Opening Message

Research: A Zone of Proximal Development for Undergraduate Students

Professors at universities are “positioned in society to affect positive social change.” Sharing their knowledge, experience, and passion about their disciplines provides insights to students. Research presents an important opportunity for professors to extend and establish a deeper understanding of their knowledge area. Teaching and working with students through collaborative research projects and studies are examples of Vygotsky’s (1978)[1] Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). In his own research, he observed the important and salient experience of watching teachers work with students in what he identified as a zone where both teacher and student shared knowledge and experience collectively—the professor with substantive knowledge and the student with a new perspective on a topic and with new skills to apply within the framework of a research study. Combining these two viewpoints aligns with the concept of ‘poiesis’, a Greek word that means to create—to bring something into the world that did not exist. The art of research offers such an opportunity for both professor and undergraduate student to discover and to create ideas, theories, and poetry.

Many researchers in the discipline of Communications have adopted a postpositivist approach which includes three general paradigms or methodological ways of knowing—Discovery or Quantitative Social Science (QSS), Interpretive, and Critical Studies.

The Discovery or QSS paradigm has three emphases or tests of knowledge: a) clarity or precision in research, b) systematic processes for conducting research, and c) repetition to verify what the researcher observed and experienced (Merrigan et al., 2012[2]). Discovery or QSS is typically situated at the beginning of the research progression. Knowing through discovery or quantitative social science is to observe reality accurately by classifying objects, and identifying rules and laws within the environment. For undergraduate students, reality includes their learning environment—they live, breathe, obtain, discover, and make sense of their world within their daily reality. Students have a deep sense of curiosity about what they are learning in the classroom, in the field, within themselves. The paradigm of Discovery or QSS enables students to seek new knowledge, explore new surroundings, create original work, develop new theories, and challenge existing ones. This is a significant opportunity for those students who seek to expand their knowledge base and experiences through research—more specifically, their own research.

Knowing through the Interpretive paradigm assumes that there are multiple perceptions about the world which can also produce multiple interpretations about a phenomenon. The purpose of the Interpretive paradigm is to “understand how meaning is constructed within various social contexts” (Merrigan et al., 2012, p. 37[3]). One of the goals in the discipline of Communications is to comprehend the significance of these meanings as they relate to our everyday interactions with others. Survey research, historical research, case analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, and narrative and dramatism in rhetorical analysis are some examples of research methods applied within Communications. Through these methods, students have the opportunity to increase their knowledge in topics that are important to them—at the moment, at the time. What is it that captures their attention as they navigate through their world.

Critical Studies is the third paradigm that the discipline of Communications applies in research. Its origins are in critical theory and semiotics, which is the study of signs. Students who are interested in developing knowledge in critical studies are concerned with critiquing social issues from a communication perspective. For example, social media are key to our daily communication habits. Are they supporting the way that we communicate? How are interpersonal relationships maintained in an online setting? What messages do social media provide through the many images or signs that are posted online? All of these situations cause students to reflect on what is and what is not working within our society in relation to communication approaches.

So, what have you noticed in your world today?

This is a question I pose to my students at the beginning of my lectures. By doing so, students are given the opportunity to share what they have observed, witnessed, understood, and discovered. The stories, explanations, narratives, and comparisons that they have identified have been substantial. Providing students with a venue enables them to express their viewpoints about topics such as parasocial relationships as they relate to online communication, tattoos and how they send clear messages about the wearers, political strategic juxta positioning of leaders’ messaging, and mental health issues as they affect students directly. Climate change and climate adaptation are at the forefront of students’ concerns, expressing a need to first comprehend this complex issue and then what to do about it. Students know that research is a tool from which they can acquire a deeper knowledge about the meaning behind societal issues. These examples are situated clearly within the Interpretive paradigm—which takes the basic knowledge of discovery and seeks to learn more about a topic through interpretation and meaning. What does it mean to face Food Insecurity as a student? Why is this such a significant issue for students? What are the causes and reasons behind this situation? What constitutes food insecurity for one student and not for another?

Research provides students a place and space to learn, study, interpret what meanings and processes influence the issues in their world. Noticing, pausing, reflecting, and interpreting what they experience in their own environments and beyond enriches their world. Close and careful observation offers a platform where students can garner important meanings from what they see around them. As such,, most research questions derive from knowledge acquired through day-to-day and consistent observations within our world and beyond.

This first Volume of student research in Communications provides important topics that express important issues that are at the heart and mind of undergraduate students. It takes courage to be a researcher. Our undergraduate students in Communications demonstrate this quality in the work presented in the volume.

Dr. Lucille Mazo, PhD

Associate Professor

Editor-in-chief