1. Approaches to research design
Biranda Ford,

2. Research design = Having a plan

3. Five models: Quantitative Qualitative Mixed Methods Arts-Based
Community-Based Participatory Research Approaches

4. PATRICIA LEAVY, The Guildford Press, 2017
Research Design:
Quantitative, Qualitative, Mixed Methods, Arts-Based, and Community-Based Participatory Research Approaches
PATRICIA LEAVY, The Guildford Press, 2017

5. Choices, choices... Topic Purpose Philosophy/theory Ethics
Your experience/ background
Your skills

6. Everyday ways of knowing
Authorities: parents, family, teachers, institutions, professional experts, media, etc
Cultural beliefs
Personal / sensory experiences

7. Ways of knowing through research
Exploration: new topic, gaps in literature
Description: accounts of people, groups, events, situations, often from perspective of people living a particular experience. (e.g. Clifford Geertz, ‘thick description’)
Explanation: relationships, causes, effects, correlations
Community change or action: change, action, or intervention to suit the aims of stakeholders or provoke policy change (can involve explanation, description, evaluation)
Evaluation: assess the impact of programmes/policy (type of explanation)
Provoke, evoke, unsettle: disrupt stereotypes, question ideologies (to evoke meanings, can explore and describe)

8. Quantitative research
deductive (‘top down’, start with theory/ general statement/ hypothesis. Move from general ‘the theory’, to specific research observations.)
proving/ disproving existing theories
measures variables and tests relationships between variables in order to reveal patterns, correlations, or causal relationships.
linear methods of data collection and analysis that result in statistical data.
values: neutrality, objectivity, and the acquisition of a sizeable scope of knowledge (e.g. a statistical overview from a large sample).
appropriate when your primary purpose is to explain or evaluate.

9. Qualitative research
inductive (move from specific observations to generalisation/ theory building)
research generates meaning/ brings into existence a way of looking at the world
learn about social phenomenon by looking at meanings people ascribe to activities, situations, events, or artefacts.
values: importance of people’s subjective experiences and meaning- making processes and acquiring a depth of understanding (i.e. detailed information from a small sample).
appropriate when your primary purpose is to explore, describe, or explain.

10. Mixed methods research (MMR)
involves collecting, analyzing, and in some way integrating both quantitative and qualitative data in a single project.
phases of a research project are integrated or synergistic, with the quantitative phase influencing the qualitative phase, or vice versa.
MMR: ‘comprehensive understanding’ vs ‘ there is no God- view in research’
appropriate to describe, explain, or evaluate. Also routinely used in applied social and behavioural science research, including to prompt community change or social action.

11. Arts-based research (ABR)
adapts the tenets of the creative arts in a research project.
aims to address research questions in holistic and engaged ways, theory and practice intertwined.
generative
researchers place the inquiry process at the centre of their practice.
draws on literary writing, music, dance, performance, visual art, film, and other artistic mediums.
values aesthetic understanding, evocation, and provocation.
appropriate to explore, describe, or evoke, provoke, or unsettle.

12. Community-based participatory research (CBPR)
CBPR is a way of approaching research that shapes how we use methods (it is not a method in itself).
Involves collaborative partnerships between researchers and nonacademic stakeholders (e.g., community members/ community-based organizations)
attempt by researchers to actively involve the communities they aim to serve in every aspect of the research process, from the identification of a problem to the distribution of research findings.
highly collaborative and problem-centred approach to research that requires the sharing of power.
appropriate when your purpose is to promote community change or action.

13. Research paradigms: what do we believe?
Research praxis: what do we do?

14. Research paradigms
Positivist - there is a measurable, observable reality outside of our experience. (E.g. scientific method)
Interpretivist/ constructivist - there is no external reality outside of our ability to perceive the world. We make meaning in our everyday interactions. (E.g. phenomenology, narrative research, ethnography)

15. Research paradigms
Critical - looks at power relations, dominant discourses, social justice issues. Interest in the experiences and perspectives of the marginalised. (E.g. feminist, critical race, queer, poststructuralist theories).
Transformative - draws on critical theory, critical pedagogy, feminist, critical race, and indigenous theories and promotes human rights, social justice, and social- action-oriented perspectives. Understood as an engaged, politically and socially responsible enterprise with the power to transform and emancipate.

16. Research paradigms
Pragmatic - no allegiance to a particular set of rules or theories, suggests that different tools may be useful in different research contexts (E.g. Dewey). Researchers value utility and what works in the context of a particular research question.
Arts-Based - suggests that the arts are able to access that which is otherwise out of reach. Values non-verbal ways of knowing, e.g. sensory, emotional, perceptual, kinesthetic, and imaginal knowledge. Research draws on theories of embodiment and phenomenology and may include a range of additional perspectives such as interpretive/ constructivist theories and critical theories.

17. Research Praxis four key elements of research: genre/ design
methods/ practices
theory
methodology.