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*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?
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)
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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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