Lived experience can be an excellent data source for scholarly research and career development. In particular, lived experiences can provide anecdotal evidence and inspiration for hypotheses that investigators may want to empirically test using different research techniques. It may also motivate and drive scholars’ passion to conduct research regarding a particular topic.
That being said, researchers frequently do not have access to relevant lived experience that will assist them to conduct their studies. How then do these investigators and others who don’t have appropriate lived experience, that wish to benefit from it, collect this data?
There are a range of research methods and data sources that investigators can use to better understand particular learned experiences.
In principle, if researchers have unlimited resources (e.g., money, time, expertise, access, etc.), it’s helpful for them to use as many of the previously mentioned strategies as possible in order to come closest to understanding the lived experience of the people and groups they are interested in understanding.
Then again there are advantages and disadvantages with each of these options. One need only consult a well-respected introductory social science research methods textbook to understand the situations where a particular technique works best and ones in which they are ill-advised.
Success or failure in this regard usually depends on the questions investigators want to ask (and be answered), and the subject population from whom they want information. For example, asking individuals who are long time methamphetamine users about what it’s like to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings is probably not going to be that helpful. On the other hand, conducting a well-designed ethnography of graffiti writers, over a respectable period of time, may yield valuable insights into their experiences, motivations and constraints.
To top things off, just because researchers have lived experience (or access to data that will provide insights into lived experience), it does not necessarily mean that they and others can make appropriate generalizations.
Over time, however experienced and skilled researchers should be able to better determine which research method/s works best, with what population, and situation. That’s why it’s important for scholars to get into the field to observe, ask important questions of their subjects, and be self-reflective regarding the kinds of information they gather.
Photo Credit: Matthew
Safe cracking – Day 11, Year 2
https://jeffreyianross.com/wp-content/uploads/3861342526_d7f8f0d582_o.jpg6831024Jeffrey Ian Rosshttps://jeffreyianross.com/wp-content/uploads/jeffrey-ian-ross-logo-04.pngJeffrey Ian Ross2022-09-17 03:49:252025-01-18 17:01:42Accessing the lived experience of others
Jobs, trades, professions and careers typically provide tangible (e.g., economic) and intangible benefits.
But this approach to earning an income often comes with a considerable amount of unstated, unarticulated, unrealistic, poorly articulated and understood baggage.
This baggage includes the numerous challenges and sacrifices that one must make to complete a course of studies, earn a certification, diploma, degree, or licensing requirement one must pass in order to enter the field, possibly finding one or more mentors, and then time in grade to reach a position where one achieves mastery and perhaps some modicum of work autonomy.
The downsides of particular jobs, trades, professions and careers often makes aspirants (i.e., people attempting to enter this type of work), and journeymen (i.e., those who currently occupy these positions) frustrated, stressed or burned out, and may even force them to question why they chose the career path, and consider quitting the job, trade, or profession (e.g., the great resignation), or engage in such contemporary practices known as quiet quitting.
Granted nothing says that you must work your chosen career for your entire life and empirical evidence bears this out. People change professions on a regular basis.
Short of visiting a career counsellor or reading another book on career development, there are a handful of options that those who are frustrated with their careers might take.
One suggestion, that is rarely advocated, is to reconceptualize work as a series of projects and experiments. This approach is not necessarily unique in professions where the boss or team are trying to solve a problem, or launch a new product or service. But with other kinds of industries and work, there may be opportunities to reconsider ones approach to work in the manner that I am describing.
Well-designed projects (and experiments) typically have a relatively well laid out plan and they have a start, beginning, and end. They also have one or more mechanisms to determine if the project or experiment achieved its objective/s. One of the dominant questions the worker should then ask is did the effort succeed or fail based on the criteria that were established at the beginning? For example, in teaching a class that I have taught numerous times before, I frequently experiment with new resources and approaches to teaching subject matter. I introduce the material, and try to gather feedback. If the new material succeeded I try to determine why and if it failed I want to know too.
