An honor and a real push!

Thank you so much to Professor Michal Zellermayer and the members of the Action Research and Self Study Interest group at the Mofet Institute!

Yesterday I had the honor to present my article for Journal X to the members of the group. Most of the participants are experienced teacher educators and researchers and all have a real interest in the sort of research I am doing. The atmosphere in the group is very supportive, and even though I was the first to present this year, I did not feel threatened or pressured at any stage.

As I approached the front of the room I asked myself a number of questions:

How will my work be accepted?

How does my research fit in under the category of Action / Participatory research?

How will I react to the criticism I will… may hear?

Was this text appropriate for this framework?

and last but not least…

Did I make a mistake volunteering to be the first?

I will begin by answering the last question – No! I certainly did not make a mistake, Presenting my article and receiving thoughtful and intelligent feedback from this group was  an incredible honor and supplied me with a lot of material to think about and work on. The changes which were suggested in the structure of the article are similar to those that my supervisors would have suggested (I suppose).

Professor Zellermayer directed the group to look closer at the article using the characteristics of Action Research papers based on the work of McNiff and Whitehead and the analysis proved very useful. The main criticism which arose is that I haven’t spelled out the “What is my concern?” which is motivating my study in general and this article in general. This is one of the differences between a paper which fits in as a chapter in my PhD to  a journal article which must stand on its own. This of course is something to consider in every article I attempt to create.

According to Professor Zellermayer and the members of the group, The article should begin with the answer to  “What is my concern?” . Again and again I find myself being pulled back to opening my writing with more traditional academic styles and material on the context of the study, where really what I should be doing is plunging my reader into the study with the kind of professional texts which are at the heart of my work. The same thing happened when I wrote my paper for my confirmation process.

I have to take off my doctoral student cap now and replace it with my teacher cap. I hope to continue this reflection on the wonderful feedback I received yesterday as it had motivational value as well as a real push in a positive direction. I received many comments pointing to the strong points in my writing and  also concrete comments in the direction of improvement.

Have a nice day!

 

 

Thinking about writing… again…

This morning I got up early to reread the article I submitted to journal X about a month ago.

As I read I jotted a few points in the margins and identified a few issues I should work on. What surprised me though, was the intensity of the feeling that the text is far more complex than anything that I am capable of producing. My immediate reaction was to “tweet”:

“I just reread an article I wrote and submitted a month ago. Yet again I had the: “Did I really write that? I can’t do that again” feeling”.

I reread the article as I suggested that it be discussed by the Action Research and Self Study interest group I joined at the Mofet Institute. I desire feedback which will help me revise the article when it returns from the peer reviewers. I am interested in understanding more about how my work fits into the Israeli context of Action research. I am eager to be able to name the type of writing I am doing and to further pursue how it will eventually blend into my PhD thesis.

As it is I am stuck. I have not begun a new piece of writing since I submitted the article and submitted an abstract for the The Fifth Israeli Conference of  Qualitative Research.

Both of those events are essentialy unfinished and that  is somehow preventing me from producing something new. I suppose this is something other academics and writers experience.

This is always a complicated time of the year for me as a student. In Israeli terms I am mid year and running full steam (or trying to!) and the university, my supervisors and all are in Christmas mode, summer leave mode. I am trying hard to motivate myself to start writing a brand new section, something that will enliven me and push me further in the process.

Cartoon – Toondoo: http://www.toondoo.com/

 

New start… exciting

I have been feeling a bit isolated recently and have noticed a lack of interaction surrounding my research since the intensive month I experienced in Australia. It’s not that I haven’t been working. Choosing to write a journal article as a means of getting myself going has proved useful. I am still waiting for feedback on the draft I submitted to International Journal X and I do indeed hope it will be accepted (after revisions… of course). Having a clear cut deadline to work towards gives me the kind of work-inducing pressure that I seem to need.

In the next two weeks I have three other urgent tasks – producing abstracts for two conferences to be held here in Israel this year (one national and the other international) and finalizing permission from the Chief Scientist’s Office so that I can begin my interviews ASAP.

I am excited that on Sunday I am travelling to Tel Aviv to participate in the Mofet Teacher Educator Interest Groups for qualitative researchers. I have never attended any of their sessions and this year I signed up for two different groups. I am looking forward to a whole day of stimulating discussion and thought provoking interaction. This, along with my ongoing doctoral writing group, will be another means of meeting people doing similar work to mine, here in Israel. I am interested to see how my work fits in to the academic puzzle here in this country.

In the morning I will be attending the interest group for researchers connected to action research. This group is run by Professor Michal Zellermayer from Levinsky College. The afternoon group deals with narrative inquiry and is run by Dr Gabriela Spector Mersel from Ben-Gurion University. This week there is a lecture by Professor Yehuda Bar-Shalom between the two sessions. There will be 5 days like this one throughout the 2011-2012 academic year.

If anyone reading this is attending, I would be honored to meet you…