Key points from "How to do your Research Project" by Gary Thomas

Research - when it comes to social research, there is Interpretative, or Illuminative.

Illuminating is shining a light on something - your subject is either in the dark, or is ill-lit.  Therefore you are expecting to see something that you haven't seen before, possibly because you are looking in a way that you could not previously.  Also you are devoting time and energy to look curiously, and using your own self - your intelligence and experience - to make sense of it.  Your ability to draw on your own resources - your knowledge and experience of people and social situations - to make sense of what your find.  My work environment was diverse so I've spent a lot of time observing social interactions in the work setting.  As my work is about feelings, perceptions and understandings, the need to listen to people and observe, interpret and understand their words and actions.

Research can be messy.  Rarely linear.  Often recursive

Linear
Question -> Literature Review -> Method -> Analysis

Recursive Plan
                                                    ------->                 ------->           ------->
Prima facie question    Lit Review.    New Questions.    Method(s).    Analysis. ------|
                                                   <-------           ^                       <----------                      |
                                                                          |---------------------------------          <----|

Think about evidence - it needs to be considered critically and assessed.   John Dewey (1920/2004) argued that only "reflective thought... is truly educative in value" (p3).  It is a deliberate self-questioning about the rounds for a belief, from other kinds of thought where there is little consideration for the quality of the evidence.  Be suspicious of thinking based on tradition or authority (!) Is this why people have said I am difficult to manage - because I don't necessarily agree with authority!  Be wary of the passionate and the vested interest!

What research is:

Aim to find new knowledge,
Be thorough
Be balanced
Be fair
Be ethical.

And what it is not:

Not journalism
Not campaigning for an issue.
Don't assume you already know the answer and try to prove it.

Research is about disciplined, balanced enquiry, conducted in a critical spirit.

Critical awareness.  Your attitude to knowledge is more important than the amount of knowledge you can demonstrate.  You need to be healthily sceptical - be suspicious and doubtful until you have chewed it over in several different ways - before you decide something is 'truthful'.  However in social situations all reporting is in the context of the experience of the individual.  Hmm.  Difficult to be confident of a position.