Beginning Research

A Guide for Foundation Degree Students

Michelle Lowe

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781134129959
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Researchers in education are interested in the study of learners, teachers, professional support staff, parents and other participants in schools and other educational institutions. To be effective, research needs to be carried out in a systematic way and should contribute to what is known. If you are interested in education research and want to learn how to become an effective researcher, then this step-by-step guide is for you. For many students the first research project is the most daunting but this book will help ensure its success.

Beginning Research is a practical toolkit of resources that will enable students to plan, conduct and follow up research effectively. It contains information on the range of methods available to researchers and introduces some of the key concepts associated with education research and the theoretical background against which it currently takes place. Designed for anyone working in an education setting, by reading through each chapter and completing the associated tasks you will be able to work through each stage of the research process.

This book is essential reading for students on all education courses who are engaging in research for the first time. It is particularly suitable for foundation degree students, as it acknowledges the constraints placed upon researchers who are also working and offers practical advice for managing the demands of employment, study and carrying out research.

Chapter 1

What is research?

Introduction

This chapter introduces you to what we mean when we say we are ‘doing research’ and why research is an important way of learning more about a subject. You will meet some key concepts that are used within research. This chapter also outlines how the different ways in which we view the world are linked to our approach to carrying out research.

What is research?

Howard and Sharp (1983: 6) define research as ‘seeking through methodical processes to add to one’s own body of knowledge and, hopefully, to that of others, by the discovery of non trivial facts and insights’. Similarly, Drew (1980: 4) sees research as ‘conducted to solve problems and expand knowledge’. We can find out about the world around us in many ways. The most direct way we have is through direct experience. For example we can learn and know about physical objects through our senses. Similarly, we can experience emotions through our interactions with others. Reasoning is our second way of learning about the world. We can reason about the world by making deductions about new phenomena based upon things that we already know and or have experienced. For example:

1 We know that the planets in our solar system orbit the sun.

2 We discover a new planet in our solar system.

3 It too must orbit the sun.

The third way in which we can find out about the world is through research. Research differs from experience because it is controlled and carried out systematically. Research may be based upon our experiences and it may develop from the process of reasoning about the world. However, research has certain characteristics that make it a very useful way of learning about and understanding the world around us. It can be viewed as a tool (MacNaughton et al. 2001: 3). Learning how to use the tool will help you to feel confident about conducting research within education.

Why research?

The ways in which education practitioners work are subject to change in response to legislation, policy and practice. At the same time our interpretation of learning and teaching has changed to accommodate new understandings. Education does not occur within a vacuum. Education is influenced by social, political, historical, economic, technological and ecological factors. Research can help us to explore education and the education process. It can help us to begin to answer questions about learning and teaching. You will have your own personal reasons for wanting to conduct research. It may be that you have to conduct research as part of your foundation degree. You may want to conduct action research with the intention of finding out about your own workplace and improving or developing your own personal practice.

TASK 1A

What is your response to the term ‘research’?

Identify any hopes and fears you have about being asked to conduct research.

• Hopes

• Fears

You may also need to respond to research directly and indirectly in your professional role. Your study of education has already involved you in the process of reading about the research other people will have carried out. Many national policies and initiatives have a research base. However, many do not! By developing your skills of what constitutes effective research you will be able to make judgements about and critically evaluate the research of others.

You may already have a clear idea about what you want to research and you may hope that your research will answer a specific question or enable you to find out about something you find exciting. You may be looking forward to the idea of working in a different way in your workplace. You may welcome the opportunity to work through your research at your own pace. However, it is also quite normal to feel anxious about conducting research. You may feel that you do not have a clear research focus and that you are not clear about how you are going to research. You may be concerned about managing the process and about the ethical considerations of research. You may also feel insecure about asking questions that challenge the ‘status quo’.

You should remember that research is about extending or deepening what we know. If your research has been conducted appropriately it will be accepted as a contribution to understanding within your professional context. Quality research is underpinned by some key principles and values. MacNaughton et al. (2001: 9) identify these as research which is:

• ethical

• purposeful

• well-designed

• transparent

• critical

• political.

Researchers are honest about their assumptions and they are respectful of the other people who participate in their research. In Chapter 2 we will explore ethics in relation to research. The research approach that we adopt is usually based upon our view of the world. This is known as our epistemology. We can identify three broad epistemological perspectives:

• positivist

• interpretivist

• critical realist.

Positivist research

Positivists think that the world exists independently. They seek truth about the world that corresponds to the reality they observe and experience. The world can be described using measurable properties. Positivist studies attempt to test theory and try to increase the general understanding humans have of the world or a particular phenomenon. Cohen et al. (2000) define this as the ‘traditional’ scientific way of seeing the world. It implies that the world is ordered and logical, and follows scientific laws. Human interactions are part of the scientific laws of nature and therefore they can be measured. Positivists will set out a hypothesis, carry out experiments and attempt to generalise from their findings. If the results of the research are valid they can be replicated by another independent researcher. Anyone should be able to carry out the research and get the same results.

Three key concepts that underpin positivism are generalisability, validity and reliability. The principle of generalisation is very important within a positivist epistemology. Clearly this principle has more direct application in science, where if we conduct an experiment and get an outcome we can say that every time we carry out the experiment we will get the same outcome. In education research when we say something is generalisable we mean that we can use a small sample to illustrate a larger sample. For example; let us imagine that we want to find out the views teaching assistants have of the SEN Code of Practice. It would be very difficult to ask all teaching assistants for their views. So the researcher asks a smaller number what they think. The researcher can argue that the group they have chosen are representative of all teaching assistants. Indeed they may have carefully chosen a group who they think are representative of the larger group. The researcher can then argue that what they have found out, the views they have collected, can be said to be generalisable to all teaching assistants. That is, if we asked any other teaching assistant the same question about the SEN Code of Practice we would be likely to get the same answers that the researcher obtained. There are problems with generalisability. Who is to say that the teaching assistants who were interviewed were representative of all teaching assistants? Is it possible to select any small group to represent the views of a larger group? Denscombe (2003) has argued that the minimum number of people you should interview to be able to generalise is 30. It is important to remember that generalisability can be problematic but it is possible to argue that the outcomes of research can be related in a way that would enable members of a similar group to recognise problems and suggested solutions identified through the research.

Validity is another key concept. This refers to whether the research measures or describes what it says it measures or describes. There are many ways of measuring the extent of validity but it is unlikely that research for a foundation degree will require you to do this. An effective way of checking validity is to discuss your research with a colleague or tutor and to ask them if they think what you are looking at is appropriate for your research area.

TASK 1B

Consider the following research scenario.

Two researchers, one male and one female, are conducting research into girl gangs. Do you agree with the positivists’ position that anyone should be able to carry out this research and get the same results?

What factors may impact upon the research?

When we refer to reliability we are thinking about the extent to which the research would produce the same results if it were repeated in exactly the same way. This is important when the researcher is thinking about the method of collecting information. For example, if a questionnaire is to be used, how can you ensure that the questions would produce the same answers from the same respondent?

A great deal of work can be done to ensure that research can be replicated. However, we mu...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Beginning Research
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• Introduction
• 1 What is research?
• 2 Ethical issues in research
• 3 Your personal research: framing your research question
• 4 Looking at research – questionnaires
• 5 Doing research – a practical guide to questionnaire design
• 6 Looking at research – observations
• 7 Doing research – managing observations
• 8 Looking at research – interviews
• 9 Doing research – successful interviewing
• 10 Looking at research – action research
• 11 Analysing research data
• 12 Presenting research findings: putting it all together
• References
• Index