Sources of Research topics:

Personal values,
Community priorities
Department’s practices
Societal issues and concerns
Politics, education, economy

Stating the Problem

Introduction Rationale
Background
Why it is worth doing

Provides the readers with the background of information for the

research
Ascertain the framework (how it is related to other researches)

From general statement of the problem, with a focus on specific

research problem, then followed by the justification

Maximum of four pages, it should answer:

What are you doing?
Why are you doing it?

Lay the extensive foundation for the problem that leads to the study
Place the study within the larger context of the scholarly literature

Background of information- the researcher’s theoretical interests that

generated the research, justification in the theoretical developments,
the researcher should tell about the influences, which shape his
research, his analysis that led him to assumptions why the problem is
significant, whose point of view the problem is significant

A lot depends on your creativity

Also, provide brief but appropriate historical backdrop, then provide

the contemporary context in which your research question occupies
the central stage
Refer always to key players – most relevant and representative
publications.
Theoretical Underlying beliefs that helped inform the research.
Framework A theory is a perspective, or point of view, also known as paradigm.
Is underpinned by several theoretical perspectives:
Constructivist-interpretive, Critical, Post-constructivist, post-
structural/ postmodern, feminist (Liamputtong, 2013)
Constructivist-interpretive – understanding the human world of
experience relying on the participants’ view of the situation. It helps
explore practical concerns of everyday living, examining the way
people develop interpretations of their life
For Creswell (2007), constructivism - They develop subjective
meanings of their experiences. These meanings are varied and
multiple, leading the researcher to look for the complexity of views
rather than narrow the meanings into a few categories or ideas. The
questions become broad and general so that the participants can
construct the meaning of a situation
Critical – interested in the social construction of experience,
particularly inequality and social justice, empowering change
(Borbasi & Jackson, 2012)
Post-positivist – understand people through lived experience
For Creswell (2007), post-positivist - The approach has the elements
of being reductionistic, logical, an emphasis on empirical data
collection, cause-and-effect oriented, and deterministic. It
encourages the use of validity approaches.
Post structural/ Postmodern studies – concerned with everyday
life with concepts such as culture, gender, power, and oppression
For Creswell (2007), Postmodern Perspective - The basic concept
is that knowledge claims must be set within the conditions of the
world today and in the multiple perspective of class, race, gender,
and other groups.He condition includes the importance of different
discourse, importance of marginalized people and groups.
Fir Creswell (2007) - Advocacy/ participatory - The research
should contain an action agenda for reform that may change the lives
of the participants.The issues facing these marginalized groups are
oppression, domination, suppression, alienation, and hegemony.
Need for empowerment.
For Creswell (2007), Pragmatism - Focus on the outcomes of the
research―the actions, situations, and consequences of the inquiry.
Feminism – concerned with women’s issues
For Creswell (2007) , Feminist Theories - It centers on problematic
women’s diverse situation and the institutions that frame that
situation.

Creswell (2007):
Critical Theory - Central themes include social institutions and
their transformations through interpreting the meaning of social life,
the historical problems of domination, alienation, and social
struggles; and critique of society and the envisioning of new
possibilities.
Critical Race Theory - Focuses on rhetorical attention on race and
how racism is deeply embedded within the framework of American
society.
 Queer Theory - Relates to strategies relating to individual identity.
It explores the myriad complexities of the constructs, identity, and
how identities reproduced and perform in social forums.
Disablitity Theories - Addresses the meaning of inclusion in
schools and encompasses administrators, teachers, and parents who
have children with disabilities.
Statement of the General and specific research problem
Problem Is referred as the purpose of the study

Specific and accurate synopsis of the overall purpose of the study

Begins with: The purpose of this study . . .
Must be vividly and explicitly expressed in question form
Describe the context for the study
Identifies the general analysis approach

A problem statement should be presented within a context.

The context should be provided in the Theoretical Framework
Theoretical Framework is of major importance and requires careful
attention, so the issue is how you theorize or conceptualize the
problem.

