8
Principles of Research
DPLS 720 – Fall 2012
Table of Contents
Course Information 2
Description & Format 2
Objectives 3
Reading Materials 4
Assignments and Grading 4
Schedule of Class Topics and Reading Assignments 6
Course Information
Course Name: Principles of Research
Course Number: DPLS 720
Credits: 3
Day of the Week/Time: Saturdays, 8:00am-12:00pm
Dates: Sept 8, 22; Oct 6, 20; Nov 3, 17; Dec 1, 8
Location: Tilford 405
Instructor: Chris Francovich, Ed.D.
Email:
Phone: 509-313-3592
Office Hours: Please call for an appointment
Description & Format
This course is about questions. It is about asking them and learning techniques and strategies for answering them. However, at its heart the course is an extended encounter with the phenomena of the question process itself. A small beginning list of those questions is: Why do we ask questions? What is our ‘search’ in research about? What is the “truth” of a thing or a process? What is reality? Who defines it? How do we operationalize our definitions? Who is research for? What is its relationship to power? To Leadership? To the Self? To the Group?
This course is designed around two linked strategies. The first strategy is about continuing the conversation you have likely had about research methods and design in your Masters work from a more or less traditional perspective. The Babbie text is an excellent expositor of this tradition. The second key strategy is looking at research methods and practices from a more frankly philosophical perspective and discussing methodologies that have emerged from late modern and postmodern scientific/theoretical breakthroughs around the problems of human knowledge and human knowing. Crotty’s book will get us deep into this perspective. We will use the Somekh & Lewin text to bridge these two approaches. Both of these strategies will be at play throughout the semester.
Strategy #1:
I believe it is important to recognize that pure and applied research is done for purposes that involve the pragmatic concerns of human beings. This includes health, commerce, trade, gain, status, and even survival. We have become a species that does research for very instrumental reasons. Companies hire brilliant scientists to discover new ways to make things grow, kill things, change things, make things taste better, make people believe certain things, or a host of other reasons. Large research universities are the context for large government and corporate funded efforts on virtually all fronts of human knowledge. The systematic and logical processes that underlie these activities are, of course, part of what this course is about. In general this perspective on reality could be called objectivist/realist/materialist, empirical, and logically rigorous. Much of the ‘design’ logic of research is based on this tradition. Variables, samples and sampling, tests, validity, reliability, and inference are central to research undertaken from these assumptions.
Strategy #2:
Research is also about another thing. That ‘thing’ is (in my view) the most problematic aspect of research and continues to bedevil theorists on all sides of political debates, religious divides, ideological divides, and cultural divides. That ‘thing’ is called by various names. Some of the names are: perspective, point of view, paradigm, belief system, or outlook. It is in this part of our inquiry that the work we do in leadership studies becomes acutely relevant. These perspectives and the questions they suggest cannot be sidestepped, minimized, or rationalized. This element of research requires deep thinking and deep participation in whichever community one is in. A central component of this second strategy is the relatively recent turn in research to qualitative methodologies and increasing utilization of deeply philosophical and theoretical models (e.g., hermeneutics, phenomenology, critical theory).
So this course is about these ‘two’ things being understood as necessary aspects of human experience and part of the general conversation around social justice, human rights, post-humanist values (including ecological sustainability), and the purposes of human activity. In this course we will be doing a lot of talking about perception, belief, meaning, and reality. These are ‘heady’ concepts but ones I trust will make increasing sense as we navigate the literature and work on the problems we encounter. This course is also prerequisite to DPLS 722 Quantitative Research Methods which is also an intensive problem-set based course requiring ample time for focused concentration.
This class also includes a discussion of basic premises regarding how we learn (are transformed) and how this learning process influences and is influenced by research. The framework of Ignatian pedagogy will be used to clarify this thesis. Different ways of knowing become apparent through analyzing multiple social science research paradigms. These research paradigms provide a framework for reviewing various research methods and related theory development. However it is also the case that doctoral level work in research requires that all participants in the course master the basics of research design theory and logic. A critically important component of this course are your reflections about concepts presented in class discussions, assignments, and readings, and the "meanings" you assign to these concepts. This course is designed to honor the pursuit of truth in the context of culture.
