Running head: BRINGHURST PHILOSOPHY

The Philosophical Underpinnings of My Approach to Research

David Bringhurst
LDR 7300: Research Methods
Dr. Franco

BRINGHURST PHILOSOPHY

The Philosophical Underpinnings of My Approach to Research

I was born in Buffalo, New York 50 years ago. When I was 11, my family moved to
Dayton, Ohio so that my father could take a job at NCR corporate headquarters. I am an only
child. Through high school I was a largely disinterested student who got by on above average
intellect. I was an avid reader from a young age, and the level of discourse at my house was
reasonably sophisticated despite neither of my parents having graduated from college. I continue
to be heavily influenced intellectually by my fathers logical, evaluative approach to matters. As
a result, I highly value reason and logic. My early religious beliefs were heavily influenced by
my mother, but I ultimately found my general Christian belief system to contain baffling
inconsistencies and to place too much emphasis on being judgmental and not enough on ones
own judgment. As a result, in my college years and beyond I began to gravitate more to what I
broadly refer to as Eastern philosophies.
I have a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Master of Arts in English. I am currently
working toward my Master of Education in Student Affairs in Higher Education and serve as the
Director of the University Writing Center. I did not begin to truly value my education until I
began work toward my first Masters degree. Perhaps not coincidentally, this was the first
schooling that I ever had to pay for myself. Partially as a result of this experience and partially
because of reading and study, I have come to understand the connection between our often
disconnected uses of the word value. We often speak of values as a set of beliefs, and we
often seem to treat this as distinct from our discussion of value in a monetary or other secular
sense. I have come to believe that there is little difference in the distinction. We demonstrate
what we value by our actions at least when we act with integrity, which is sometimes an
elusive quality and we pay for that which we value, whether with money or time or attention

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or, in many cases, our emotional responses to situations. I think this understanding of value is
one of the more fundamental influences on my outlook as a researcher.
Research Interests
To this point I have given little thought to my research interests. I have a curious mind
and I often find phenomena interesting, but until this course I have not really considered the
stricter definition of research we are using or how my interests might be directed as a researcher.
Based on my job and observations I have made during my academic and professional career, I
think my research interests are three. Most broadly and relevant to my position in the Writing
Center, I am interested in how to measure and influence the positive effects of our service on
students. I want to understand what we can do to cause a greater positive change in students skill
and behaviors when it comes to their writing.
More specifically are the potentially related issues of knowledge transfer and motivation.
Current research (and a fair amount of anecdotal information) suggests that students struggle to
transfer their knowledge and skill from one context to another. As a result, they tend to
compartmentalize their learning often, I fear, discarding knowledge once they perceive its
usefulness to be finished and struggle to succeed in later classes that assume the knowledge
and skills of the preceding classes. Similarly, business leaders deride the skills and abilities of
graduates entering the workforce. This could be because of the transfer issue or it could indicate
that we are not teaching certain relevant skills. I would be interested in determining which of
those factors (or others) has the greatest impact. Potentially related to the issue is student
motivation. What causes some students (or people in general) to be more intrinsically motivated?
I think there is a relationship between our motivations and our values; since our success in life

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can arguably be defined by how well we live out our value system and attain that which we
value, this seems an important line of inquiry.
Ontology and Epistemology
Ontologically speaking I would have to say that I believe that there is an objective reality,
but human beings have a limited ability to perceive it and we experience that reality subjectively.
I also believe that we are meaning makers, and the meaning we make of events and experiences
shapes our perception of reality so much so that effectively there is truth in the saying
perception is reality. Language, thus, is a powerful tool in shaping our understanding of reality.
Based on the definitions given for the four ontological research paradigms, I am not sure where
to place myself along that spectrum. Perhaps, in the end, I am a pragmatist. Given our
limitations, I think our best course is to choose what works. What works will be determined by
the context within which we find ourselves. The part of me that exists on the positivist side of the
spectrum says that there is a reality that we should strive to understand; the part of me on the
constructivist side of the spectrum says that failing to perceive the whole of reality, I must
interpret and construct meaning as best I can. Finally, the pragmatist in me says, do the best you
can in whatever situation you find yourself in.
Epistemologically speaking, then, I think I fall on the pragmatist side of things. Any
given research context presents us with a limited view and limited time in which to get and
interpret that view. We should gather as much information of various types as we can within the
temporal, financial, and social constraints that we have and do our best to understand that
information. In the end analysis, as social researchers our work is done for the benefit and
understanding of people and, as people vary, so too might the usefulness of our knowledge.

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I am honestly not sure how my view has changed over time. Surely there has been
change. I know that I was far more nave when I was younger, more idealistic. Age and
experience tempered my understanding and taught me certain limits. At the same time, I have
had the opportunity to discover that things that I did not think were possible are possible. I am
far less certain as I grow older and more comfortable with that uncertainty with each passing day.
I am a hopeful skeptic, and I hope that those traits will be assets to me as a researcher and
student affairs professional.
Biases and Threats
It would be impossible to list all of my biases. Every experience I have ever had is
filtered through my senses and my ability to make meaning from it. Certainly among the most
powerful and prevalent biases are that I am a white, middle-class male. I think the greatest threat
that is presented is the threat of certainty and the belief that my experience is representative. I
have learned that there are severe limits to my point of view. I have learned not to be certain
when it comes to just about anything. At the same time, one must act with certainty if one is to
accomplish anything. I have cultivated the ability to move back and forth between these
mindsets. To act as if I am certain to be decisive so as to move forward in life and provide
guidance and leadership to those who I have the responsibility to lead, yet at the same time to
allow for my fallibility and for the different approaches and perceptions of other people. In short,
I have learned to allow for the possibility the probability even -- that I am wrong or that I will
be perceived to be wrong about any and all things. I take comfort in the fact that others have
been given the same rights and tools (for the most part) to express their own views. I rely on that
dynamic to help steer me.

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6
Conclusion

I think my greatest strength, given all that I have said here, is that I have a strong desire
to discover what is right without the ego that insists on being right. I am an inveterate arguer. A
seminal event in my life that gave me great insight and confidence in my approach was a series
of comments from someone I was once in a romantic relationship with. She is very smart and a
capable debater herself. We are still very good friends. She would say to me, You are so closed
minded. You always have to be right. As is so often the case in life, this characterization of me
was at complete odds with my own self-perception. I could not understand why she thought this.
Clearly I was open-minded. Why would she say that? After a time it began to infuriate me that
she would say this. Then one day, it became clear to me. Another argument brought this charge
about again, but this time I had a different reply: Yes, you are right. I do always have to be right.
The problem here is that you mean to say that I think I am right. But the reality is that I want to
end up in the right. I truly want to be right, but I do not necessarily think that I am. You are just
frustrated that I do not think you are right. You have not convinced me. You have to do more than
just assert your rightness; you have to convince me and you have not. That did not play well in
the context of our relationship, but it was the first time I could clearly articulate how I felt and
what I truly believed to be the case. And I do to this day. My skepticism allows me to see that
either side of an issue or question (and really, there are often more than two sides a critical
realization) might be right, but until I hear a more compelling side, I have to go with my own
understanding. It is the only thing I really have. Nevertheless, I am always on the lookout for
better answers. Always. So the bottom line for me as a researcher is to put all my cards on the
table and subject my methods and analysis to others and let the conversation the argument
take its course.