Perhaps I should clarify that long and slightly angry post about doing research in education, especially after coming out of the other end of a difficult situation.
Because I know Bear got the wrong idea from all my various ranting episodes, I'd better clarify that the reason I was stuck in a rut was because i had to depend so much on the available literature (as flawed or unsuitable as i might've thought it to be), and therefore felt hampered in my attempt to write something original, which i'd thought of, without having to hunt for and stick on other peoples' names after each proposition or idea.
Now, I think i've finally understood what my supervisor was trying to tell me: you need to demonstrate that you can jump through the hoops. It's all about learning the discipline of research, and later, when you have become an expert in your field, then you can set forth and expound upon your own ideas till the jelly sets.
Which, in the sober light of hindsight, finally makes sense to me.
So after all, I am learning something, and have also realised that nobody said it was going to be easy! It's such folly, presupposing that everything must be accessible simply because it always has been.
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Is it that you're 'depending on available lit' or standing on the shoulder of giants?
That bit about jumping through hoops I can identify with. Maybe it helps researchers avoid redundancy.
If you can identify the flaws of earlier research and even update/clarify/improve it, that's a contribution!
Otherwise, if someone's published the idea before, why do it again...
When I was studying philosophy, I would constantly be going "hey, I thought of that too" or "isn't that obvious...".
Then concede that I'm a few centuries too late and that predecessors had at least bothered to reason it out thoroughly and PUBLISH.
(What's more, others have already refuted or found problems with it.)
Just like this ramble, there was usually a point somewhere...
Yep, i totally agree. My problem was that earlier research was just so "everywhere", and not easy, as it were, to organise into some cohrerent whole, which was what i was trying to do.
And in the process of trying to do that, i couldn't make any original points, without referring to research that i felt was inadequate for my purposes.
Educational research is difficult because it isn't simple, and therefore seldom linear in the "i'll study this, then find results, and based on those results, study this next" kind of way. You need some sort of consistency in variables, methods, measures, etc to do that... and in my case anyway, there isn't! blah. :P It'll come together somehow in the end.
It sounds like psyc research and I'm sure you'll make sense of it somehow.
It also sounds like you need a minion. heheh
it is rather like psych research, what with all the subjective muddle, except it's worse.
Yes, a minion! But what would I feed it? Perhaps badly written journal articles? yes, that would be ideal...
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