Drawing the strings

Previously I described my topic as similar to a baby rattle that keeps getting pulled away from me. Today I’ve had the interesting experience of bringing two texts together to bring together the information in my head to start coming up with my own ideas. For me this is a little bit like the draw strings on a bag (yes an old fashioned one, but I’m old!). The information in my head is so little that sits at the bottom of the bag, very lonely. Then I read one text and it fills the bag a bit, and then I read another one that also fits into the bag so the bag gets a bit bigger. My hope is that when the bag gets to a nice size, I will draw the strings on that piece of the research and say ‘done’.

Last night Joelle referred to boxes and how research fits into the boxes except when it doesn’t, but it’s still important to know what the boxes are. Maybe my boxes are drawstring bags instead, but for me it’s compartmentalising all sections, not just the research methods. Of course, the funny part of this is by thinking of my research in sections of any kind, I begin the process of creating a double void. (Guess what I was reading this morning.)

I think my research topic, combined with my haphazard brain mechanisms, is going to be susceptible to missing the point if I’m not careful. By defining higher education one way, I prevent it from being something else. This means I might miss meeting my research objectives because I will prevent some part of the discussion from occurring. Hmmm…..this is rambling a little, but scarilly it makes sense to me (today). Maybe the drawstring bag analogy is going to work. It does compartmentalise the thinking for ease of progress in the reserach itself, but you can never acutally close one of those bags. You have a five cent piece in the bottom, draw the strings, and tip it up, that coin will come out. The same way you can alwasy get a coin in. Maybe that means even though I will have to narrow my work, I will always have a way to get more debate involved. Hmmm…..