Alternatives to Social Research

Authority Tradition Common sense Media Myths Personal Experience

Why do women tend to do the laundry?

Authority: Experts say that female children are taught to care for others. Tradition: Women have always done the housework in society. Commonsense: Men arent so concerned about their appearance as women so it makes sense Media myth: TV ads often show women enjoying doing the laundry so they must think its fun. Personal experience: "My mother, and all my friends mothers have always done it."

Uses of Research
Justify current practice Demonstrate need for resource claims Evaluation of practice Describe dimension of issue Identify Causal connections Understand patterns of peoples thinking, opinions, values, attitudes and behaviour Develop new explanatory frameworks or concepts.

First Steps
An out of the ordinary observation An aha observation. A gut feeling of unease. A feeling of confusion about an issue. A critical, challenging moment. Simple curiosity.

Examples of Research Prompts

Weve had complaints about youth hanging around the shopping mall. Maybe we need to build a skate park? Weve had some complaints of bullying at school. How can we encourage teachers to be more rigorous in applying the discipline policy?

Question the question

What assumptions underlie the initial question? Are the assumptions influence by your values? Are the assumptions valid? Are the assumptions based on some broader theoretical framework or potentially unrecognised world outlook?

Types of Explanations
Causal - cause and effect Structural - how does this fit with that Interpretive understanding meanings and subjective worldviews Dialectical - understanding things as they change

Importance of Literature Review

A literature review must do these things: 1. be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing 2. synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known 3. identify areas of controversy in the literature 4. formulate questions that need further research

Basic Research Design & Implementation Process

1. Identify initial Research Question/Issue 2. Question assumptions 3. Undertake Literature Review of Area 4. Redesign research questions 5. Choose research Methodology 6. Identify sources of information & collect data. 7. Analyse data 8. Interpret data 9. Inform and act.