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  • Kasper Richter 9:40 pm on April 4, 2016
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    Following up on Brenn’s comment, this project has definitely been an unique experience with regards to working with the community partner. It seems like the last semester just flew by, and it’s hard to believe that we’re less than a month away until we head off to Williams Lake.

    It’s also interesting to note how different groups have had different levels of contact with their partners – with some have weekly phone calls to others having only a few over the course of the entire semester. There’s something to be said about some community partners wish to be more frequently updated on a project’s progression than others. That said, we’ve have semi-infrequent calls with our group’s community partner that have been more of the result of scheduling conflicts than anything else.

     
  • brennwilliams 4:46 pm on April 4, 2016
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    Hi Angela,

    There seems to be an ongoing issue with the reply function of the blog, so here is my reply to your last comment! I agree, I am also used to having full authority over my research projects. This has been the case even in other research based learning classes that I’ve taken at UBC. We are without a doubt developing, and relying on trust both with our teammates, as well as with our community partner. I think that this is what is so valuable about community based learning. The reality of a university degree is that it really doesn’t put you in situations where your final product relies on more than one stakeholder. Generally, the stakeholders are limited to the members of a group, or even yourself and the path towards a final product is quite linear. I think that is what is so gratifying about this course, the path to our final report is less linear and less structure – as is the case in the real world, or workplace. This experience will indeed be valuable to our personal skill sets, but also to our understanding of what it truly takes to tackle complex issues outside of the sphere of academia.

     
  • Angela Ho 12:46 am on April 4, 2016
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    This class has been an eye opening experience for me. I’m used to being in control of whatever I do for my classes, and the fact that my group members and I don’t have full authority over our project is something new for me. Because we are relying on our community partner to help us complete various parts of our project (such as administering surveys and collecting the results), this class is definitely encouraging my community partner, group members and I to develop our trust for one another, which I really appreciate!

     
  • Angela Ho 12:46 am on April 4, 2016
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    This class has been an eye opening experience for me. I’m used to being in control of whatever I do for my classes, and the fact that my group members and I don’t have full authority over our project is something new for me. Because we are relying on our community partner to help us complete various parts of our project (such as administering surveys and collecting the results), this class is definitely encouraging my community partner, group members and I to develop our trust for one another, which I really appreciate!

     
  • alison fung 8:50 pm on April 3, 2016
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    Hey everyone, I agree, can’t believe we’ll be going to Williams Lake so soon! For my group, as I’m sure others, it’s been challenging to work on a project without being at Williams Lake. Our project is on the Williams Lake Community Forest, so having never been there, it’s hard to picture it and the local issues on the grounds. Amy, it’s interesting that you have weekly calls with your community partner, as our group has had around 4 calls with our partner. It’s interesting that we’re in the same class, but we’re having very different experiences since each community partner has very different work for us. I imagine we’re also splitting up the work very differently too. In my group, one person is focusing on the GIS work, for example. I’m excited for the trip to Williams Lake with everyone.

     
  • amy shaw 4:36 pm on April 3, 2016
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    Hey Mielle, its not letting me respond to your post either. I completely agree with you about how we have a responsibility to our community partners not to let them down. I feel this weekly with our calls with our community partners, where we have to have something prepared for our conversation or we feel like we’ve wasted Rosanna’s valuable time. We have been receiving good feedback for our pamphlets for foster parents and biological parents whose children have been taken into care, and its really rewarding knowing that we have the chance to make a difference in the Williams Lake community. So yes, I would really agree that this class differs from other classes that I have done before in the sense that there are more people who will be impacted if we don’t produce a worthwhile final project other than just ourselves.

     
  • mielle 1:58 pm on April 3, 2016
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    It won’t let me respond to your post, Courtney, so I’m replying here. Good luck with this week/finals/prepping for our trip, everyone! The trip is starting to feel much more real now that we’re so close. At the beginning of the semester it felt like we would never end up here; it’s kind of amazing how much we have all been able to pull together. I agree that I’m starting to feel the pressure, between this course and everything else, and I think there’s an added layer of stress because I don’t want to forget something and let down our community partner. In general, that’s what has distinguished this class for me– I’m used to schoolwork being a very personal task that only affects me, rather than a collaborative project that has an actual impact on someone else and the possibility to positively or negatively affect their organization. I’m really enjoying doing something with a tangible output that I know will be useful, and I think it’s a very refreshing change from most of the academic work I’ve done so far. How does this class feel the same/different for you guys?

