Introduction
Welcome to Module 1 – Deciding on your focus.
You may be wondering where do the ideas for research projects
come from. Most research is initiated by a desire to solve
a problem or a concern for change and improvement in something
to do with practice. Many researchers are directly engaged
in all sorts of professional situations such as social, health
or human services and come up with their ideas based on what
they see happening around them. These ideas can be generated
by individuals, groups or by systems. The most common source
for research ideas in theology and ethics is the literature.
Many researchers get ideas for research by reading and reviewing
books and journals* and thinking of ways to extend or develop
previous research. For some, curiosity, interests and personal
values also play a part in the decision (Trochim 2002).
* Reviewing the literature is a crucial element of research
degrees (Th.D., Masters, Honours). You can link to more
information on the purpose of, and procedures for, formal
Literature Reviews here.
The ATLA database
is the main database for religion and ethics. This data base is available for student use in the Swanton Library at the Presbyterian Theological College.
[A word about Endnote.
Endnote is bibliographical software that helps you keep track
of what you read and simplifies referencing and the construction
of reference lists/bibliographies. It is worth spending some
time investigating the potential of Endnote and it is best
to do that now, at the beginning of your project, rather than
at the writing up stage].
An important step in conducting your research project is
deciding on the focus. Deciding on the focus of your research
is about identifying what it is you want to gather information
about. Robson (2002) advises, "starting where you are".
By this he means thinking about how your situation, your interests,
and available resources will facilitate the project. He gives
some examples on page 49. Some students shy away from this
believing it will in some way taint the research process.
Remember that interest in the topic is not the same as having
a closed and pre-judged view of the phenomenon that your are
investigating and all researchers bring their own thoughts,
aspirations and feelings, race, gender, sexual orientation,
occupation, schooling, etc. to the table (see your textbook
Robson, p 49).
In deciding on the focus Gay and Airasian suggest narrowing
the focus so that it is not too broad and thinking about whether
it is interesting, researchable, significant
and manageable. A broad focus complicates the reading,
raises design and interpretation problems and generally leads
to grief. Spending time considering the focus is well worth
the effort in the long run, as it will be more rewarding both
personally and professionally – a well-defined manageable
problem results in well defined manageable study (Gay, L.R.
and Airasion, P., 2000; P40-1).
You now need to think about whether your study is
- Interesting - Is the focus or problem related to
your area of expertise and of particular interest to you?
Be realistic as there will be times of drudgery and frustration
and a strong interest in your topic will help to get you
through the bad times.
- Researchable - Can the problem be investigated
though the collection and analysis of data? In general,
topics or questions that contain the word should
cannot be answered by research of any kind, because they
are ultimately a matter of opinion (P41).
- Significant - Does it contribute in some way to
the improvement or understanding of your area of expertise?
People's definition of significant varies but a characteristic
of a good topic is that it has both theoretical and practical
significance.
- Manageable - Taking into account your research
skills, available resources and time restrictions are you
able to conduct the research? You also need to consider
broad ethical constraints, cost and access to people and
places.
Preparatory tasks
1. To help prepare you for the assessment activity and to
increase your understanding of how to decide on the focus
of your research you now need to read the following chapters
in your textbook (Robson)
-
Chapter 1 – Real World Enquiry
-
Chapter 2 – Approaches to Social Research
2. To help prepare you for the rest of the Unit in general
and the assessment activities in particular you need to read
some key sections in your textbook
on the following key stages in research. These sections of
text are shaded and are designed to just give you a brief
overview.
-
Page 47 - Deciding on the focus
-
Page 56 - Developing the research questions
-
Page 86 - Choosing a research strategy
-
Page 223 - Selecting the method(s)
-
Page 376 - Arranging the practicalities
-
Page 385 - Collecting the data
-
Page 387 - Preparing for analysis
-
Page 500 - Reporting what you have found
Assessment activities
Activity 1.1 – Focus on 3 possible research topics
Please note: This activity is individual, assessable
and should take you about 30 minutes. It has a word limit
of 200 words and is part of your folio of activities, which
is worth 40% of your total mark. It should be emailed to your
teacher
on or before week 10 of smester.
You now need to
-
Brainstorm a number of broad ideas or problems that you
think could make worthwhile research topics
-
Select just 3 of these and then for each briefly state
why you think these are interesting, researchable,
significant and manageable
-
Set out your responses using the following table.
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Interesting
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Researchable
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Significant
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Manageable
|
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Focus 1
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Focus 2
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Focus 3
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Optional Activities (recommended - not assessable)
Activity 1.2 - ATLA Database
Please familiarise yourself with the ATLA database and how to search for articles related to your research.
References
-
Gay, L.R. and Airasion, P., 2000, Educational Research:
Competencies for Analysis and Application,
6th Ed, Merrill Columbus, Ohio
-
Robson, C., 2002, Real World Research, 2nd Ed,
Blackwell, Oxford
Further resources
If you are interested to find out more about this area then
you can
1. Read the following books
-
Gay, L.R. and Airasion, P., 2000, Educational Research:
Competencies for Analysis and Application,
6th Ed, Merrill Columbus, Ohio [Parts 1 and 2]
-
Punch, K.F., 1998,Introduction to Social Research:
Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, Sage Publications,
London [Chapters 1 and 2]
2. Visit the following websites
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