A  few weeks ago I wrote about being invited to join a small group of PG students who meet monthly and last week I attended my first session. The group meets once a month, each time in a different home.

A few days before the session, H emailed out materials she is dealing with at the moment (interview transcripts, interview summary etc) and wanted to hear our opinions and ideas. She was searching for a different way to look at her data. We drank hot tea and discussed how we read her texts differently from the way she reads them and how they can be examined in other ways. The discussion was informal and extremely supportive – thinking together out loud in order to help her find her way in the mass of data.

I was interested to feel H’s interview style and the way her transcripts were organized. I was fascinated by the way she records her thoughts about the data and her attempt to classify her interviewees into distinct groups. From her descriptions I learnt new terms and was introduced to new theories.

I m grateful to be part of the group and believe that it will  be stimulating and supportive. The chance to look at the writing of others in unfinished drafts and to hear other doctoral students discuss their deliberations and breakthrough moments will be very influential in my work. I will be able to contribute to others and at the same time negate some of the loneliness and isolation of being an off-campus student.

I am supposed to present some work at the next session. As I’m not doing much at the moment, this could pose a problem but I am going to look at it as an opportunity. I have decided that during the Passover holidays I am going to finish grading the assignments from my Z course and write a narrative about the whole experience. As I don’t  yet have ethics clearance to include those assignments in my work, I will have to write about the course as a whole and more about my experience and understandings. Having to have a draft to show is a positive step in the direction of getting something done.

RF picture: http://www.images.com/