O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten1 Facilitating Change through Research I don’t just want to research something- I want to make a difference

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten2 Facilitating Change Facilitating change through research can involve: the production of knowledge that may lead to change applied research conducted for the express purpose of enabling effective change research that attempts to embed action and change into the actual research process

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten3 Research generates knowledge in order to: action change within a system pave the way for change build broader understanding Basic or pure research Action researchCritical / radical ethnography Applied / evaluative research participatory/ emancipatory technical/ practical emancipate through action expose and change the dominate system

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten4 Politics of Change Oriented Research Research that facilitates change can be considered highly ‘political’ and as such, credibility will involve careful consideration of issues of: power objectivity subjectivity and bias

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten5 Working Towards Credibility In addition to both positivist and post- positivist indicators of credibility, change oriented research can also look to ‘usefulness’ as an indicator of success

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten6 Applied Research Applied research paves the way for change It is often linked to policy/programme development and can include studies that: investigate a problem situation assess potential interventions or evaluate change initiatives

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten7 Evaluation Research Since change intervention strategies often require formal review, evaluation research has become increasingly common This can involve both: Formative evaluation - conducted to provide developmental feedback and Summative evaluation - conducted to assess effectiveness.

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten8 Evaluation Research Evaluative research is often conducted in the form of a case study In formative studies, methods tend to be eclectic and diverse and driven by research objectives Summative designs often involve comparative analysis of groups and/or time series analysis

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten9 Issues in Evaluation Research Issues in evaluative research include both: unrealistic client/stakeholder expectations and the potential pressure of vested interests

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten10 Action Research Action research covers a broad array of research strategies that are dedicated to the integrated production of knowledge and the implementation of change Action research: addresses practical problems generates knowledge enacts change is participatory relies on a cyclical self reflective process

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten11 Cycles of Action Research

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten12 Issues in Action Research While, the participatory and collaborative nature of action research can be highly rewarding and productive, it can also result in sticky management issues including: a lack of control over the project’s direction and pace the potential for stakeholder conflict the sole burden of ethical responsibility

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten13 Striving for Critical Emancipation Striving for critical emancipation relates to goals that require more than just change within a ‘system’; it requires radical change to the system itself Two strategies for achieving such goals through research are: Participatory Action Research Critical Ethnography

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten14 Participatory Action Research Participatory action research attempts to expose dominant and repressive systems, and has an express goal of emancipation through action It encourages the oppressed to control their own knowledge production and emancipatory change interventions through an action research process

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten15 Critical Ethnography Critical ethnography also attempts to expose dominant systems in the interest of the ‘marginalised’ Change comes from the voice offered to the oppressed, as well as the starting point it offers for action at individual, legislative, and policy levels

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter Ten16 Issues in Emancipatory Research A common issue in emancipatory research is the intertwining of research and political agendas In addition to managing subjectivities, researchers need to guard against imposing their own political agendas on the researched