Initiating Research: Whose Question? Whose Benefit? Whose Knowledge?

Abstract

As an Australian friend and I walked in Melbourne’s Arboretum on the way to an outdoor family tea, she said something like: “You know, Americans are known for the way they ask so many questions. Would you mind asking a few questions of my family that I haven’t had the nerve to ask?” And when we joined her family, I gorged on her brother-in-law’s freshly baked scones, clotted cream, and apricot jam, enjoying that vestige of surface culture of commonwealth people while choking on those questions that would have otherwise flowed out in unprompted tumbles. I had no idea that it was so American to articulate any old question that was on one’s mind, that some Australians perceived us as bold, perhaps rude, though my Australian friend would never have said that. At that moment in the arboretum, I realized that modes of question asking are culturally inscribed and, subsequently, I found that I was a better researcher when I asked as few questions as possible.