Research Methods for Education, second edition

Peter Newby

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317637141
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Research Methods for Education, Second Edition takes the student by the hand and guides them through the complex subject of research methods in an engaging, witty and clear way. The book covers the philosophical approaches and epistemology, as well as the practical aspects of research, such as designing questionnaires and presenting conclusions.

Each chapter is split into 'Context' and 'Practice' and both sections are packed with exercises, examples and comparative international material from other educational contexts, Peter Newby's book is the student-friendly text which demystifies the research process with clarity and verve.

Key features:

-written in a clear and friendly manner to help students feel more confident dealing with the complexities of research and particularly useful for those new to research or less confident with numbers

-a mixed methods approach, which doesn't simply prioritise quantitative or qualitative methods, allowing for greatest possible coverage

contains guidance on analytic procedures that require more advanced tools such as SPSS and Minitab

-many excellent international examples and case studies specifically from education, which breaks away from a parochial focus on UK education system.

Part 1 The Context for Your Research

This first part of the text sets the scene for re-search in education. Its purpose is to provide you with confidence in handling the concepts and ideas that condition research practice. These are important if you want your research to be taken seriously. While some of the material can seem challenging, it is discussed in a straightforward way. Because of the need to explain concepts and ideas to students who may not have met them before, there has had to be some simplification as well as selection.

Simplifying things in order to help people understand them can lead to concerns being ignored or glossed over. There is, however, guidance on further reading that will take you more deeply into issues. Nonetheless, there are two points of advice that I offer in respect of this section.

1. It is possible to omit much of Part 1 and go on to Parts 2 and 3, which deal with the more technical aspects of research data collection and analysis. But do note, there will be times when it will be necessary to return to Part 1 in order to understand fully why certain things should be done in a certain way and why some approaches and techniques should be used only in specific circumstances.
2. If this is your first introduction to research methods, the discussion and explanations are still within your grasp, especially if they are supported by the guidance of a tutor and class discussions.

Chapter 1 sets the scene for education research.

Chapters 2 and 3 explore influences on the re-search process that we undertake. These constitute the context for our research and they are shown in the preceding figure.

In Chapter 2 we will look at the influence of philosophy, methodology, research paradigms and research questions. The figure shows that these are highly connected issues. In fact paradigms, broad approaches to research activity, are so important in giving shape to our under-standing of the research process that they are considered in depth in Chapter 3. In Chapter 2 as well we will look at how theories and models fit into the research process and how our research should rest on ethical considerations of how others are affected by our work.

Chapter 1 Research: A Messy Business

DOI: 10.4324/9781315758763-2

Chapter contents

• Learning themes
• Introduction: Putting the text in perspective
• 1.1 What do you put first?
• 1.2 Who is this text for?
• (i) If you are starting your research journey
• (ii) If you are preparing a research project
• (iii) If you are a lecturer or supervisor
• (iv) Professional and academic researchers
• 1.3 Why do we do educational research?
• (i) To explore issues
• (ii) To shape policy
• (iii) To improve practice
• 1.4 Who are the educational researchers?
• 1.5 What are the objectives of educational research?
• (i) Find something out
• (ii) Convince others
• 1.6 Some guidelines on research
• (i) Don't get into a research rut
• (ii) Audit your resources
• (iii) Appreciate that things can go wrong
• (iv) Understand the enquiry process
• (v) Appreciate the research progression
• (vi) Understand how to allocate time
• 1.7 Finally, some things we ought to know about educational research before we start
• (i) Research into education is highly political
• (ii) Doing education research can make you enemies
• (iii) Be careful how you read ‘research'
• (iv) Striving to be neutral
• (v) Research and changing the face of education
• (vi) Research into education is fulfilling
• 1.8 Is research a messy business?
• Summary
• Further reading
• References

Learning themes

• Learn how this text can meet your needs, whatever stage you are at in your research development.
• Why people undertake education research.
• The character of the research community in education.
• How to be successful in education research.
• Educational research is highly contested.

By the end of this chapter you will:

• Understand how this text meets your needs and how you can use it.
• Appreciate the character of educational research, its broad goals and objectives and be able to use these to stimulate your own research thinking.
• Be able to think in advance of what you should do to minimise the risk of your research programme being derailed.

