Unconscious ignorance in the representation of research

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the social representations of research held by university students enrolled in the certification process at Universidad Técnica de Machala to detect the misconceptions that prove the learned ignorance. The research design was qualitative. We worked with 140 students. Forty percent of the students were female, and sixty percent of them were male. Students belonged to different Colleges; Business Administration (36%), Social Sciences (50%), Civil Engineering (8%), Agricultural Sciences (4%), and Chemistry and Health Sciences (2%). We selected the participants through an intentional opinion sampling. Data was collected by having the students complete an online questionnaire about the representations of research. The validity of the data was guaranteed by triangulation of researchers and the return of the findings to the informants. The results showed that the unconscious ignorance is rooted in the methodological normative as an ontological and epistemological conditioning of research. The following symptoms were revealed: ideological asepsis of research, reductionism of knowledge and denial of diversity, uncritical transfer of the method, and the expert as the main actor of research. It was concluded that the constitution of unconscious ignorance arises from the uncritical adoption and legitimation of the method, which maintains that research is a consequence of the method and the presence of its actors. Such fact contradicts the constructive, ideological, and interactional notion of research. The rigidity of these concepts forces the object of study to enter the methodical canon as a guarantee of scientific nature.