IRB and getting started

i'm happy to announce that since that post, i have submitted my IRB protocol, received edit recommendations, and submitted a final version.  i hope it gets approved soon.

i've also been lucky enough to not really require much by way of recruitment for my dissertation.  i'm studying my own workplace (GSE) and there was a glitch in the monitors this past summer, which caused the announcement of my proposal hearing to be displayed for something like two months.  in other words, my name and the title of my proposal, "narratives of working lives: academic support staff experiences of literacy, identity, and power in the workplace," flashed before many, many coworkers' eyes over and over and over again, and consequently, many coworkers approached me directly about the study, expressing interest in learning more and possibly participating.  and so, quite a good chunk of my participants have already volunteered face-to-face.  this will make that process go by pretty quickly.

i'm not as nervous about the actual process of conducting research as i was about the IRB.  i have no clue why that threw me for a loop.  it took me way longer to actually get started than to do it.  i think i did most of the proposal in an afternoon and then created all the supplemental materials on another afternoon.  meanwhile, just getting to the point where i felt comfortable starting took easily a few months.  i'm not sure if others have this problem, but it's definitely something that's plagued me my whole life.  in fact, a coworker noted the other day that i often start things WAY in advance, sometimes months and months.  i explained that part of the reason i do this is because in high school, i was a serious procrastinator and it was primarily due to my fear of starting things.  so, getting things started, even if it's as simple as creating a title page in september for a paper due in december, is my approach to making sure they get done.  lately, it's working for me.

anyway, this post is way more stream-of-consciousness than i'm used to, but it gets the job done.  i can't wait to get approval and start reporting on the dissertation process.  hopefully, that'll happen soon.  to be continued.