Not everyone has the luxury to reconceptualize their job, work, trade, profession or career, as a series of projects or experiments, but some of us do. But this subtle shift, however, may make the difference between career anomie and fulfillment.
How you conduct your work is your business, but having a framework that enables you to cut through the bullshit to better understand what you do may help you better achieve your goals.
Photo Credit: Luther College Archives
Lab
https://jeffreyianross.com/wp-content/uploads/1485788252_8980c71006_o.jpg452573Jeffrey Ian Rosshttps://jeffreyianross.com/wp-content/uploads/jeffrey-ian-ross-logo-04.pngJeffrey Ian Ross2022-09-10 14:18:412022-09-11 02:26:40Reconceptualizing jobs, trades, professions and careers as a series of projects and experiments
Although many of the lessons I try to impart have been built upon my experience conducting research and teaching mostly in the criminology/criminal justice field, the information contained in these blogs applies to a wide variety of academic disciplines. Some of the points may also help graduate students as well.
Reading blogs is often less intimidating for students than having to face a big, thick textbook or a scholarly article, and because of the conversational tone, undergrads often understand the points that are made much quicker.
In the end, I hope that my students become critical about their role in the post-secondary education infrastructure, the people and institutions that are employed to deliver instruction, and do their best in this setting and beyond.
Photo Credit: The Focal Project
undergraduate
Concept photo of undergraduate.
https://jeffreyianross.com/wp-content/uploads/52194026546_92f7597732_o-scaled.jpg17072560Jeffrey Ian Rosshttps://jeffreyianross.com/wp-content/uploads/jeffrey-ian-ross-logo-04.pngJeffrey Ian Ross2022-09-03 12:08:192025-09-10 18:03:53Blog posts I share with my incoming undergraduate criminology/criminal justice students
Accessing the lived experience of others
/by Jeffrey Ian RossLived experience can be an excellent data source for scholarly research and career development. In particular, lived experiences can provide anecdotal evidence and inspiration for hypotheses that investigators may want to empirically test using different research techniques. It may also motivate and drive scholars’ passion to conduct research regarding a particular topic.
That being said, researchers frequently do not have access to relevant lived experience that will assist them to conduct their studies. How then do these investigators and others who don’t have appropriate lived experience, that wish to benefit from it, collect this data?
There are a range of research methods and data sources that investigators can use to better understand particular learned experiences.
These include, but are not limited to ethnographic research, observation, face-to-face interviews, and well-designed and administered surveys with individuals who have relevant lived experience. Alternatively we might consider using thoughtful and well-respected memoirs and autobiographies written by individuals who have lived experience.
In principle, if researchers have unlimited resources (e.g., money, time, expertise, access, etc.), it’s helpful for them to use as many of the previously mentioned strategies as possible in order to come closest to understanding the lived experience of the people and groups they are interested in understanding.
Then again there are advantages and disadvantages with each of these options. One need only consult a well-respected introductory social science research methods textbook to understand the situations where a particular technique works best and ones in which they are ill-advised.
Success or failure in this regard usually depends on the questions investigators want to ask (and be answered), and the subject population from whom they want information. For example, asking individuals who are long time methamphetamine users about what it’s like to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings is probably not going to be that helpful. On the other hand, conducting a well-designed ethnography of graffiti writers, over a respectable period of time, may yield valuable insights into their experiences, motivations and constraints.
To top things off, just because researchers have lived experience (or access to data that will provide insights into lived experience), it does not necessarily mean that they and others can make appropriate generalizations.
Over time, however experienced and skilled researchers should be able to better determine which research method/s works best, with what population, and situation. That’s why it’s important for scholars to get into the field to observe, ask important questions of their subjects, and be self-reflective regarding the kinds of information they gather.
Photo Credit: Matthew
Safe cracking – Day 11, Year 2
Reconceptualizing jobs, trades, professions and careers as a series of projects and experiments
/by Jeffrey Ian RossJobs, trades, professions and careers typically provide tangible (e.g., economic) and intangible benefits.
