Running head: RESEARCHER IDENTITY MEMO

Maxwell Exercise 2.1 Researcher Identify Memo

Karin Fonseca
Valdosta State University

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Maxwell Exercise 2.1 Researcher Identify Memo

The journey of choosing the dissertation topic has been the hardest for me. As I am an
international student when I started this program I was certain that my focus of study would be
something related to international students, perhaps retention of international students in higher
education. The more I have learned from this program the more I realized this is not the topic I
would like to pursue.
I am not completely sure of the topic I will study as yet, however, because of my business
background I have been overwhelmed with some of our leadership classes and all the types of
leadership there are. I am considering a study on something that has absolutely nothing to do
with my career, however that has to do with leadership. I am reflecting on church leadership.
I am considering that religion alone cannot run a church. Since this can be a broad topic, I have
been trying to narrow it down, and have though about how effective leadership in a church can
cause it to be successful. For this reason I am focusing on studying a small church that has grown
tremendously in the past decade.
As I have lived in four different countries, I have been exposed to many types of religion,
from Baptism, Protestant, Spiritism, and Catholic, to even Black magic. I was born in Brazil,
mainly a Catholic country. I was raised with some Catholic background as well as Spiritism, but
religion was not a fundamental base in my family. In fact, I have a sister that is a Christian, one
that is a Catholic and a brother that is Atheist. Once I moved to the United States I still did not
pursue any particular religion, in fact I would go to any church I would be invited to. Later in
life I became a Christian by choice, however I moved to Mexico, which is another Catholic
country and for this reason did not pursue Christianity until recently.
Although I do recognize that me being a Christian could create a bias on researching on church

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leadership, I do have the desire to objectively analyze the successful influence of leadership in
the church setting. Again, I am not deep, as I would like to be in finding the gap that I will
pursue, but religion aside, the leadership aspect of it is what motivates me to want to study this
topic of research. Also, is something that has nothing to do with my career but could add to my
perspective of leadership and business major. Therefore the fact that I have never worked with a
church institution makes this interesting for me to want to learn more and broaden my horizon
about leadership.
Finally, as a goal, I am truly inspired to learn about people, what makes them leaders and
what characteristics do they possess. In addition how effective leadership can influence the
church as well as be translated to any business. Again, this would add to the life experiences and
education I have obtained that have helped me in the leadership roles I have developed over the
years. I believe that a study as such could be replicated in many countries and even different
types of institutions.
On the other hand, the same factor that this would not be a particular study on my previous
career experience could be of disadvantage. Furthermore, developing the right strategy of study
and narrowing it down to reach the gap and develop the research questions could take time and
consequently be costly. I believe that having a course on qualitative research will help me in
finding the focus of my research that will lead me to the best strategy to use. I plan to do more
research on the topic in order to find a gap of interests; also I want to learn more on skills and
tolls I can develop to avoid bias.
Reflection:
This exercise forces me to analyze myself in a way I normally do not do. I recognize it
was far more difficult than I could imagine and I am aware that the further the analysis continues

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the more I will have to add to this section. There are many biases that I have probably
overlooked, nonetheless this exercise is a way to keep perspective and will help me to always
reanalyze myself in each and every step of the way.