Research Philosophy ... OMG!!!!

I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then

~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland~

The second module of the Certificate in Research was entitled Research Philosophy. Where do I even start?

Unlike the other course—Research Methods, from the Passion blog—we did not have an intense week of vignettes. Rather, this was an intense week of reading, self-reflection, and quite a lot of big words that were difficult to pronounce and sometimes understand. Of course there were still lecture sessions, but now they were three hours long and the group work never seemed to stop. I started the week a little worried as the course does have a rather odd reputation on campus. At the very least it is recognized as a necessary evil.

I was not impressed with the four pre-readings for two reasons: (1) there were four of them (I did have other work to do) and none of them a few pages long and (2) was I really supposed to understand them all? Now I love reading, especially things that catch my attention, I can relate to or are well written so I did get through two of them. But two paragraphs into the third one and I felt like Morpheus was trying to make me choose between the blue or red pill to see how far the rabbit hole went. Whoops! Just a tad too much for me!!  In addition to the pre-readings, when I looked at the schedule there appeared to be one or several readings for each session (talk about overload; I really felt like a student.)

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to enjoy the few sessions we had. Moreover, I really enjoyed the group sessions during the week. They allowed us (the students) to learn from each other, talk through what we had learnt, what we didn’t understand and kinda muddle through it together.

Now, about the teaching sessions in more detail… sigh. These sessions were thought provoking, interesting, befuddling at times and sometimes fun. Please do not think this story will have a typical ending i.e. expect poor session but it turned out to be great …no no no… this story has a totally different emphasis. Let me focus on the thought provoking part of the week. Have you ever asked yourself:

• ·         What is reality?
• ·         How do I view reality?
• ·         Are there multiple realities?
• ·         Does the reality of a situation change for the same person?
• ·         What is the truth?
• ·         How do I know that something is the truth?
• ·         Are there several truths?
• ·         Does the truth change according to the perspective of the viewer, thinker or individual?
• ·         Is the truth the same no matter whose point of view it is seen from?

These are the types of questions that were being tossed at us (almost carelessly) during that week. The answers to these questions, or rather our answers to these questions or our point of view would apparently make it easier for us to determine our philosophical positions as it relates to research.

Seriously?!? Who thinks about this stuff? Who wants to do this much self-examination? What was I doing here? Was getting a PhD supposed to make me examine myself and my beliefs? Even scarier: were these questions really that difficult? For some persons I am sure the answers would come very easily because everything in their lives is so clear-cut and sure. But right now, right then especially in the face of all these differing perspectives, what did I really think? What was I sure of? What did I believe?

What do you believe?

Sigh… all this thinking is exhausting. Anyway … the week went by, I believe I participated and I know I learnt something. Words like ontology, epistemology and methodology all became a little clearer; I even think I get interpretivism and positivism. Unfortunately that didn’t mean that I knew the answers to the hard questions or that I was ready to complete the assignment which essentially requires my answers by January.

What do you think? What is the truth?