Introduetion: Putting the text in perspective

A text on research methods — it’s not exactly the sort of thing you would choose for the beach, is it? Let’s be clear, getting through this text will require some work from you and, at times, you might find that it’s stretching you rather more than you want to be stretched. However, what is written here will help you understand what you need to know so that you can make sense of the research process. The explanations are clear and draw on your understanding of education. You will be guided through some of the more tricky research manoeuvres and there will also be practice activities to help you develop your confidence, your understanding and your technique. There is a lot to learn but when you are at the end of your journey, you will appreciate that what you have learnt is making sense at a whole series of levels. You will know about the ‘proper’ way of applying a technique; you will know about alternative techniques for different situations; you will know that there is always more than one route to a research destination and you will also appreciate the most important lesson that this text has to teach you, that while you can bend and sometimes break the rules, there are principles that will constrain and confine you if you want others to value your work.

And there are two other things that you will find out as well: first, that developing an approach to research issues is creative and stimulating and second, that doing your first piece of research is engrossing and one of the most enjoyable and satisfying things that you will ever do — believe me!

Think of this text as if it were a game or a puzzle, for example a jigsaw. This introductory chapter is the box that contains the puzzle. It gives some instructions and guidance on how to put it together. One thing you need to appreciate is that the research puzzle is unusual because, unlike a conventional jigsaw, it can be put together in an infinite number of ways. To this extent, it is more like a computer game in which the object is to get to the end but because of the random nature of events there are a great many routes for reaching the goal.

What does this chapter tell you about the puzzle? It will give you a perspective on re-search in education. As a puzzle, research can be ‘solved’ at various levels of expertise and this chapter will help you understand which level you, as a reader, are at. You will also appreciate that education research has not one heart but three — one whose beat provides the life-support for academics as ‘searchers after truth’, one for practitioners and the third for policy makers. It will help you understand that solving the research puzzle involves decisions and judgements on your part. You will see that the interest in education research does not end at the school gates. Education is seen as a way of achieving a wide range of social, economic and political goals, so it concerns a far wider community than just education professionals. Most important though, this chapter will give you guidance on the standards that you have to maintain if you want your research to be taken seriously.

Welcome to the research world.

1.1 What do you put first?

There is no absolutely right or wrong way of putting together the first section of any text but there is always a way that makes sense in terms of the message that the author wants to convey. In this instance, rather than getting into the intricacies of the research process, we are going to look at who this text is for and why it will be useful at all stages in your research career. You are going to see why we do education research and just who does it, because it is important you understand this when you read education research. And you will also learn what the key objectives of any research are as well as some rules of thumb that you should know before you become a researcher.

1.2 Who is this text for?

In order to write this text, I first identified the people who might use it so that they could see how it could be valuable to them. See if you recognise yourself in Table 1.1. For everyone in the world of research this text, and this chapter particularly, has two key messages.

• First, real world research is not necessarily clear cut and well structured. It is important that you develop the skill of knowing when, where and how to compromise with what theory and accepted practice says that you should do. You can choose to work within one of the traditional research approaches and abide by their rules (we cover these in Chapter 3). But you do not have to; you can mix approaches and styles of research to give you the information you need to solve your research problem. If you do work within a set of rules, you should recognise that you are letting go of your freedom to take decisions and to construct your research programme in ways that seem best for you. The argument of this text is that you need to understand the consequences of doing or not doing something, so that you are able to make good decisions according to the circumstances.
• This leads on to the second key message. Once you have this understanding and you are confident in your judgements, then you will have the intellectual command of your subject to persuade others that the choices you have made and the way you have done things are appropriate. This word ‘appropriate’ is important. It does not mean ‘best’ necessarily, but it does mean ‘justifiable’ and ‘acceptable in delivering results that are fit for purpose’. Once you can do this, then you will meet the prime, perhaps the only, requirement of delivering research output, namely that it is acceptable to the audience you select.
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Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Praise for the first edition
• Research Methods for Education
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of case studies
• List of activities
• About the author
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Part 1 The Context for Your Research
• Part 2 The Process of Data Collection
• Part 3 The Process of Data Analysis
• Appendix 1 Calculating sample size
• Appendix 2 Calculating critical values for the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test
• Glossary
• Index