Worldview

Janus, in Roman mythology, was the god of beginnings & transitions and is usually depicted as having two faces. One face that looks to the future and one that looks to the past. I think I'm officially changing my name from Jamie to Janus! I want to hold on to my past, but I'm also a few steps into the future. I'm anxious to learn all I can from the research process, but I am becoming very uncomfortable and I often disagree with myself. Am I going crazy or am I just going through a transition (or maybe mid-life crisis).

Upon my initial reading of Lincoln & Guba, I realized that some people write with over the top word choices...but I digress! Creswell was straight forward and to the point. I enjoyed his style of writing more than the L&G chapter (by the way, I found a great post on this blog about paradigms in research: http://mackle.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/paradigms-in-research-or-how-your-worldview-shapes-your-methodology/; it mentions L&G and their mammoth book, over 1,000 pages, very funny). In addition, Creswell's tables also helped me grasp the concept of a research design and why it's important.

During the reading, I struggled to come to terms with my worldview. I felt like I should join a support group, sit in the circle, and lift my head and shout, "Yes, I am a pragmatic postpositivist with a social constructivist foundation." I struggled to come to terms with my postpositivist research design since I have always held a social constructivist view when designing instruction. I guess this parallels with my "former life" as an art teacher. Almost every lesson in my classroom was project based and I wanted every child to use their own thoughts to make sense of the world around them. Now I find myself conducting a quantitative strategy and using survey research as a strategy of inquiry. Surely I must be going mad!

After calming myself down (it's amazing what a glass of sweet tea can do), I tried to make sense of why I was doing this. When I first entered college for my undergrad degree, I was a math and art double major (I know, bizarre combination) and eventually dropped the math due to time constraints. After living most of my educational career as an art teacher (10+ years), I guess the untapped analytical piece is surfacing again. Am I the quintessential Jekyll & Hyde? Who knows? But one thing is for sure, I will continue the journey in my current path of research.

Investigating social media and how it impacts high school education, lends itself to conducting a survey and then discussing the relationship of the data. A postpositivist worldview is natural due to the quantitative nature of the study. Seeking to develop relevant, causal relationships among the variables and how social media influences high school academics is my main guiding force.

But, I also look to the practical side of my research as it will be meant to inform educational officials as to the significance of social media in education. The pragmatic view seems to fit best here. For social media to play an active role in the educational ecosystem, it must first be accepted. Considerable research has been conducted at the college level, but little is still known about it's use in the K-12 arena. Although this is new territory for me, I look forward to it. Just like Janus, I have one face looking at my past and one towards the future.