Janet Beavin Bavelas outlines in her
article Permitting Creativity in Science
how the process of thinking creatively can be a process – it does not need to
be a romantic episode where a creative idea strikes you like a lightening
bolt. It is her belief that you can
train yourself to take notice of hunches and feelings and develop these into
more concrete ideas that could form part of your research.
The first part of the article is about
learning to take notice of your hunches and not being scared of them. Often, we can dismiss something that is out
of the ordinary as a ‘fluke’ or convince ourselves that it didn’t really
happen. Beavin Bavelas encourages us to
not ignore these feelings. This is the
first stage; we then need to nurture this feeling. Don’t kill it with words – so do not over
research and try to find the answer in the existing literature. Don’t belittle the idea, remain confident in
it. And don’t panic – don’t be scared of
the new idea.
This is probably the hardest stage as this
is really an inner-experience. In order
for a ‘hunch’ to become more than a hunch you need to have confidence in
yourself and in your hunch. The answer
does not lie in academia and research at this point, it comes from your and
your willingness to explore something that is unexplainable (and perhaps a
little scary)
If you reach this point, if you manage to
hold on to your hunch, Beavin Bevelas then explains how you can flesh this idea
out. You can add weight to it, situate
it within a class or phenomena, and experiment with experimenting with it. This gives the hunch a little more substance,
which in turn gives you the confidence to take it forward. To maybe present it to present it to other
people and perhaps turn it into a research project.
There were a couple of stops for me –
firstly, something I fully recognize in myself.
‘I
always want to be right (first choice) but, if not, then at least wiser (second
choice). ‘
I do always want to be right (it is not
always my most charming feature) but I appreciate this sentiment that if you cannot
be right, then at least you have learnt something. And all research offers you that opportunity.
The second was a comment in the
introduction:
‘Anyone who has been attracted to a field
probably began noticing and thinking about it long before graduate or even
undergraduate training.’
At first this was a stop as I rejected
it. I am very interested in Indigenous
historical consciousness and how to teach it in a traditional, Eurocentric
history classroom that stems from a western history disciplinary model. The reason that I initially rejected this was
because prior to arriving in Canada I had no understanding Indigenous
Knowledge, or even that there were ‘other ways of knowing.’ On reflection, I
have always been interested in the construction of knowledge – I think this has
been an implicit rather than explicit interest.
Films, books, podcasts that have grabbed my intention, although not
about this specific issue, feed into the philosophical questions that drive my
influence. I suppose it was a stop as
sometimes it is surprising how little you know your own self.
Hi Katy,
ReplyDeleteYour article seems closely related to the one I read in terms of honing in on a 'hunch' or starting from a place of observation and belief and then fleshing it out. When I first began this class, I erroneously assumed *all* research had to be based on numbers and strict, factual data. After reading the articles and your response this week, I'm glad to see that there is room for the process of observation leading to research and vice versa.
Your initial rejection of your interest in Indigenous Studies prior to arriving in Canada, only to find you had some semblance of interest in the philosophical questions that undermine it was intriguing to me. I often wonder at what point an interest develops that will lead us into deeper research or examination?
Good morning, Katy,
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of following hunches and feelings before plowing into academia and research. Far too often I think we push down those hunches we have (the gut feeling) to entertain the rational side of our brain as being the more important. I have always believed in equality and this instance of it. OUr inner experiences are valuable and sometimes unexplainable but not everything has a rational answer. I think that we need to believe in ourselves before we can truly believe in what research may tell us. We read that researchers in the medical or science field sometimes have a hunch that will progress their research and it often works out well. I expect that works in educational research as well...and maybe more so because we are working with folk just like ourselves in many ways.
Indigenous studies are very much in the front and centre these days. I have an interesting children's book recently published I'll bring on Tuesday. I think you will find it interesting.
It certainly has been an observable week! Cheers, Jennette