     
    • Angela Ho 12:44 am on April 4, 2016 | Reply

      This class has been an eye opening experience for me. I’m used to being in control of whatever I do for my classes, and the fact that my group members and I don’t have full authority over our project is something new for me. Because we are relying on our community partner to help us complete various parts of our project (such as administering surveys and collecting the results), this class is definitely encouraging my community partner, group members and I to develop our trust for one another, which I really appreciate!

      • Anton Metalnikov 11:28 pm on April 4, 2016 | Reply

        I totally agree with Mielle. I went into this course hoping to gain real world experience that could be applied outside of the “ivory tower” of academia, and it’s exactly what I’ve gotten so far working with my community partner. Being able to put my abilities such as research and GIS into practical uses all with a large, busy team has been an valuable opportunity I do not take for granted! The feeling of pressure is also very different as well. In a typical university setting, while I do worry about disappointing my professors if I don’t work to my best ability, at the end of the day I am the only one to suffer. Throughout this term, not only do my actions affect my fellow team members, but they also affect my community partner, and even the people of the Williams Lake Indian Band. I could almost consider this my first geography related job! Overall, I can’t give away too much from my final reflection for this class, but already before we’ve even made the trip up I have had a great time and would recommend this class to anyone.

  • courtenay desiree crane 1:49 pm on April 3, 2016
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    Hi everyone, I thought this was a week when we were supposed to contribute the the discussion forum, but I haven’t seen any other comments yet, so I thought I’d get a conversation started. Our group is busy getting ready for our presentation this week. It is honestly a bit stressful, but really rewarding to see how all the hard work from this semester is coming together. I have learned so much in this class, and I know that my future research and research practices will be really influenced by this.

     
    • bridgitte taylor 9:23 pm on April 3, 2016 | Reply

      Just to add to this conversation – I agree, it’s really unbelievable that soon we’ll be in Williams Lake! This makes me both excited and nervous. On one hand, my groups’ research has really been solidified over the past couple weeks, and we’ve learned a lot via phone interviews, etc…However, we’re now struggling to find focus group participants, as it seems we’re playing phone tag with a lot of the contacts we’ve been directed to. This is making it difficult to organize for the trip up there, but also gives us insights into the process of “remote research” which is likely at least some part of any field research project that would be conducted outside your own community. I’m wondering if anyone else is having similar challenges?

  • courtenay desiree crane 12:32 am on March 12, 2016
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    Just adding to the conversation about gender, I think that the research that was conducted showed less about what traits are characteristic of men and women, but instead reflected how gender is constructed in society. I think that this week’s reading “Navigating the city: gender and positionality in cultural geography research” really complimented this week’s activity as it discusses gender and research. I found it really useful in helping to consider the relationship between gender and the methodology that we employ in our research. The authors write: “When we consider gender, we not only reference the physical qualities associated with gender differences but most importantly also refer to socially constructed gender roles” (153).

    I think that the results of the survey illustrated the limitations that come with only recognizing two genders, male and female. I believe that gender should not be something that you just tick off in a box as either as male or female; perhaps a blank space for the participant to provide their own way of identifying would be more suitable. In the article “Native gay and lesbian issues: The two-spirited” Terry Tafoya offers a good overview of traditional Indigenous concepts of gender that are quite different from the Canadian constructions of gender that were long imposed on Indigenous peoples. In mainstream Canadian society, gender is often constructed as…
    “polar opposites, or different ends of the same stick. One is either/or, male or female, gay or straight. Native American concepts usually prefer circles to lines. If one takes the line of male/female, gay/straight, and bends it into a circle, there are an infinite number of points. Just so, there are theoretically an infinite number of possible points of gender and sexual identity for an individual who can shift and differ over time and location” (407).
    This article is quite appropriate for our discussion of leadership, which, in Canadian society, has been dominated by men. If I remember correctly the leadership gender survey took place at a university in the states, which, like Canada is a settler colonial society, where males have dominated leadership positions. Prior to contact, many Indigenous communities were matriarchal and women often occupied leadership roles. This changed with the imposition of the Indian Act, which made it mandatory for Indians on reserves to vote in band office elections instead of using traditional forms of Indigenous governance, and denied women the right to vote or to be elected chief until 1951. These imposed Canadian concepts of gender and leadership were very different from traditional Indigenous understandings.
    “Historically the status of a two-spirit person was valued in many native communities, since an ordinary male sees the world through male eyes and an ordinary female sees the world through female eyes. However, a two-spirited person (who possesses both a male and female spirit, regardless of the flesh that is worn) will always see further. For this reason, many two-spirited people have become medicine people, leaders, and intermediaries between men and women… Their greater flexibility provides them with greater possibilities of discovering alternative ways of seeing themselves and the world.”

