Hi to all, good to be in touch again, it's been a while! and nice to talk with new people on the course. So, just to follow up on the Skype meeting today.
Our conversation about questions really struck a chord with me.
It can be difficult to know how to frame a question, what language to use to give a question some clarity, to get your meaning across. But what resonated most is to remember that whatever we ask, every person responding will have their individual take on it. It will mean something different to everyone, sometimes slight differences at times huge ones, because we all have different lived experiences. We all perceive ideas and knowledge uniquely.
So this (above) can help when we want to respond to someone's question but feel we maybe don't have enough knowledge on the particular subject. The fact that we are maybe coming from a different place, and have a unique perspective and body of knowledge is interesting in itself and so our response is equally valid to that of someone who is an 'authority' on the subject.
When we put forward a question we need to explore how others might find different meaning in it to our own. That others may understand it completely differently. This leads to openness in our research and that will lead to deeper knowledge and new understanding.
It's important to remember the idea that we don't have to provide an answer, let alone the 'correct' answer, whatever the forum may be where the questions are asked, it is fine to provide our own response.
We need to learn how to ask better questions in order to gain greater insight and understanding of our research interests. I've put that in bold to remind myself!
And finally, again the idea of openness. When we ask questions, that they are asked without anticipating or encouraging a particular answer. I think that makes for better research. That we do not have to try to prove something that we think we already know the answer to.
This sums it up for me.
"adhering to the presumption of absolute and authoritarian truth is the greatest obstacle to personal inquiry and the scholarly pursuit of knowledge." (Fraleigh and Hanstein, 1999)
Thanks and bye for now
Great post Rose and written so eloquently and easy to understand. Throughout this whole MAPP journey I have realised that everything we do is done by questioning, even though we may not realise it or choose to recognise it. Being reflective is questioning, so as teachers, specialists, researchers whatever we are, we naturally question our day to day practice. It was great to hear today and now in your post that to find the answer is not the sole purpose of the research question but more about the investigative interpretations that is the important part of the question. And, it is the outcome derived from the initial question that increases our knowledge and develops the journey of research.
ReplyDeleteGreat reflection on the conversation Rose , thank you.
ReplyDeleteAdesola