“Identity Memos” as a Way to Connect Students’ Scholarship to Their Past Experiences

Abstract

A problem that I encounter in teaching research methods to graduate students is that these students frequently ignore or dismiss everything they believe from their own experience about the issues they want to study. This not only cuts them off from a valuable source of insights and hypotheses, but also blinds them to potential sources of bias in their research. To deal with this problem, I assign what I call a âresearcher identity memo,â requiring students to reflect on how their past experiences have influenced their choice of a research topic and their approach to, and beliefs about, this topic, and the potential advantages and validity threats these experiences and beliefs create for their research. The session will include an explanation (with examples) of how I use this assignment, presentations by former students on the influence these memos had on their research, and interaction about their wider applicability.