Being Open About Bias

We had to watch a video of an interview of Dr. Karen Myers-Bowman, a family scientist specializing in family life education at SDSU. The interview really resonated with me for several reasons. 

Dr. Karen Myers-Bowman mentions as her focus is on communication between students and parents who may go on foreign exchange trips.

Both the student's communication to the host parents but also to their biological parents they leave behind. I spent a year as a foreign exchange student living in Brussels Belgium with a host family. It was a life altering experience in many ways, not least of which is what Dr. Myers-Bowman discusses as the communications between the student and the various adults. I remember well how my communication with my natural parents changed, especially as it was reliant only on air-mailed letters and the occasional phone call. Also I remember how my connection with my host mother (there was no host father) developed over the year. 

Auto-ethnology was an interesting concept. The idea that the researchers own views and thoughts and interests are a part of the study is an interesting thought line. How do my own biases and perspectives change how I look at the research that I am undertaking. I think it's obvious that all of our biases are a part of whatever research we might undertake, but the idea that Dr. Myers-Bowman promotes, of using that story, and using our perspectives to help inform the reader and user of our research is intriguing. 

Finally, I like that Dr. Myers-Bowman felt that she could be more non-biased and objective in a qualitative study than in a quantitative study because it allows the researcher the opportunity to communicate with the reader and be reflective about the topics. She says that that is more "honest" which is interesting. This brings into mind the reading by Tracy where on page 842 she states about transparency, "In addition to being honest and vulnerable through self-reflexivity, another mean practice of sincerity is transparency." This I think is what Dr. Myers-Bowman is trying to highlight in her thoughts on how qualitative research can be more honest. 

References

Tracy, S. J. (2010). Qualitative quality: Eight “big-tent” criteria for excellent qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry: QI, 16(10), 837–851.