Messy Research

What is research? – Messy

The purpose of mess in action research: building rigour through a messy turn

Tina Cook

Cook, T. (2009) ‘The purpose of mess in action research: building rigour through a messy turn’, Educational Action Research, 17 (2), pp. 277-291. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09650790902914241 (Accessed: 18^th November 2021)

• Roland Barthes, Studium and Punctum

Studium

Area of ‘coding’

‘The common rules that frame our seeing’

Punctum

‘An area we are aware of but cannot code for’

‘A place of hidden and tacit knowing’

pp.280-281

• ‘This ‘messy area’ is a forum for the exchange of perceptions and beliefs, a place of co-construction where strands of knowledge and learning are unearthed and critiqued. These strands ultimately act as catalysts for new knowing leading to development and change. It is a space for imaginative freedom and new ideas.’

p.281

• Knowings

In this space, four ‘knowings’, Reason and Bradbury (2001)

1.’Experiential knowing (knowing through empathy and resonance that is almost impossible to put into words)’

2.’Presentational knowing (that which emerges from experiential knowing and provides its first expression through forms of imagery such as poetry, story and so on)’

3. ‘Propositional knowing (that comes through ideas and theories and is expressed through abstract language)’

4. ‘Practical knowing (‘how to’ do something: the skill or competence)’

p.281

• ‘The ‘messy area’ can now be framed as a communicative space where participants delve them into individual and collaborative understanding to disturb current knowing.’

p.281

• ‘The ‘messy area’ provides the space for clarification of the already known (explicit knowledge) and what is nearly known (implicit or tacit knowledge). This is the precursor to the creation of something entirely new (transformational knowledge).’

p.282

• ‘A complex process of inquiry, involving a wide range of techniques, where messy is taken to mean difficult, not careless. (Mellor, 1999, abstract)’

p.285

• ‘We have to work and wait for knowing; wait for ‘messy turns’.’

p.285