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Understanding the Research Process

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Bachelor = learn how to learn

Master = learn how to teach

Ph. D = learn how to do research

*Creative work undertaken systematically to increase the stock of knowledge (of humanity, culture and society), and the use of this knowledge to devise new applications (OECD)

*activity classified as research is characterised by originality

*investigation is a primary aim

*results are sufficiently general for humanity's stock of knowledge (theoretical and/or practical) to be recognisably increased

*includes empirical and non-empirical work

The classical thesis structure

INTRODUCTION What I want to do

LITERATURE What others say about it

DESIGN My plan for doing it

RESULTS What happened when I did it

DISCUSSION What this means

CONCLUSIONS What I found out

Focus of Literature

• Learning what is known and unknown

• Learning how field of knowledge was developed (history)

• Showing you understand your field

• Confirming your own research is worthwhile

• Explaining how knowledge is developed over time

• Justifying your research

• Identifying how you will make a contribution

• What do you believe?

- Is knowledge invented? Is knowledge discovered?

- Can I write something that is understandable and independent of me?

Is this impossible? Do I have to share who I am?

• Why are you doing research?

- A job? Something more? What is it?

Why do you want to write it all down?

 ‘Research philosophy is an over-arching term relating to the development of knowledge and the nature of that knowledge’

A paradigm is ‘a basic set of beliefs that guide action.

*“Refers to the progress of scientific practice based on people’s philosophies and assumptions about the world and the nature of knowledge”

*Paradigms offer a framework comprising an accepted set of theories, methods, and ways of defining data

*Ontology: ways of constructing reality, “how things really are” and “how things really work”.. Denzin and Lincoln, (1998; 201)

*Epistemology: different forms of knowledge of that reality, what nature of relationship exists between the inquirer and the inquired? How do we know?

*Methodology: What tools do we use to know that reality?

Research Paradigm

Positivism - QuantitativePositivism - Quantitative ~ ~ discovery discovery

of the laws that govern behaviorof the laws that govern behavior

Constructivist - Qualitative ~Constructivist - Qualitative ~

understandings from an insider perspectiveunderstandings from an insider perspective

Critical - PostmodernCritical - Postmodern ~ ~ Investigate Investigate

and expose the power relationshipsand expose the power relationships

Pragmatic - Pragmatic - interventions, interactions interventions, interactions

and their effect in multiple contextsand their effect in multiple contexts

Characteristic Positivism Phenomenology

Questions that can be answeredWhat?How much?

Why?How?

Associated methodsSurvey,Experiment

Direct observation,Interviews,Participant observation

Data type Predominantly numbers Predominantly words

Finding Measure Meaning

Adapted from Maylor and Blackmon (2005)

Whether you take a scientific (positivistic) or phenomenological approach will influence:

* What research questions you ask

* What methods you use to collect your data

* What type of data you collect

* What techniques you use to analyse your data

Maylor and Blackmon (2005)

Source: © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2006

The research ‘onion’

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*“…identifies a set of variables and relationships that should be examined in order to explain the phenomena”; “…need not specify the direction of relationships or identify critical hypotheses” (Kitson et al, 2008)

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1. The variables considered relevant to the study should be clearly defined.

2. A conceptual model that describes the relationships between the variables in the model should be given.

3. A clear explanation of why we expect these relationships to exist.

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*A conceptual framework is used in research to outline possible courses of action or to present a preferred approach to an idea or thought.

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