The power of a research question...

I recently read a chapter Choosing a Research project by Cohen et al., (2018) and throughout this text there were frequent references to the work of Alvesson & Sandberg (2013). In my bid to be more curious and in finding original sources I have tracked down the original chapter and will share my reflections from that chapter in this space.

"Constructing and formulating research questions is one of the most, perhaps the most, critical aspects of all research. Without posing questions it is not possible to develop our knowledge about a particular subject" (Alvesson & Sandberg, 2013, p.2)

So here I am in the very early stages of my research pondering a possible research question. I am toying with my topics still so bare with me as I come to some type of consensus on this (or not). My current topic circles around the following ideas:

• Listening as a leadership skill
• Listening: The leadership skill you never thought you needed
• Leading with listening
• Dialogue: The dance of listening and speaking as leadership skills

To be quite frank I am struggling to find sufficient research on listening as a leadership skill in education. Hei aha, I'll keep exploring. Just I suspected, this article suggests in order to come up with great questions you really need to explore the literature... (duly noted).

"The need to better understand how to construct innovative research questions from the existing literature appears to be particularly pertinent today, as there is growing concern about an increasing shortage of more interesting and influential studies in many disciplines within the social sciences" (Alvesson & Sandberg, 2013, p.4)

My hope for this work (research) is to challenge some deeply held beliefs about what formal 'leaders' do. That is, those that are in formal leadership positions (entitative ontology of leadership) even though I believe in an iterative ontology of leadership (leadership belongs to everyone). So, how do I create questions that "challenge an audience's taken-for-granted assumptions in some significant way?" (Alvesson & Sandberg, 2013, p.5).

The following statement from the text "We emphasize the need for researchers to think through the purpose of their research and knowledge contributions and to resist pressures to adapt to dominant assumptions and be normalized, as well as normalizing others" (Alvesson & Sandberg, 2013, p.7) is hopeful! Just because there is little research surrounding 'listening' as a leadership skill doesn't mean I shouldn't follow this thread. My challenge now is to ensure that my research questions are interesting!

References:

Alvesson, M., & Sandberg, J. (2013). Constructing research questions: Doing interesting research. Sage.

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2018). Choosing a research project. In L. Cohen, L. Manion, & K. Morrison (Eds.), Research methods in education (Eighth edi, pp. 153–164). Routledge.