Article A2.2 Doctoral Summer School 2005: Research Thinking and Practice Jacob D. Vakkayil FPM Scholar, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar 751 013, India jacobdvakkayil<AT>yahoo.com The Doctoral Summer School 2005 was an event that I found deeply meaningful as a researcher. The relevance and breadth of topics dealt with, the variety of pedagogical methods employed by the facilitators, and participants' presentations of their own doctoral work were factors that contributed to this sense of meaningfulness. What follows are some of the salient events and discussions that took place. Anyone interested to know more, can get back to me for further details. The coordinators of the programme were D. P. Dash and Snigdha Patnaik. In their inaugural addresses they highlighted the conception and design of the programme and its long-term objectives. The inaugural session also had a special guest of honour for the occasion. This was Elinor Gadon who had spent a lifetime researching art history and cultural anthropology. But was cultural anthropology in any way connected to Management research? Gadon's session in the afternoon seemed to address this apprehension. Her experiences presented as a narrative of the "journey of her life as a researcher" provided guidelines in answering the following questions. Is a personal meaningfulness of the topic important for research? Does the researcher discover herself through this process? Is the researcher's sense of "detachment" from the topic necessary for good research? Reading D. W. Braben's idea of "dissent" as an important factor facilitating human survival was insightful for most participants. Many saw the pointlessness of the constant strive for efficiency that drives out experimentation and a flexible approach to problems. A reading on the strategic importance of organisational learning seemed miles away from Braben's idea of Homo Dissentiens. Later, a boisterous exercise involving tennis balls and some enthusiastic exchange of ideas seemed to bring forth the connections. Dash, who facilitated many of the sessions, aptly remarked: "The only capacity that wouldn't become obsolete is the capacity to create new capacities." What would be the outcome if you put a dozen doctoral scholars in a room for 4 hours with soft music, chart papers, crayons and other similar paraphernalia? While no one expected a dozen theses to emerge, what did happen was that the dozen researchers started out on a process of self-awareness. Through some highly valuable exercises led by Snigdha Pattnaik, they saw life patterns as relevant to research, analysed own motivations in the selection of a research topic and examined personal orientations. These experiences were discussed and further scrutinised in a later session. Throughout the programme, participants initiated discussions on a number of topics and sought clarifications from fellow-participants and facilitators. These included the concepts of logical and observational closure, the characteristics of action-research, distinctions between method and methodology, quantitative-qualitative dichotomy in research, logical fallacies, etc. A writing workshop was another salient event of the programme. Participants were given a manuscript that was submitted to an international journal for review. Later they compared their own reviews with those of the actual reviewers of the journal. A number of issues regarding academic writing emerged in the subsequent discussion and most participants rated the workshop as greatly useful. A series of speakers presented various aspects of research in management and related areas. Most sessions drew heavily from the doctoral experiences of the speakers. Amar Nayak briefly spoke about his experiences in doctoral research. Niraj Kumar dealt with the technique of observation, which was employed by him in his doctoral work on the social structure of a slaughterhouse. D. V. Ramana drew heavily from his own extensive experience researching utility regulations and highlighted various issues involved in researching the area. Banikant Mishra proposed a new categorisation for research that evolved out of his own varied work in the field of financial management. In the afternoon, Prahlad Mishra discussed fundamental issues in econometric analysis and S. Peppin gave an inspiring account of his personal journey as a researcher and explored "limits to inquiry" in the context of doctoral studies. Presentations of individual doctoral work of the participants was also an important feature of the event. The presenters received valuable feedback on their work from other participants and facilitators. In this context, the use/misuse of literature review, problem formulation, experimental design etc. were discussed. Participants also received a number of practical tips. R. M. Reis's article "Tomorrow's Professor" provided many guidelines for life beyond PhD. Some of these were discussed at length. The enthusiasm of the participants in discussing matters close to their areas of interest was clearly evident throughout the programme. This enthusiasm was carried forward into a cultural event where a group of Odissi dancers led by Ileana Citaristi presented a rendition of the dasa-mahaa-vidyaa (ten aspects of knowledge and power that can transform systems of thinking and practice) in the Odissi style, specially chosen for the occasion. This was followed by an informal session where the participants further explored their aesthetic and cultural sensibilities. Could new breeds of research evolve from such explorations? The existence of this forum that facilitated my sharing of this experience reaffirms one of the central messages of the event; i.e., "research is not a lonely endeavour but a collective activity and social practice." Copyleft Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier Square, Bhubaneswar 751013, India Research World (ISSN 0974-2379) http://www1.ximb.ac.in/RW.nsf/pages/Home |
