Practical Research Methods PDF

Practical Research Methods Practical books that inspire Exams are Easy When You Know How Change your attitude, thinking and technique and never fail an exam Essay to Write? Make it good, make it easy, make it fun! Writing an Assignment Eﬀective ways to improve your research and presentation skills Critical Thinking for Students Learn the skills of critical assessment and eﬀective argument Writing Your Dissertation How to plan, prepare and present successful work howtobooks Please send for a free copy of the latest catalogue: How To Books 3 Newtec Place, Magdalen Road, Oxford OX4 1RE, United Kingdom email: [email protected] http://www.howtobooks.co.uk Practical Research Methods A user-friendly guide to mastering research techniques and projects D R CAT H E R I N E D AW S O N howtobooks For my Dad First published in 2002 by How To Books Ltd, 3 Newtec Place, Magdalen Road, Oxford OX4 1RE. United Kingdom. Tel: (01865) 793806. Fax: (01865) 248780. email: [email protected] http://www.howtobooks.co.uk All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or stored in an information retrieval system (other than for purposes of review) without the express permission of the publisher in writing. # 2002 Dr Catherine Dawson British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Cover design by Baseline Arts Ltd, Oxford Produced for How To Books by Deer Park Productions Edited by Diana Brueton Typeset by PDQ Typesetting, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staﬀs. Printed and bound by Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wiltshire NOTE: The material contained in this book is set out in good faith for general guidance and no liability can be accepted for loss or expense incurred as a result of relying in particular circumstances on statements made in the book. The laws and regulations are complex and liable to change, and readers should check the current position with the relevant authorities before making personal arrangements. Contents Preface ix 1 How to Deﬁne Your Project 1 Asking questions 1 The ﬁve ‘Ws’ 4 Summary 13 2 How to Decide Upon a Methodology 14 Understanding the diﬀerence between qualitative and quantitative research 14 Summary 22 Further reading 23 3 How to Choose Your Research Methods 27 Interviewing 27 Focus groups 29 Questionnaires 30 Participant observation 32 Choosing your methods 33 Summary 37 Further reading 38 4 How to Conduct Background Research 40 Primary research and secondary research 40 Summary 45 Further reading 46 5 How to Choose Your Participants 47 Sampling 47 Sample size 49 Summary 53 Further reading 54 6 How to Prepare a Research Proposal 55 The contents of a proposal 56 v vi / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S What makes a good proposal? 60 Reasons why research proposals fail 61 Summary 62 Further reading 63 7 How to Conduct Interviews 64 Methods of recording 64 The interview schedule 67 Establishing rapport 70 Asking questions and probing for information 71 Summary 73 Further reading 75 8 How to Conduct Focus Groups 76 The role of the moderator 77 Recording equipment 80 Choosing a venue 81 Recruiting your participants 82 Summary 84 Further reading 85 9 How to Construct Questionnaires 87 Deciding which questionnaire to use 87 Wording and structure of questions 89 Length and ordering of questions 93 Piloting the questionnaire 95 Obtaining a high response 97 Summary 99 Further reading 100 10 How to Carry Out Participant Observation 101 Gaining access 102 Ethics 103 Collecting and analysing information 105 Withdrawal from the ﬁeld 107 Summary 107 Further reading 108 11 How to Analyse Your Data 110 Deciding which approach to use 110 C O N T E N T S / vii Qualitative data analysis 111 Quantitative data analysis 121 Measuring data 126 Summary 128 Further reading 129 12 How to Report Your Findings 131 Written reports 131 Written report format 134 Journal articles 140 Oral presentations 142 Summary 143 Further reading 144 13 How to be an Ethical Researcher 146 Treating participants with respect 146 Overt and covert research 147 Code of ethics 150 Summary 154 Further reading 155 Index 157 List of Illustrations Tables 1. The focus group method: advantages and disadvantages 30 2. Sources of background information 45 3. Sampling techniques 50 4. Sampling dos and don’ts 52 5. Survey timetable 59 6. Research budget 60 7. Recording methods: advantages and disadvantages 66 8. Strategies for dealing with awkward situations 79 9. Open and closed questions: advantages and disadvantages 88 10. Using computers for qualitative data analysis: advantages and disadvantages 122 11. Age of respondents 124 12. Making presentations: dos and don’ts 142 Figures 1. Personal proﬁle form 96 2. Interview summary form 113 3. Focus group summary form 114 4. Qualitative data analysis continuum 115 5. Example list of references 138 6. Code of ethics 153 viii Preface This book is a practical, down-to-earth guide for people who wish to conduct research. It is aimed at those new to research and assumes no prior knowledge of the issues covered. It will also appeal to those people who have al- ready conducted some research and who are interested in ﬁnding out more about other research methods that are available to them. For the purpose of this book, research is deﬁned as the deliberate study of other people for the purposes of in- creasing understanding and/or adding to knowledge. This deliberate study could cover many diﬀerent areas. As a re- searcher, you might be interested in attitudes and beha- viour – why do people think in a certain way and why do they behave in a certain way? Or you might be inter- ested in numbers – how many people use a service? Per- haps you need to try to predict how this number of people could be increased so that you can obtain funding for your service. Or you might be fascinated by the perso- nal history of a neighbour and have a burning desire to record her history and pass it on to others. We all have diﬀerent reasons for conducting research. Some of us might have to undertake a project as part of our course work. Others might have to conduct a study as part of our employment. Some of us may be fascinated by something we’ve observed and want to ﬁnd out more. This book oﬀers advice on how to turn your ideas into a work- ix x / PRACTICAL RESEARCH METHODS able project and how to keep motivation levels high, espe- cially if you have no real inclination to become a research- er. It discusses the issues involved in thinking about your research and deﬁning your project, before moving on to the methods – how do you actually do your research, ana- lyse your ﬁndings and report the results? Over the decades there has been a great deal of discussion on what constitutes research, how it should be conducted and whether certain methods are ‘better’ than others. Although I have touched upon some of these issues in the relevant chapters, it is not possible or desirable to go into any greater detail in this book. Therefore, I have included further read- ing sections at the end of the relevant chapters for those of you who wish to follow up these issues. I have been a researcher since undertaking an MA in Social Research in 1987. Working within both further and higher education and as a freelance researcher, I have been involved in a variety of projects in the areas of education, housing and community research. I have taught research methods to adults returning to education and conducted in-house train- ing for employees who need to carry out their own research. Becoming a successful researcher is a continual learning process in which we all make mistakes. So don’t worry if your ﬁrst project doesn’t run as smoothly as you might wish. Instead, remember that undertaking a research project can be fascinating, rewarding and exciting – I hope that you en- joy it as much as I have done and I wish you every success in your project. Dr Catherine Dawson 1 How to DefineYour Project Before you start to think about your research, you need to ask yourself a few questions. ASKING QUESTIONS Why have I decided to do some research? If the answer to this question is because you have been told to do so, either by your tutor or by your boss, you need to think about how you’re to remain motivated throughout your project. Research can be a long process and take up much of your time. It is important to stay interested in what you’re doing if you are to complete your project suc- cessfully. However, if you want to conduct some research because something has fascinated you, or you have identi- ﬁed a gap in the research literature, then you are lucky and should not have a problem with motivation. How can I remain interested in my research? The obvious answer to this is to choose a topic which in- terests you. Most of you do have this choice within the limitations of your subject – be creative and think about something which will fascinate you. However, if you have had the topic chosen for you, try instead choosing a re- search method which interests you. As you go on to read this book you will become more familiar with the diﬀerent methods and should be able to ﬁnd something in which 1 2 / PRACTICAL RESEARCH METHODS you are interested. For example, mathematics might have motivated you at school. If so, you may ﬁnd it interesting to delve deeper into statistical software. Or you might have been invited to take part in a focus group for a mar- ket research company and found it an interesting experi- ence. Perhaps now you would ﬁnd it enjoyable to try running your own focus group? Or maybe you have been fascinated by a particular group of people and you would like to immerse yourself within that group, taking part in their activities whilst studying their behaviour? What personal characteristics do I have which might help me to complete my research? Think about your personal characteristics, likes and dis- likes, strengths and weaknesses when you’re planning your research. If you’re very good with people you might like to think about a project which would involve you con- ducting in-depth interviews with people who you ﬁnd fas- c inating. If you absolut ely hat e mathematics and statistics, steer clear of large survey research. Are you good at socialising? Do people feel at ease with you and are they willing to conﬁde in you? Or do you prefer to hide yourself away and number crunch, or spend hours on the internet? All of these personal characteristics suggest a leaning towards certain types of research. As you read this book you will ﬁnd ideas forming – jot these down so that you can refer to them later when you come to plan your research. What skills and experience do I have which might help in my research? If your research is to be employment based, the chances are you will have work experience which you’ll ﬁnd useful HOW TO DEFINE YOUR PROJECT / 3 when conducting your research project. This is valid ex- perience and you should make the most of it when plan- ning you r r esearch. Even if you r project is not employment based, all of you will have other skills and experience which will help. For example, if you have been a student for three years, you will have developed good literature search skills which will be very useful in the re- search process. Some of you may have developed commit- tee skills, organisation skills and time management