Exploring Graduate Students' Understanding of Research: Links between Identity and Research Conceptions

We are in an era that calls for increasing "training" in educational research methodologies. When the National Research Council (2004) calls for training in educational research that is "rigorous" and "relevant," the focus strongly emphasizes WHAT should be taught instead of WHO is being engaged in the learning. Similarly, most of the research on teaching educational inquiry explores the "what" and not the "who" of the learning. In contrast, we explore conceptualizations of "research" as expressed by graduate students in a research methodology course, as well as the way that student narratives illustrate their own identity claims in relation to research. We develop the analytical concept of "pragmatic fissures" to explain the tension often present between the way students conceptualize research and the way they perceive themselves in relation to the research process. We suggest that these pragmatic fissures provide an opportunity for expanding pedagogical approaches to course delivery, as well as approaches to methodology textbook design. In the spirit of post-perspectives aimed at challenging the "methods" approach to research learning (St. Pierre, 2014), we welcome an opportunity for thinking about research instruction as more locally and organically connected to the lived experiences and conceptual make-up of students engaged in the learning process.