1. Access course: Designing your research project
Suay M. Ozkula Luke Shoveller David Dobraszczyk Ben Silvester
Medway campus

2. Today… DAY I Introductions (20 min) Your research project (1 hour)
General structure
Developing a research question
Small group exercise: Develop a research question
Literature (20 min)
Finding literature
How to conduct a literature review
Methodology overview (10 min)

3. Suay: international: from digital to networked to hybrid activism -A case study of the meaning and adoption of digital activism in changing 20th century civil society organisations-
Suay

4. Luke: The Lived Experience of Industrial Closure in Kent

5. Ben: Determining which refugees the UK offers sanctuary

6. David: Youth transitions and participation in vocational education

7. Your research project
Vero

8. Possible Structure for your research project:
Introduction
Research question / aims
Literature review
Methodology
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Bibliography
Vero

9. Choosing your research question
Ben

10. Research Questions
RQ are very important – they are the vehicles which you will rely on to move you from your broad research interest to your specific research focus and project
RQ should be:
Clearly formulated
Intellectually worthwhile
Researchable
Ben

11. Research Questions continued
Types of RQ:
What questions (objective: description)
e.g.: what types of people are involved?; what characteristic knowledge, beliefs, values, attitudes do they hold?; what is their characteristic behaviour?; what are the consequences of their activities? Etc.
Why questions (objective: explanation/understanding)
e.g. why do people think and act this way?; why did these patterns come to be this way?; why do the characteristics or social process change, or remain stable?; why does this activity have these particular consequences? Etc.
How questions (objective: change)
e.g. how can these characteristics, social processes or patterns be changed?; how can they be made to stop changing, or to slow down or speed up their rate of change?
Ben
What q. require a descriptive answer; directed towards discovering and describing the characteristics of and patterns in some social phenomenon, e.g. categories of individuals, social groups, social processes.
Why questions ask for either the causes of, or the reasons for, the existence of characteristics or regularities in a particular phenomenon. They are directed towards understanding or explaining the relationships between events, or within social activities and social processes.
How questions are concerned with bringing about change, with practical outcomes and intervention.

12. Some “not so good” research questions
Bad: Racism in the UK
Better: Do Muslim people in London perceive higher levels of racism since the Paris attacks of 13th Nov 2015?
Bad: Are females smarter than males?
Better : Do females aged score higher than adult males aged on the WAIS-III? (The WAIS-III is a standardized intelligence test.)
Bad: Why are social networking sites harmful?
Better: How are online users experiencing or addressing privacy issues on Facebook and Twitter?
Ben

13. Small group exercise
Develop a research question within one of the following topics:
Teenage pregnancy
Veterinary practices
Syria refugee crisis
Media bias
Institutionalized racism
Perception of faces
Psychology of addictions
Or any other topic you already have in mind !
Ben

14. Using literature in your research
David

15. Beginning the literature review
David
Beginning the literature review

16. Literature review What is it? Why do it? When conduct it?
An insight into your research topic.
Allows you to know what has been written on your topic.
Why do it?
Demonstrates your knowledge, sets up the story, informs and refines your research, stops you from doing what someone else has already done.
When conduct it?
At the beginning and throughout.
David
Keep a bibliography!

17. The sources List of possible sources Where to find the sources
Books: readers, edited books, introductions
Journal articles
Sector knowledge: reports, organisational / institutional data (websites)
News articles
Where to find the sources
Browse the relevant section
Look up sources in the library catalogue
Use Google Scholar
Use search engines
David

18. Finding materials at UKC
David

19. Finding materials at UKC
David

20. Finding materials http://www.kent.ac.uk/library/resources/index.html
David

21. Harvard referencing
Why do you need to reference?
David

22. Referencing – Harvard System (in-text)
According to Rojek (2007) media are an important influence on modern culture.
Some scholars distinguish between a cultural elite and the masses (Rojek 2007; Althusser 1936).
Marx’s base-superstructure model shows that distinction (Marx 1846: 42).
Rojek calls Tillman an ‘all American hero’ (Rojek 2007: 9).
Luke

23. Referencing – Harvard System (bibliography)
Author(s)
Year of publication
Title
Book:
Cohen, S., and Young, J. (1973). The Manufacture of News: Social Problems, Deviance and the Mass Media. London: Constable.
Luke
Place of publishing
Publisher

24. Referencing – Harvard System (in-text)
Individual work:
Using the referencing style guide, pick out the correct information to create a Harvard style reference.
Luke

25. Overview of methods
Suay

26. What is methodology?
Methodology is how you will carry out your research — how you will answer your research question.
All research projects have a methodology.
When you narrow down your topic, it is best to look at the various methods used in that field of research.
You learn about different methods through your literature review.
How have other scholars researched your topic?
Which elements do they focus on? What are the key arguments?
Suay

27. Possible methods (details next week)
Quantitative methods
Surveys
Interviews (structured)
Experiments
Qualitative methods
Interviews (informal, unstructured, semi-structured)
Ethnography / participant observation
Focus groups
Document analysis
Suay

28. Quantitative vs. Qualitative Methods
Quantitative methods:
Concerned with counting and measuring aspects of social life
Data is numerical
Involves statistical analysis of data
Qualitative methods:
Concerned with producing rich descriptions and exploring social actors’ meanings and interpretations
Data is subjective, not numerical
Involves interpretive analysis of data
Suay

29. Small group exercise
Based on your previously chosen research question, what method(s) would you use?
Quantitative methods
Surveys
Interviews (structured)
Experiments
Qualitative methods
Interviews (informal, unstructured, semi-structured)
Ethnography / participant observation
Focus groups
Document analysis
Suay

30. Prep for next week Develop a research question Do some reading
Prepare an elevator pitch
Suay

31. Next week… How to select and use methods !
DAY II
Selecting a method
Individual methods
Quantitative methods
Qualitative methods
Things to consider
Suay