But this approach to earning an income often comes with a considerable amount of unstated, unarticulated, unrealistic, poorly articulated and understood baggage.
This baggage includes the numerous challenges and sacrifices that one must make to complete a course of studies, earn a certification, diploma, degree, or licensing requirement one must pass in order to enter the field, possibly finding one or more mentors, and then time in grade to reach a position where one achieves mastery and perhaps some modicum of work autonomy.
The downsides of particular jobs, trades, professions and careers often makes aspirants (i.e., people attempting to enter this type of work), and journeymen (i.e., those who currently occupy these positions) frustrated, stressed or burned out, and may even force them to question why they chose the career path, and consider quitting the job, trade, or profession (e.g., the great resignation), or engage in such contemporary practices known as quiet quitting.
Granted nothing says that you must work your chosen career for your entire life and empirical evidence bears this out. People change professions on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, for many, it may be difficult to exit a career especially if they are used to a particular income level, can’t change their work location, and if their identity is closely tied to the profession.
Short of visiting a career counsellor or reading another book on career development, there are a handful of options that those who are frustrated with their careers might take.
One suggestion, that is rarely advocated, is to reconceptualize work as a series of projects and experiments. This approach is not necessarily unique in professions where the boss or team are trying to solve a problem, or launch a new product or service. But with other kinds of industries and work, there may be opportunities to reconsider ones approach to work in the manner that I am describing.
Well-designed projects (and experiments) typically have a relatively well laid out plan and they have a start, beginning, and end. They also have one or more mechanisms to determine if the project or experiment achieved its objective/s. One of the dominant questions the worker should then ask is did the effort succeed or fail based on the criteria that were established at the beginning? For example, in teaching a class that I have taught numerous times before, I frequently experiment with new resources and approaches to teaching subject matter. I introduce the material, and try to gather feedback. If the new material succeeded I try to determine why and if it failed I want to know too.
Not everyone has the luxury to reconceptualize their job, work, trade, profession or career, as a series of projects or experiments, but some of us do. But this subtle shift, however, may make the difference between career anomie and fulfillment.
How you conduct your work is your business, but having a framework that enables you to cut through the bullshit to better understand what you do may help you better achieve your goals.
Photo Credit: Luther College Archives
Lab
Blog posts I share with my incoming undergraduate criminology/criminal justice students
/by Jeffrey Ian RossAs the new semester begins, I often struggle with selecting content that I want my undergraduate criminology/criminal justice students to read.
In addition to a core textbook and a handful of articles and book chapters, I share five blog posts with them.
The first one, “What do gym memberships and higher education have in common?” attempts to clarify how college and university education is a unique economic transaction, especially compared to other ones most people participate in.
Second, I believe it’s important that students, and undergrads in particular, know who is providing instruction in their classes. That is why I usually share my blog post, “Who’s teaching this college course anyways, and why does it matter?”
Third, more specific to the field of criminology/criminal justice, I think that it’s helpful for undergrads to understand that not all expertise is the same. That is why I will usually share, “Who is the real criminologist and other uncomfortable questions about expertise.”
Fourth, I strongly believe that many people have challenges with their reasoning ability, and undergraduates are no different. That is why they need to know the difference between facts and opinions. For this reason, I share with them “Undergrads need to know the difference between expressing facts versus opinions.”
Finally, to round things out, to motivate them to draw the connection between what they do in the classroom and their chosen profession, I assign “Why writing well is important for criminal justice practitioners.”
Although many of the lessons I try to impart have been built upon my experience conducting research and teaching mostly in the criminology/criminal justice field, the information contained in these blogs applies to a wide variety of academic disciplines. Some of the points may also help graduate students as well.
Reading blogs is often less intimidating for students than having to face a big, thick textbook or a scholarly article, and because of the conversational tone, undergrads often understand the points that are made much quicker.
In the end, I hope that my students become critical about their role in the post-secondary education infrastructure, the people and institutions that are employed to deliver instruction, and do their best in this setting and beyond.
Photo Credit: The Focal Project
undergraduate
Concept photo of undergraduate.