    References
    Kusek, Weronika A., and Sarah L. Smiley. “Navigating the City: Gender and Positionality in Cultural Geography Research.” Journal of Cultural Geography 31.2 (2014): 152-65. Web

    Tafoya, Terry. “Native gay and lesbian issues: The two-spirited.” Psychological perspectives on lesbian, gay, and bisexual experiences (2003): 401-409.

     
  • Angela Ho 10:55 pm on March 10, 2016
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    Not only can research findings can be greatly influenced by the chosen methodologies, I think the way in which research participants are sampled will also have major impacts on the findings. For example, while snowball or convenient sampling would be easy to achieve, it may not be an appropriate for producing representative research findings. As researchers, we need to have a clear understanding of how our chosen sample(s) can influence our understanding of the topic at hand. In some cases, the representativeness of research findings may not be as important as developing new theories or reaffirming existing theories. For my group, we have yet to decide on how we will divvy up the participants for our focus groups. As we will be working with youth, there is a range of possibilities that we can take to establish our focus groups, such as organizing them by race/ethnicity, age or gender. How do other groups plan to select participants for their research sample? Let me know, – I’d love to hear your thoughts!

     
    • Cheng Yee Seah 11:42 pm on March 10, 2016 | Reply

      This isn’t really a response but I second Angela’s questions! This is definitely our next biggest challenge as grouping students in certain ways may not only impact the discussions and results we get, but may also impact their perceptions and ideas they take away from the activity. Since we are working with youth, there’s definitely a lot of vulnerability and bravery that is required from the students to open up and discuss issues that may be highly sensitive, so taking this into consideration will be crucial as well. But as Angela said, I think our group would love to hear your thoughts/suggestions on this – are there any other groups who are thinking of doing focus group discussions?

      • gabriel olivella 6:00 pm on March 11, 2016 | Reply

        Hey Angela! My group is working with the Caribou Friendship Society and we are also applying a mixed approach of interview methods to gather our data. I agree with you when you say that it is crucial to be careful in using methods to extract the best representative research findings.
        Our group is considering on working with Focus groups, life history, and potentially some surveys. For our focus group section, we are choosing our target demographic based on age as well as ethnicity. Since our topic addresses intergenerational trauma from Residential Schools, we considered that old folks who went through this process might be suitable for the focus group. These individuals must have gone through Residential School, and hence by default they need to be Indigenous. Both factors, age and ethnicity, are in our opinion great definers of how our experience in society is shaped. Our group concluded that based on these two characteristics we could set aside a group for the questionnaire.
        We are also considering on sharing some of our personal stories with them. Story sharing blends into the participant observation method as well, because aside from interviewing we will be telling experiences too. We thought this approach (blending focus group and participant observation) could ease the formalities of interviews just enough to make our interviewees more comfortable. Do you have any thought on this?
        Either way we will be also having a social worker from the Caribou Friendship Society help modulate the focus group to get that middle person who can further stimulate more openness when talking.
        I hope my commentary helps Angela, and good luck in your group’s research!

      • bridgitte taylor 11:09 pm on March 14, 2016 | Reply

        I definitely agree with many of the sentiments expressed through this thread, especially regarding the assumptions that surveys can make (the one we took in particular, regarding gender and identity, as many have pointed out), but also in terms of how a research or survey question is perceived. For me, when checking off the boxes on the survey, I chose those traits which were most important to me personally, versus what answers I actually thought most people would cite, or which may be typically designated as strong leadership characteristics. In this sense, I think survey’s can be tricky in that while they may seem simple, a thousand questions might go through a participants mind – and there’s a good chance they may answer questions within frameworks that the survey conductors had never considered. As a part of the Social Planning Council group, we had initially thought we would set up surveys prior to heading up to Williams Lake. Survey’s seemed like a fairly simple way to gather information prior to departure so that would could really start incorporating our research findings into our final report. Hence, I feel as though there may be tendencies to distribute survey’s just for the sake of it, even if the answers are potentially not reliable (if the survey questions/answers aren’t carefully thought out). This can be tricky territory no doubt. These challenges were compounded by the fact that we were consistently told that there were barriers to survey completion, a.) because of communication barriers and b.) because there’s few incentives for young people (who we will ideally be working with) to actually complete surveys when they aren’t entirely sure of the value of their answers, or if there’s few incentives.

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