Findings

I’ve finished pulling together the findings from the research. Finally.

I’ve have now shared the findings with the participants in order to garner any feedback they may have for me, with a few responding to request rewording or revisions of the text already. This is an important part of the process and part of my efforts of being open to voices that are meaningfully engaged in this research. It’s good to have achieved this moment in time and I celebrate this milestone as part of the quest through the labyrinth that is the PhD.

While the findings section of the dissertation appears to flow, it was a struggle to find and hold true to the stories being shared. I kept focussing on the metaphor of the crystal, crystallizing, and making multiple media elements of the materials, including the graphics I’ve created. I have not shared these openly, but have included early versions of the concept map and graphic sketchnote as part of the findings for the participants to review. In the email I sent to each of them, I included their avatar image and their pseudonym, since this is not part of the findings but will be included in the research process/ methodology section of the dissertation.

Here is a copy of the email I’ve sent to the participants. I have removed the links and anonymized the information.

I’d like to thank you for your participation in my PhD research earlier this year. After much deliberation, I have completed the findings from the interviews and artifacts and would like to share this with you as part of my dissertation writing process. 

Here is the link to a Google folder where the writing resides. This is still very much a work-in-progress and your feedback is appreciated. You can provide comments, questions, suggested edits, or revisions either on the document itself (which would be open to view by other participants) or you can download the available Word Doc versions and revise/comment, then send back to me. 

Alternatively, you can provide feedback using Hypothes.is in a private group space [https://hypothes.is/groups/byNVgw86/dissertation-feedback] by adding annotations to the web-version of the dissertation as done in Scalar.  (if you have not used or experienced Scalar before, this video may help you see what this dissertation ‘might’ look like). Your responses in Hypothes.is will be visible to any of the other participants in this group space, but not visible on the open web. Please keep in mind that this is also a work-in-progress and I am working on edits and revisions to this web document on a daily basis.

I have created a chart of participants that may guide your reading – this is a randomized and anonymized list of initials and avatars for all participants, ensuring your anonymity while still providing some feeling of ‘humanizing’ your participation. (see attached pdf)

Your anonymized initials are: xx

As I am currently continuing to work on the discussion and conclusion sections of the dissertation. Any feedback would be appreciated before the end of November. If you have any suggestions or directions for discussion, please include these in your feedback. 

I truly appreciate your participation in this research and look forward to hearing from you – even if it is a quick note to let me know you don’t have time to consider this at this time. Thanks.