During this course we have looked at various aspects of human geographic research. In this write up I will address three things I know for certain about human geographical research, three things I am still confused by, three things I know about myself as a geographic researcher, and lastly three things I still need to work on as a geographical researcher.
The first thing I know for certain now about human geographical research is that although it does consist of mostly qualitative methods, there is still very many different styles and methods of collecting data and conducting research. Prior to this class I had seen qualitative and quantitative as very black and white, quantitative being solely numerical and qualitative being solely thoughts and ideas. Qualitative research is complex, and not only does it look at tangible aspects of humans and human interaction but also discourses, identities and most importantly place when it comes to human geographic research (Hay, 2005, Chapter 1). It also has a well-developed range of techniques such as ones we have looked at and ones I have used in my blogs. These include observational studies, interviews, case studies, oral histories, focus groups, literature reviews and many more.
Another thing I now know for certain is that human geographic research requires the consideration of ethics and self-reflection. There is a moral imperative to this research where the concern of welfare, respect for persons and justice needs to be incorporated (Hooykaas, Week 3, 2021). These ethical issues arise because of the social nature of human geographic research, in any of the methods listed above you are collecting and interpreting social information (Hay, 2005, Chapter 2), therefore ethical issues can arise before, during or after the research process. I know and understand now the importance of this.
Lastly, human geographic research requires a deep and well documented analysis to ensure rigour and the best possible answer/outcome to your research question. While conducting qualitative research it is not always the case like in quantitative research where the numbers speak for themselves, therefore we must ensure rigour, meaning we need to establish a high level of trustworthiness to our work. To ensure rigour, it requires careful research design and thoughtful planning which will ultimately create trustworthy and dependable research (Hay, 2005, Chapter 6). As the researcher I learned the importance of careful and well thought out design through the digital storytelling project.
The first thing I am still confused by in human geographical research is making informed choices about research design and development. I understand that there are many different styles and methods to geographic research, but I am still unsure of which is the best to use and when. Another thing I am still confused by is after the data has been collected how to filter which responses to use and which information is the best information. In other words, I am still confused on what happens next in research. Lastly, I am still unsure of how to critically assess the strengths of the sources to evaluate how much information is enough. I think that with time and more practice these aspects of human geographical research will make more sense to me.
As a human geographic researcher, I know for certain that I understand the importance of ethics in a research project. I was able to develop this skill throughout the blog posts and the storytelling assignment. Going forward if I were to conduct a research project, I would like to use collaborative research methods, which involves getting input from both insiders and outsiders of the problem being studied (Hay, 2005, Chapter 3). I think that coming from an outsider position in research has some major downfalls and effects to the research being done and raises ethical issues between the researcher and the participants.
This brings me to my next point, that I know for certain that I have and will bring with me an invisible backpack that comes from a place of privilege. To be critically reflexive is a process of self-conscious scrutiny as a research throughout the entirety of the project (Hay, 2005, Chapter 2). Being a white woman raised in Canada, I need to remind myself of the privilege that I come from before, during and after the research process. I will need to ask myself how and why I am doing whatever research I am involved in as well as constantly be looking at the social relations being enacted and influenced by the research I will conduct.
Lastly, I know that using the technique of coding while organizing my research is a good tool for me to use. Prior to this course while trying to find information from literature online I found it very hard to organize information and my thoughts. The knowledge of hierarchical vs. flat, and inductive vs. deductive coding, (Hay, 2005, Chapter 18), going forward will help me organize information and come to a better answer to my research questions.
Areas that I have learned about myself as a geographical researcher that I need more time developing are creating a grounded theory, removing myself from the research and writing/ presenting my qualitative research. Creating a grounded theory is an inductive method where the purpose is to generate information on the most important themes up front to gain a solid understanding of the topic, then looking at the specifics to help answer the research question (Hay , 2005, Chapter 18). I as a research tend to jump into my question too quickly and then end up with a lot of information and time spend in topics that don’t relate to my question. As a researcher I also find it difficult to remove myself from the research write up. Third person and nominalization create more formal research but often I try to add my own thoughts and ideas when they are not needed (Hooykaas, Week 9, 2021). Lastly, while putting my research together to present it I need time to develop better ways of presenting my work. I need to balance the use of objective and subjective knowledge, learn to write in a third-person narrative and reflect my positionality (Hay, 2005, Chapter 19).
Sources:
Hooykaas. (2021) Course Notes for GEOG2260- Applied Human Geography
Hay, I. (2005). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography(4th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780199010912/cfi/0!/4/[email protected]:0.242
Hello Kaya!
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your work this semester, especially since you seem to have a knack similar to me of posting early in the week, so I really do appreciate that haha! This week’s post was rather insightful, and I agree with you largely on a lot of your points.
I think the development of strong critical reflectivity skills is also essential in producing proper and ethical research (Hooykas, Week 3, 2021). Being able to be self-scrutinizing and conscious throughout the entirety of a research project is difficult, and I am scared we are thinking that it will be too easy. I’m excited to get into the field and see this in action, as I think it will be harder to stay self-aware throughout an entire months long research project than we might anticipate.
Furthermore, I think you hit the nail on the head when you spoke on choosing research styles and techniques. I believe that we have been taught which research techniques are compatible with which types of study, but I am scared that in the field the lines between study types will be much more blurred and less obvious than in textbook examples. I think likely these decisions will get easier with experience though!
Lastly, I totally agree with your take on qualitative/quantitative analysis. I too had come into this course without a proper understanding of how complicated qualitative research was. I had worked primarily with quantitative data, and although I obviously assumed that it went deep, I never throughout about things like inductive coding and coding frames which turn qualitative data into more manageable resources (Hooykaas, Week 8, 2021)!
Thank you for all the blogs this semester, I’ve enjoyed reading them and wish you good luck with the rest of your studies!
Bibliography:
Hooykaas. (2021) Course Notes for GEOG2260- Applied Human Geography