expertise. All of these will be extremely useful in your re- search. Think about your existing skills in relation to your proposed project as it will help you to think about whether your knowledge, experience and skills will help you to address the problem you have identiﬁed. Many research projects fail because people don’t take en- ough time to think about the issues involved before rush- ing to start the work. It is extremely important to spend time thinking about your project before you move on to the planning stage. Through careful thought you should stop yourself wasting time and energy on inappropriate methods as your research progresses. Consider the follow- ing example: EXAMPLE 1: JAMES James wanted to ﬁnd out about students’ experiences of housing in his university town. He designed and sent out a questionnaire to 1,000 students. When the replies started to come in, he realised that the questionnaires weren’t generating the type of information in which he was interested. When he talked through his concerns 4 / PRACTICAL RESEARCH METHODS with his tutor, it emerged that James was really inter- ested in attitudes towards, and experiences of, rented accommodation. His questionnaire had been poorly de- signed and was not generating this type of information. He had to scrap the questionnaire and construct an- other which he combined with a number of one-to- one interviews to get more in-depth information. He had spent three months designing and administering a questionnaire which had not produced the type of infor- mation he required. If he had spent more time thinking about the research, especially coming to terms with the diﬀerence between qualitative and quantitative research, he would have saved himself a lot of time and energy (see Chapter 2). THE FIVE ‘WS’ When you start to think about your research project, a useful way of remembering the important questions to ask is to think of the ﬁve ‘Ws’: X What? X Why? X Who? X Where? X When? Once you have thought about these ﬁve ‘Ws’ you can move on to think about how you are going to collect your data. HOW TO DEFINE YOUR PROJECT / 5 What? What is your research? This question needs to be an- swered as speciﬁcally as possible. One of the hardest parts in the early stages is to be able to deﬁne your project, so much research fails because the researcher has been un- able to do this. A useful tip is to sum up, in one sentence only, your research. If you are unable to do this, the chances are your research topic is too broad, ill thought out or too obscure. Why? Why do you want to do the research? What is its purpose? Okay, you might have been told to do some research by your tutor or by your boss, but there should be another reason why you have chosen your particular subject. It might be solely to do with the fact that you are interested in the topic. This is a good start as you need to be inter- ested in your research if you are to keep up your enthu- siasm and remain motivat ed. Or you might have identiﬁed a gap in the research literature – this is good as it shows you have carried out careful background re- search. Or perhaps you want to try to obtain funding for a particular service or enterprise and you need to do some research ﬁrst to ﬁnd out if there is demand for what you are proposing. Whatever your reason, think very carefully about why you are doing the research as this will aﬀect your topic, the way you conduct the research and the way in which you report the results. If you’re doing it for a university dis- sertation or project, does your proposed research provide the opportunity to reach the required intellectual stan- 6 / PRACTICAL RESEARCH METHODS dard? Will your research generate enough material to write a dissertation of the required length? Or will your research generate too much data that would be impossible to summarise into a report of the required length? If you’re conducting research for funding purposes, have you found out whether your proposed funding body re- quires the information to be presented in a speciﬁc for- mat? If so, you need to plan your research in a way which will meet that format. Who? Who will be your participants? (In this book, people who take part in research will be called participants or respon- dents, rather than ‘subjects’, which is a term that I have never liked.) At this stage of the research process, you needn’t worry too much about exactly how many partici- pants will take part in your research as this will be covered later (see Chapter 5). However, you should think about the type of people with whom you will need to get in touch with and whether it will be possible for you to contact them. If you have to conduct your research within a par- ticular time scale, there’s little point choosing a topic which would include people who are diﬃcult or expensive to contact. Also, bear in mind that the Internet now pro- vides opportunities for contacting people cheaply, espe- cially if you’re a student with free internet access. Where? Where are you going to conduct your research? Thinking about this question in geographical terms will help you to narrow down your research topic. Also, you need to think about the resources in terms of budget and time that are HOW TO DEFINE YOUR PROJECT / 7 available to you. If you’re a student who will not receive travel expenses or any other out of pocket expenses, choose a location close to home, college or university. If you’re a member of a community group on a limited bud- get, only work in areas within walking distance which will cut down on travel expenses. Also, you need to think about where you’ll be carrying out your research in terms of venue. If you’re going to con- duct interviews or focus groups, where will you hold them? Is there a room at your institution which would be free of charge, or are you going to conduct them in par- ticipants’ own homes? Would it be safe for you to do so? Would you be comfortable doing so? If you’ve answered ‘no’ to either of these last two questions, maybe you need to think again about your research topic. In 15 years I have encountered only one uncomfortable situation in a stranger’s home. It can happen and you must never put yourself in a dangerous situation. Think very carefully about whether your chosen topic and method might have an inﬂuence on personal safety. When? When are you going to do your research? Thinking about this question will help you to sort out whether the research project you have proposed is possible within your time scale. It will also help you to think more about your par- ticipants, when you need to contact them and whether they will be available at that time. For example, if you want to go into schools and observe classroom practice, you wouldn’t choose to do this research during the sum- mer holiday. It might sound obvious, but I have found 8 / PRACTICAL RESEARCH METHODS some students present a well-written research proposal which, in practical terms, will not work because the par- ticipants will be unavailable during the proposed data collection stage. Once you have thought about these ﬁve ‘Ws’, try to sum up your proposed project in one sentence. When you have done this, take it to several people, including your boss and/or tutor, and ask them if it makes sense. Do they un- derstand what your research is about? If they don’t, ask them to explain their confusion, revise your statement and take it back to them. I can’t overemphasise the importance of this stage of the re- search process. If you get it right now, you will ﬁnd that the rest of your work should ﬂow smoothly. However, if you get it wrong, your problems could well escalate. The following exercise will help you to think more about these issues. EXERCISE 1 Have a look at the three projects below and see if you can spot any potential problems. What questions would you ask to make the researchers focus in on their pro- posed project? Do you have any suggestions for the im- provement of these statements? Statement 1: This research aims to ﬁnd out what people think about television. HOW TO DEFINE YOUR PROJECT / 9 Statement 2: My project is to do some research into Alz- heimer’s disease, to ﬁnd out what people do when their relatives have it and what support they can get and how nurses deal with it. Statement 3: We want to ﬁnd out how many of the local residents are interested in a play scheme for children dur- ing the summer holiday. Points to consider Statement 1: This research aims to ﬁnd out what people think about television. This proposed project is both broad and obscure. My ﬁrst two questions would be: what people and what television? Then I would ask: what is the purpose of this research? Who would be in- terested in the results? TV companies already employ market researchers to conduct a great deal of research into public viewing, and they have much larger budgets available to them. There’s little point in repeating re- search if it cannot be improved upon. However, if the researcher has an interest in this parti- cular issue, or is perhaps on a media studies course, there are a number of ways in which this research could become more manageable. The researcher could focus in on a particular type of programme and/or a particu- lar type of person. For example, she could decide to show an Open University programme to potential OU students and ﬁnd out what they thought about the pro- 10 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S gramme in a series of focus groups. Or she could choose children’s programming and ﬁnd out what tea- chers think about the educational value of these pro- grammes. Or she could ask business people what they think about a programme aimed speciﬁcally at the busi- ness community. Finally, maybe she could ask fellow students to keep a diary of their television viewing over a week and then interview them about their viewing ha- bits. There are many diﬀerent possibilities within this ﬁeld. The researcher needs to decide exactly where her inter- ests lie and focus in on those interests. Statement 2: My project is to do some research into Alz- heimer’s disease, to ﬁnd out what people do when their relatives have it and what support they can get and how nurses deal with it. The main problem with this statement is the grammar. The topic itself is more focused as the researcher has mentioned, speciﬁcally, the areas he wishes to consider – nurses’ attitudes, carers’ experiences and available support. His topic is immediately more manageable be- cause he is only considering nurses or carers who come into contact with suﬀerers of Alzheimer’s disease. How- ever, he needs to think about whether he is going to consider hospitals, residential homes, or both, and in what areas. Also, is he going to contact people who look after their relatives at home? H O W T O D E F I N E Y O U R P R O J E C T / 11 Although, on the surface, this project appears more manageable, this researcher has a major point to con- sider. In the UK all social research which is carried out on health care premises comes under the jurisdic- tion of Research Ethics Committees. These committees were set up to ensure that research does not harm pa- tients in any way and that it is done in their best inter- ests. In the USA a similar function is carried out by Institutional Review Boards. This means that the re- searcher would have to get his project approved by the