Starting Your Research Journey: critical methodologies

Associate Professor Sue Thomas

HDR Forum Friday 16 August 2013

Starting Your Research Journey• Research is a journey, a

process that is characterised by:– Wanderings– Dead-ends and false

starts– Difficulties– Writing blocks– Pleasures and

surprises– Excitement and

challenge

• A dissertation can be thought of as a building, a solid piece of work: – coherent– develops an

argument– proves a point– where each chapter

builds on the one before.

A Journey or a Building?

The Island of Research

• City of Hope• Jungle of Authority• Problem Mire• Bay of Literature• River of Words• Bog of Lost Manuscripts• Rewrite Trail• Know-it-all • Sea of Theory• Where-am-I Fog

• DDD Delta of Dirty Data• Data analysis Jungle• Data Fever breeding

ground• Canyon of Despair• Ridge of Boredom• Mount Where-are-we-

going• Serendipity Mire• Pinnacle of Dogmatism• Bay of Leisure

Research Diaries• Research diaries can be used by the

rent/record of the research. They can capture:– Moments when you are asking questions– Your engagement with problems and issues– The development of solutions– Moments of decision about research design or

analysis– Reflections about experienceSource: Wisker (2008)

Research Diaries• Research diaries should include:

– What you do, and where, how and why you do it. Include dates.

– Notes on what you read– Particular achievements, dead-ends and

surprises– What you think or feel about what is

happening– Any thoughts that may be relevant to your

researchSource: Cryer (2006)

• Sally’s diaryWhen I began this study, I had little idea about how I might go about it. I had vague notions of exploring how diagnoses are constructed by health professionals. This was based on my past experience of having a psychiatric liaison role with an Accident and Emergency Department. (Silverman, 2005, p. 25)

• Simon’s diaryIt was with these issues in mind that I happened across parents’ evening data. At the time my partner was a relatively new primary school teacher, and her exposure to the realities of parents’ evenings led to her assertion that such meetings had not been directly addressed within her teacher-training course. This difficulty with parents’ evenings from the teacher’s perspective chimed with further anecdotal information from my own parents, whose experience of such meetings tallied with the ‘public relations’ exercise view outlined by Baker & Keogh (1995:264) (Silverman, 2005, p. 35)

• Emily’s diaryClough and Nutbrown (2007: 27) talk about choosing methods, and say that selecting which methods to use indicates a particular ‘take’ on the world and how it operates. I can go along with this because though I say that interviewing is the only way, it’s not really… Where does that get me with discussing my methodology? (Clough & Nutbrown, 2002, p. ix)

Identifying a Research Topic• What makes your eyes light up i.e.

what are you passionate about?• Does it make a difference i.e. is it

worth your while to spend time investigating this issue?

• Is it a brick or a wall (not a brick but a line of bricks) i.e. will your investigation result in an outcome?

Strategies to help you

READ

LISTEN

CONGREGATE with birds of a feather

Support• School

– Student academic partners scheme– Directors– Griffith University Speakers Group– HDR Meeting– HDR Support Site

• GIER– Mentoring– Student groups– HDR Work-in-Progress Seminars– Research Methodologies Laboratories

• The Griffith Social and Behavioural Research College– Research training workshops

Research Methodologies Laboratories• Critical methodologies research group

Sue Thomas• Transcript analysis group

Rod Gardner• Narrative analysis

Susie Garvis• Quantitative methodologies special interest group

Helen Klieve/Marleen Westerveld

Critical Methodologies Research GroupWe are a group of scholars interested in the use of critical research methodologies in the broad and eclectic field of educational research. We draw on, and bring together, ideas, concepts and understandings from areas such as

– critical cultural studies, – critical pedagogy – critical media studies – critical discourse theory, including CDA – critical policy studies– sociology of knowledge– actor network theory.

Guiding Questions

We have identified two questions to facilitate collaborative conversations about criticality within and beyond the group:• What does it mean to do critical educational

research at this time and in this place?• How can criticality be operationalised in our

research projects?

Goals• Build, maintain, strengthen and formalise a critical

research culture at Griffith.• Populate an internal support network for Griffith

critical researchers.• Facilitate collaborate conversations about criticality

within and beyond this location.• Develop skills in methods used in critical research

Criticality

As a starting point, critical research “seeks to expose how relations of power and inequality, (social, cultural, economic), in their myriad forms combinations and complexities, are manifest and are challenged” (Apple, Wu and Gandin, 2009, p. 3). It seeks to engage in the process of repositioning in order to understand the experiences of disadvantaged groups and to act against the ideological and institutional practices that work to marginalise them.

Our Meetings are…informal conversations that aim to provide opportunities both to extend our theoretical understandings of the critical lens (a sort of Dummies Guide to Critical Theory); to gain knowledge and skills in the application of critical research tools; and to develop our academic profiles. Conversations are kick started by one or more of the following:

– sharing ideas and resources about criticality– reading each others' papers as critical friends– analysing data from members' projects– planning joint research projects– exploring the uses of social media

Meeting dates for 2013• Friday 23 August

1.30-3.30pm• Friday 4 October  

M10_2.231.30-3.30pm

• Friday 1 NovemberM10_4.13 1.30-3.30pm

Join Us

We welcome any who are interested in Criticality. We have a CRM organisation site in Learning@Griffith. Follow us on Twitter (@critresmet and #criticality@GU).

We would love to see you at the next meeting.

Please email Sue at s.thomas.griffith.edu.au to be added to the mailing list.