The meeting with my professor this week mainly consisted of sorting out identifiers for the various people involved in our research. As I’ve mentioned, identifiers are very similar to code names and research and are usually relevant and logical to the person’s position (for example, T1 = Teacher 1). Some of them were as easy as that, and others required more digging to figure out who they were exactly and where they fit into the case study.
A big realization I had this week is that research is not all perfectly organized spreadsheets and color-coded binders. This occurred to me when watching my professor dig through piles and piles of paper looking for one specific page of notes, and the folder included everything from copies of the literature referenced in the research to memos frantically scribbled on coffee napkins. This overwhelmed me at first, being a very organized and Type A person (if you couldn’t tell), but I realized that if research was that easy and themes very just jumping out at us, then there would be no work for us. Thus, I accepted and started to appreciate that it was this way.
In my usual cleaning this week, I found something that could possibly turn into an actual code, which got me really excited. I definitely feel like I’m getting more acquainted with this study and finding my place in this research.