Review

There are a plethora of texts to support researchers in mining the landscape of research methods and methodologies. Research is complex and fraught with factors including the relationships, spaces and contexts which embody each project. The editors of this book note that research is as diverse in topic as it is in method and methodology, but somehow the binding factors are common to most teams, partnerships and individuals. The spaces and frameworks people use and how they use them influence their productivity and creativity and are not always considered as disturbances or factors within a research project.

The book has considered the epistemology of using the metaphor of recipes as a method of delivering the information for each topic and sub topic. The familiarity of recipes and the patterns which emerge have been used here to decode information from a number of researchers who have been willing to share their experiences of conducting research. In this fashion, the book seems a little like a recipe book from a family who have collected ideas and recipes from decades of love rather than a commercial entity from a celebrity chef out to make a fast buck.

The contributing authors have created the ‘recipes’ and the editors have collated these under collective banners, which makes dipping in and out of the book pleasurable. Case studies, such as the one by Inger Mewburn, suggest there are new ways of looking at problems through sharing of blogs and using social media spaces for collaboration, and, more importantly, that there are thousands of teachers, academics, PhD students and researchers who are inhabiting these spaces. Spaces, whether virtual or tangible, dominate our creativity, and the use of appropriate spaces can be changed, managed and reinvented to produce remarkable research. The concepts of ‘tips’ and ‘warnings’ and ‘related recipes’ within a book about research, allow us to reconsider the academic text and how texts can enthuse and challenge the way we conceptualise the space for research. Bringing information together in a creative and pleasurable way, with notes of humour and realism, gives a new perspective on research and also on the amplification of academic research.

The authors have recognised that within a research project there are common sources of anguish where confidences can crash, stationery fetishes can appear and the balance between our working and private lives can bring us to exhaustion. The recognition of these commonalities and the idea that there are recipes which can support and scaffold these research problems are refreshing and as remarkable as this new text.

Biography

Lynn Boyle is a lecturer at the University of Dundee. Her interests are predominantly in teaching children in their Early Years and Learning and Teaching in Higher Education.
Email l.y.boyle@dundee.ac.uk
Twitter @Boyledsweetie