Nurturing the research spirit: confessions of a Generation X-er

Abstract

I was born between the era of the Baby Boomers (1946 - 64) and Generation Y (born after 1976). The intervening generation, known as Generation X, is described as being made up of ‘cynical, hopeless, frustrated and unmotivated slackers who wear grunge clothing, listen to alternative music and still live at home because they cannot get real jobs’ (Jochim, 2006). I am a fairly positive person, try to wear reasonable clothing, like listening to Fleetwood Mac, left home when I was seventeen, and have paid taxes for all of my working life. Superficial classifications that ignore subtle but important differences are also applied within and across research disciplines. As an academic located in a Faculty of Education whose research is concerned with the creative arts I experience the dilemmas that arise from others’ perceptions and often, superficial classifications of what constitutes research in this area. In this paper I explore my being and becoming as a researcher, and interrogate the dichotomies that form the basis of my research: male/female, art/craft, public/private, and reason/creativity, which have often evoked in other people the type of stereotyping described above.