TY - CHAP
T1 - Thematic Chapter 5 - A beautiful mess
T2 - Keeping hold of messiness and complexity in research
AU - Todd, Liz
AU - Rose, Jo
N1 - Edited by Rose, J., Jay, T., Goodall, J., Mazzoli Smith, L. and Todd, L.
PY - 2022/1/21
Y1 - 2022/1/21
N2 - This chapter explores how the case studies were “messy” research. Because we were researching in contexts with many unknowns, the research process was unpredictable. “Tidying up” the research in advance, and working within clearly-defined parameters, was not usually possible. Across the case studies, mess occurred at different points and in different ways in the research process. For some projects, the design itself was subject to uncertainty and change: sometimes what had been planned was not to possible, sometimes what had been planned was not the best course of action as the project progressed, and sometimes the design itself was emergent, requiring creativity and flexibility to meet the project outcomes. Some projects faced messiness when trying to combine methods and data. Others encountered messiness when collecting data, deciding what counted as data, and interpreting data. The real world nature of our research, and our need to be responsive to dynamic and often unknown out-of-school contexts, meant that our methods could not fit into the neatly-structured shorthand that is often used to think about (and teach about) methods. As researchers, we were constantly dealing with fluid and changing identities, as our relationships with participants and spaces developed during the project. This also means that tidying up our research could be counter-productive. The chapter concludes that making sense of mess in research can reveal understandings that are sometimes hidden. Mess and complexity, then, is something to be held on to, celebrated, and engaged with, rather than tidied away.
AB - This chapter explores how the case studies were “messy” research. Because we were researching in contexts with many unknowns, the research process was unpredictable. “Tidying up” the research in advance, and working within clearly-defined parameters, was not usually possible. Across the case studies, mess occurred at different points and in different ways in the research process. For some projects, the design itself was subject to uncertainty and change: sometimes what had been planned was not to possible, sometimes what had been planned was not the best course of action as the project progressed, and sometimes the design itself was emergent, requiring creativity and flexibility to meet the project outcomes. Some projects faced messiness when trying to combine methods and data. Others encountered messiness when collecting data, deciding what counted as data, and interpreting data. The real world nature of our research, and our need to be responsive to dynamic and often unknown out-of-school contexts, meant that our methods could not fit into the neatly-structured shorthand that is often used to think about (and teach about) methods. As researchers, we were constantly dealing with fluid and changing identities, as our relationships with participants and spaces developed during the project. This also means that tidying up our research could be counter-productive. The chapter concludes that making sense of mess in research can reveal understandings that are sometimes hidden. Mess and complexity, then, is something to be held on to, celebrated, and engaged with, rather than tidied away.
KW - Messy research
KW - Complexity
KW - Transparency of methods
KW - Researcher identity
KW - Innovative methods
KW - Unpredictability
M3 - Chapter in a book
T3 - Emerald Studies in Out-of-School Learning
BT - Repositioning Out-of-School Learning: Methodological challenges and possibilities for researching learning beyond school
A2 - Rose, Jo
A2 - Jay, Tim
A2 - Goodall, Janet
A2 - Mazzoli Smith, Laura
A2 - Todd, Liz
PB - Emerald
ER -