"What does it mean? Why is it important?"

There is a discussion at the following blog regarding blogging as a Literature Review.

http://blog.ulisesmejias.com/2006/01/25/the-blog-as-dissertation-literature-review/

I want to comment in particular on Dave Boote's reply. Boote co-authored (with Penny Beile) the article "Scholars Before Researchers: On the Centrality of the Dissertation Literature Review in Research Preparation," published in the Journal Educational Researcher in the August/September 2005 issue.

I enjoyed his general thoughts on the doctoral process and what it means. He describes students who write less-than-exemplery dissertations, "They cannot even imagine themselves writing for the ages, for another doctoral students 50 or 100 years from now grappling with the same topic...The great majority of scholarly publishing is at best Kuhnian “normal science” – small steps within a program of research." I think a major challenge in tackling the subject matter I am taking on will be to dance well between the "sexy," immediately practical bits and the bigger idea and bigger issues at stake.

This is one thing I admire so much when read and re-read Peter Drucker (and trust me, there is always something you haven't read.) So much of what he wrote and said crossed disciplines and even time and many of the things he wrote in 1950 sound fresh today. As a scholar of management I often feel that this is the legacy I follow-in. Drucker, James MacGregor Burns, my mentor Jean Lipman-Blueman each have a profound ability to draw from economics, science, philosophy, history, and sociology; using them to shed light on the most difficult problems facing organizations today.

It is both discouraging and relieving to know I will probably be a "normal" scientist, chiseling my little dent in a big boulder. I do, however, believe that becoming an excellent scholar is aided by this long-term view. Instead of allowing myself to feel inundated by everything out there I must keep my focus, asking, as Boote does, "What does it mean? Why is it important?" To discern those ideas that are lasting contributions.