Engagement with research: acknowledging uncertainty in methodology

Post-Non-Classical Pedagogical Research Strategies

“…The scientists also consider contemporary social and cultural context of the pedagogical research, analyzing the influence of digital society (Gómez Galán, 2018), and inequality in scientific research, connected with initial training, financing, research ethics and other factors (Staiculescu & Lacatus, 2017). Mercieca and Mercieca (2013) argue for the acknowledgement of uncertainty, which is caused by the relationships, created in the research process. The authors call for acknowledging and mentoring uncertainty at every stage of the teaching and learning of method, so that it allows for more engagement with the research and researched.…”

Designing for Discomfort

“…Most scholars who study student experiences in doctoral programs include discussions of the issues and challenges students face in learning research and transitioning to independent scholars (Baker, Pifer, & Flemion, 2013;Lesko et al, 2008;Roulston, Preissle, & Freeman, 2013). Terms such as "monsters" and "scary disturbances" (Lesko et al, 2008), "perilous journey" (Hadjioannou, Shelton, Fu, & Dhanarattigannon, 2007), "uncertainty" (Mercieca & Mercieca, 2013), and "dissonance" (Wisker, Robinson, Trafford, Creighton, & Warnes, 2003) are used to describe doctoral student experiences of discomfort in their learning journeys. While some of these concepts focus on the negative aspects of doctoral learning with a potential to lead to disengagement and dropout (Vekkaila, Pyhältö, & Lonka, 2013;Wasburn-Moses, 2008), a number of scholars point out the importance of such challenges for student development and preparation for scholarship (Mercieca & Mercieca, 2013;Roulston et al, 2013).…”

“…Whatever the teacher chooses, she is responsible to prepare students for action, creativity (Lovitts, 2005), ambiguity and fluidity (Wolgemuth, 2016), uncertainty (Mercieca & Mercieca, 2013), and dialogues with others (Denzin, 2010;Kelly, 2006). In this way, by exposing students to the diversity and encouraging exploration within the continuum of qualitative approaches, the teacher fosters student capacity to think critically and become engaged as scholars in professional dialogues within and across theory groups (Kelly, 2006).…”

Becoming as a possibility of opening the distribution of the research sensible

“…Our suggestion is for the researcher to engage with the possibilities that this unsettling brings. When a researcher tolerates the sensations that accompany the state of uncertainty (see Mercieca, 2011; Mercieca & Mercieca, 2013), it can be possible, even if only for a short period of time, to open up the distribution of the sensible. When this happens, and we are able to give attention to what would have been sidelined, we can “allow ourselves to be provoked” (Standish, 2001, p. 503) by it.…”

“…Through this engagement, boundaries which are so carefully protected are opened for the permeation of forces, so that an assemblage is created. This sees the research as an opportunity of becoming for everybody involved in the process, research in which everybody is giving and taking, rather than one where the researcher takes from the researched with the promise of giving in the future (Mercieca & Mercieca, 2010, 2013, p. 237). Instead of staying distant and distinct from the research process and the researched, we encourage the researcher to engage with the intensities and the complexities of the research process, allowing it to lead her into new territories yet uncharted, thus engaging in a process of continuous becomings.…”