Professional Documents
Culture Documents
RESEARCH
GOALS
CONCEPTUAL RESEARCH
FRAMEWORK QUESTIONS
VALIDITY METHODS
A SEQUENCE OF CONSIDERATIONS
Ontology, epistemology, constraints,
PREPARATORY
purposes, foci, ethics, research
ISSUES question, politics, literature review
SAMPLING &
Reliability, validity, piloting
INSTRUMENTATION
TIMING &
SEQUENCING
A SEQUENCE OF CONSIDERATIONS
ORIENTING
DECISIONS
E.G. SURVEY,
EXPERIMENT,
RESEARCH DESIGN NATURALISTIC, CASE
& METHODOLOGY STUDY, ACTION
RESEARCH, TESTING
DATA ANALYSIS
PRESENTING AND
REPORTING RESULTS
ORIENTING DECISIONS
1. Who wants the research?
2. Who will receive the research?
3. What powers do the recipients of the research have?
4. What are the time scales of the research?
5. What are the purposes of the research?
6. What are the research questions?
7. What must be the focus in order to answer the
research questions?
8. What costs are there – human, material, physical,
administrative, temporal?
9. Who owns the research?
10. At what point does the ownership pass from the
respondent to the researcher and from the researcher
to the recipients?
RESEARCH DESIGN & METHODOLOGY
1. What are the specific purposes of the research?
2. How are the general research purposes and aims
operationalized into specific research questions?
3. What are the specific research questions?
4. What needs to be the focus of the research in order
to answer the research questions?
5. What is the main methodology of the research?
6. How will validity and reliability be addressed?
7. How will reflexivity be addressed?
8. What kinds of data are required?
9. From whom will data be acquired (i.e. sampling)?
10. Where else will data be available?
11. How will the data be gathered (i.e. instrumentation)?
12. Who will undertake the research?
DATA ANALYSIS
1. How will the data be analyzed?
2. How to verify and validate the data and their
interpretation?
PRESENTING & REPORTING THE RESULTS
1. How to write up and report the research?
2. When to write up and report the research (e.g.
ongoing or summative)?
3. How to present the results in tabular and/or
written-out form?
4. How to present the results in non-verbal forms?
5. To whom to report (the necessary and possible
audiences of the research)?
6. How frequently to report?
A SAMPLE PLANNING MATRIX
Time Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Sample (start) (3 months) (6 months) (9 months) (12 months)
STAGE TWO:
IDENTIFY AND GIVE PRIORITY TO THE CONSTRAINTS
UNDER WHICH THE RESEARCH WILL TAKE PLACE
STAGE THREE:
PLAN THE POSSIBILITIES FOR THE RESEARCH
WITHIN THESE CONSTRAINTS
STAGE FOUR:
DECIDE THE RESEARCH DESIGN
ENSURING QUALITY IN RESEARCH
PLANNING (Furlong and Oancea, 2005)
FITNESS FOR PURPOSE
• Theoretical and methodological robustness:
– The trustworthiness’ of the research;
– Its ‘contribution to knowledge’;
– Its ‘explicitness in designing and reporting’;
– Its ‘propriety’ (conformance to legal and ethical
requirements);
– The ‘paradigm-dependence’(fidelity to the
paradigm, ontology and epistemological premises
of the research) that the research demonstrates;
ENSURING QUALITY IN RESEARCH
PLANNING (Furlong and Oancea, 2005)
FITNESS FOR PURPOSE
• Value for use:
– The ‘salience/timeliness’ of the research;
– Its ‘purposivity’ (fitness for purpose);
– Its ‘specificity and accessibility’(scope,
responsiveness to user needs, and predicted usage);
– Its ‘concern for enabling impact’(dissemination for
impact); and
– Its ‘flexibility and operationalisability’(development
into practical terms and utility for audiences).
ENSURING QUALITY IN RESEARCH
PLANNING (Furlong and Oancea, 2005)
FITNESS FOR PURPOSE
• Capacity building and value for people:
– ‘Partnership, collaboration and engagement’;
– ‘Plausibility’ (‘from the practitioner’s perspective’);
– ‘Reflection and criticism’(research that develops
reflexivity and self-reflection);
– ‘Receptiveness’(research that enhances the
receptiveness of practitioners and a wider
audience);
– ‘Stimulating personal growth’.
ENSURING QUALITY IN RESEARCH
PLANNING (Furlong and Oancea, 2005)
FITNESS FOR PURPOSE
• Economic dimension:
– ‘Cost-effectiveness’;
– ‘Marketability’ and ‘competitiveness’(e.g. in
the research market);
– ‘Auditability’;
– ‘Feasibility’;
– ‘Originality’;
– ‘Value-efficiency’.