How I choose to define research
Research is an attempt to “translate” an experience, or to help others understand the experiences of other entities. I use the term “experience” broadly, to refer to both the relationships between entities, how the interact with one another, as well as information characterizing an entity. All experiences are grounded in a particular perspective crafted by the entities involved/witnessing it. Research, however, entails a commitment to rigor and systematic actions/planning to ensure that reports of others’ experiences can be understood truthfully and accurately. Rigor also plays an additional role of allowing scholars to remain in conversation with one another, identifying methodologies that are widely successful and methodologies that are not. While “truthfulness” and “accuracy,” are end goals for most research, the scope of research is limited to what trends, identities, common beliefs, and methodologies are present among the academic world. Researchers cannot just do research for the sake of it. Amid all of the effort and hard work, there still remains a question of “will I get funding/recognition for my research proposal?” Publications are often written with formal Standard English and with great technicality, making work inaccessible to people who do not have some level of background knowledge or academic prestige. Due to these barriers, I feel as though one of the most important tasks for researchers is to acknowledge their work as one single attempt at making others develop a similar understanding of an experience.
I had my first introduction to research through qualitative reports from scholarly educational journals. Educational research is more specific to discussing learning experiences throughout one’s lifespan. It is encouraged to recognize especially among research in social sciences that any individual research report represents one partial and unique inquiry. “Partial,” in that the decision-making used during research is often connected to, originates, and influenced by the context, and positionality that the researcher operates within. Many educational researchers are very direct about the fact that their research doesn’t come from a purely objective “all-seeing” eye. Introspection and subjectivity are seen as both precursors for bias, but also as meaningful influences on reporting and data collected. Qualitative educational research showcases a constant weariness of the personal biases of the author in producing their work.
It took a longer amount of time for me to begin reading psychology and computer science research papers. In these more technical fields, research is characterized as objective, scientific, and rationalistic. Furthermore because the subject matter of computer science and psychology may not implicate issues of identity and difference, researchers in these fields do not make the same reflections on positionality found in educational research; it’s far less common and not always necessary. However, there is a constant discussion on theory, testing hypotheses, shortcomings of a given study, and ideas for future work.
All introspection and discussion has to go through a partial and subjective filter, regardless of technicality. Research remains as a powerful social constructor and fund of knowledge for our experiences. We usually trust and look towards research as a source for understanding. Given the prestigious positioning of the scholarly world and its biases, however, I feel it’s important to acknowledge a publication as only one single attempt to guide others’ understanding.
