Final thoughts on research

In this final week of "Building Research Competencies", we have been asked to reflect on what we have learned and experienced over the past eight weeks.  When we began this class, I was so excited to learn about the research process and the different elements that make a quality research design.  I think that we improve our professional environments based on the volumes of new research that is emerging all the time. 

Throughout the course, we focused on a simulation that we designed and "practiced" all of the steps that a researcher would take in completing the study.  I learned that the topic you choose must be very specific even though it can contain many different aspects that would be beneficial to study.  For example, my topic was social and emotional development and the relationship of healthy attachments.  I needed to narrow that down to how language development affects healthy attachments in children that have been adopted from non-English speaking countries.  There are so many aspects to research that I had not realized.  I found the literature review to be the most challenging.  In finding information about the study that I was conducting, it was difficult to determine what would be helpful and what I should not spend time reviewing.  I found that I examined the abstracts more carefully before exploring the full article.  It was also difficult to keep from following the tangents that the article searches often went on.  I had to keep my focus question in mind when searching for information.

Research in early childhood comes with it own challenges and considerations.  When working with children and families, we must be very sensitive to the dynamic that they present, the backgrounds from which they come, and what the impact of the research will be for them.  When planning a research design for early childhood, I think that the mixed method approach is important.  I found that the qualitative process creates more of an opportunity to explore the subjective nature of  children and their families.

My perceptions of professionals in our field have changed as a result of this course in that we can, and should, become active participants in the research process.  We should appreciate all of the wonderful discoveries that we are provided with, but we should also be pursuing our own.  This is a very exciting prospect for me.  Having been in the field for over 20 years, I am looking at my next 20 years with new eyes and all of the possibilities!

Thank you for all of my colleagues (again!) for your comments, questions, and feedback.  I look forward sharing ideas and learning more from you in the future.

Katherine