Framing a question is not always easy; you need to ask yourself

whether your research question is really a question to be asked or
answered.
Scope and Boundaries to provide clear focus
Delimitation
Includes study area, the participants, research instruments, research
issues and concerns
Duration, constrains

For the scope

How the study is narrowed or bounded
Explain what you are not doing and why you have chosen not to do
them
Explain why a particular literature will not be reviewed, the
population you are not studying, the methodologies you will not use.
Explain to the things that the reader expects you to do
Also include the time frame

For the delimitation

Identifies the specific areas, instruments used, and sample of
respondents

Significance of Benefits
the study Beneficiaries

Convince that the study has significant benefits and contributions in

relations to solving social problem, business operation, bringing a
knowledge gap, improving economic and health conditions,
enriching research instruments and methods, and government thrust.

Potential audience: practitioners in the field, professional peers,

school administrators, teachers, parents, and students.
Definition of Ways of defining: Conceptual (dictionary) or operational (observed
Terms characteristics and how it is used in the study). Be arranged in
alphabetical order.
List major terms, particularly having different meaning to different
people
Emphasis should be placed on operational or behavioral definitions
Review of Related The purposes of literature review (Bourner, 1996)
Literature  To identify gaps in the literature
 To avoid “reinventing the wheel”
 To carry on from where others have already reached
(reviewing the field allows you to build on existing
knowledge and ideas)
 To identify other people working in the same fields the same
fields ( a researcher network is a valuable resource)
 To increase your breadth of knowledge of your subject area
 To provide the intellectual context for your own work,
enabling you to position your project relative to other work
 To identify opposing views
 To put your work into perspective
 To identify information and ideas relevant to your project
 To identify methods that could be relevant to your project
The Functions of literature review (Bueno,
2016)
 Convinces your reader that your research will make a
significant and substantial contribution to the literature
 Demonstrate your knowledge of the research problem
 Demonstrate your understanding of the theoretical and
research issues related to your research question
 Ensure that you are not “reinventing the wheel”
 Gives credit to those who have laid the groundwork for your
research
 Indicates your ability to integrate and synthesize the existing
literature
 Provides new theoretical insights or develop a new model as
the conceptual framework for your research
 Shows your ability to critically evaluate relevant literature
information
 Most students literature reviews suffer from the
following problems (Bueno, 2o16)
 Being repetitive and verbose
 Citing irrelevant or trivial references
 Depending too much on secondary sources
 Failing to cite influential papers
 Failing to critically evaluate cited papers
 Lacking focus, unity and coherence
 Lacking organization and structure

Research methodology
- Inductive reasoning or ‘bottom up’ , from specific to general

Includes: research design, respondents, instruments, validation of the instruments, data gathering
procedure, and treatment of the data

Research design
Phenomenolo Seeks to identify the single, invariant essence of the lived experience.
gy Thus is how participants make sense of their experiences.

Involve bracketing, evade pre-conceived notion. Transparent in any biases

Has 5-25 participants
Ethnography Holistic, involves observation and careful recording of events, and social
interactions, i.e., ‘portrait of people’, describe groups of behavior and
interactions, the researcher participate,

E.g., (in health) learning about culture will help understand the state of
patient care, the culture which prevails in the hospital ward, in the way the
staff habitually carry out their roles, may contribute errors that affect
patients safety.

It helps elucidates situation

Grounded It is phenomenological (participants makes sense of their experiences) but
theory it goes beyond phenomenology because the explanation that emerge are
used to develop new theories. In health, theories enabling us to approach
health promotion or provision of care. E.g., theory of grief process,
characterized by responses: denial, anger, acceptance, and resolution.
 New knowledge derived from the grounded theory, to understand the
experience of bereavement, and to help the bereaved to come to terms
with their loss.

Key features:
Its focus on emergence.
Data analysis should occur at the same time as data collection to allow
researchers to refine the research questions and data collection procedures
Constant comparative method- interview statements are coded,
categorized, and group to develop a theory.
Historical e.g., Historical origins of the content and processes of the current
method programs. (data are document sand eye-witnesses)
Case Study Studying single or several persons
e.g., a case study on the development of new service such as hospital
discharge, evaluation of a particular care approach (outreach teenage
health service as alternative teenage clinics) might be evaluated in terms
of impact to teenagers

(data collection: interviews, observation, and collection of archival

materials)