appropriate committee before he could go ahead with the research, and it is not guaranteed that his pro- ject would be given approval. As he would have to sub- mit a full and detailed proposal to the committee, he could be conducting a lot of preliminary work, only to be turned down. Researchers need to think carefully whether this is a route they wish to take, and if so, ob- tain the appropriate advice before committing them- selves. Statement 3: We want to ﬁnd out how many of the local residents are interested in a play scheme for children dur- ing the summer holiday. This project put forward by a tenants’ association ap- pears to be straightforward and manageable, although there are still several issues which need addressing. My ﬁrst question for this topic would be: do you really want to ﬁnd out how many of the local residents are inter- 12 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S ested, or do you want to ﬁnd out the interests of resi- dents with children of the appropriate age who would ac- tually use the scheme? If the latter is the case, this narrows down the research population and makes it more manageable. Finding out whether someone is interested in something is not actually the same as ﬁnding out whether someone would use the service. For example, I might think a play scheme is a good idea for other children as it might keep them oﬀ the streets, but not for my little darlings who are too occupied with their computer. If I said ‘yes, I am interested’, this could be misleading as I have no in- tention of using the service. However, if the purpose of the research is to obtain funding for the scheme, then the more people who express an interest, the better, although the tenants’ association would have to be careful not to produce misleading information. I would also ﬁnd out whether the tenants’ association was interested only in the issue of how many people were interested in it and would use the play scheme. If they were doing this research anyway, would it be a va- luable addition to ﬁnd out what sort of scheme resi- dents would like, and what activities their children would like? Would residents have any reservations about sending their children? If they do have reserva- tions, what are they? Who would residents want to run the scheme? Would they be willing to provide help and support themselves? H O W T O D E F I N E Y O U R P R O J E C T / 13 SUMMARY X You must take time to think about your research as this will save you problems later. X When you’re thinking about your research, ask your- self the ﬁve ‘Ws’: – What is my research? – Why do I want to do the research? – Who are my research participants? – Where am I going to do the research? – When am I going to do the research? X Sum up your research project in one sentence. X Discuss your sentence with your tutor or boss and re- vise if there is any confusion. 2 How to Decide Upon a Methodology Once you have answered the ﬁve ‘Ws’ you can go on to think about how you’re going to do your research. The ﬁrst thing you need to do is to think about your research methodology. This is the philosophy or the general princi- ple which will guide your research. It is the overall ap- proach to studying your topic and includes issues you need to think about such as the constraints, dilemmas and ethical choices within your research. Now that you have read Chapter 1, some of these issues will be fresh in your mind. Your research methodology is diﬀerent to your research methods – these are the tools you use to gather data, such as questionnaires or interviews, and these will be discussed in Chapter 3. UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH When you start to think about your research methodol- ogy, you need to think about the diﬀerences between qua- litative and quantitative research. Qualitative research explores attitudes, behaviour and ex- periences through such methods as interviews or focus groups. It attempts to get an in-depth opinion from par- ticipants. As it is attitudes, behaviour and experiences 14 H O W T O D E C I D E U P O N A M E T H O D O L O G Y / 15 which are important, fewer people take part in the re- search, but the contact with these people tends to last a lot longer. Under the umbrella of qualitative research there are many diﬀerent methodologies. Examples of some of these methodologies are summarised below. If you wish to pursue any of these in more depth, useful re- ferences are included at the end of this chapter. Quantitative research generates statistics through the use of large-scale survey research, using methods such as questionnaires or structured interviews. If a market re- searcher has stopped you on the streets, or you have ﬁlled in a questionnaire which has arrived through the post, this falls under the umbrella of quantitative research. This type of research reaches many more people, but the con- tact with those people is much quicker than it is in quali- tative research. Qualitative versus quantitative inquiry Over the years there has been a large amount of complex discussion and argument surrounding the topic of re- search methodology and the theory of how inquiry should proceed. Much of this debate has centred on the issue of qualitative versus quantitative inquiry – which might be the best and which is more ‘scientiﬁc’. Diﬀerent meth- odologies become popular at diﬀerent social, political, historical and cultural times in our development, and, in my opinion, all methodolog ies have their spec iﬁc strengths and weaknesses. These should be acknowledged and addressed by the researcher. At the end of this chap- ter references are given if you are interested in following up any of these issues. Certainly, if you were to do so, it 16 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S would help you to think about your research methodology in considerable depth. Deciding which methodology is right for you Don’t fall into the trap which many beginning (and ex- perienced) researchers do in thinking that quantitative re- search is ‘better ’ than qualitative research. Neither is better than the other – they are just diﬀerent and both have their strengths and weaknesses. What you will ﬁnd, however, is that your instincts probably lean you towards one rather than the other. Listen to these instincts as you will ﬁnd it more productive to conduct the type of re- search with which you will feel comfortable, especially if you’re to keep your motivation levels high. Also, be aware of the fact that your tutor or boss might prefer one type of research over the other. If this is the case, you might have a harder time justifying your chosen methodology, if it goes against their preferences. EXAMPLES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLGIES Action research Some researchers believe that action research is a re- search method, but in my opinion it is better under- stood as a methodology. In action research, the researcher works in close collaboration with a group of people to improve a situation in a particular setting. The researcher does not ‘do’ research ‘on’ people, but instead works with them, acting as a facilitator. There- fore, good group management skills and an under- standing of group dynamics are important skills for H O W T O D E C I D E U P O N A M E T H O D O L O G Y / 17 the researcher to acquire. This type of research is pop- ular in areas such as organisational management, com- munity development, education and agriculture. Action research begins with a process of communica- tion and agreement between people who want to change something together. Obviously, not all people within an organisation will be willing to become co-researchers, so action research tends to take place with a small group of dedicated people who are open to new ideas and willing to step back and reﬂect on these ideas. The group then moves through four stages of planning, acting, observing and reﬂecting. This process may hap- pen several times before everyone is happy that the changes have been implemented in the best possible way. In action research various types of research meth- od may be used, for example: the diagnosing and eval- uating stage questionnaires, interviews and focus groups may be used to gauge opinion on the proposed changes. Ethnography Ethnography has its roots in anthropology and was a popular form of inquiry at the turn of the century when anthropologists travelled the world in search of remote tribes. The emphasis in ethnography is on describing and interpreting cultural behaviour. Ethnographers im- merse themselves in the lives and culture of the group being studied, often living with that group for months on end. These researchers participate in a groups’ activ- ities whilst observing its behaviour, taking notes, con- ducting interviews, analysing, reﬂecting and writing 18 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S reports – this may be called ﬁeldwork or participant ob- servation. Ethnographers highlight the importance of the written text because this is how they portray the cul- ture they are studying. Feminist research There is some argument about whether feminist inquiry should be considered a methodology or epistemology, but in my opinion it can be both. (As we have seen, methodology is the philosophy or the general principle which will guide your research. Epistemology, on the other hand, is the study of the nature of knowledge and justiﬁcation. It looks at from where knowledge has come and how we know what we know.) Feminist researchers argue that for too long the lives and experi- ences of women have been ignored or misrepresented. Often, in the past, research was conducted on male ‘subjects’ and the results generalised to the whole popu- lation. Feminist researchers critique both the research topics and the methods used; especially those which em- phasise objective, scientiﬁc ‘truth’. With its emphasis on participative, qualitative inquiry, feminist research has provided a valuable alternative framework for research- ers who have felt uncomfortable with treating people as research ‘objects’. Under the umbrella of feminist re- search are various diﬀerent standpoints – these are dis- cussed in considerable depth in some of the texts listed at the end of this chapter. Grounded theory Grounded theory is a methodology which was ﬁrst laid out in 1967 by two researchers named Glaser and H O W T O D E C I D E U P O N A M E T H O D O L O G Y / 19 Strauss. It tends to be a popular form of inquiry in the areas of education and health research. The emphasis in this methodology is on the generation of theory which is grounded in the data – this means that it has emerged from the data. This is diﬀerent from other types of re- search which might seek to test a hypothesis that has been formulated by the researcher. In grounded theory, methods such as focus groups and interviews tend to be the preferred data collection method, along with a com- prehensive literature review which takes place through- out the data collection process. This literature review helps to explain emerging results. In grounded theory studies the number of people to be interviewed is not speciﬁed at the beginning of the re- search. This is because the researcher, at the outset, is unsure of where the research will take her. Instead, she continues with the data collection until ‘saturation’ point is reached, that is, no new information is being provided. Grounded theory is therefore ﬂexible and en- ables new issues to emerge that the researcher may not have thought about previously. So, how do you decide which is the best methodology for your research? Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to de- cide ﬁrst of all whether you should consider qualitative or quantitative research. Have another look at the ﬁve ‘Ws’ discussed in Chapter 1. If you have not already done so, go through each question in relation to your own research. Once you have done this, clues will start to emerge about what is the best form of inquiry for you. 20 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S First of all, have a look at the words you have used. Cer- tain words help to suggest a leaning towards qualitative research, others towards quantitative research. For exam- ple, if you have written ‘how many’, ‘test’, ‘verify’, ‘how often’ or ‘how satisﬁed’, this suggests a leaning towards quantitative research. If you have written words such as ‘discover’, ‘motivation’, ‘experiences’, ‘think/thoughts’, ‘problems’, or ‘behave/behaviour’, this suggests a leaning towards qualitative research. However, you may ﬁnd that you have written a combination of these words which could mean two things. Firstly, you might want to think about combining both qualitative and quantitative re- search, which is called triangulation. Many researchers be- lieve this is a good way of approaching research as it enables you to counteract the weaknesses in both qualita- tive and quantitative research. Secondly, it could mean that your ideas are still unclear and that you need to focus a little more. To help you understand the thought processes involved in these decisions, let’s return to the exercise given in the previous chapter: EXAMPLE 2: Revised statements Original statement 1: This research aims to ﬁnd out what people think about television. After having thought about how to focus her topic, make the project more manageable and produce a worthwhile piece of research, the researcher came up with the following revised statement: H O W T O D E C I D E U P O N A M E T H O D O L O G Y / 21 Revised Statement 1: This research aims to ﬁnd out what primary school teachers think about the educational value of ‘The Teletubbies’ television programme. This research topic is now well-focused. When the stu- dent suggested this research it was also very topical – The Teletubbies had been released only four weeks prior to the research and complaints about their language were ﬁlling the national media. The main clue to the methodology is the word ‘think’. The student wishes to get an in-depth opinion, but is not concerned with speaking to a large number of primary school teachers. This suggests a qualitative form of inquiry. Original statement 2: My project is to do some research into Alzheimer’s disease, to ﬁnd out what people do when their relatives have it and what support they can get and how nurses deal with it. This researcher decided to narrow down his topic. Also, he found out some more information about whether his research needed to go to a Research Ethics Committee by checking out the website www.corec.org.uk. This site gives details about the committees, a list of meeting dates, guidance notes and application forms for those researchers interested in putting forward a proposal. Revised statement 2: The aim of this research is to ﬁnd out how many relatives of Alzheimer’s patients use the Maple Day Centre, and to ascertain whether the ser- vice is meeting their needs. Again this topic is now much better focused. The research population is limited to relatives of Alzhei- mer’s patients who use the Maple Day Centre. One clue 22 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S to the methodology is in the words ‘how many’ which suggests a quantitative study. However, he is also inter- ested in ﬁnding out whether the service meets their needs, which requires some more in-depth inquiry. This suggests a combination of qualitative and quantitative inquiry. Original Statement 3: We want to ﬁnd out how many of the local residents are interested in a play scheme for chil- dren during the summer holiday. The tenants’ association thought carefully about the is- sues in which they were interested, eventually coming up with the following revised statement: Revised Statement 3: This research aims to ﬁnd out how many people from our estate are interested in, and would use, a children’s play scheme in the school summer holiday. Again, the clue in this example is ‘how many’. The tenants’ association wanted to obtain funding for their play scheme and felt that it was important to gather sta- tistics which they could take to possible funding organi- sations. This suggests a quantitative study. SUMMARY X The research methodology is the philosophy or general principle which guides the research. X Research methods are the tools you use to gather your data. X Qualitative research explores attitudes, behaviour and experiences. H O W T O D E C I D E U P O N A M E T H O D O L O G Y / 23 X Examples of qualitative methodologies include action research, ethnography, feminist research and grounded theory. X Quantitative research generates statistics through the use of large-scale survey research. X Neither qualitative nor quantitative research is better – they are just diﬀerent. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. X Your own intuition and the words you use will give pointers to whether qualitative or quantitative research is more appropriate for your chosen project. X The term ‘triangulation’ is used when a combination of qualitative and quantitative forms of inquiry are used. FURTHER READING The theoretical and philosophical issues raised in this chapter are detailed and complex and cannot be discussed in depth in this book. However, if you wish to pursue any of these topics, some of the useful publications are listed below under the relevant topics. Qualitative research Over recent years there has been a great deal of innova- tion in the use of qualitative methodologies. Listed below are some of the more traditional texts and a selection of the newer, innovative texts. Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (eds.) (2000) Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd edition, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Higgs, J., Armstrong, H. and Horsfall, D. (2001) Critical 24 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S Moments in Qualitative Research, Oxford: Butterworth- Heinemann. Hollway, W. and Jeﬀerson, T. (2000) Doing Qualitative Re- search Diﬀerently: Free Association, Narrative and the Interview Method, London: Sage. Schwandt, T. (1997) Qualitative Inquiry: A Dictionary of Terms, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Van Maanen, J. (ed.) (1983) Qualitative Methodology, Beverly Hells, CA: Sage. Quantitative research De Vaus, D.A. (1991) Surveys in Social Research, 3rd edi- tion, London: UCL Press. Fowler, F. (2001) Survey Research Methods, 3rd edition, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Marsh, C. (1982) The Survey Method: The Contribution of Surveys to Sociological Explanation, London: George Allen and Unwin. Sapsford, R. (1999) Survey Research, London: Sage. Action research Alvesson, M. and Sköldberg, K. (2000) Reﬂexive Metho- dology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Brooks, A. and Watkins, E. (eds.) (1994) The Emerging Power of Action Inquiry Technologies, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Dadds, M. and Hart, S. (eds.) (2001) Doing Practitioner Research Diﬀerently, London: Routledge Falmer. McNiﬀ, J. (2000) Action Research in Organisations, Lon- don: Routledge. Reason, P. and Bradbury H. (eds.) (2000) Handbook of H O W T O D E C I D E U P O N A M E T H O D O L O G Y / 25 Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Ethnography Atkinson, P. (1992) The Ethnographic Imagination, Lon- don: Routledge. Davies, C.A. (1999) Reﬂexive Ethnography: a guide to re- searching selves and others, London: Routledge. Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P. (1995) Ethnography: Principles in Practice, 2nd edition, London: Routledge. Thomas, J. (1993) Doing Critical Ethnography, Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Van Maanen, J. (1988) Tales of the Field: On Writing Eth- nography, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Wolcott, H.F. (1999) Ethnography: a way of seeing, Wal- nut Creek, CA: Altamira. Feminist research Alcoﬀ, L. and Potter, E. (eds.) (1993) Feminist Epistemol- ogies, London: Routledge. Fonow, M.M. and Cook, J.A. (eds.) (1991) Beyond Meth- odology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research, Bloo- mington: Indiana University Press. Harding, S. (ed.) (1987) Feminism and Methodology, Mil- ton Keynes: Open University Press. Harding, S. (1991) Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking From Women’s Lives, Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Stanley, L. and Wise, S. (1983) Breaking Out: Feminist Consciousness and Feminist Research, London: Routle- dge and Kegan Paul. Stanley, L. and Wise, S. (1993) Breaking Out Again: Fem- 26 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S inist Ontology and Epistemology, London: Routledge. Grounded theory Dey, I. (1998) Grounding Grounded Theory: Guidelines for Qualitative Inquiry, San Diego: Academic Press. Glaser, B. and Strauss, A. (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory, Chicago: Aldine. Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. (1990) Basics of Qualitative Re- search: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques, Newbury Park, CA: Sage. 3 How to ChooseYour Research Methods As we have seen in the previous chapter, research methods are the tools you use to collect your data. Before you de- cide which would be the most appropriate methods for your research, you need to ﬁnd out a little more about these tools. This chapter gives a description of the meth- ods of interviewing, focus groups, questionnaires and par- ticipant observation. Chapters 7–10 will go on to describe in detail how to use each of these methods. INTERVIEWING In social research there are many types of interview. The most common of these are unstructured, semi-structured and structured interviews. If you want to ﬁnd out about other types of interview, relevant references are given at the end of this chapter. Unstructured interviews Unstructured or in-depth interviews are sometimes called life history interviews. This is because they are the fa- voured approach for life history research. In this type of interview, the researcher attempts to achieve a holistic un- derstanding of the interviewees’ point of view or situation. For example, if you want to ﬁnd out about a Polish man’s experiences of a concentration camp during the war, 27 28 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S you’re delving into his life history. Because you are unsure of what has happened in his life, you want to enable him to talk freely and ask as few questions as possible. It is for this reason that this type of interview is called unstruc- tured – the participant is free to talk about what he or she deems important, with little directional inﬂuence from the researcher. This type of interview can only be used