Pleasure in Work

You can see the pleasure. It was so nice to see Jane today. Catching up with old friends is only part of the pleasure. Today the research team met to talk about their pilot interview study. We are adjusting the protocol and practice according to the pilot experiences. We will also be working to analyze the pilot data toward the end of this week and the beginning of next.  

The pilot study involved interviewing focus groups of 5 students in two schools across three grade designations (lower primary, middle primary, and upper primary). The aim of the study is to understand how the children conceptualize peace and non-peace, to hear what stories they are telling about peace, and to see how they are making sense of what they learning purposefully and what they are learning with less intention.

Jane is on this research team and she brought a lot of reflection to the meeting today. At one point she told the group she felt so humbled with the way the children opened up about their experiences. I was really touched with the way members of the research team talked about their experiences listening to the children.  Each of the members  reported that the children were quite frank and open and willing to talk.

They shared some of the responses and of course I am not going to write them all out here, but there are smattering of things that I think get me looking forward to the analysis. It was interesting to me how many children reported basic economic things as part of peace – like having enough food and being able to pay their school fees (the government schools are not free).  The children also said things like “When daddy greets mommy in the morning” and “when no one is quarrelling.” They seemed to be very aware of how people in the family treated one another, which is not a big surprise, but their analysis of it in terms of peace was quite astute.

The children shared traditional cultural stories of peace. These are new for me, but everyone else on the team was quite familiar with them.

They also related obedience to peace and keeping order, being polite as peaceful activities.  They had sad stories to tell about violence -- always riveting for someone like me who grew up in such a loving home.

I enjoyed hearing about team’s work on the pilot study. When I was here last February we drafted the study plan and interview protocol. Then, when Chalmer, my IUPUI colleague who started this project, was here in November they finalized the protocol. Then they conducted the interviews.  They talked a lot about the process. The need for more time to build rapport, for addressing language challenges, for honing the expectations of particular questions. They didn’t need me, but it was a pleasure to witness.

I met the Vice Chancellor (this is like the president or chancellor of the university). He is a new VC, only at Kyambogo for one month. James and I met with him and talked about the research, creating peace centers in key areas in the country, and developing a Ph.D. program.  He seemed very receptive and had some good ideas to share.  

Late in the afternoon I met with Nathan and David. Nathan is going to work on a Ph.D. from a university in western Uganda. The way the Ph.D. program works here, you write a concept paper to be admitted and you have to identify 2 Ph.D. faculty to guide you in your research. Then you get admitted, if that is successful. Then you prepare a proposal which gets defended. Then you do your dissertation research. When you are finished, the dissertation is sent out to external reviewers (2) for comments. This is followed by a public defense and hopefully a conferred degree. No coursework which is one of the struggles in terms of developing research expertise. Well, I am going to be one of Nathan’s two faculty and David will be the other. Nathan is going to study the topic of large classes (e.g. in the government schools it is common to have 40 – 50 kindergarten age students in one class).  I am pleased to be working with Nathan and David on this Ph.D. program.