Creative Studies

Clare Elstow

Academic research demands serious study, but you can still take a creative approach to reflective learning

If you’re a coach with extensive business experience, and an interest – but not necessarily any formal training – in psychology/social science, it can seem daunting to undertake your own academic research. It’s certainly a challenge and a major learning curve, but having been through the process via a postgraduate certificate (PGC) with i-coach academy and Middlesex University (Institute for Work-Based Learning), I have lived to tell the tale – and achieved valuable skills and a postgraduate qualification in the process.

As well as researching my chosen project (developing a new Skills Audit tool), I found myself learning about action research, my own role as a researcher-practitioner, working closely with my principal coaching ‘community of practice’ (BBC CareerLink), the best way to shape my questionnaire and analyse results – and the joys of Harvard referencing.

But I can’t pretend the process wasn’t without challenges. Distance learning and self-directed study can be lonely at times, and the demands and constraints – and endless citations – of so much academic writing meant I seriously considered giving up on the postgraduate research module (I’d already gained the certificate accreditation from the main taught course).

Fortunately, creativity kicked in (I was a BBC programme maker for many years), and I was inspired to write a rather jaundiced – but enormously cathartic – poem: The Reluctant Researcher (see below).

However, I like to deliver what I’ve committed to – and I never lost sight of my belief in lifelong learning. Hence the more positive companion-piece: Academic Inspiration (below).

There was so much reflection involved in crafting both poems that I decided it would be appropriate to include them in the module’s required ‘Learning Log’ appendix. This has inspired me to take a more creative approach to reflective learning – and creative writing is something I want to explore more fully in the future, both for myself, and my coaching clients.

So would I recommend the process? Yes, it has given me useful insights into research methodology and developing my own coaching resources – but it’s crucial to understand how much work you take on alongside the research topic itself.

I found two introductory research handbooks invaluable 1, 2 and also a more detailed one 3, any of which would give an idea of what’s involved. Looking at some examples of student/alumni research projects might also be helpful 4.

Support and feedback is also desirable – whether from an academic adviser or a coaching supervisor, or perhaps a shared learning group, or a cohort on a course.

And whatever your coaching focus, why not try enriching your reflective learning by extending its creative boundaries?

THE RELUCTANT RESEARCHER

Be careful

Not to have an original thought.

Or, if you must,

Search for something similar

In the literature.

Someone, somewhere (better qualified than you)

Must have published something close,

Surely?

Avoid flowing prose –

Every sentence must be interrupted by the dry hiccup of

Endless references.

Do not plagiarise or compromise:

Citations are crucial,

Harvard referencing is desirable (though far from sensual).

Constrain your thoughts within the stultifying frame of

Proscribed format, criteria and paradigm.
There are moments when

Ideas teem, and thoughts take off

Like a cloud of butterflies,

Liberated in the bright light of inspiration.

Their freedom is short lived –

They must be captured, identified, categorised –

Pinned down in serried ranks,

Contained and constrained

In souless text,

All life and light quite gone.

Check your word-count –

Plus or minus ten percent is acceptable,

But no more.

Reflect

On your sterile journey,

Along the well-trodden path of academic exploration,

And on your small and insignificant contribution to

Human knowledge and understanding.
© Clare Elstow, 2011

ACADEMIC INSPIRATION

The quest to capture

Data, information, investigation

Begins slowly.

Not limited, but liberated, by the

Careful accumulation of

Pertinent facts and opinions.
Ideas initiate,

Concepts connect,

Thoughts take off –

Like a flock of migrating birds,

Heading to the warmer climes of

Insight and inspiration.
Concepts, arguments, paradigms are

Honed and burnished to a fine sheen,

Reflecting truths.
Final conclusions

Are woven,

Warp and weft,

Into a crafted synthesis –

The mind’s tapestry.
© Clare Elstow, 2011

References

1 J Bell, Doing your Research Project. A Guide for First-time Researchers in Education, Health and Social Science (4th ed). Maidenhead: Open University Press

2 J Collis and R Hussey, Business Research: A Practical Guide for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students (3rd ed). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

3 L Cohen, L Manion and K Morrison, Research Methods in Education (6th ed). Abingdon: Routledge, 2007

4 i-coach academy, Coaching Education: ‘Community Research’, www.i-coachacademy.com/pages/coaching-education/community-research.php

Clare Elstow is an independent business and career coach

clare@clare-elstow.com

Coaching at Work, volume 7, issue 2