Writing About One’s Own Research
The process of planning, doing, and writing up research might involve a number of experiences, including dilemmas and challenges, which are only implicit or even invisible in research papers, but the resolution of which are fundamental to embodying a research plan. We argue that this as yet unarticulated narrative content can be a valuable source of knowledge for those undergoing a similar journey in adopting a similar method. Writing about own research processes offers a meta-reflection (Hagström & Scheja, 2014), which involves generating new knowledge, by critical and analytical re-reflection upon one’s own research experiences to make prominent aspects that may not otherwise be easily noticed or discovered. The issues arising from a narrative meta-reflection text could stimulate deeper thinking on developing methodological knowledge about particular approaches to research. Meta-reflection involves a shift from descriptive to analytical reflection that unearths the unspoken and unidentified factors that mediate the process of research.
Introduction of the Chapters
In the book, we begin with qualitative research narratives which have been written by researchers who published journal articles or PhD theses on the key approaches to qualitative research. Their experiences during the development of the research plan, implementation, writing up, and dissemination are unique and can offer insightful stories that include not only background knowledge about the method, but also research learning opportunities. In Chapter 1, “Learning to Use a Qualitative Case Study Approach to Research Language Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs,” Mark Wyatt introduces case study methodology in which he investigated teacher self-efficacy beliefs. Having narrated how his initial interest in self-efficacy commenced, he provided methodological details about his research plan deriving from qualitative case study approach. Wyatt’s chapter offers in-depth contextualized and procedural insights which can help others learn from his experiences and methodological interpretations he made while adopting case study.
In Chapter 2, “Researching the Language Classroom Through Ethnographic Diaries: Principles, Possibilities, and Practices,” Graham Hall introduces his research adopting an ethnographic approach to explore a particular language classroom as a social environment. He justifies the use of diaries, because they grant more ownership and control to the research participants within the scope of ethnography, which can be considered a methodological innovation. Drawing on his actual experiences of conducting this research, he highlights the key issues to consider and offers alternative insights into ethnographic research.
In Chapter 3, “Grounded Theory: A Means to Generate Hypotheses on the Possible Impacts of Student Negotiation in an EFL Speaking Context,” Mehmet Sercan Uztosun narrates his research experiences with grounded theory. The chapter details his use of grounded theory to investigate improving learners’ abilities to use English communicatively in his PhD dissertation. Uztosun offers step-by-step application of grounded theory by also justifying his choice of the method in line with the research purpose and questions.
In Chapter 4, “Narrative Inquiry in Applied Linguistics: A Storied Account of Its Procedures, Potentials, and Challenges in an Empirical Project,” Vahid Bahrami, Mehrdad Hosseini and Mahmood Reza Atai provide a narrative that introduces narrative inquiry focusing on particular characteristics and presenting critical research experiences while collaboratively using the method in the English for Academic Purposes context. They aim to offer narrative inquiry as a means to view multiple perspectives. The reader can notice the methodological challenges and how they can be overcome with a creative lens.
In Chapter 5, “Positioning Analysis in Longitudinal Classroom-based Research,” Hayriye Kayi-Aydar introduces how she employed Positioning theory as a theoretical and analytic framework in her dissertation research she conducted in a classroom context for the fulfillment of her dissertation. She narrates her experiences with the practice of her methodological approach in order to generate insights into the potential challenges that can offer unique perspectives to the reader. Kayi-Aydar brings to light a number of issues which she experienced, and which may not be found in traditional research method books including data collection and analysis.
In Chapter 6, “Online and Hybrid Research Using Case Study and Ethnographic Approaches: A Decision-Making Dialogue Between Two Researchers,” Faridah Pawan and Chaoran Wang narrate their experiences with the methods they adopted by structuring a conversational discoursal style in which they discuss methodological issues creatively as a narrativized story between the authors. They introduce how they used online and hybrid data in order to generate practical knowledge about teaching that takes place in an online and hybrid mode.
In Chapter 7, “Ethnography and a Heuristics of the Heart: Allied Solidarity with Indigenous Language and Literacy Activism,” Ari Sherris shares with us his story of engaging in and learning about ethnography since he first decided to become an ethnographer. Sherris introduces key trajectories he went through and emphasizes the methodological challenges by offering a unique researcher story. In the chapter, we read about his actual application of ethnography and heuristic inquiry as research methods in multiple communities.
In Chapter 8, “Action Research in Teacher Education: Practical and Theoretical Challenges and Opportunities from Norway,” Dag Husebø introduces action research as it has been implemented in the Norwegian context. In addition to the step-by-step presentation of the method, Husebø also narrates how action research is used in context-specific teacher preparation and development with diverse participants in educational settings.
In Chapter 9, “Discourse Analysis as a Research Methodology for L2 Context,” Hatime Çiftçi narrates her story of employing discourse analysis of context-specific linguistic politeness from the perspective of interactional sociolinguistics. She offers a unique model for those who are interested in implementing discourse analysis in L2 research. The chapter highlights the key methodological issues that L2 researchers could revisit and reconsider in the light of her critically interpreted insights from her PhD research.
In Chapter 10, “Conversation Analysis in TESOL,” Olcay Sert introduces how he employed multimodal conversation analysis in his single-case longitudinal research in which learning and teaching implications were evident and traceable. Sert narrates the analytical procedures and theoretical framework that pertain to conversation analysis and reveals the methodological challenges. In addition, he exemplifies a number of instances of decision-making processes in each phase of conversation analysis which can inevitably be encountered by others who adopt the method.
Having introduced 10 chapters adopting various approaches to qualitative paradigm, we next present the contributions that include qualitative characteristics within quantitative design. For example, in Chapter 11, “Combining Corpus-Based Methods With Interviews in Applied Linguistics Research,” Duygu Çandarlı describes the processes of integrating corpus-based methods into mixed methodology while investigating second language writing. Çandarlı justifies the unique research-related features of corpus methods which offer strong grounds for researchers to adopt. She offers her contextualized experiences with this method and her use of interviews to expose novel insights into the process of second language writing, which is not traceable in the corpus data only.
Comparably, in Chapter 12, “Exploratory Survey Research,” Jason Anderson and Amy Lightfoot