Hmm well all the time I've been here the dissertations have included ethics paperwork
if there were human subjects. I volunteered to introduce the workshop last year (when
I wasn't managing the dissertations) to try and get students to think through ethics
a bit more carefully. (I've been doing the same in my own teaching for years where
their projects involve interviewing people or doing surveys etc.) It was partly to
help with institutional liability (I might rename it 'Ass-covering workshop and
credit you!) but also to help the students think about their moral and ethical stance
as researchers, while also encouraging them to imagine how their participants might
benefit from the process (that latter point is explicitly written into the paperwork,
and even if they can't think of anything, at least they thought about it).
As for research without human participants, I think there are plenty of good
dissertation possibilities. One of my supervisees last year had an idea which seemed
a bit wacky at first but turned out to be an excellent piece with a strong first
class grade. He analysed the phonological patterns within made-up words in TV comedy,
to see if there were any patterns. It mobilised a lot of technical phonetic
terminology, as well as syllable analysis, and led into all sorts of interesting
discussions about creativity and wordplay. Wooble!
Replying to Julia's contribution (students meeting potential supervisors
individually) that sounds really useful but doesn't it take up a huge amount of time?
And how is it administered? Sadly I think it's too late to do that this year but it
would be really useful for future years.
And thanks also to Nick for his point about listing theory & method specialisms up
front. In terms of expected number of supervisees, here in our dept (and I think
across the university) the number of expected supervisees is written into our annual
work plan so it's nice and transparent. But if that's not the case elsewhere then I'd
recommend it!
Dave
--
Dr. Dave Sayers, ORCID no. 0000-0003-1124-7132
Senior Lecturer, Dept Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University | www.shu.ac.uk
Honorary Research Fellow, Cardiff University & WISERD | www.wiserd.ac.uk
[log in to unmask] | http://shu.academia.edu/DaveSayers
On 07/09/2016 08:03, Gareth Price wrote:
> Also, re: q.6
>
> Genuinely surprised that any institution can require mandatory hons theses but *not*
> require mandatory ethics training? I simply fail to see how that works. Over this
> side of the pond (I suspect more than in the UK) a lot of ethics training is in
> reality pointless ass-covering liability protection, and the most students actually
> learn from the whole charade is how to crash through invisible bureaucratic hoops
> (admittedly a useful skill in itself, either for academic or government jobs). What
> seems odd to me is what, over at SHU, they are actually *doing* in a SLX degree that
> doesn't involve researching human subjects? Surely recording TV episodes is a bit
> passe (and they've usually done that at A-level)? Then again, perhaps you have a
> text/discourse based focus? Or perhaps ass-covering liability protection has indeed
> become an obsession over here that is detached from any educational goals?
>
> best,
>
> Gareth
>
> ___________________________________________
> Dr Gareth Price
> Visiting Assistant Professor
> Linguistics Program
> Duke University
> 316 Languages, Box 90259
> Durham, NC 27708-0259
> USA
>
> On Wed, Sep 7, 2016 at 2:31 AM, Gareth Price <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> It's *very* different this side of the pond, not least we have to actually cajole
> students into writing theses (they get BAs - or ABs, technically - without Hons
> unless they do a thesis project, and 98% of them don't).
>
> With that said (and perhaps in light of that fact), I wonder why you don't have
> an option to *choose* a supervisor? You'd obviously have to do some management to
> redistribute things (to reduce the popularity contest element) but it might end
> up being less labour-intensive overall, because that takes out of the equation
> some of the students, even a very small minority, who will gravitate towards
> certain faculty? Just a thought.
>
> best,
>
> Gareth
>
> ___________________________________________
> Dr Gareth Price
> Visiting Assistant Professor
> Linguistics Program
> Duke University
> 316 Languages, Box 90259
> Durham, NC 27708-0259
> USA
>
> On Tue, Sep 6, 2016 at 5:31 PM, Dave Sayers <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> Hi TeachLingers,
>
> (And a big hello to all you new members joining us during the annual
> recruitment drive!)
>
> In this year's card shuffle of departmental teaching responsibilities, I've
> been given overall responsibility for managing the undergraduate
> dissertations. This includes such excitements as:
> - deciding which students should be allocated to which members of staff;
> - hoping that neither the students nor my colleagues are offended that I
> fundamentally misunderstood their research interests;
> - cleaning up the mess if I did!
>
> I've supervised plenty of dissertations before, but never managed the whole
> process. And it seems an unusually tricky responsibility, with plenty of
> uniquely electrifying potential for disaster. Does anyone have any advice
> about the varied and intricate politics of this predicament?
>
> By way of adding something vaguely constructive here (in addition to just
> bleating), I've at least decided on a novel way to gather the students'
> initial research interests. In previous years I've seen colleagues do this by
> asking students to specify their interests at the end of the academic year
> before their final year, then allocating supervisees in the autumn on that
> basis. The inevitable result is a lot of students changing their mind! So
> I've decided to poll students afresh now. And to do this... (long-standing
> list members will know where I'm going with this...) I'm using Google Drive!
> Specifically I've designed a Google Form asking them the following questions:
>
> ==============================================
> 1. First of all, as briefly as you can, what topic do you think you'd like to
> do your dissertation on?
> [Paragraph text answers slot]
>
> 2. Was any member of staff's teaching particularly influential on your choice
> of dissertation topic?
> [Checkboxes against every potential supervisor's name.]
>
> 3. Which FIRST year topic(s) most closely matches your chosen dissertation topic?
> [Checkboxes against all our first year offerings.]
>
> 4. Which SECOND year topic(s) most closely matches your chosen dissertation
> topic?
> [Checkboxes against all our second year offerings.]
>
> 5. Are there other curricular or extra-curricular influences on your topic
> choice you think it would be helpful for us to know about?
> [Paragraph text answers slot]
>
> 6. Finally, do you think your research will involve human participants, or
> would your research be entirely based on documentary sources?
> Multiple choice:
> My research could potentially involve human participants.
> My research definitely will not involve human participants.
> ==============================================
>
> This is designed to help me work out who might make the best supervisor for
> them now, in a more informed way than just going on whatever was top of their
> mind in the spring.
>
> And the final question, number 6, is so that I can work out how many of them
> to enrol on my research ethics workshops! Last year these went well for those
> who attended, but not enough attended because they hadn't thought through
> whether they might (even possibly) involve human participants.
>
> Once I've got their responses I'll make a spreadsheet, also in Google Drive,
> so that all my colleagues can always see the latest version and I'm not stuck
> sending endless revised spreadsheets round by email (and dealing with old
> versions floating around confusing the whole process).
>
> (I have told this email list before, and I'll repeat again, I'm not on the
> Google payroll... honest.)
>
> Any advice much appreciated!
>
> Dave
>
> --
> Dr. Dave Sayers, ORCID no. 0000-0003-1124-7132
> Senior Lecturer, Dept Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University | www.shu.ac.uk
> <http://www.shu.ac.uk>
> Honorary Research Fellow, Cardiff University & WISERD | www.wiserd.ac.uk
> <http://www.wiserd.ac.uk>
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> |
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