I attended a lecture this week at the University. Listening to Paula, Rosemary and Peter, alongside my fellow students, really enlightened me with regards to what I am trying to achieve with my research proposal.
I looked into several of my topics with Paula on a one-to-one basis. My final idea was surrounding the desire I have of setting up my own performing arts school in the future. I want to research how to set up a small business of this genre, and what elements make this successful?
We discussed the fact that I have an acquaintance who owns a similar business and whom would possibly allow me access to all areas. I discovered that the opportunity of an in-depth case study into one business would assist me in creating a mock business plan and also produce useful research for the owner of the business itself. I will need formal permission for the case study investigation, so must begin this immediately in order to confirm this as my final project proposal. I am excited to begin my research!
Definitions
I have approached the idea of a CASE STUDY so must now develop an understanding of this particular research methodology:
“A research methodology common in social science. It is based on an in-depth investigation of a single individual, group, or event to explore causation in order to find underlying principles. “(1)
“Case study research excels at bringing us to an understanding of a complex issue or object and can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous research. Case studies emphasize detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their relationships. Social scientists, in particular, have made wide use of this qualitative research method to examine contemporary real-life situations and provide the basis for the application of ideas and extension of methods.
Researcher Robert K. Yin defines the case study research method as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used (Yin, 1984, p. 23).”(2)
I can see that a case study most often employs qualitative data collection techniques, therefore I need to understand the difference between this and a quantitative research design;
Qualitative: Is concerned with the examination, analysis and interpretation of information, for the purpose of discovering underlying meanings and patterns, in a manner that does not involve mathematical models.
“Qualitative researchers attempt to make sense of, or provide an interpretation of, observed phenomena relative to meanings attributed to these phenomena by individuals involved in specific incidents or situations. Thus, qualitative researchers spend a lot of time in the field, working closely with research participants in their natural surroundings. The qualitative researcher and the research participant work together to document and develop interpretations of events or situations relative to a specific research question.”(3)
After collecting such research, I would hope to gain insight on the participant’s feelings and emotions. It should produce data in the form of descriptions, stories, emotions, beliefs, explanations and attitudes. I am led to believe that this kind of insight is what is known as a predominantly ‘feminist perspective’ on research.
Feminist Perspective: seeks to value the methods of qualitative data collection and analysis.
“This feminist perspective approach to research will promote ties with human purposes and values.”(4)
This is important as the conventional methods often used with data collection are majorly the product of a male-orientated research network. One of the main characteristics of this is; the preoccupation with quantifying variables.
Quantitative: Refers to the systematic empirical investigation of data in numeric form.
This sort of data involves interviewing people in order to quantify the relationship, producing numerical data, percentages, charts, graphs and statistics.
Things I must do now:
-Write a formal letter of consent to carry out a case study on the school in question.
-Complete activity one- Glossary of terms
-Focus on how to approach my topic
I looked into several of my topics with Paula on a one-to-one basis. My final idea was surrounding the desire I have of setting up my own performing arts school in the future. I want to research how to set up a small business of this genre, and what elements make this successful?
We discussed the fact that I have an acquaintance who owns a similar business and whom would possibly allow me access to all areas. I discovered that the opportunity of an in-depth case study into one business would assist me in creating a mock business plan and also produce useful research for the owner of the business itself. I will need formal permission for the case study investigation, so must begin this immediately in order to confirm this as my final project proposal. I am excited to begin my research!
Definitions
I have approached the idea of a CASE STUDY so must now develop an understanding of this particular research methodology:
“A research methodology common in social science. It is based on an in-depth investigation of a single individual, group, or event to explore causation in order to find underlying principles. “(1)
“Case study research excels at bringing us to an understanding of a complex issue or object and can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous research. Case studies emphasize detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their relationships. Social scientists, in particular, have made wide use of this qualitative research method to examine contemporary real-life situations and provide the basis for the application of ideas and extension of methods.
Researcher Robert K. Yin defines the case study research method as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used (Yin, 1984, p. 23).”(2)
I can see that a case study most often employs qualitative data collection techniques, therefore I need to understand the difference between this and a quantitative research design;
Qualitative: Is concerned with the examination, analysis and interpretation of information, for the purpose of discovering underlying meanings and patterns, in a manner that does not involve mathematical models.
“Qualitative researchers attempt to make sense of, or provide an interpretation of, observed phenomena relative to meanings attributed to these phenomena by individuals involved in specific incidents or situations. Thus, qualitative researchers spend a lot of time in the field, working closely with research participants in their natural surroundings. The qualitative researcher and the research participant work together to document and develop interpretations of events or situations relative to a specific research question.”(3)
After collecting such research, I would hope to gain insight on the participant’s feelings and emotions. It should produce data in the form of descriptions, stories, emotions, beliefs, explanations and attitudes. I am led to believe that this kind of insight is what is known as a predominantly ‘feminist perspective’ on research.
Feminist Perspective: seeks to value the methods of qualitative data collection and analysis.
“This feminist perspective approach to research will promote ties with human purposes and values.”(4)
This is important as the conventional methods often used with data collection are majorly the product of a male-orientated research network. One of the main characteristics of this is; the preoccupation with quantifying variables.
Quantitative: Refers to the systematic empirical investigation of data in numeric form.
This sort of data involves interviewing people in order to quantify the relationship, producing numerical data, percentages, charts, graphs and statistics.
Things I must do now:
-Write a formal letter of consent to carry out a case study on the school in question.
-Complete activity one- Glossary of terms
-Focus on how to approach my topic
References
1. Wikipedia.com. 2010. Wikipedia: case study (Online) Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_study (Accessed 22nd April 2010).
2. ischool.com. 2010. The case study as a research method (Online) Available at http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~ssoy/usesusers/l391d1b.htm (Accessed 22nd April 2010).
3. itools,com. 2010. Qualitative research perspective (Online) Available at http://epress.anu.edu.au/info_systems/mobile_devices/ch04s02.html (Accessed 24th April 2010).
4. eric.ed.gov. 2010. The feminist perspective (Online) Available at http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/14/d4/3c.pdf (Accessed 24th April 2010)
No comments:
Post a Comment