Research Methods

OVERVIEW

This course introduces students to the process of “traditional” and “community-engaged” research. Students will learn about the characteristics of specific research designs and methodologies. The course serves as a foundation and prerequisite to the Capstone Project course. This course will provide an overview of research methods and practices that are used in community contexts. It will consider how to approach research with communities, by communities, for communities. The course raises questions regarding the role of researchers and research within a community setting, and ethical and professional issues relevant to entering a community and gaining community approval for research. This course will help familiarize students with the kinds of research that take place within community settings and ways in which community members can be involved in different phases of research including planning, implementation, and analysis.

KEY LINKS

Community Engagement Graduate Student Work @ Merrimack College's ScholarWorks site
Merrimack College's IRB Home Page & Submission Portal

READINGS

Session 1 – September 7

Pre-Reading: Dan Butin. (2010). The Education Dissertation: A Guide for Practitioner Scholars. Corwin. Chapters 2-6.

Session 2 – September 14

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications. Chapter 1.
Maxwell, J. A. (2008). Designing a qualitative study. The SAGE handbook of applied social research methods, 2, 214-253. Chapter 7.

Session 3 – September 21

IRB submission template
Re-read Creswell and Maxwell
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. Basic books. Chapter 1.

Session 4 – September 28

Research Methods Knowledge Base – Choose three topics to skim from the table of contents. Additionally, skim these as well: Five Big Words; Introduction to Validity; Survey Research; Descriptive Statistics; Inferential Statistics
Reason, P., & Torbert, W. (2001). The action turn: Toward a transformational social science. Concepts and transformation, 6(1), 1-37.
Strand, K., Marullo, S., Cutforth, N., Stoecker, R., & Donohue, P. (2003). Principles of best practice for community-based research. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 9(3).
Flyvbjerg, B. (2001). Making social science matter: Why social inquiry fails and how it can succeed again. Cambridge university press. Chapter 1.

Session 5 – October 5

Maxwell, J. A. (2011). Paradigms or toolkits? Philosophical and methodological positions as heuristics for mixed methods research. Mid-Western Educational Researcher, 24(2), 27-30.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). Five Misunderstandings about Case Study Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12, 219-245.
Lamont, M., & White, P. (2008). Workshop on interdisciplinary standards for systematic qualitative research. Washington, DC. Pp. 3-15.

Session 6 – October 12

Lather, P. (1986). lather_research_as_praxis.pdfResearch as praxis. Harvard educational review, 56(3), 257-278.
DeVault, M. L. (1995). Ethnicity and expertise: Racial-ethnic knowledge in sociological research. Gender & Society, 9(5), 612-631.

Session 7 – October 19

Kezar, A. (2000). The importance of pilot studies: Beginning the hermeneutic circle. Research in Higher Education, 41(3), 385-400.
Stoecker, R. (1991). Evaluating and rethinking the case study. The sociological review, 39(1), 88-112.

Session 8 – October 26

Greenwood, D. J., Whyte, W. F., & Harkavy, I. (1993). Participatory action research as a process and as a goal. Human Relations, 46(2), 175-192.

Session 9 – November 2

Reading: re-read Dan Butin. (2010). The Education Dissertation: A Guide for Practitioner Scholars. Corwin. Chapters 2-6.

Session 12 – November 30

Maxwell, J. (1992). Understanding and validity in qualitative research. Harvard educational review, 62(3), 279-301.
Eisner, E. (1992). Objectivity in educational research. Curriculum Inquiry, 22 (1): 9-15.
Phillips, D. C. (1983). After the wake: Postpositivistic educational thought. Educational Researcher, 12(5), 4-12.