for qualitative research. As the researcher tries to ask as few questions as possible, people often assume that this type of interviewing is the easiest. However, this is not necessarily the case. Re- searchers have to be able to establish rapport with the par- ticipant – they have to be trusted if someone is to reveal intimate life information. This can be diﬃcult and takes tact, diplomacy and perseverance. Also, some people ﬁnd it very diﬃcult to remain quiet while another person talks, sometimes for hours on end. Researchers need to remain alert, recognising important information and probing for more detail. They need to know how to tactfully steer someone back from totally irrelevant digressions. Also, it is important to realise that unstructured interviewing can produce a great deal of data which can be diﬃcult to analyse. Semi-structured interviews Semi-structured interviewing is perhaps the most com- mon type of interview used in qualitative social research. In this type of interview, the researcher wants to know speciﬁc information which can be compared and con- trasted with information gained in other interviews. To do this, the same questions need to be asked in each inter- H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S / 29 view. However, the researcher also wants the interview to remain ﬂexible so that other important information can still arise. For this type of interview, the researcher produces an in- terview schedule (see Chapter 7). This may be a list of spe- ciﬁc questions or a list of topics to be discussed. This is taken to each interview to ensure continuity. In some re- search, such as a grounded theory study, the schedule is updated and revised after each interview to include more topics which have arisen as a result of the previous inter- view. Structured interviews Structured interviews are used frequently in market re- search. Have you ever been stopped in the street and asked about washing powder or which magazines you read? Or have you been invited into a hall to taste cider or smell washing-up liquid? The interviewer asks you a series of questions and ticks boxes with your response. This research method is highly structured – hence the name. Structured interviews are used in quantitative re- search and can be conducted face-to-face or over the tele- phone, sometimes with the aid of lap-top computers. FOCUS GROUPS Focus groups may be called discussion groups or group in- terviews. A number of people are asked to come together in a group to discuss a certain issue. For example, in mar- ket research this could be a discussion centred on new packaging for a breakfast cereal, or in social research this could be to discuss adults’ experiences of school. 30 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S The discussion is led by a moderator or facilitator who in- troduces the topic, asks speciﬁc questions, controls di- g ressions and stops break-away conversations. She makes sure that no one person dominates the discussion whilst trying to ensure that each of the participants makes a contribution. Focus groups may be video-recorded or tape-recorded. TABLE 1. THE FOCUS GROUP METHOD: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES Can receive a wide range of Some people may be responses during one meeting. uncomfortable in a group setting and nervous about speaking in front of others. Participants can ask questions of Not everyone may contribute. each other, lessoning impact of researcher bias. Helps people to remember issues Other people may contaminate they might otherwise have an individual’s views. forgotten. Helps participants to overcome Some researchers may ﬁnd it inhibitions, especially if they diﬃcult or intimidating to know other people in the group. moderate a focus group. The group eﬀect is a useful Venues and equipment can be resource in data analysis. expensive. Participant interaction is useful Diﬃcult to extract individual to analyse. views during the analysis. QUESTIONNAIRES There are three basic types of questionnaire – closed- ended, open-ended or a combination of both. H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S / 31 1. Closed-ended questionnaires Closed-ended questionnaires are probably the type with which you are most familiar. Most people have experience of lengthy consumer surveys which ask about your shop- ping habits and promise entry into a prize draw. This type of questionnaire is used to generate statistics in quantita- tive research. As these questionnaires follow a set format, and as most can be scanned straight into a computer for ease of analysis, greater numbers can be produced. 2. Open-ended questionnaires Open-ended questionnaires are used in qualitative re- search, although some researchers will quantify the an- swers during the analysis stage. The questionnaire does not contain boxes to tick, but instead leaves a blank sec- tion for the respondent to write in an answer. Whereas closed-ended questionnaires might be used to ﬁnd out how many people use a service, open-ended question- naires might be used to ﬁnd out what people think about a service. As there are no standard answers to these ques- tions, data analysis is more complex. Also, as it is opi- nions which are sought rather than numbers, fewer questionnaires need to be distributed. 3. Combination of both Many researchers tend to use a combination of both open and closed questions. That way, it is possible to ﬁnd out how many people use a service and what they think about that service on the same form. Many questionnaires begin with a series of closed questions, with boxes to tick or scales to rank, and then ﬁnish with a section of open- questions for more detailed response. 32 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S Recently, some market research companies have started to distribute their questionnaires via the internet. This suggests that soon there might be a new category of ques- tionnaire – the interactive questionnaire, which allows re- spondents to work with the researcher in both the development and completion of the questionnaire. PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION There are two main ways in which researchers observe – direct observation and participant observation. Direct ob- servation tends to be used in areas such as health and psy- chology. It involves the observation of a ‘subject ’ in a certain situation and often uses technology such as video cameras or one-way mirrors. For example, the interaction of mother, father and child in a specially prepared play room may be watched by psychologists through a one- way mirror in an attempt to understand more about fa- mily relationships. In participant observation, however, the researcher becomes much more involved in the lives of the people being observed. Participant observation can be viewed as both a method and a methodology (see Chapter 10). It is popular amongst anthropologists and sociologists who wish to study and understand another community, culture or con- text. They do this by immersing themselves within that culture. This may take months or years, as they need to build up a lasting and trusting relationship with those people being studied. Through participation within their chosen culture and through careful observation, they hope to gain a deeper understanding into the behaviour, motivation and attitudes of the people under study. H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S / 33 Participant observation, as a research method, received bad press when a number of researchers became covert participant observers; entering organisations and partici- pating in their activities without anyone knowing that they were conducting research (see Chapter 13). Overt participant observation, where everyone knows who the researcher is and what she is doing, however, can be a va- luable and rewarding method for qualitative inquiry. CHOOSING YOUR METHODS By now you should have thought quite seriously about your research methodology. This will help you to decide upon the most appropriate methods for your research. For example, if you’re leaning towards quantitative re- search, survey work in the form of a questionnaire or structured interviews may be appropriate. If you’re inter- ested in action research, it might be useful to ﬁnd out more about semi-structured interviewing or focus groups. In quantitative research you can deﬁne your research methods early in the planning stage. You know what you want to ﬁnd out and you can decide upon the best way to obtain the information. Also, you will be able to decide early on how many people you need to contact (see Chapter 5). However, in some types of qualitative re- search it may be diﬃcult to deﬁne your methods speciﬁ- cally. You may decide that semi-structured interviews would be useful, although you’re not sure, in the planning stages, how many you will need to conduct. You may ﬁnd also that you need to use other methods as the research progresses. Maybe you want to run a focus group to see what people think about the hypotheses you have gener- 34 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S ated from the interviews. Or perhaps you need to spend some time in the ﬁeld observing something which has aris- en during the interview stage. De¢ning needs and means It is not necessary to use only one research method, although many projects do this. A combination of meth- ods can be desirable as it enables you to overcome the dif- ferent weaknesses inherent in all methods. What you must be aware of, however, when deciding upon your methods, are the constraints under which you will have to work. What is your time scale? What is your budget? Are you the only researcher, or will you have others to help you? There’s no point deciding that a large scale, national post- al survey is the best way to do your research if you only have a budget of £50 and two months in which to com- plete your work. Also, you need to think about the purpose of your re- search as this will help point to the most appropriate methods to use. For example, if you want to describe in detail the experiences of a group of women trying to set up and run a charity, you wouldn’t send them a closed- ended questionnaire. Instead, you might ask to become involved and set up a piece of action research in which you can decide to use interviews and focus groups. Or you might decide to hold two semi-structured interviews with each of the women involved, one at the beginning of their project and one at the end. If your goal is detailed description, you do not need to try to contact as many people as possible. H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S / 35 Let us return to the three examples in the exercises given in the previous two chapters to ﬁnd out which would be the most appropriate methods for the research. EXAMPLE 3: APPROPRIATE METHODS Revised Statement 1: This research aims to ﬁnd out what primary school teachers think about the educational value of ‘The Teletubbies’ television programme. This researcher is interested in attitude and opinion. She thinks about running a series of semi-structured in- terviews with a small sample of primary school tea- chers. However, the researcher is concerned that some of the teachers may not have seen the programme and might be unable to comment, or might comment purely on ‘hearsay’. So she decides