When the wind stirs the water, the ripples distort the reflection. When everything is calm and still, that’s when there’s the greatest clarity.
The Nature of Research
I had a very interesting discussion with my friend the other day, about what she should write for her MA dissertation. On thinking through what we talked about, I realised it highlighted the pressures of any research situation—the battle to balance three key criteria:
- What the researcher is interested in,
- What the key stakeholders are interested in,
- What is achievable with the available resources.
For my friend, the title of her dissertation at the start of her MA year was very much what she is interested in, it’s a question she really wants to find an answer for and is passionate about. It perfectly fulfils the first criteria.
Isolation
One of the things we’ve been doing here at All Nations is looking at personality types and patterns of reaction. We’ve done a Myers–Briggs session and, although I hate the idea of defining people by four letters, or even 16 letters, I’ve found it has given me a lot of insight into my personality that I hadn’t thought of before. I also met someone who has the same four letters as me, and listening to her story has helped me realise stuff about my own lif