WEAVING THE THREADS OF YOUR RESEARCH INQUIRY MAY 2014

The hardest part?? Choosing your topic – what do you want to do and why? Deciding on your research questions – and thinking about where they ‘come from’ Getting focused, making it ‘do-able’ ( doing 1 inquiry instead of 3)

Threads – what threads? Some threads are very practical: time, gaining access, sampling … Some are philosophical: epistemology, ontology, methodology Some are about YOU ( and other people): refleXivity, reflectivity, ethics…

BRIEF DIVERSION ….. the 3 ‘ologies’ E: what do you claim to ‘know’? How do you ‘know’ this? What is knowledge anyway? O: what do you believe exists? E.g. race/racism, class, causality… M: why did you do what you did? Why this approach? Why these methods and not others?

What is methodology? ….. thinking about methods, reflecting on them, evaluating them, assessing your data….. Why did you use them? What was the quality of the data they gave you? Can you learn lessons, or perhaps ‘generalise’ from the data? How could your sample have been better? Could, or should, other methods have been used? Why? How did you (the researcher) affect the data you collected?

Webs, quilts and flowcharts More of a patchwork quilt than a neatly woven fabric Not a flow chart, more a spider’s web Appearances can be deceptive…..

Is the report/ dissertation a fraud? (Medawar, 1963) The final product looks linear: Abstract, Intro, Lit. Review, Methodology and Methods, Findings and Discussion, Conclusions and Recommendations But…. The process is not linear but cyclical/ iterative

Planning Research and Making Decisions Difficult and inter-connected decisions in research Formulating research questions (What? How? Why?) Methods and methodology (What methods? Why these methods?) Access (Can you get them?) Presenting (in what form? Using what structure?) Design (How …? When? In what order?) Sampling (With whom? To whom? How many?)

Weaving the threads… coherence, articulation, linkage between…. Research questions and methods/ methodology ( ask: how am I going to address each one? Is each one answerable in my lifetime.. Or answerable at all?) Knowledge claims (conclusions) and your evidence for them Your study, located in the existing literature (your brick in the wall) Implications for practice/policy/ theory – linked with the literature review and your own data and analysis

Help is at hand Your supervisor: ?? Focusing, cajoling, feeding back, …. Others - please add! Critical friends, peers, networks, conferences…… Writing – treat it as a form of thinking ( Laurel Richardson)