Where am I? Where am I?

Searching, searching, sick of searching! Throughout the whole search and find process so far I have kept in mind some of the stages I have been going through and thought it was about time I documented some of it. When I had a serious read of Kuhlthau et al’s information search process (ISP) (Figure 1) I could immediately identify with some of the stages and have documented some of it below:



Figure 1. Kuhlthau ISP model

Initiation: I was definitely feeling very uncertain at the beginning because my school context fell through, time kept moving on, and I was starting to think I might have to drop out due to a lack of a learning experience to document. Fortunately, Mandy came to my rescue which took me along the continuum into the Selection and Exploration stage. I found the lines between the two stages blurred for me and that I could not really identify moving from one to the other. However, I most certainly did experience the frustration, confusion and doubt of the Exploration stage of the Kuhlthau et al. ISP.

My context, because I am using Youth, Popular Culture and Texts, is tertiary or adult education. I found it quite difficult to find research material on this specific context. Eventually, through perseverance, wine and foul language I eventually came up with a good body of research. I used Google Scholar, ProQuest Education database and Education A+ database. Normally I search with only one or two parameters first and just see what I find. This time round, however, I was getting fairly desperate and panicked about my workload and decided I really needed to search smarter, instead of longer. I always use Boolean operators such as AND but this time I decided to use OR to a fuller extent. My past searching efforts had yielded some good results but I had serious gaps in my information. On reviewing what I had already found I had moved into Kuhlthau’s Formulation and Clarity phases, where I now had a vague sense of direction and had formed enough of an understanding on my topic to know what I was missing in the line of research. As a result of ProQuest’s suggested related topics on my last round of searches I decided to use the following search parameters in all three of the abovementioned database:

Inquiry + tertiary OR higher education OR adult education

Literacy + inquiry OR tertiary OR higher education OR adult education

Inquiry + literacy

Because I was being so specific I didn’t get huge amounts of results, but frankly I didn’t want huge amounts to weigh me down and confuse me. In the end I came up with ten really good results that have seen me move on to Presentation. My draft, which went on Blackboard today, has me hovering somewhere in between Kuhlthau’s Satisfaction or Disappointment that he lists as the affective domain of this stage.

To some extent I have found the ISP model a little confusing for me. Because I am studying full time I have an enormous amount of research going on at the moment and I have found it difficult to separate my place in the ISP for this subject, from my place in the ISP overall. I am in completely different stages depending on how I look at it. When just considering this mini essay task I have moved along and reached Presentation quite happily, however, if I look at the subject in its entirety, or even worse the whole course workload, I am I still wavering back and forth between Initiation and Exploration. Not a good sign, obviously. I find myself more comfortable with Callison’s model of Information Inquiry with its circular pattern and emphasis on questioning (Figure 2).

In the process of my searching around I found a great website that outlines about 10 different models of searching and inquiry. It is well worth a look at

http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/models.htm

Figure 2. Callison cycle of Information Inquiry elements

Callison’s model is circular in nature, rather than the linear layout of the Kuhlthau et al. model, and I am certainly going round in circles. I don’t necessarily mean that in a negative manner, but I most certainly agree with Callison: that questioning is central to inquiry and that every question ‘answered’ raises more questions. My search processes have moved me back and forth between Callison’s stages and this is in keeping with his model. After each search session, and then analysis of my findings, I moved through all his phases: from Questioning to Exploration to Assimilation to Inference and to Reflection. However, as Callison purports, the Assimilation and Reflection has then raised issues that I felt needed more exploration and more evidence, so I went back to Questioning to frame what it was I still needed to know. Personally, whilst I was clearly positioned, at times, in the stages of the Kuhlthau et al. ISP, Callison’s framework actually fits better with how I work and how I think. It is the ever fluid nature of the Callison framework that I find so applicable to my study processes.

References

Kuhlthau, C. Maniotes, L. & Caspari, A. (2007). Guided inquiry: learning in the 21st century. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited.

Callison, D. (2006). Chapter 1: Information Inquiry: concepts and elements. [Electronic format] In D. Callison & L Preddy (Ed.), The blue book on information age inquiry, instruction and literacy. Westport: Libraries Unlimited. Retrieved August 9, 2010 from Queensland University of Technology Course Materials Database.