Thesis Review

Yesterday was a red letter day! I attended a review meeting at the Institute and was quizzed on my proposal by a panel of three including my supervisor. Thankfully the panel approved my proposal without conditions which means that I can get on with the data collection without fear that I have to change the research.

Actually the meeting was very helpful and each member of the panel gave some most useful and constructive advice. It does help to have input from others if only to clarify one's own thoughts.

The time since my last post has not been without progress. I needed some winter sun so had a week by the Red Sea in Egypt earlier this month. To be honest there was not a lot to do as it was too windy for me to go out on a boat to snorkel, and camel riding is not a favoured excursion. This meant sitting out of the wind by the pool reading.

I completed the Gershuny book (previously mentioned) which provides a lot of background about diary keeping and changing patterns of work over the last thirty years. It also has an excellent way of presenting diary info which I aim to use for my own data. Apart from this I got through a report on Work-Life balance produced by the Institute for Employment Studies in 2002 and made a start on reading up on different interpretations of post-industrial / information / knowledge societies. As this was one of the panel's questions it is clearly something that the thesis will need to address in presenting an interpretation and context.

The last thing to report is that I had anticipated a successful review and have already issued the pre-course questionnaire to students. Goodness only knows what I would have done if its use had been rejected or substantial changes suggested as up to today 385 students have completed it!! Now all I have to do is teach myself Access as the best way to manage the various sources of data and bring them together will be through a database.

The course that the research focuses on starts on Monday so the next few weeks will be pretty hectic. With over 550 students signed up I should have a decent set of data to work with!!