What follows is a 1st person, stream of consciousness reflection written to my mentor & committee chair. I describe what it was like to record a 10 min video “telling the story” of some preliminary findings emerging from my action research cycles into curriculum and adult learning. The video is hosted at YouTube. It […]
Tag: PAR journal
Traders Roundtable: Maximum Compounded Return Versus Fear of Drawdown
In a recent traders roundtable discussion on the subject of balancing maximum gain with risk management the question was posed how to reconcile these two issues. A few definitions for the purposes of this essay are in order. First let’s consider maximum compounded return to be defined as a system that is traded at every […]
Traders roundtable discussion: the issue of optimization in research
We were having a traders’ roundtable discussion on the topic of researching potential trading systems and the issue of optimization came up. This is a very important topic for traders who want to apply a systematic approach to trading markets. Here are some of the highlights of that discussion for you to consider as you […]
when post-positivism meets uncertainty
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]