Ethics application (and other distractions)

If you want to do a research project that involves humans in some way (interviews, observation, and videotaping, in my case) you need to apply for project approval by the designated Human Research Ethics Committee. It is a very formal, detailed, painstaking process. I am in the middle of it right now, planning to submit my proposal next week.

So far, not so bad, I am happy to report. Here is my favourite piece of succinct description so far – the one-paragraph description of my methodology. This would have boggled me completely, less than a year ago. Now I am writing it! Hooray, how I love signs of progress!

This is a qualitative study, a case study that aims to capture the music program in a particular time and place, as it is experienced and perceived by the students. Embedded within the case study structure is a phenomenological approach to the inquiry, in that no presuppositions are being made about the subject of the inquiry. Grounded theory will serve as a procedural model in drawing conclusions from the resulting data.

Lots to do still, but after my meeting with my supervisor today I feel re-energised and ready to put the whole thing together. That will happen on Friday, mostly as the rest of this week is pretty full.

I am also preparing an application for a student bursary at the moment, and at work at the Orchestra, am entering the Outreach Program for a couple of awards. Lots of forms to fill in over these next few weeks.

Now, however, a mild but amusing distraction:

Here at WordPress, when you have a blog you can access a stats page which tells you how many people (other than yourself) are visiting your blog, and how people are finding your blog – either through referral links or through search engines. The stats page shows you the terms people are typing into the search engines that bring up your blog in the results. Some of these are quite intriguing. Some are plain odd.

• I get hits from people searching for ‘Armenian mafia’ almost every day…
• Lots of people find me after searching for Parisian street names, such as ‘Rue du Bac’ and ‘Rue Tiquetonne’…
• Someone once googled ‘impenetrable sentences’ which was a phrase I used in an early entry, complaining about some of the unfathomable academic texts I was reading… clearly someone else thinks similarly about these to me…
• Lastly, I am slightly alarmed by the search engine query ‘how do I polish my clarinet?’ Is this a euphemism, do you think?

Let’s finish today with a photo.

Sarajevo rooftops. Spires and mosque domes and pitched roofs all on top of each other, covered in a layer of powdery snow. Only the merest hint of colour warms the picture. I love this city.