Aden- Week 6

Hi everyone,

I think that bias discussion in this weeks' lectures is relevant to my research topic because I will need to account for bias in my project. The issues with bias in qualitative research listed in the slides are applicable. It will definitely be helpful to engage in reflexivity to determine biases that could affect my study.

As a member of the Moroccan Jewish community, I already have my own views on memories that should be preserved and views on how interviewees will respond to questions. I will need to be conscious when crafting questions and conducting the interviews not to steer the conversation toward issues that I think are important. One suggestion from the lecture was using bracketing. It will also be useful to bracket at every stage of the research process and constantly question my findings. Accounting for bias and bracketing will be an ongoing process throughout my research project.  

Does anyone else have thoughts on bias? Can you foresee any immediate biases you might have? 

Aden

Comments

  1. KaitlinOctober 22, 2020 at 8:10 AM

    I wonder if you can help decrease bias through your study participant recruitment and sampling methodology? Perhaps choosing a sample population that is slightly different to yourself (ie, age, gender, geography) may help decrease the chance of selecting participants that may have a similar experience or views as you do!

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  2. ErinaOctober 26, 2020 at 8:48 AM

    I know this isn't directly related to your question but, I think you bring up a great point about the role of the researcher. Based on readings and the lectures, I understand bias is detrimental to conducting rigorous research that yields valid results. But at the same time, as a member of the community you are studying, you have lived and experienced the topics you are interested in researching. As a result, you can provide nuanced insights into how to preserve the community's living memories through your research. Perhaps you can look into how other researchers who studied their own community aimed to minimize bias?

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