In this episode we dive into the intricate facets of research design, from paradigms and theories to methodologies and methods, enriching our understanding of these important concepts as we journey through the academic labyrinth that is research design.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Well, hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of our podcast lecture series. As you know, I'm your host doctor Siomonn Pulla, and I'm hoping you're having a wonderful day wherever you're listening from today.

In last week's episode and in the unit resources, we took a deep dive into the intricate facets of research design, from paradigms and theories to methodologies and methods.  Today I'd like to pick up from where we left off, enriching our understanding of these important concepts as we journey through the academic labyrinth that is research design. So let's get going. 

As Maguire elucidates in Chapter 6, your paradigm is your lens for viewing reality. Your methodology steers the methods and data sources you'll use, and your methods are the practical tools for gathering and analyzing data. Keeping these definitions in mind can help you establish a strong foundation for your research.  But let's not forget the human element here: personal and professional integrity. This integrity, along with the idea of reflexivity, is absolutely foundational to creating meaningful and impactful research projects, and this is something I'm going to get into a little bit deeper in the last episode of this series when we look at the question of deep ethics. 

So, as I mentioned in our last episode, I also want you to begin considering the dissertation format that you're going to use, because this is how you'll be mobilizing your research and thinking about format also introduces a real, tangible element that can help you to start grounding your research into a space and format of what's really doable in two years. 

McGuire also reminds us that reliability, accountability, validity, credibility and responsibility in qualitative research are predicated on the ability of the researcher to research themselves as part of the context in which the research is located. And this is especially crucial when we move away from our tendencies to represent ourselves through simple binaries to embrace the idea of complexity.  Locating ourselves in this messiness of of the “gray zones” of, of who we are, and all of these multiple selves can provide a much needed point or anchor from which we can begin to navigate, engage, and contribute to the emergent and messy complexity of our 21st century.  To truly embrace your research design, I highly recommend using the table 6.2 in your text as a reflection exercise. See what questions resonate with you, and feel free to share any insights you may have in our course forums.

Now let's talk about the concept of the research problem, which I prefer to see as the research context. This is where you fit your work into broader areas of inquiry paradigms, theories, and practice based experiences. So what gaps are you aiming to fill? The idea of the research problem can also be framed by the concept of research goals. What do you hope to learn from the research? What are your motivations for doing the research and similar kinds of exploratory questions? Miriam and Tisdale give us the wonderful metaphor of a funnel to help us develop our research questions. It's a great way to narrow down your broad context into specific goals and questions. Well have a little play with that exercise and see what happens. 

The authors also discuss the importance of theoretical and conceptual frameworks as part of your research design. This is a good review of what you learned in SOC 710, the theoretical frameworks you opt for serve as a thread that ties all parts of your research design together. These frameworks guide how you'll view, gather, and eventually analyze your data. 

Well, before we wrap up this episode let's touch on the literature review. This serves as both the broad context and specific content related to your study. Sometimes the literature itself can be the data for your study and this is what we would call a meta-analysis as a methodology.  That chapter also introduces the concept of probability and non-probability sampling. Most of you will be using the latter and probably some mix of purposive. So there's a lot of rich nuts and bolts types of material in this Miriam Tisdale chapter that you'll you'll probably find very useful.  So I want you to consider this chapter really carefully.

Remember, your research samples are one of the most important aspects of your research design. Without a research sample. Without research participants, you really don't have a research project. So remember that. 

I've really been enjoying our rich discussions in the forum and I'm going to dig into your assignment submissions this week. You'll be receiving my feedback as soon as possible and remember these forums in our monthly virtual meetings are here to foster a vibrant learning community. 

Well, if you have any questions or need to consult with me, remember, I'm just a call, zoom or form post away!  Thank you for joining me on this episode. Stay curious, stay engaged and I'll catch you on the next episode.