1. Irena Andrews (Programme Leader)
Andy Davies
Keith Turvey (Course Leader)
Richard Wallis
MA Education (Teaching Leaders)
KV712 Research Contexts
Professional Enquiry 2013/14

2. Constructing knowledge
Masters level research aims to produce
warrantable knowledge
• It can inform theory, policy and practice
• We aim not only to find out, but also to
convince others
• Frameworks guide and shape our inquiry
• Research does not take place in a vacuum
• A community of scholars who share similar
conceptions of proper questions, methods,
techniques and forms of explanations

3. Paradigm
• the word that describes the community of
scholars and the conception of problem
and method they share (Schulman, 1986;
Sparkes, 1998:11)
• Paradigms provide particular sets of
lenses for seeing the world and making
sense of it in different ways (Sparkes, 1992:12)
• Paradigms are basic belief systems that
represent the most fundamental positions
we are willing to take (Guba and Lincoln, 1998:24)
• A set of assumptions which a group of
scientists or other theorists share, and
which form a basis for their investigations
(Kuhn, 1962, 1970 in Swann and Pratt, 2003:207)

4. 3 elements of a paradigm
(Guba and Lincoln, 1998, p.201 - 220)
• Ontology: What is the form and
nature of reality/truth?
• Epistemology: What is the nature of
the relationship between the knower
(you) and what can be known
(knowledge)?
• Methodology: How can the enquirer
find out what s/he believes can be
known?

5. Quantitative Research
• Views social world as hard and
objective and similar to the natural world
• Assumes that clear cause and effect
relationships can be established while
scrutinising human behaviour
• Knowledge of the social world is
discovered in the same way as
scientists discover knowledge about the
physical world
• Knowledge is gained only through our
senses
• Facts are substantiated scientifically or
by a large number of people

6. Qualitative Research
• Based on the premise that the social
world is different from the natural world
and what we see is not necessarily the
truth
• Cause and effect statements cannot
always be made to explain events
• Social reality is created by human
experience rather than discovered
• Aims to describe views, perceptions
and events scientifically to explain
phenomena

7. Mixed Research approaches
• Recognises multiple influences
• Takes a pragmatic approach
• Collects different types of data
simultaneously or sequentially
to best understand research
problems

8. Influences on the research process
Adapted from Newby 2010 p 32
Philosophy Paradigms
Educational
theory
Research
process
Methodology Methods
Research
question

9. In groups discuss
What type of researcher am I and how can I
articulate this in the light of philosophy, values
and paradigms?
What type of researcher am I and how might
that affect my choice of methodology and
hence the sort of research I might do?
Why?

10. Common research models
in teacher research
What is:
• Action research?
•Case study?
•Evaluation?
What type of outcomes might you
expect in each case?

11. Action Research
Research and action together
• change to practices occurs
within the research project;
• the research process has
discrete cycles;
• literature reading is cyclical;
• knowledge claimed from a
singularity, generalisability is
fuzzy

12. Case Study and Evaluation
•change to practices emerge
after the research project;
•research process is linear;
•literature reading provides
context for analysis;
•knowledge claimed from a
singularity, generalisability is
fuzzy

13. Survey
• change to practices emerge after the
research project;
• practices drawn from the quantitative
paradigm;
• research process is linear;
• literature reading is context for
analysis;
• knowledge claimed is generalisable to
a defined population.

14. Experimental research
• Aims to show relationship between cause and
effect – eg effect of TA’s on reading ability
• Groups need to be matched for age, gender,
social class, ethnicity etc
• True experiment: a laboratory setting.
Variables isolated, controlled and manipulated
Quasi-experiment: a natural setting. Variables
isolated, controlled and manipulated. –
Difficult to match groups and achieve
corresponding features between groups in a
natural setting

15. Intended Research
Outcomes
Some associated
approaches
Some examples of
questions
Changes in practice –
How can…?
How has…?
Action research
Evaluative case
studies
How can we improve
teaching
How effective was ….
Data gathered and
analysed – Statements
of what is the case
Surveys:
Questionnaires and
Interviews (descriptive
analysis)
Ethnographic studies
(illustrative narrative)
What do teachers think
about the role of ICT in
the curriculum?
New explanations –
explanatory theories of
what is the case
Experimental/quasi-
experimental research
(Hypothesis testing)
Ethnographic studies
Surveys – open ended
and semi structured
interviews
Why are teachers
responding in this way
to this particular
initiative?

16. Data Collection tools
•Questionnaires
•Interviews
•Focus Groups
•Observation
•Documentary evidence

17. Documentary evidence
• Source – is it current? Reliable? Accurate?
• Where did it come from and who is it for?
• How might interpretations of different
recipients (parents/pupils /teachers/ policy
makers) vary?
• What implicit values, ideologies or
assumptions about the social/political/
educational context are present?
• What alternative discourses exist?

18. The place of the researcher
• Detached observer: ‘One way mirror’
looking in from the outside
• Observer who balances
participation with detachment;
closeness with distance; familiarity
with strangeness
• Complete participant: Complete
participation, lives with the
respondents

19. 6 important focussing questions
1. What is the nature of the phenomenon or
process or social reality that I wish to
investigate?
2. What will count as evidence?
3. What broad area is the research concerned
with?
4. What is the intellectual puzzle?
5. What do I want to get out of it?
6. What do I want to be able to say?
(after Mason, J. (1996) Qualitative Researching
London: Sage Publications

20. An intellectual puzzle?
• Research is not a report, or a quick fix solution
• Research is grounded in and informed by
theory
• Theory is concerned with the systematic
construction of knowledge
• It can explain phenomena
• Enlighten about what is already known and how
that knowledge has been constructed
• Research based in a theoretical framework can
help us to formulate questions and tell us how
to proceed or indeed how not to proceed

21. Discuss
How can the two activities complement each other
Where are the potential tensions?
How might you plan to address this?
Think about your Impact Initiative in the light of a masters
level research study

22. Frames for research questions
Research
questions
What
Context
Community of practice
You and positions
Concerns for whom and
why
Meanings/
frameworks
Data?
Ethics?
Feasible – time &
resources
What/when/how?
Fit? Enquire
into
what?
Researchable?

23. Concepts: What are the main concepts in your
research thinking? How will you describe them?
Issues:Draw a map indicating the key ideas of
debate and contestation that are relevant to your
particular concerns.
Contexts: Draw up a genealogy of the key
thinkers in your research area to indicate the
development of theories, perspectives or
methods
From: Blaxter et al (2001) How to Research
Buckingham: Open University Press
Getting started – individually start to
identify the following: