Doing Research Part 1 of 6: Embracing Theory
I’m not going to lie, I love theory. But I’ve always understood theory, and the reasons why it matters to any research project. Without a theoretical point of view, “research” is not really research in terms of problem solving, critical inquiry, or scholarly study. Without theory, your “research” should be called an investigation. So, for example, if you wake up one morning and your pinky toe is swollen, you might declare “I need to research this symptom.” What you are really saying is, you are going to Google “swollen toe” and then read a bunch of stuff to confirm or rule out possible issues.
We call this kind of thing research because it requires you to look something up, read about it, and then draw conclusions. But this isn’t research in the sense of engaging in the study of something to solve critical problems that are beyond one’s pinky toe, but relate to systems, structures, social issues, etc. To do this kind of research, you need to root your ideas in theory. So, what is theory?
Defining Theory
First, there is the textbook definition of theory. “A supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained,” “a set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based,” and “an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action.”
Source: dictionary.com
And then there’s the way scientists define theory, as explained in the short video below. STEM researchers see theory as something more than just a thought or a guess; theory gives you a framework for asking questions about reality; it is big ideas, and the reigning explanations for sets of phenomena in our world; and STEM researchers believe that it should lead you to make predications about what you might expect to see in the world — theory ultimately explains laws and facts.
For arts and humanities research, theory doesn’t really work the same way. If you set out to research the arts, for example, you might struggle at first if you try to apply a STEM approach to theory. For arts and humanities research, you should adopt a cycle of inquiry approach.
Cycle of Inquiry
Gathering facts (documenting) and explaining (theorizing) works in tandem to help you understand the world and/or the specific problem or issue you’re interested in.
““Theory has a bad reputation. It can seem rather useless and is often very hard to understand…. Theory is not simply an obscure mind-game played by clever academics who have nothing better to do with their time.””
Theory is what helps you explain the WHY and HOW of a phenomenon. But it also is based on your perceptions — of theory and how it is formed.
Your Perception of Theory Is Everything
Hilary Collins argues that an individual’s perception of the distinction between theory and practice depends to a large extent on their perception of theory. People have hugely different views on what theory is. Before identifying how you are going to use theory to inform your project, it might be helpful to think a little about the distinction between theory, tacit knowledge and theory-in-use (2018: 39).
Sears and Cairns (2020: 1-2) go on to explain that theoretical thinking is absolutely essential to our daily lives. At its core, theoretical thinking is about three things:
Generalization
Relating a new situation to an old one in order to discern patterns
It helps you figure out or make arguments about what is likely to happen
“What generalizations have you formed about a topic in your life (i.e., ideas grounded in your own experiences and the things you have learned/heard from others, formally or informally)?”
Tacit Knowledge and Theory In-Use
The term tacit knowledge describes knowledge formed through a combination of theory and practical understanding that guide daily actions. Theory-in-use is often intuitive or otherwise internalized but can be inferred from actual behaviour. If you could extract yours (or indeed someone else’s), it would be an expression of how you see the world — Hilary Collins (2018).
Here’s another visual to help you understand the connection between your perceptions, knowledge that influences how you act (and understand), and theory in-use.
Embracing theory as part of your research will help your thinking, deepen your understanding of knowledge, and strengthen your ability to make connections.
In Part 2 of this series I address the question — how do you define a research problem?
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Recommended Reading:
Hilary Collins. Creative Research: The Theory and Practice of Research for the Creative Industries (2018)
Alan Sears and James Irvine Cairns. A Good Book, in Theory: Making Sense Through Inquiry (2020)
