Disciplinary Thinking in Research Processes
Disciplinary Thinking in Research Processes
Student: Professor Smith wants 3,000 words on 1930s
Marxism at Cambridge University.
What’s wrong
with this picture?
Librarian: Do you have some sense of how you are
supposed to address the topic?
Student: With at least five books and three journal articles.
Librarian: What have you done so far?
Student: Wikipedia article on Cambridge U. It didn’t have
anything I can use and Dr. Smith hates Wikipedia anyway.
Librarian: What course does Dr. Smith teach?
Student: European politics.
Librarian: Did he tell you what the goal of the project
was? What does he expect you to accomplish?
Student: To write about Marxists at the University of
Cambridge. Explain about them.
Disciplinary Thinking in Research Processes
Much of our research instruction is short-term:
“The result may be a learning and teaching strategy which fails to
engage the student at anything but the most superficial level. The
student may gain a few tactics which enable him or her to negotiate
some specific information sources. However, the student does not
become information literate, capable of engaging in a fast-changing
information society.”
Webber, S., & Johnston, B. (2000). Conceptions of information literacy: New
perspectives and implications. Journal of Information Science, 26(6), 381-397.
Disciplinary Thinking in Research Processes
Disciplines are cultures, and learning how to function within them
requires enculturation over time.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AMHB.jpg
Disciplinary Thinking in Research Processes
When thinking of disciplines, we need to emphasize three factors:
• Epistemology
• Metanarrative
• Method
Disciplinary Thinking in Research Processes
Epistemology
• What are the major sources of the discipline’s
information base?
• What criteria determine inclusion/exclusion?
• What are the outliers (new modes of
communication, information production,
information venues)?
Disciplinary Thinking in Research Processes
Metanarrative
• What does the discipline hold as its main values?
• What behaviors and ways of thinking are
considered essential to defining the discipline?
• How does the discipline know who its insiders
are?
Disciplinary Thinking in Research Processes
Method
• What method is central to the discipline doing its
discourse and adding to its knowledge base?
• What constitutes evidence and legitimate
argumentation?
• What method outliers exist, and how are they
being received by the discipline as a whole?