Serendipity, between the subject and the object of research

Abstract

This work describes the applications of research protocols developed by a team of teachers to investigate the teaching of school physical education, from the perspective of the actors, around the construction of know-how. The situation of confrontation between the subject and the object of research in the forays of field work enables the production of events every time we put our intervention methods into play in the educational reality analyzed. These events are the essential data to adjust our research protocols, adapting them to the particularities of our topic of study. This position of researchers open to understanding the educational reality investigated contemplates the technical use of class observation and admits the emergence of random anecdotes that make it possible to review and rethink the records in the field work. Research in our investigative experience points to these moments of sudden discoveries through serendipity. Serendipity is defined as a chance discovery in the middle of doing, which significantly improves what was originally sought. An illustrative situation of this resource makes the idea clear when a colleague comments on a concept in relation to problem solving that until then had gone unnoticed in our records, specifically, he argued that a class that will be observed for a research project will never It is the reflection of the daily practices of both students and teachers, both “act” in the way they consider will be the best version of themselves to show. When exposing this comment in a team meeting, a debate is generated around the concept of Serendipity, which is defined as a chance discovery in the middle of doing, which significantly improves what was originally sought. This spontaneous comment from a colleague triggered a deep review of our access protocols to institutions and the need to put together observations that account for the system of relationships offered by our object of study. Was this change in all of our research protocols due to an occasional bout of luck, or was the new roadmap only possible from our prior training?