1st July today…it is raining cats and dogs here whereas it’s boiling back ‘home’ ( i dont ever dare say this word still since it doesnt feel like that at all…). I have been preparing for my presentation at the conferenc eon Tuesday. I guess am still very tired from the review panel and woudl rather have a break now. However, i feel more relaxied about presenting to this audience and the whole presentation will be at a more personal style, i want to grasp the audience’s feeling responses and invite them to reflect upon their own ‘at home-ness’ and cultural identity. The title of my conference presentation came us :”Counsellors moving between cultures: where is home and how does this affect our self and practice?” . It will be interesting to see if i get any volunteers for research interviews.

Soon after the panel, William wrote an email to the rest of the counsellings students group informing them about the panel’s outcomes for those of our team who went through it on Wed. and invited us to share our experience of the review panel, as feedback to other students. Here is what i shared via email with my peer students’ group: … Read more »

I woke up this mornig feeling kind of flat. i knew i had done my best in terms of preparing my research proposal to present it at the review panel but, i was kind of ‘de-spirited’, which i dint like at all.i was feeling a lack of faith in myself,maybe sth around ‘i dint really care about PhDs right now, i want other areas of my life to be resolved really’. However, it would be very annoying if i didnt pass given that i dowant to do this PhD, i was offered fudning for it and i want to believe that it is a process that will facilitate my inner growth but also generate useful insight and service for others.

it actually went better that i thought. there were challenging questions but the whole atmospherein the meeting was that they found my topic very interesting and contemporary. ( i was asked about how i position the research in the wider research literature, then questions around methodology and how i will analyse the data etc). William was very pleased afterwards. All went well, thank God!

I saw William today and we went through the powerpoint panel presentation together before sending it to Alison. We had a very interesting discussion, he felt that the presentation was well structured and that any debate occuring shall be seen as an opportunity. I feel confident that it will go well tomorrow. When i came home, i felt the need to listen to a taped interview, as if i wanted to bring the ‘liveness’ of the researc into my mind and carry it with me to the panel. When i listen to the data, i get inspired. I think i got tired recently by wrestling excessively with the writing and wording of the proposal. I am looking forward to setting up for the data collection activities – the interviews. As the evening proceeds, i am doing some reading on heuristics, reflexivity etc to freshen up my ideas. It feels like I am ready for tomorrow…i received a text from Chris that he will be praying! Allso, William suggested that i write a paper about “blogging as a heuristic research tool”, what a great idea…

I had a meeting today with Clare about the review panel presentation. We looked at the powerpoint I have prepared and she thought it was quite good. I have quite a few slides in and need to keep in mind that the presentation is 15 minutes only. When I tried it out in front of her i managed to go through it within time. … Read more »