Situating Your Research (part 1)

Self-Reflection

Upon completing the latest assignment in the LRNT502 course at Royal Roads University, I am beginning to better understand the concept of “cultures of inquiry” and feel that it is a good time as ever to examine my own innate culture of inquiry.  I feel that I must also acknowledge that I have spent considerable time as a student of the social sciences and have internalized many of the paradigms used in sociology and cultural anthropology. This also leads me to consider some of my other biases due to my socio-economic status, generational time-point in history, gender, ethnicity, peer influences and others.  

I believe a sensible place to start on this journey of self-reflection, is to start with some foundational research into cultures of inquiry and for that I’m going to reference an excellent book, “Mindful Inquiry in Social  Research” written by the duo Valerie Malhotra Bentz and Jeremy J. Shapiro. One of the most basic divisions between those who practice specific cultures of inquiry comes down to beliefs around quantitative versus qualitative data. As captured in the infographic below, you can see that both qualitative and quantitative research methods are not mutually exclusive but “bridge” each other’s gaps. This is a very post-modern assumption as my experiences through the public education system would have me believe that qualitative data was inferior since it cannot be measured easily and is more challenging to interpret. I have come to understand this phenomenon as the positivist backlash to the theological and meta-physical theories of the early nineteenth century. I would argue that qualitative inquiries are a more innately human method of research and that true quantitative research is a learned phenomenon.

Bentz and Shapiro offer some suggestions when exploring cultures of inquiry. They have compiled a list of questions you can ask to determine the nature of any culture of inquiry which will help both to situate yourself and explore other cultures.

Questions

1. What are the principal sorts of problems and concerns typically  addressed within each tradition?
2. What are the underlying epistemological assumptions concerning the sources of knowledge?
3. What is the relationship between the researcher and the subject of research in each culture of inquiry?
4. What is the nature of attunement between one’s personal style and the culture of inquiry?

 (Bentz and Shapiro, p.93-94, 1998)

I’m realizing now, as I am hoping you the reader are, that there is a lot to consider when aligning oneself with a culture of inquiry even at a foundational level. Originally, I had intended to include examples of major cultures of inquiry but this post have left me with much to consider in preparation for part two. In the meantime, my professor has asked us to respond to posts from other members of your cohort and that will be next week’s topic. 

Great infographic that outlines the differences between quantitative and qualitative research. Source: http://www.dundas.com/blog-post/analyze-that-a-look-at-your-data/

References

Bentz, V. M., & Shapiro, J. J. (1998). Mindful inquiry in social research. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.

 

Welcome // Cultures of Inquiry

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the Corporate Academic, a place where I will be discussing my thoughts and experiences as a learning professional in the private sector. I am currently pursuing my Master’s degree in Learning Technology at Royal Roads University where this blog is a practical activity to develop my academic voice as well as an opportunity to reflect on course material. I’m initially planning four to six blog posts on this site but may continue to post as my ideas develop. Please feel free to share your thoughts below and we’ll see where the discussions lead.

Cultures of Inquiry

Think about a question, a big and broad question that you have always wondered about. Ignoring time, budget, resources and other constraints, how would you go about finding answers to your question? Would you take measurements, interview experts or conduct a survey? All of these questions help us determine our preferred Culture of Inquiry, that is to say the way in which we inquire about a given question or problem. For those of us in the corporate sector, the culture of inquiry is commonly quantitative in nature due to the dominant culture of risk management, which relies heavily on empirical data to make decisions. However, the world of adult learning cannot always be quantified with data as is the case with measuring the effectiveness of learning.

Arguably, today’s learning management systems provide a plethora of metrics which prove that a learner attended a classroom session or logged on to a web-based course but offer limited evidence of knowledge retention beyond assessments and course feedback forms. As the term “culture of inquiry” suggests, to shift paradigms from quantitative to qualitative is a cultural shift which is incredibly challenging if not impossible when all levels within an organization have accepted qualitative data as the norm. Is this the case at your organization? It is with mine.

I strongly believe that a disciplined learning\training\talent management team can positively influence the culture of inquiry within an organization. The very nature of our role is to align employees to the organization’s goals through behaviour shaping and skill development. Each day we are presented with problems and questions that are intrinsic to our work yet we consciously or unconsciously accept the methods in which said problems and questions are approached. There are a wide variety of cultures of inquiry ranging from Phenomenology and Hermeneutics to Critical social science and Ethnography. Each culture provides has advantages and limitations based on the subject of inquiry and it stands to reason that understanding when and which culture to apply benefits the inquirer towards reaching the purest truth and knowledge.