RESEARCH DESIGN

Introduction
A research design is a plan for an entire qualitative research project This plan should be written in a research proposal One purpose is to convince your potential supervisor(s), advisory committee, school, etc. that you are capable of doing the research and that your project is viable Of course, you need to be flexible and possibly change the plan as your research progresses

Research design
Research design involves specifying your philosophical assumptions, your research method, which data collection techniques you will use, your approach to qualitative data analysis, your approach to writing up, and, if applicable, how you plan to publish your findings A research design provides a road map for the entire project The first step is deciding upon a topic How do you decide upon a research topic?

Choosing a topic
There are three important requirements in choosing a topic: 1. You are interested in the topic 2. A faculty member is prepared to supervise you 3. You can obtain relevant data on the topic

Choosing a research topic: you need a research problem

Move on to next stage of research design 1. Read literature, reflect, discuss and identify gaps 2. Generate list of interesting potential questions

Yes No 6. Does a suitable problem exist?

5. Eliminate impractical questions Yes

3. Check literature. Have questions been answered already? No

4. Test feasibility Figure 3.1. How to identify a research problem (adapted from Collis & Hussey, 2003)

Theoretical framework
Three steps in most qualitative research projects: 1. Choose a topic 2. Choose some potential research questions 3. Choose a theoretical framework Given the iterative nature of qualitative research, these might change later

A model of qualitative research design

Written Record Data Analysis Approach

Data Collection Technique

Research Method

Philosophical Assumptions

Philosophical Assumptions
Written Record

Positivist research are you testing one or more hypotheses? Interpretive research are you exploring a research topic or theory? Critical research are to seeking to critique the status quo or help to emancipate people in some way?

Data Analysis Approach

Data Collection Technique

Research Method

Philosophical Assumptions

Research Method
Written Record

A research method is a strategy of enquiry How are you going to find out about the social world?

Data Analysis Approach

Data Collection Technique

Research methods action research, case study research, ethnography, grounded theory
Each can use any set of philosophical assumptions

Research Method

Philosophical Assumptions

Data Collection techniques

Written Record

Which data collection technique(s) will you use?

Interviews Participant observation and fieldwork Documents

Data Analysis Approach

Data Collection Technique

Research Method

Philosophical Assumptions

Data Analysis approach

Written Record

Many ways to analyse qualitative data

Coding Content analysis

Data Analysis Approach

Data Collection Technique

Discourse analysis
Hermeneutics Semiotics Narrative analysis, etc.

Research Method

Philosophical Assumptions

Written record
Written Record

Data Analysis Approach

Are you writing a thesis, a book, a book chapter, a conference paper, or a journal article? The process of writing up is just as important as doing the research itself

Data Collection Technique

Research Method

Philosophical Assumptions

The model in perspective

Written Record
(Thesis, book, report, article ...) Data Analysis Approach (Hermeneutics, semiotics, narrative analysis . ..) Data Collection Technique (interviews, participant observation, documents) Research Method

(action research, case study, ethnography, grounded theory ...)

Philosophical Assumptions (positivist, interpretive, critical)

Writing a research proposal

Item 1. A title 2. An abstract 3. An introduction 4. A literature review 5. A topic 6. A theoretical framework 7. A research method 8. A qualitative data analysis approach 9. A timeline to completion 10. A list of references

THANK YOU