Objectives
Intentions & aims for the course:
· To better understand how we learn (gain new meanings) from research;
· Develop and extend a coherent research design using the vocabulary and logic of contemporary post-positivist research methodology
· Explore and understand social science research paradigms, their underlying assumptions, and how they impact what we learn from research;
· Understand and practice sampling and the sampling procedures used for positivist, interpretivist, critical, etc., research designs;
· Discuss and demonstrate general principles of making positivist, interpretivist, critical, etc. observations in research;
· Think and write about the purpose and procedures of various research methods: survey, quantitative, experimental, qualitative, and unobtrusive;
· Survey and talk about the general methods of analyzing data for positivist, interpretivist, critical, etc., research designs; and
· Explore and discuss ethical issues associated with positivist, interpretivist, critical, etc., research designs.
Reading Materials
Required Texts
Foundations of Social Research
Author: Crotty
ISBN: 0-761-96106-2
Publisher: SAGE
Theory & Methods in Social Research 2nd edition
Authors: Somekh & Lewin
ISBN: 9781849200158 (paperback)
Publisher: SAGE
The Practice of Social Research
Author: Babbie
ISBN: 0-495-59841-0
Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing; Edition: 12th
Other Readings will be provided via hardcopy and on Blackboard
Assignments and Grading
The central expectation for this course is that everyone do all the reading, problem sets and reflections. I also think it is critical that everyone show up for class and be fully present in your group work and conversations about research. If you miss more than two classes for any reason you will have to take the course over. It is also important that you complete assignments in a timely manner and interact with your workgroup in a mutually beneficial way.
Assessment & grading in this course will be based on participation, completed assignments, group presentation, reflections, and your final project.
Pre-Course assignment (Details for this assignment will be posted on Blackboard well prior to the commencement of the course) (~ 10% of Grade)
Group Work – See Blackboard > Assignments for structure & criteria of group assignments. (~ 20 % of Grade)
Reflections (4) – Choice of topics will be discussed at the first meeting (also see Blackboard). Write a one-page critical reflection on your chosen topic. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? Why is this issue of importance to leadership studies researchers or social scientists engaging in research or those reading research manuscripts and reports? What are the questions and/or concerns that this topic raises for you? Journals will be posted on blackboard and will not exceed 500 words. Four entries due as indicated on course schedule. (~ 30% of Grade)
Final Project – At the end of the course you will have considered and reflected on numerous models serving as project templates. You are expected to integrate relevant elements if these models from the texts, and/or from outside resources to complete a research proposal. Please Blackboard for specific criteria. (~ 40% of Grade)
Schedule of Class Topics and Reading Assignments
Session # / Topic / Assignment0 / Pre-Class Reading:
Crotty: Chapter 1-2
Somekh & Lewin (S&L): Chapters 1-2; 23-24
1
9/8 / Research and the foundations of science (Positivism)
Class Covenant
Dialogue & the DPLS
Groups Meet and Discuss Research essays.
Overview of Readings
Group Work
Reflection Topics Presented
2
9/22 / Interpretations
Check in
Group Work
Discussion / Readings for Meeting #2
Crotty: Chapter 3-5
Somekh & Lewin: Chapter 13-15; 20-21
Babbie: Chapters 1 -3
Reflection #1 Due
3
10/6 / Research for Change & Critical Perspectives
Check in
Group Work
Discussion / Readings for 3rd Meeting
Crotty Chapters 6-7
Somekh & Lewin: 9-10
Babbie: Chapters 4-6
Reflection Topics Presented
4
10/20 / Identities & Power
Check in
Group Work
Discussion / Readings for 4th Meeting
Somekh & Lewin: 8, 18, 33-36
Babbie: Chapters 7-9
Crotty: 8-9
Reflection #2 Due
5
11/3 / Research Design & Part Two
Check in
Group Work
Discussion / Readings for 5th Meeting
Somekh & Lewin: Chapters 4-7, 11, 28, 32
Babbie: Chapters 10-12
Reflection Topics Presented
Session # / Topic / Assignment
6
11/17 / Design, Operationalization & Analysis
Check in
Group Work
Discussion / Readings for 6th Meeting
S&L: Chapters 25-27
Babbie: Chapters 13-17
Reflection #3 Due
7
12/1 / More on Design
Check in
Group Work
Discussion / Readings for 7th Meeting TBA
Reflection Topics Presented
8
12/8 / Design & Analysis
Check in
Group Work
Discussion / Readings for 8th Meeting TBA
Reflection #4 Due
12/14 / Course Paper/Project Due: 12/14
Property of Gonzaga University and DPLS September 7, 2012