the website of jeremy de korte: the blog

I can’t believe this already.  This time last year I was commencing my PhD journey having had my application approved in a very quick time frame, met my supervisor, and bright eyed and bushy tailed started some sort of writing.

How the year has passed.

Retrospectively it wasn’t until this year commenced that my writing has kicked up a notch and I’m starting to develop the core of my research, if not my literature review.  When I write now it’s exciting, it’s frightening, it’s mind-boggling, it’s inspirational, it’s irrational, it’s soothing and a whole heap of other feelings at once.  I feel that once I get going (and some days are much harder than others), I get into a real flow.  The research side of things is what excites me the most.  The way in which difference people with their ideas and thoughts inter-play across time and geography but somehow I have to connect the dots and splice and dice their ideas into my own words – and words have power.

And yet here I am trying to write my own way so that my topic of research will find its way into the vast world of music education and community music research.

I aim to make a difference with my work.  I aim to get this thing done so that I get the satisfaction of completing something REALLY BIG!  I aim to excite my colleagues and other researchers with new thoughts.  I aim to know my field and expand into sub-areas if I can.  I aim for so many things…

Whoever created the words “Piled Higher and Deeper” in reference to a PhD knew what they were talking about.  Some days I feel like I am snowed under yet I realise that much of the real work hasn’t started yet.  Sometimes I feel like I have given myself too much to read but I am learning to break down reading into smaller, more manageable blocks.  I suffer from a condition called Obsessive Article Collecting which is a condition coined by “The Thesis Whisperer”. I took her advice, to an extent and at the moment have been writing more than article collecting. If it wasn’t for resources like these I don’t know what I would do.

And I thank my friends. Yes, I probably rely on social networking sites a little too much for friendly contact but through Facebook and Twitter I have built a network of like minded people from all over the world – you can use Facebook for good instead of evil! Having attended a workshop on procrastination the other day I have gained thoughts and ideas from that as well.

Where I am going with my writing at the moment? I’m trying to build a group of core ideas around my topic and am trying to interlink them. As my supervisor says on a regular basis with my work, how does it relate to my study? Where am I trying to go with it? What is my fundamental research question? How will I go about things? Who has written what? What do I know about whom? I’ll get there in the end but the whole ideal of my body of literature, my topic, ownership over my topic and creating all of this from existing literature – I’m trying to aim a needle into the haystack.

I’ll use this blog to record thoughts as much as I am able. I’m not the most regular post person when it comes to this but it might be interesting to look at how far I have gone by looking back. This is a part of my life where I want to succeed in what I am doing and will work very hard to get it.

Thanks for reading!

I’ve now been officially enrolled in my PhD program for a month now, and have started framing (with the help of my supervisior), the shape of my research question. But aside from this process of framing questions, I have been thinking about some other questions to ask of my resources which will serve as a “questioning framework”. These being:

• What do I want to know about whom?
• What do I know? And,
• Where is the key?

I think, when I am working on article reviews, which help in synthesising my literature review, that by working under the framework of these three questions it will help me when seeking and teasing out themes and ideas within my readings.

So far I feel I am taking academic “baby-steps” in that my work output has been small, but in balance I have been collecting resources for more than a year in preparation. The work output will obviously be increasing in the future.

In terms of my own research I think that I may be onto something. For finding a gap in the literature on the subject of learning in community brass and concert bands by middle-school aged students (or something to that effect) has not been as hard as I expected however that is not to say that someone has tweaked onto this question. In fact after my last meeting with my supervisior, there are probably about three PhD topics buried within my questioning. But I think one PhD with my original question will be enough.

The process of answering my question will be very interesting, and putting the research together with my (anticipated) data results will hopefully answer the questions even further – and probably lead to new questions. Which might be answered later in further work. I’m looking forward to this process and applying the above questions to my work.

…and I can’t believe it! Although I still have to get some things organised in my life like getting the total health/study/work/life balance right. Having allocated two days to work a week it has been a little hard to get started. But my supervisor has given my some tasks for the month including plenty of book reading and note-taking. Currently I’m reading “Doctorates Downunder” (see reference below) which is a book designed for doctoral students in Australia and New Zealand. However, my Endnote databases are working (and growing), I’ve caught myself thinking odd questions about community bands and learning, and my head is operating in a new direction – in a totally literal sense of course!

I mentioned my Endnote databases (and what a wonderful piece of software it is). I’ve now separated my primary and secondary sources and established a database for each. On this website I’ve made a significant upgrade to my Research Page to reflect the separating of sources. While I still have lots of references to plow through, the separating of the database will make things easier to manage. Last week I also bought myself some new software called “Notebook” for the Macintosh which should prove, in time to be a useful research tool.

Anyway, I will endeavor to keep myself updated and use this blog to highlight bit more of what I’m up to.

Reference:

Denholm, C. J., & Evans, T. D. (2006). Doctorates downunder : keys to successful doctoral study in Australia and New Zealand. Camberwell, Vic.: ACER Press.