Sort your question by person and by time

Name whether your question is about you, about the people you act with, or about things at a distance, and whether it concerns the past, the present or the future.

Por que funciona

Chandler and Torbert (2003) lay out a grid: first-, second- or third-person research on first-, second- or third-person practice, in the past, present or future. Torbert (2013) reports this as 27 possible combinations and ties each person to a different aim: third-person research seeks objectivity, second-person research seeks mutuality, and first-person research concerns personal integrity. On this page’s reading, objectivity here means findings that do not depend on who observes them, and mutuality means a shared, two-way relationship among the people involved. Placing a question on the grid shows which kind of evidence can speak to it.

Como fazer

  1. Write the question you are trying to answer in one sentence.
  2. Ask: is it about me, about us (the people I act with), or about things at a distance from both of us?
  3. Ask: is it about what happened, what is happening now, or what I want to happen?
  4. Note which evidence would settle it: your own attention, the others’ words, or measured data.
  5. If the question mixes two of these, split it into two questions.

Evidência

The grid is Chandler and Torbert’s (2003) framing, and Torbert (2013) reports it as the 27 combinations of person and time. It is a conceptual device, used to sort questions. The sources read do not test whether sorting questions this way improves them. (mechanistic)

The grid is a conceptual tool from the method’s developers. Its usefulness to a practitioner is not tested in the sources read.

Fontes

Erro comum

Using the grid to classify people. It sorts questions and activities, not who someone is.

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