I have attended or listened to the majority of the guest lectures during the MA to date and I have to say I found Welby’s lecture to be the most relevant, informative and practically useful one to date.  His discourse on methodology and methods backed up with tangible examples in his work made for a very well spent hour that helped me make more sense of what I am doing and how to proceed with further enquiry.  Some of my notes follow.

What is a thesis?

• To position an idea.
• A practice led thesis could be non-written work.
  • It cannot be objective because we are central to it and it is therefore subjective

Method vs Methodology

• Research Methodology
  • Must show basis for moving knowledge beyond current state of your practice
    • Task completion vs. real research
    • Quality of research
  • Research Methods are merely your tools while methodology is the toolbox and how you use the tools
  • Practice led research is qualitative (action) research
    • Histiography
    • Narrative inquiry
    • Ethnography
    • Auto-Enthnography
    • Heuristic inquiry
      • Discover/ find using accrued knowledge to find your way through uncharted territory through trial and error. Relies on tacit knowledge. *Michael Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension (1967) and work by Clark Moustakas
      • Methods of heuristic inquiry
        • Observation and notation
        • Experimentation in materials and processes
        • Reflection in and on action
        • Critical feedback
        • Organizational and analytical matrices from the social sciences

In the end he encouraged us each to find the inherent research potential in ourselves.  It was an inspiring lecture and one I am very pleased I did not miss.