Research Methodologies

Quantitative Examples: opinion poll, questionnaire, observing with a tally sheet… Pros and cons…?

Quant Pros: you can get statistics Cons: you don’t get “voices” and cant account for anomalies WARNING: Is your study reliable and valid? Reliable: you could repeat and get similar results; valid, you are measuring what you intended to measure Has your hypothesis biased the results? Skewed instruments, researcher got too close to subject, sample too small or unrepresentative

Qualitative Examples: interview, unstructured interview, focus group, participant observation, open ended questionnaire… Pros and cons…?

Qualitative Pros: you can get personal voices (why might this be an advantage?) Cons: harder to “prove” reliability and validity WARNING: You cant make your self “disappear” from qualitative research. You, your knowledge and opinions are present - even if pushed to the side. You need to be aware of your own impact on the subject. The closer you are to the subject, the more self-reflexive you need to be in your methodological evaluation.

Examples: what do you think of the methodology? You are researching the impact of student-teacher relationships on student achievement: You interview …your teacher…. Your principal… a lecturer from the Education Faculty of a university You give a questionnaire on the topic to 10 students in your class…10 random students from each grade in the school…. 10 random students from 10 different public and private schools in Sydney You are a strong feminist researcher looking at how television depictions of female sexuality affect women: You arrange an unstructured focus group of young women You interview your own mother You choose 10 people you know will be interested in your research and ask them to complete a questionnaire

Methodologies Taken from Culturescope methodologies glossary c_meth_glossary.html

Survey - involves various instruments: Observation - use data recrding sheets Interview - prepared questions written list of questions - a questionnaire. (can be closed questions, multiple-response questions, Lickett scale questions (differential sliding scale or rating scale questions) or open-ended questions, or may be a combination of all question styles You’re looking at representative samples of specific populations (for example, women in the workforce, Year 9 students, recent immigrants). Pros/cons?

Observation - watching and recording behaviours within a clearly defined area. Researcher as passive observer: outside the action Pros/cons?

More on questionnaires Good for for collecting data beyond the physical reach of the researcher - from a large or diverse sample of people. Impersonal so must contain clear questions, worded simply to avoid any confusion (what happens if the participant is confused?) Should be designed for a specific research objective (focused) it should be brief and logically sequenced

Pros/cons? Interviews - tightly structured, semi-structured, unstructured, indepth or conversational. Involves researcher and interviewee in a one-to-one situation and may be quite time consuming. The researcher may interview several people at different times using the same interview question schedule.

Participant observation researcher is immersed in the action being observed but their role as researcher is not obvious. (Eg. the researcher goes into a shopping centre in a wheelchair or joins a group in order to study it) Researchers must be aware of ethical implications participant-as-observer methodology: researcher still participates in, as well as observes, the action being studied but does so with the knowledge of other participants. Pros/cons

What the....

Ethnographic study - The systematic collection of data derived from direct observation of the everyday life of a particular society, group or subculture. requires immersion in the culture/subculture under study and is an interactive process. For understanding customs actions, beliefs, knowledge and attitudes of the social group through engaging in everyday life. Pros/cons

Focus group - small group (3 - 8 persons) brought together for indepth discussion of specific issue or topic. researcher plans interview schedule and organises time and place. requirements: questions, audio recorder, group management/facilitation skills Pros/cons

Statistical analysis - Examine data to interpret meaning, make generalisations and extrapolate trends. Graph-reading, precision and mathematical skills required Pros/cons

Action research - informal, qualitative, interpretive, reflective and experimental -requires participants to collaborate with researchers. -carried out by people who recognise a problem (racism, poverty, crowded classes, angry teachers etc) then follow a spiral of planning, acting, observing and reflecting, occurring through time until the most desirable outcomes for all participants are achieved.

Pros/cons Personal reflection - researcher reflects upon and evaluates their own experiences, memories, values and opinions in relation to a specific issue or topic.