Criticism – may not be representative of similar cases, therefore the results

are not generalizable
Narrative Not by themes, but by sequential unfolding of someone’s story.
Individualized
It is written as a story
Participants Purposeful sampling (non-random method), select ‘information-rich’
in the study
1. Sampling strategy determined in advance – drawing a chart,
identify criteria, make a criterion/ quota, that is who get “tick”
against each characteristics.
2. Homogenous sample- have similar experiences
3. Convenience sample – those who are available
4. Typical case- select who have characteristics that fit to typical case
5. Critical case- having position very important to the case
6. Maximum variation – participants based on diverse variations
7. Intensity sampling- sample the same characteristics over and over.
8. Snowball- by referral, then recruit another
9. Politically important sample – who are knowledge that would
create wide interest
Data sources Literature reviews (for History, Narrative, Case Study), interviews,
questionnaires, participant observation, group discussion, and observation
Interviews Use planned core questions, then open-ended informal interview
techniques (not fixed-response questionnaires or surveys), participants are
encouraged to talk about experiences and feelings, the interviewer be a
good listener, so don’t talk), one-time interviews, multiple interviews to
 one and multiple participants,

1. Unstructured interviews- pose open-ended question, allows the

interviewee express his opinion
2. Structured interview- used predetermined questions, short and
clearly worded, the questions are closed, requires precise answers.
3. Partially structured – closed and open questions
4. Totally structured- questions, order, and coding are predetermined,
so that the phrasing of responses is structured.
5. Focus-group interviews- less structured, conducted after individual
interviews.
Interview is superior, people prefer to talk
Guidelines for 1. Listen more, talk less
interviewing 2. Follow-up on what participants say and ask questions when you
don’t understand
3. Avoid leading questions, ask open-ended
4. Don’t interrupt, learn to wait
5. Keep participants focused
6. Tolerate silence
7. Not judgmental to their beliefs
8. Don’t debate
Pilot the Be piloted to test how long it takes to complete then, to check that all
questionnaire questions and instructions are clear, and to remove any items which do
not yield usable data
Focus group 1-2 hours, 6-8 ideal size, participants alike, , sub-groups if there are
differences, general rule is keep group homogenous in terms of prestige
and status
Type of 1. Background – locate people in relation to other people
questions 2. Transition- move to key questions, to elicit descriptions of
behavior (experience) , knowledge (factual information),
3. Key – to find what people think (opinion, value), feeling- to
understand emotional response
4. Ending- bring closure
Asking Memorize the questions
questions Start with general questions
Ask in natural progression
3-5 broad questions in a focus group
Facilitator have question in mind, but not to dominate the group
Before going to the next questions, the facilitator summarizes to check out
the accuracy
Pause- learn to be silent longer
Probe- use sparingly, explain further, provide an example.
Guidelines for Do not explore too many topics
focus group Limit discussions to 2-5 questions
Avoid why questions
Use structured guide (topical guide)
 Build prior team consensus
Word questions in familiar language, use words that make sense to the
participants
Standardized strategies- sentence completion, conceptual mapping
Serendipitous questions at the end
Some skills as Timing
facilitators Curiosity for the topic
Respect
General background knowledge
Ability to communicate clearly
Ability to listen
Low level of facilitator involvement
Not lead the discussion
Field notes Written description of people, events, objects, and places, activities, and
conversations. These supplement information from the official documents
and interviews.
Recording Reduce taking field notes
Comprehensive

Disadvantage: participants become more sensitive

Data analysis Inductive process, examining words, descriptions and processes. Inductive
used to sort the data

Coding data- organizing into categories on the basis of themes, patterns,

concepts, similar features

Open coding – perusing the data and noting themes

Second sweep of data- second time searching
Sorting data into categories- once all themes are identified, the final step is
to sort your data into categories.
The themes and patterns are the answers to your questions. They are
your findings. The specific words, phrases, statements and
observations are the data to support your findings.
Transcribing Producing written version of an interview or conversation (verbatim)
the data
Using N6, NVivo
qualitative
software
Without Refer to a website hosted by Huddersfield University in which Nigel King
Qualitative describes using spreadsheets to help organize qualitative analysis.
software
Research Triangulation- Multiple methods and measures of an empirical
evaluation phenomenon in order to overcome problems of bias and validity (Balikie,
2000)
(validity and - Using multiple sources of data or techniques to confirm emerging
reliability) findings.
 - Is used to compare data to decide if it corroborates (Creswell,
2003)
Audit trail- documentation and maintenance of records to allow others to
verify the description.

Recent important consideration in research

Industrial Revolutions