Dilemmas of Power in Post-Graduate Practice: A Comment on Research Training

Abstract

Recent policy discussions on research methods training and the funding of post-graduate students in sociology have not paid adequate attention to the conflicts and contradictions experienced by students working on projects which are sponsored, or simply `housed', by external funders, employers and information `users'. This discussion note argues that lack of clarity in the use of concepts such as `practical research', `research practice' and `reflective practitioner', and the uneven power relations between students, supervisors, funders and employers, create situations where students have to become more adept at pragmatically handling evidence than at learning how to collect it in an independent and scholarly way. The changing nature of professional practice within organisations, increasingly characterised by growing managerialism and hostility towards open information, contributes to the dilemmas faced by students, as do structural pressures on the curriculum facing higher education institutions themselves. These are issues which should be of concern to the sociological profession as a whole.