to gather together a group of teachers and show them one episode of The Teletub- bies. Then she discusses the programme with the tea- chers in a focus group setting. This method works well and the researcher decides to hold ﬁve more focus groups with other primary school teachers. Revised Statement 2: The aim of this research is to ﬁnd out how many relatives of Alzheimer’s patients use the Maple Day Centre, and to ascertain whether the ser- vice is meeting their needs. This researcher decides to produce a questionnaire with a combination of closed and open-ended ques- tions. The ﬁrst part of the questionnaire is designed to generate statistics and the second part asks people for a more in-depth opinion. He has approached mem- bers of staﬀ at the Maple Day Centre who are happy to 36 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S distribute his questionnaire over a period of one month. Revised Statement 3: This research aims to ﬁnd out how many people from our estate are interested in, and would use, a children’s play scheme in the school summer holi- day..Members of the tenants’ association approach the local school and ask the head teacher if a questionnaire could be distributed through the school. The head tea- cher feels that it is not appropriate so the tenants’ asso- ciation have to revise their plans. They’re worried that if they distribute a questionnaire through the post they won’t receive back many responses. Eventually, they de- cide to knock on each door on the estate and ask some simple, standard questions. They’re able to conduct this type of door-to-door, structured interview as they are a large group and are able to divide the work amongst everybody on the committee. If, at this stage, you are still unsure of the most appropri- ate methods for your research, read the following chapters as these explain in more detail how to go about using each method. This will give you more of an insight into what would be required of you if you were to choose that meth- od. As I stressed earlier, you need to think about your own personality, your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes. If you’re a nervous person who ﬁnds it diﬃcult to talk to strangers, face-to-face interviewing might not be the best method for you. If you love working with groups, you might like to ﬁnd out more about focus group re- search. If a particular culture has fascinated you for years and you know you could immerse yourself within that cul- H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S / 37 ture, perhaps participant observation would interest you. If you love number crunching or using statistical software, a closed-ended questionnaire may be the best method for you. Remember to think about choosing a method or meth- od(s) with which you are happy as this is important to keep your motivation levels high. SUMMARY X Research methods are the tools that are used to gather data. X Three types of interview are used in social research: – Unstructured or life history interviews. – Semi-structured interviews. – Structured interviews. X Interviews can be conducted face-to-face or over the telephone. X Focus groups are held with a number of people to ob- tain a group opinion. X Focus groups are run by a moderator who asks ques- tions and makes sure the discussion does not digress. X Questionnaires can be closed-ended, open-ended or a combination of both. X Participant observation is used when a researcher wants to immerse herself in a speciﬁc culture to gain a deeper understanding. X The chosen research methodology should help to indi- cate the most appropriate research tools. 38 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S X Research methods must be chosen within budget and time constraints. X The purpose of the research will provide an indicator to the most appropriate methods. X You should think about your personality, strengths and weakness, likes and dislikes when choosing re- search methods. FURTHER READING Balnaves, M. and Caputi, P. (2001) Introduction to Quan- titative Research Methods: An Investigative Approach, London: Sage. Bernard, H.R. (2000) Social Research Methods: Qualita- tive and Quantitative Approaches, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bryman, A. (2001) Social Research Methods, Oxford: Ox- ford University Press. Burgess, R.G. (1985) Issues in Educational Research: Qua- litative Methods, London: The Falmer Press. Burns, R.B. (2000) Introduction to Research Methods, 4th edition, London: Sage. Denscombe, M. (1998) The Good Research Guide: for small-scale social research projects, Buckingham: Open University Press. Eichler, M. (1988) Non-sexist Research Methods, Boston: Allen & Unwin. Fowler, F. (2001) Survey Research Methods, 3rd edition, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Mason, J (1996) Qualitative Researching, London: Sage. McNeill, P. (1990) Research Methods, 2nd edition, Lon- don: Routledge. H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S / 39 Nielson, J.M. (1990) Feminist Research Methods, Boulder: Westview Press. Robson, C. (1993) Real World Research, Oxford: Black- well. 4 How to Conduct Background Research Once you have decided upon a research project and you’re able to sum up your proposed research in one sentence, it’s time to start planning your project. The ﬁrst thing you need to do is your background research. This will help you to become more familiar with your topic and intro- duce you to any other research which will be of beneﬁt to you when you begin your own project. PRIMARY RESEARCH AND SECONDARY RESEARCH There are two types of background research – primary re- search and secondary research (see Table 2). Primary re- search involves the study of a subject through ﬁrsthand observation and investigation. This is what you will be doing with your main project, but you may also need to conduct primary research for your background work, especially if you’re unable to ﬁnd any previously pub- lished material about your topic. Primary research may come from your own observations or experience, or from the information you gather personally from other people, as the following example illustrates. 40 H O W T O C O N D U C T B A C K G R O U N D R E S E A R C H / 41 EXAMPLE 4: JENNY I was interested in looking at truancy in schools. The idea came about from my own personal experience as a teacher. I had noticed how some children didn’t ﬁt the classic description of a truant and I wanted to ﬁnd out more as I thought it might help me to deal with some of the problems children were experiencing. So I guess you’d say my own experience provided me with some initial data. Then I decided to go and have a dis- cussion with some of my colleagues and see if they’d noticed anything like me. It was really useful to do this because they helped me to think about other things I hadn’t even thought of. One of them told me about a new report which had just come out and it was useful for me to go and have a look at it as it raised some of the issues I was already thinking about. Actually this made me change the focus of my work a little because I soon found out that there had been a lot of work on one area of what I was doing, but not so much on another area. It was really useful to have done this before I rushed into my research as I think I might have wasted quite a bit of time. In the above example, Jenny mentions a recently pub- lished report which she has read. This is secondary re- search and it involves the collection of information from studies that other researchers have made of a subject. The two easiest and most accessible places to ﬁnd this informa- tion are libraries and the internet. However, you must re- 42 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S member that anybody can publish information over the internet and you should be aware that some of this infor- mation can be misleading or incorrect. Of course this is the case for any published information and as you develop your research skills so you should also develop your criti- cal thinking and reasoning skills. Do not believe every- thing you’re told. Think about the information you are being given. How was it collected? Were the methods sound? What motives did the publishers have for making sure their information had reached the public domain? Using web sites By developing these skills early in your work, you will start to think about your own research and any personal bias in your methods and reporting which may be present. The web sites of many universities now carry information about how to use the web carefully and sensibly for your research and it is worth accessing these before you begin your background work. When you’re surﬁng the net, there are some extra precau- tions you can take to check the reliability and quality of the information you have found: X Try to use websites run by organisations you know and trust. X Check the About Us section on the web page for more information about the creator and organisation. X Use another source, if possible, to check any informa- tion of which you are unsure. For example, if you’re interested in medical information you can check the H O W T O C O N D U C T B A C K G R O U N D R E S E A R C H / 43 credentials of UK doctors by phoning the General Medical Council. X Look for a stamp of approval such as the Which? logo which will appear on sites that have received the re- quired level of approval from Which? X You should check the national source of the data as in- formation may diﬀer between countries. X For some topics speciﬁc websites have been set up that contain details of questionable products, services and theories. For example, in medical research you could visit www.quackwatch.com, which contains non-recom- mended sources of health advice, questionable theories and details of money-making scams. Interlibrary loans If you are a student your institutional library will prob- ably oﬀer an interlibrary loan service which means that you can access books from other university libraries if they are not available in your library. A useful website is www.copac.ac.uk which provides free access to the on- line catalogues of 21 of the largest university research li- braries in the UK and Ireland. This is a useful service if, when referencing, you ﬁnd that a small amount of infor- mation is missing (see Example 5 below). EXAMPLE 5: GILLIAN Nobody told me the importance of keeping careful re- cords of my background research. I just thought it was something you did and then that was it, you got on with 44 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S your own research and forgot about what you’d done. Of course then I had to write my report and in the ‘background’ section I wanted to include loads of things I’d read when I ﬁrst started the work. I found my notes, but I didn’t know where they’d come from. It was so frustrating. Basically I had to start all over again. Even then I still forgot to write down the name and location of the publisher, so I had to go back to them again. My advice would be to look at how bibliographies are structured and imprint that in your brain so you don’t forget anything. Keeping records When you begin your background research, keep accurate records of what data was gathered from which source as this will save you plenty of time and frustration later, especially when you come to write your