Just had a jolly morning teasing out the dual purposes of this research project and the implications thereof. One purpose is for me to get my MSc, let's be clear about that. The second one is to design some kind of alumnae thing so that AWARD Fellows' empowerment trajectories continue after the end of the fellowship and draw in and nurture other non AWARD women in African ARD.
Systems Thinking provides some handy tools for this kind of analysis. I used:
PQR: which is a wee tool to explore why you are doing what you are doing,what you are doing and how (a system to do P by Q in order to achieve R)
CATWOE: This mnemonic aims to make sure you are clear about important elements of what you are proposing to do - who is this for? what are the world view and desired transformation that make you think this is a good idea? Who needs to be involved? What constraints will you face? Who can pull the plug?
Boundary reflection on frames of reference: This critical tool helps make sure that you systematically consider the assumptions and implications of what you are proposing or studying. It looks at sources of influence on the system, the people embdodied in those influences and the issues that arise because of those. It is useful particularly for uncovering power dynamics, and for comparing what is against what should be.
Having said all this, this is long enough, so the actual analysis bit can go in the next post.