I just finished another paper, a huge one, one where I don’t feel comfortable with the writing, or the research. Hooray right? Anyway, it got me thinking how important a quality research question was.
In class, we often talk about think and thin questions. How do we get a question that answers facts and stimulates thinking? I was watching a library lesson today where they were going over their questions, and the students really wanted to get to the research. They were rushing through the questions (and many of them didn’t make sense). So I wondered how often I did that in my life, wanted to find a question to answer a quick problem, and not address a deeper underlying issue. I feel like the paper got away from me because I was trying to write a paper, not wonder about a problem.
So how do we take the time to question? What does that involve? How do we know if it’s good?
This unit for us is about leadership, we need to think deeply about how leaders in our community influence change, and we are first looking at what are the qualities of a leader and who these people really are. Is who we are important for change? Can anyone create change? We’re hoping to take a different approach this year. Instead of looking at governments and government systems, who are the people that disrupt what is happening? How did the find the questions to start those disruptions? How do they know something is wrong? What can we do to think about the problems in our community? How do we question what we’re living?
Hopefully it works.
Joe Teft 