In the midst of developing and designing my research inquiry I realised that I have been holding on to some old assumptions through fear and rigidity and a sense that I was pretty sure about (or so I thought) and knew what I wanted to find out. One of a number of assumptions was the idea that my idea could drop neatly into a template and come out the other end with the answer having the right formula and process of data collection methods and theoretical stances would become a synergistic blend. This has not been my experience and where I am now is learning how to let go and give myself permission to look at what it is I wish to know with a different frame of reference or paradigm shift and not worry myself too much into the ground of what I will discover. I suppose I had a fear that what I may end up discovering is not perhaps what I had intended and how would I deal with that? By sticking closely to my pre-conceived template and feeding it with the right data methods I thought would bring me back on track to my knowing in research terms - I now realise that there is no right or wrong way to approach my investigation. Perhaps I was visiting an old fear of not doing this inquiry correctly and used to an earlier model of following an acceptable template that exists or not as I am finding out. After all I am at the heart of the research and where I am now is in a place of acceptance of the change process that I will embark upon as I design the inquiry and be okay with where I end up!
