blank and blind spots
Having blank and blind spots in a piece of research is not necessarily a problem. In reality, all studies have these. All research is partial. It can’t do everything, cover all possibilities. It is therefore not a sign of inadequate research that some things are left unprobed since no research can do this.
There are two concepts that are helpful in deciding which of these is the case. They are:
(1) Blind spots – these are the things the method, definitions or theoretical approach does not allow to be seen/said. For example, surveys are very good for answering questions such as how many, and how often. They are not very good at probing the reasons why this may be the case. Conversely, a small number of case studies may allow you to build really rich descriptions but does not allow you to generalise to scale.
(2) Blank spots – these are the things that are not yet covered by this study. All studies have a particular scope, location, are conducted at a particular time, in a particular context and with particular people and things… there are therefore plenty of other circumstances which the research doesn’t cover. These things-not-covered constitute blank spots.
It is not a weakness to note the blank and blind spots, and there is no need to go on about them at length, or to be apologetic. All research has blank and blind spots and we just need to know what they are, so that we know what we are legitimately able to say.
The notion of blank and blind spots used here is based on: Wagner, J. 1993, ‘Ignorance in educational research: Or, how can you not know that?’, Educational Researcher, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 15-23. Barbara Kamler and I have worked with/on it as a pedagogical strategy
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