This morning my supervisor emailed me asking me if I would be interested to participate in our Faculty's conference later this week. I was feeling like an opportunist today, so I said yes.
I only got to work on the poster this evening and spent about an hour working on it. I was not quite sure how I am supposed to design the poster, but I would imagine something with important catch phrases and keywords with minimal texts. That's what I did. As I was creating this poster, I got to thinking, am I on the right track? My train of thought while making the poster was quite direct, with very little interruption. It felt like I had a direction to go. This encourages me but at the same time scares me. How would I know that the direction I'm taking is not too simplistic? Is it so uncritical that I am able to go from point A to point B without much interference?
I reckon that despite having a seemingly simple research design, the depth of analysis would be great and guided. Great because I hope the analysis will go deep into the data, and guided because I hope that I won't be directed by my bias. Subjectivity is good, intersubjectivity might be better, but having biases may be problematic. Guided is also good because then you get to sell your research methodology to other interested researchers. This helps qualify my research as being valid too, when the methodology is transferable and applicable in different contexts.
So, to ask myself again, am I on the right track? I don't think I'll every be on the right track. I don't even think it is a question worth asking. The important question is am I on the right frame of mind? Research is fuelled by interest for learning. As long as there is an interest out there in what I am working on, I think I am on the right track.
I only got to work on the poster this evening and spent about an hour working on it. I was not quite sure how I am supposed to design the poster, but I would imagine something with important catch phrases and keywords with minimal texts. That's what I did. As I was creating this poster, I got to thinking, am I on the right track? My train of thought while making the poster was quite direct, with very little interruption. It felt like I had a direction to go. This encourages me but at the same time scares me. How would I know that the direction I'm taking is not too simplistic? Is it so uncritical that I am able to go from point A to point B without much interference?
I reckon that despite having a seemingly simple research design, the depth of analysis would be great and guided. Great because I hope the analysis will go deep into the data, and guided because I hope that I won't be directed by my bias. Subjectivity is good, intersubjectivity might be better, but having biases may be problematic. Guided is also good because then you get to sell your research methodology to other interested researchers. This helps qualify my research as being valid too, when the methodology is transferable and applicable in different contexts.
So, to ask myself again, am I on the right track? I don't think I'll every be on the right track. I don't even think it is a question worth asking. The important question is am I on the right frame of mind? Research is fuelled by interest for learning. As long as there is an interest out there in what I am working on, I think I am on the right track.
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