research proposal, or ﬁnal report. A useful way to organise your background research is to have two ﬁles – one for primary research and one for secondary research. Each ﬁle can be divided into topics with the relevant notes slotted into each. Primary research For the primary research ﬁle, notes from each contact can be separated by a contact sheet which gives the name of the person, the date and time you met and a contact num- ber or address. Secondary research In the secondary research ﬁle, each page of notes can be headed by details of the publication in the same format that will be used in the bibliography – author and initials; date of publication; title of publication; place of publica- H O W T O C O N D U C T B A C K G R O U N D R E S E A R C H / 45 tion and publisher. If it is a journal article, remember to include the name of the journal; the page numbers of the article and the volume and number of the journal. It is also useful to include the location of this publication so that it can be found easily if needed again (website or li- brary shelf location). TABLE 2: SOURCES OF BACKGROUND INFORMATION PRIMARY SECONDARY Relevant people Research books Researcher observation Research reports Researcher experience Journal articles Historical records/texts Articles reproduced online Company/organisation records Scientiﬁc debates Personal documents (diaries, etc) Critiques of literary works Statistical data Critiques of art Works of literature Analyses of historical events Works of art Film/video Laboratory experiments SUMMARY X There are two types of background research – primary and secondary research. X Primary research involves the study of a subject through ﬁrsthand observation and investigation. X Secondary research involves the collection of informa- tion from studies that other researchers have made of a subject. 46 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S X For most research, the easiest and quickest way to ac- cess secondary sources are libraries or the internet. X Any information obtained from secondary sources must be carefully assessed for its relevance and accu- racy. X Notes from primary and secondary sources should be carefully ﬁled and labelled so that the source can be found again, if required. X When noting details for books, reports or articles which may appear in the ﬁnal report, include all the details which would be needed for the bibliography. FURTHER READING Gash, S. (1999) Eﬀective Literature Searching for Re- search, 2nd edition, Aldershot: Gower. Hart, C. (2001) Doing a Literature Search, London: Sage. Spence, G. (2001) A Simple Guide to Internet Research, Harlow: Prentice Hall. 5 How to ChooseYour Participants As you continue planning your research project you need to think about how you’re going to choose your partici- pants. By now you should have decided what type of peo- ple you need to contact. For some research projects, there will be only a small number of people within your research population, in which case it might be possible to contact everyone. This is called a census. However, for most pro- jects, unless you have a huge budget, limitless timescale and large team of interviewers, it will be diﬃcult to speak to every person within your research population. SAMPLING Researchers overcome this problem by choosing a smaller, more manageable number of people to take part in their research. This is called sampling. In quantitative research, it is believed that if this sample is chosen carefully using the correct procedure, it is then possible to generalise the re- sults to the whole of the research population. For many qualitative researchers however, the ability to generalise their work to the whole research population is not the goal. Instead, they might seek to describe or explain what is hap- pening within a smaller group of people. This, they believe, might provide insights into the behaviour of the wider re- search population, but they accept that everyone is diﬀerent 47 48 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S and that if the research were to be conducted with another group of people the results might not be the same. Sampling procedures are used everyday. Market research- ers use them to ﬁnd out what the general population think about a new product or new advertisement. When they re- port that 87% of the population like the smell of a new brand of washing powder, they haven’t spoken to the whole population, but instead have contacted only a sam- ple of people which they believe are able to represent the whole population. When we hear that 42% of the popula- tion intend to vote Labour at the next General Election, only a sample of people have been asked about their voting intentions. If the sample has not been chosen very care- fully, the results of such surveys can be misleading. Imagine how misleading the results of a ‘national’ survey on voting habits would be if the interviews were conducted only in the leafy suburbs of an English southern city. Probability samples and purposive samples There are many diﬀerent ways to choose a sample, and the method used will depend upon the area of research, re- search methodology and preference of the researcher. Ba- sically there are two main types of sample: X probability samples X purposive samples. In probability samples, all people within the research po- pulation have a speciﬁable chance of being selected. These types of sample are used if the researcher wishes to ex- plain, predict or generalise to the whole research popula- tion. On the other hand, purposive samples are used if H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R P A R T I C I P A N T S / 49 description rather than generalisation is the goal. In this type of sample it is not possible to specify the possibility of one person being included in the sample. Within the probability and purposive categories there are several dif- ferent sampling methods. The best way to illustrate these sampling methods is to take one issue and show how the focus of the research and the methodology leads to the use of diﬀerent sam- pling methods. The area of research is ‘school detention’ and in Table 3 you can see that the focus and sampling techniques within this topic can be very diﬀerent, depend- ing on the preferences of the researcher, the purpose of the research and the available resources. SAMPLE SIZE The ﬁrst question new researchers tend to ask is ‘how many people should I speak to?’ This obviously depends on the type of research. For large scale, quantitative sur- veys you will need to contact many more people than you would for a small, qualitative piece of research. The sam- ple size will also depend on what you want to do with your results. If you intend to produce large amounts of cross tabulations, the more people you contact the better. It tends to be a general rule in quantitative research that the larger the sample the more accurate your results. However, you have to remember that you are probably re- stricted by time and money – you have to make sure that you construct a sample which will be manageable. Also, you have to account for non-response and you may need to choose a higher proportion of your research population 50 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S TABLE 3: SAMPLING TECHNIQUES PROBABILITY SAMPLES PURPOSIVE SAMPLES The researcher is interested in The researcher decides that he wants ﬁnding out about national detention to interview a sample of all pupils rates. He wants to make sure that within a school, regardless of whether every school in the country has an they have been on detention or not. equal chance of being chosen He decides to use a quota sample to because he hopes to be able to make make sure that all groups within the generalisations from his ﬁndings. He school are represented. He decides to decides to use a simple random interview a speciﬁed number of sample. Using this method the female and male school pupils, a researcher needs to obtain the name speciﬁed number of arts, sciences and of every school in the country. social science pupils and a speciﬁed Numbers are assigned to each name number within diﬀerent age and a random sample generated by categories. He continues approaching computer. He then sends a students and interviewing them until questionnaire to each of the selected his quota is complete. By using this schools. The researcher would have method only those pupils present at to make sure that he obtained the the same time and in the same place name of every school in the country as the researcher have a chance of for this method to work properly. being selected. The researcher wants to ﬁnd out The researcher is interested in about national detention rates, but is carrying out semi-structured interested also in ﬁnding out about interviews with pupils who have been school policy concerning detention. on detention over the past year. He decides that to do this he needs to However, he ﬁnds that the school has visit each selected school. To cut not kept accurate records of these down on travel costs, he decides to pupils. Also, he doesn’t want to use a cluster sample. Using this approach the school because he will method, geographical ‘clusters’ are be seen by the pupils as an authority chosen and a random sample of ﬁgure attached to the school. He schools from each cluster is decides that a snowball sample would generated using random number be the most appropriate method. He tables found at the back of some happens to know a pupil who has statistics books. Using this method been on detention recently and so the researcher only needs to travel to speaks to her, asking for names of schools within the selected other pupils who might be willing to geographical regions. The researcher talk to him. The researcher should would have to make sure that he obtain permission and have a chose his clusters very carefully, chaperone or guardian present at the especially as policy concerning interviews. He needs to be aware also detention might vary between that friends tend to recommend regions. friends, which could lead to sampling bias. H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R P A R T I C I P A N T S / 51 PROBABILITY SAMPLES PURPOSIVE SAMPLES The researcher has decided that he The researcher has heard of a local wishes to conduct a structured school which has very few detentions, interview with all the children who despite that school having a have been on detention within a year detention policy. He decides to ﬁnd at one school. With the head out why and visits the school to speak teacher’s permission, he obtains a to the head teacher. Many interesting list of all these pupils. He decides to points arise from the interview and use a quasi-random sample or the researcher decides to use a systematic sample. Using this method theoretical sampling technique. Using he chooses a random point on the this method the emerging theory list and then every third pupil is helps the researcher to choose the selected. The problem with this sample. For example, he might decide method is that it depends upon how to visit a school that has a high the list has been organised. If, for detention rate and a school that has example, the list has been organised no detention policy, all of which will alphabetically, the researcher needs help to explain diﬀering detention to be aware that some