This is week is the first week back of the Uni semester. I’ve met half of my classes so far and have a pretty serious workload so have been wrestling with getting my head around materials, admin and class management.
Today, as I ran around classes, workshops and meetings, I had my monthly meeting with my supervisors. I feel very blessed with my supervisors because they are relaxed and helpful and I find our meeting helpful for clarification of my progress and that I get more info to hone in the focus more closely on what next steps need to be done each meeting. My next task is coming up with a Literature Review outline in 3 weeks. My brief is to read widely so then I can then know what are the crucial elements to set the context for my Dissertation.
Literature Review Intersection
So in order to achieve this, my primary attention will be on the intersection between gender, developing communities and access to education – basically, it will look like this:
Although I’m pretty confident about using ethnography as my methodology, I will still need to consider what perspective I will use – gender equity, international development, narrative theory, an activist lens, etc. This is one of the reasons for getting started on the Literature Review so I can start to get a sense of what perspectives will best suit this scenario.
Ethnographic Narrative Style
One of my supervisors suggested looking at Ruth Behar’s style of Ethnographic Narrative. I was quite intrigued by the idea that this researcher applies: ‘anthropology that breaks your heart’. So I’m going to have a look at The Vulnerable Observer because apparently Behar has a researching writing style that is a mix of literary with sociology, meaning that instead of traditional models of research where the observer/researcher is removed and objective, Behar’s style powerfully and emotionally embeds the witness into the collection and telling of the data researched. I was quite taken with this idea because the methodology section will be a large section that locates the research within the wider discourse.
So I’m excited to be reading something so personal and emotional – international development literature is filled with amazing and confronting stories, that I have often found it challenging to hear/read/experience such memorable and pronounced stories of people I have worked or researched about who live in extreme poverty – and I have often found myself wondering what do I do now that I know such information. Once known, such stories and experiences are not easily forgotten and the impact and residue of such accounts remain with the listener.
That is why for me, it is so important to have a positive output that I can channel and process such histories once they have been encountered by me.
It reminds me that I need to be mindful, selective and resilient, so that I do not get overwhelmed by the immensity of the contact when working with sensitive and often disturbing life stories. International development workers are very prone to burn out – and this is a sad cycle as it is often this who are most passionate, are those who end up a nervous wreck and unable to live and work effectively (see post on Darfur Aid Workers).
That is one of the reasons why I strategically chose my thesis to centre on bicycles – so that the substance of my research is a positive output to address some of the perilous obstacles that many living in extreme poverty experience – it is a concrete manifestation of change and hope.