1. 1 Research as a Creative and Strategic Process How do creativity and strategy fit into analytic research?

2. 2 Exploring Research Research is a ‘thinking person’s game’ and a ‘whole brain endeavour’ that uses both the Creative Right Brain and the Logical Left

3. 3 The thinking processes of the ‘creative’ often involve: Fluency and flexibility Originality Remote associations Redefinitions Sensitivity to problems Acceptance of ambiguity Divergence

4. 4 The Construct of Research Scientific research was born of positivism adopted the assumptions of that paradigm including: a knowable and predictable world empirical and reductionist research objective and expert researcher hypothesis driven methods and statistically significant, quantitative findings

5. 5 The Construct of Research Over the past decades, the assumptions of positivism have been brought into question. Post-positivists researchers acknowledge: a world that is ambiguous and variable research that can be intuitive and holistic researchers that can be subjective and collaborative methods that can be inductive and exploratory and findings that can be idiographic and qualitative

6. 6 The Assumptions

7. 7 Putting it all together Getting your head around the pieces of the research jigsaw can be confusing The major pieces of the puzzle include…

8. 8 Laying the Groundwork Understanding the need for creative and strategic thinking in research Appreciating research as a ‘construct’ Being able to wade through complexity Developing strategies for staying on top of the process

9. 9 Defining the Question The art and science of knowing what you want to know Developing researchable questions that can direct methods

10. 10 Researching Reflexively Negotiating power, politics and ethical responsibilities Getting a handle on the criteria and indicators of good research

11. 11 Exploring the literature Knowing what to read How to find it How to put boundaries on it How to organize it How to annotate it How to construct arguments with it How to write a literature review

12. 12 Exploring design, methodologies, and methods Being able to think your way through the logistics and practicalities of methodological design Being able to: explore populations delve deeper facilitate change Working through the nitty gritty of data collection

13. 13 Communicating through research Crafting a compelling and credible storyline through your analysis Writing up and disseminating your work in a clear, well-structured, and interesting fashion

14. 14 Designing a Research Proposal Start with 4 questions: What epistemology (theory of knowledge) informs your research? What theoretical perspectives (philosophical stance or lens) lies behind your approach/your question? What methodology perspective will you use? What methods (techniques/procedures) will you use?

15. 15 Theory of Knowledge Positivists/postpositivists Alternative Knowledge claims Constructivist Pragmatisim Advocacy

16. 16 Theoretical Perspective Conflict Theory Rational Choice/Political Economy Institutionalism Feminist theory Network theory Etc., Etc., Etc.

17. 17 Methodological Perspective Qualitative Quantitative Mix-Method

18. 18 Methodological Tools Qualitative Case Study Participant observation Etc. Quantitative Linear Regression Time-series, longitudinal, cross-sectional Etc.