cultures and rates and attitudes towards them. nationalities may have family names Within this sampling procedure, he which start with the same letters. might choose to sample extreme cases This means that these children would which help to explain something, or be grouped together in the list and he might choose heterogeneous may, therefore, be underrepresented samples where there is a deliberate in the sample. strategy to select people who are alike in some relevant detail. Again the researcher has to be aware of sampling bias. The researcher has decided that he The researcher is a teacher himself wishes to concentrate on the and decides to interview colleagues, detention rates of pupils by GCSE as he has limited time and resources subject choice and so decides upon a available to him. This is a stratiﬁed random sample. Using this convenience sample. Also, at a method the researcher stratiﬁes his conference he unexpectedly gets to sample by subject area and then interview other teachers. This might chooses a random sample of pupils be termed haphazard or accidental from each subject area. However, if sampling. The ability to generalise he found that there were many more from this type of sample is not the pupils in the arts than the sciences, goal, and, as with other sampling he could decide to choose a procedures, the researcher has to be disproportionate stratiﬁed sample aware of bias which could enter the and increase the sample size of the process. However, the insider status science pupils to make sure that his of the teacher may help him to data are meaningful. The researcher obtain information or access which would have to plan this sample very might not be available to other carefully and would need accurate researchers. records of subjects and pupils. 52 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S TABLE 4: SAMPLING DOS AND DON’TS DO DON’T Take time and eﬀort to work Rush into your work out your sample correctly if without thinking very you’re conducting a large carefully about sampling scale survey. Read the issues. If you get it wrong it relevant literature suggested could invalidate your whole in this book. Time taken at research. the beginning will save much wasted time later. Discuss your proposed Ignore advice from those sampling procedure and size who know what they’re with your tutor, boss or talking about. other researchers. Be realistic about the size of Take on more than you can sample possible on your cope with. A badly worked budget and within your time out, large sample may not scale. produce as much useful data as a well-worked out, small sample. Be open and up front about Make claims which cannot your sample. What are your be justiﬁed nor generalised concerns? Could anything to the whole population. have been done diﬀerently? How might you improve upon your methods? Use a combination of Stick rigorously to a sampling procedures if it is sampling technique that is appropriate for your work. not working. Admit your mistakes, learn by them and change to something more appropriate H O W T O C H O O S E Y O U R P A R T I C I P A N T S / 53 as your sample to overcome this problem. If you’re inter- ested in large-scale quantitative research, statistical meth- ods can be used to choose the size of sample required for a given level of accuracy and the ability to make general- isations. These methods and procedures are described in the statistics books listed at the end of this chapter. If your research requires the use of purposive sampling techniques, it may be diﬃcult to specify at the beginning of your research how many people you intend to contact. Instead you continue using your chosen procedure such as snowballing or theoretical sampling until a ‘saturation point’ is reached. This was a term used by Glaser and Strauss (1967) to describe that time of your research when you really do think that everything is complete and that you’re not obtaining any new information by continuing. In your written report you can then describe your sam- pling procedure, including a description of how many people were contacted. SUMMARY X If it is not possible to contact everyone in the research population, researchers select a number of people to contact. This is called sampling. X There are two main types of sampling category – prob- ability samples and purposive samples. X In probability samples, all people within the research population have a speciﬁable chance of being selected. Only within random samples do participants have an equal chance of being selected. 54 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S X Purposive samples are used if generalisation is not the goal. X The size of sample will depend upon the type and pur- pose of the research. X Sample sizes should take into account issues of non-re- sponse. X Remember that with postal surveys it might be diﬃcult to control and know who has ﬁlled in a questionnaire. Will this aﬀect your sample? X In some purposive samples it is diﬃcult to specify at the beginning of the research how many people will be contacted. X It is possible to use a mixture of sampling techniques within one project which may help to overcome some of the disadvantages found within diﬀerent procedures. FURTHER READING Bryman, A. and Cramer, D. (1990) Quantitative Data Analysis for Social Scientists, London: Routledge. Clegg, F. (1989) Simple Statistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. De Vaus, D. (1991) Surveys in Social Research, 3rd edition, London: UCL Press. Henry, G. (1990) Practical Sampling, Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Huﬀ, D. (1994) How to Lie With Statistics, NY: Norton. Field, A. (2000) Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for Win- dows: Advanced Techniques for Beginners, London: Sage. Owen, F. and Jones, R. (1994) Statistics, 4th edition, Lon- don: Pitman. 6 How to Prepare a Research Proposal For most types of research you will need to produce a re- search proposal. This is a document which sets out your ideas in an easily accessible way. Even if you have not been asked speciﬁcally to produce a research proposal by your boss or tutor, it is a good idea to do so, as it helps you to focus your ideas and provides a useful document for you to reference, should your research wander oﬀ track a little. Before you start work on your research proposal, ﬁnd out whether you’re required to produce the document in a speciﬁc format. For college and university students, you might be given a general outline and a guide as to how many pages to produce. For those of you who are produ- cing a proposal to send to a funding organisation you might have to produce something much more speciﬁc. Many funding organisations provide their own forms for you to complete. Some provide advice and guidance about what they would like to see in your proposal. The larger funding bodies produce their proposal forms on-line so that they can be ﬁlled in and sent electronically, which makes the process a lot quicker and easier. 55 56 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S THE CONTENTS OF A PROPOSAL All research proposals should contain the following infor- mation: T|tle This should be short and explanatory. Background This section should contain a rationale for your research. Why are you undertaking the project? Why is the research needed? This rationale should be placed within the con- text of existing research or within your own experience and/or observation. You need to demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about and that you have knowl- edge of the literature surrounding this topic. If you’re un- able to ﬁnd any other research which deals speciﬁcally with your proposed project, you need to say so, illustrat- ing how your proposed research will ﬁll this gap. If there is other work which has covered this area, you need to show how your work will build on and add to the existing knowledge. Basically, you have to convince people that you know what you’re talking about and that the research is important. Aims and objectives Many research proposal formats will ask for only one or two aims and may not require objectives. However, for some research these will need to be broken down in more depth to also include the objectives (see Example 6). The aim is the overall driving force of the research and the ob- jectives are the means by which you intend to achieve the aims. These must be clear and succinct. H O W T O P R E P A R E A R E S E A R C H P R O P O S A L / 57 EXAMPLE 6: AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Aim To identify, describe and produce an analysis of the interact- ing factors which inﬂuence the learning choices of adult re- turners, and to develop associated theory. Objectives The research seeks to determine: 1. The nature, extent and eﬀect of psychological inﬂuences on choices, including a desire to achieve personal goals or meet individual needs. 2. The nature, extent and eﬀect of sociological inﬂuences on choices, including background, personal and social expecta- tions, previous educational experience and social role. 3. The nature and inﬂuence of individual perceptions of courses, institutions and subject, and how these relate to self-perception and concept of self. 4. The inﬂuence on choice of a number of variables such as age, gender, ethnicity and social class. 5. The role and possible inﬂuence of signiﬁcant others on choice, such as advice and guidance workers, peers, relatives and employers. 6. The nature and extent of possible inﬂuences on choice of available provision, institutional advertising and marketing. 7. The nature and extent of possible inﬂuences on choice of mode of study, teaching methods and type of course. 8. How and to what extent inﬂuencing factors change as adults re-enter and progress through their chosen route. 58 / P R A C T I C A L R E S E A R C H M E T H O D S Methodology/methods For research at postgraduate level you may need to split the methodology and methods section into two. However, for most projects they can be combined. In this section you need to describe your proposed research methodology and methods and justify their use. Why have you decided upon your methodology? Why have you decided to use those particular methods? Why are other methods not ap- propriate? This section needs to include details about samples, numbers of people to be contacted, method of data collection, methods of data analysis and ethical con- siderations. If you have chosen a less well known metho- dology, you may need to spend more time justifying your choice than you would need to if you had chosen a more traditional methodology. This section should be quite de- tailed – many funding organisations ﬁnd that the most common reason for proposal failure is the lack of metho- dological detail. T|metable A detailed timetable scheduling all aspects of the research should be produced. This will include time taken to con- duct background research, questionnaire or interview schedule development, data collection, data analysis and report writing (see Table 5). Research almost always takes longer than you anticipate. Allow for this and add a few extra weeks on to each section of your timetable. If you ﬁnish earlier than you anticipated, that’s ﬁne as you have more time to spend on your report. However, ﬁ

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