As of tonight, I have established my own set of research lenses to view my research.

The first and topmost tier represents the paradigm (philosophical stance), which I have adopted pragmatism (to describe behavior in natural contexts) where I connect theory to practice (p. 24, 32)

2nd tier is the phenomenon -- PROCESSES, which is the first year students' perceptions on writing pedagogy as a student engagement tool

3rd tier is the research approach/framework -- pragmatic qualitative research, within is the narrower version of PQR: Interactionism and the Chicago School (p. 24-25)

4th tier is the data collection -- I am straying away from the recommended pragmatic qualitative research's partner of focus groups by using the phenomenological combination of focus groups, students' writings (documents), and journal observations.

5th tier is the data analysis -- again, I am going with the phenomenological analysis by doing a specialized approach to study the data, which is to triangulate the data and peer debriefing.

Sharing Post-thoughts about my dissertation journey

SEE the Writing -- has multiple meanings.

SEE are the initials of my former married name (Sarah Elizabeth Eiland), and even though the marriage chapter in my life has ended, I still carry "See the writing" perspective lens into what I believe about writing and its effectiveness for my teaching style.

It is during my marriage that I taught Orientation 101 at Gadsden State Community College (2008-2015). Thus, I conducted research with the intent to see what students thought of my writing pedagogy, the writing prompts, as an all-encompassing tool to succeed both in the classroom and in life.

On a side but very important note, I am hearing impaired. Subsequently, I share how writing helps with my reaching out to the students sitting in my classroom.

Autoethnography is the research approach used to explore how writing over time has helped with the development of my pedagogical content knowledge.

Lee S. Shulman's (1986, 1987) pedagogical content knowledge is the theoretical framework for my autoethnographic research. Not only do I refer to PCK, I also touch on several other theories including Dee Fink's (2013) taxonomy of significant learning, Schlossberg's (1989) theory on mattering vs. marginality, Mikhail Bahktin's theory of addressivity, and Jacque Lacan's theory of interconnectedness.

I concluded my autoethnographic research with five findings:

1) individualism within diversity

2) variability

3) persistence

4) competence

5) responsiveness.