Questions are often understood as instruments for acquiring information. To ask a question may also serve as a tool to step toward someone, to open a space in which relations become possible. In this sense, a question does not merely seek something from the other; it also expresses a desire for connection - a gesture of interest and an invitation to encounter.
This became visible to me, especially in conversations with children. A child may suddenly ask about love, loss, or death - not because they are seeking abstract knowledge, but because they are trying to orient themselves within a feeling, a relationship, or an experience they cannot yet fully name. Often, what matters most is not the answer itself, but the quality of presence and resonance of the adult on the other end of the question. In such moments, a question may become less an intellectual act and more a bridge between inner experience and shared understanding. Sometimes, these exchanges reveal something what otherwise may not be visible.
Academic research also begins with a question, followed by a great amount of study in the field. Research questions require orientation, traditionally informed by previous studies, existing theories, and recognizing what has already been explored by others.
In this sense, research encompasses both the past and the future: it builds upon the work of those who came before us while inviting further research contributing to something new and meaningful. As Sir Isaac Newton famously acknowledged, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” We inherit concepts, methods, and perspectives developed through years of collective work, and embark on a journey to bring new meaningful insights.
There are an endless number of possible directions when designing a research project. The challenge is usually not the lack of material but discerning to be meaningfully oriented. Which questions are truly meaningful for this project? Which scales genuinely fit the educational context being studied?
Rather than developing entirely new scales from scratch, I chose instruments that had already been widely tested, translated into multiple languages, and validated across different cultural contexts. At the same time, there remained an important uncertainty: even if a scale is scientifically strong, does it truly fit the context in which it will be used?
Some resilience scales allow researchers to include additional context-specific questions… Yet adaptation also raises another question: do the newly added questions still belong meaningfully within the same framework? This can only truly be answered through the encounter with real participants and real data.
Practical, methodological, and ethical doubts constantly rise, in the context of a study which involves minors and current students. The questionnaires and study design were carefully examined as questions about relationships, wellbeing, or belonging touch on deep personal experiences. Ultimately, a questionnaire is not simply a technical instrument. Every question enters, however briefly, into someone else’s life.
And it is crucial to often return to the original research question: What are we essentially trying to understand?
Every research question carries an implicit gesture, and each question should matter enough to ask about. These become ways of maintaining clarity and orientation throughout the process.
For this reason, finalizing a questionnaire is not only about scientific validity. It is also about awareness: language, emotional sensitivity, relevance, and the experience of the participants themselves.
To this end, this project counts with the support of three professors from Psychiatry, Psychology, and Philosophy from Maastricht University. Within the university setting, the ethics committee took on the responsibility of carefully reviewing the study design, including survey materials, consent forms, and methodological structure.
Slowly but steadily, the research project Resilience & Pedagogy has received ethical approval from Maastricht University to start gathering meaningful contributions from the Waldorf movement.
Belle Leung