Читать книгу Turning Ideas into Research - Barbara Fawcett - Страница 9

Context features significantly in relation to the undertaking of research. Politics, at national and local levels, exerts influence in terms of funding priorities, budgetary constraints, areas that are being targeted for investigation as well as a host of other aspects operating at a range of levels. Wherever a researcher or student is placed within an organization, the networking and resource opportunities available will feature significantly, as will the commitment of the university or organization. All of these factors can serve to govern the orientation of a research project, but whether there is a strong element of direction or whether there is more flexibility, research questions flow from the generation of good ideas.

In turn, good ideas flow from moments of inspiration, from detailed work in specific areas, from big-picture scenarios and from making links and connections.

It is also important to note that context incorporates current knowledge location in terms of contemporaneous influencing factors. Students, for example, will draw from previous experience, academic input and their discipline or interdisciplinary base to generate ideas for research. Those operating in fields of practice will have ideas associated with areas that are proving problematic or those which are working well. Coming up with a good idea initiates the research process and triggers commitment, enthusiasm and determination. A good idea may need considerable refinement to translate into a viable research question, as we see in Chapter 4, but without a good idea a research project will not get off the ground.