There’s nothing like actually doing something to drive home how much one doesn’t know what to do.
I’m very glad for the opportunity I have to learn more about conducting interviews, synthesizing information on the spot, attempt to stay on the topic of my research, and to coax discussion on matters I would not have been otherwise able to get by asking questions I do not have written on my sheet. I have abandoned that a bit in some ways, just because I feel that my goal is to navigate someone else’s memories, reflections and opinions into the things I want to discuss, and less so cutting straight to factual questions that have any logical progression or order. Even in some other interviews I’ve been doing that seem factual and seemingly straight-forward, the cognitive conversational being just seems wired in a way that I cannot represent on paper by asking one question after another.
Until I have to write my report, that is. Then that’s a little different.
I’ve managed to stop worrying about whether I’m getting something well-rounded. I’m getting something, and that is more than adequate for the purposes of the report. I can state all over the place what I wished I could have gotten but I think that is a little counter-productive taken to an extreme. I’m also getting more and more the sense that I won’t be able to make very many grand statements or conclusions about the world based on either the results of my surveys or the conversations I’ve had and will be having, aside from fairly banal things. I hope instead to simply highlight what the perceptions of those who attended are, and where this can fit in moving forward, both for Toronto, who will be seeing more TransitCamps in the future (perhaps of a slightly different sort), and for other places interested in the methods and outcomes.
Meanwhile, the small matter of snow and the herding of emails and phone calls into boxes on my Google calendar…
Also, some of you may be interested in seeing my FAQ on my research.
