The Right Questions

Another week, another set of interviews that left me tired and dejected. When I was chatting with my supervisor later, she said she was worried I wasn't asking the right questions. I told her I was pretty sure I wasn't. I feel reasonably certain that the topic I have chosen is worthy of study although I cannot yet put my finger on why. And, then, I run into a wall of certainty, which is the dominant paradigm I am interrogating. My as-yet-rudimentary and poorly-framed questions are no match for it. Questions circumscribe an issue and set the boundaries for  "reasonable" inquiry. Questions lying  outside that boundary are dismissed as irrelevant or silly, or worse, already answered. I am at that stage of my research where I am not satisfied with the interview answers I am receiving, but can't fully articulate why. It is easy to think of blunders as pointless detours from the  research process or even regression. In fact, blunders are milestones on the research path. When you are feeling around in the dark, you are bound to touch some thorns. The important lesson is to try not to touch the same thorn again, but to also resist the inference that the world is full of thorns.