Thank you for the questions, Phil, as well as attending my session on Wednesday. I appreciate your time and efforts in this! Let me take a try at your questions . . .

1. I am not as familiar with this as I wish; let me listen and try to make some sense of Hegel (something I have heard more people try than success, alas).

2. The research around threshold concepts started in undergraduate study, and then gradually moved up. It seems not to be as applicable in doctoral study, and some of the literature seems to find the concept as conceptual threshold, such as the concept of a research question, to be more along the lines. The large study I mentioned and gave a reference for by Wisker et al. does a nice job processing this.

3. I am not sure I am following what you are asking here. Narrative inquiry comes from the frame that we create our life’s meaning and thus ourselves through our stories, so a way to understand the person is to understand and try to make sense of the stories we tell. Conceptual thresholds, such as grasping what a research question is, is something that is often framed in a story. For example, “You know when I finally ‘got it’? Well, it clicked when I read . . .” — Not sure if this replies to what you were asking, though please ask away and we can try to muddle through!

What interests you about philosophy?

Jeffrey