity in qualitative research. Since I am aiming for transformational changes in our strong military culture, and am using individual Voice (narratives, stories , interviews etc) as the basis for describing the current situation and […]