THE MEANING OF RESEARCH
Introduction:
What Research is Not
We have suggested that the word research has been so loosely employed in everyday speech that few people have any idea of its real meaning. It has become little more than common jargon and quite as meaningless. Here are a few guidelines as to what research is not; accompanying each guideline, is a typical illustration depicting the fallacious concept popularly held about research.
1. Research is not mere information gathering like what this teenager who wants to know about a beautiful girl is doing. Another example is this standard four child, who happily informs her mother that he has been to the library to do research, and he learned about Dedan Kimathi Wachiuri. In this case, we have an example of early seeds of mis-information being sown in the mind of this child. What the child did is to discover some information, or may be to learn about reference skills, but he did not do any research.
2. Research is not mere transportation of facts from one location to another. A student who completes a research paper on the dark lady in the sonnets of William Shakespeare, may be quite serious in considering this a research assignment; and so may be his or her teacher. Indeed the student went through certain activities associated with formal research: namely, collecting data, assembling bibliography, footnoting statements properly, and so on.
However, no matter how elaborate the collection of data, how meticulous the transferral of that data to a written report, how scrupulous the annotation for each fact presented, this is not research. This may have been an excursion into self-enlightenment and for the pupil, but could be an exercise in self-deception as to the nature of research. What the student missed is the true essence of research; and that is the interpretation of data. Nowhere in the paper did the student say that, “Now these facts, which I have gathered seem to indicate (such and such a fact) about the dark lady.” Nowhere did the student draw any conclusion or interpret the facts themselves. Nevertheless, this student is just a whisker away form what true research is. What he has done is to compile the facts and to document these facts, and to annotate (embellish them, label them etc.) with citation of authorities through footnotes. He has also presented the facts neatly in an acceptable format, but he has not interpreted his data. Indeed this is what was remaining for his activity to be classified as research. The difference between mere transportation of data and research is the interpretation, which is necessary to shed new light into existing knowledge. The student has acquired the existing knowledge, but has failed to give any new insight arising from this accumulation of documented knowledge. He has delved into mere fact discovery, mere fact transportation and fact transcription; with honest acknowledgement of the same.
3. Research is not merely rummaging for information. If the house across the street is for sale, and this family is considering buying it, we may go to the Department of Lands to do a title search, so that we can understand the nature of the legal interests or encumbrances on the title of the land and the house. This rummaging for information is clearly not research, it is merely a search for existing facts, with a view to self-enlightenment.
4. Research is not a catchword used to attract attention, like in advertisements of new detergents with a mysterious whitening chemical added to it, so that your clothes can be whiter than any other, and the stains can be whisked away. Often we have miracle detergents, miracle drinks, and other products, which are merely product-differentiated using advertizing techniques; and we end up buying these products thinking that we are buying a product of modern research. One brewing company produces lager from one spout in the brewery, but bottles the same drink in differently labeled bottles - claiming some products to be more “smooth and relaxing” than others, and so on. Product differentiation is not research, although the words “years of research” may be used to capture the attention of beer drinkers.
The meaning of True Research
True research is way-different from all the above activities; and we shall now outline the essential nature and characteristics of research. We need to note what actually differentiates research form all these activities. The following is a procedure by which we attempt to find systematically what comprises research activity, and the essence of research.
1. Research originates with a question.
2. Research demands a clear articulation a goal.
3. Research requires a specific plan of procedure.
4. Research usually divides the principal problem into more manageable sub- problems.
5. Research is tentatively governed by some constructs called hypotheses.
6. Research will countenance only hard, measurable or documented data in attempting to resolve the problem that initiated research.
7. Research is, by nature, circular, recursive, or more exactly helical
We shall discuss these characteristics in turn, so that learners can appreciate more fully the precise nature of pure research. It is only with the appreciation of the meaning of pure research that the learner will be able to understand why it is essential to learn how to execute successful research and experimental design - as illustrated in this module. This demanding nature of research and research design calls for elaborate hypothesis statement and similar methods of proving these hypotheses. This is why statistical methods are required as tools for assisting in data analysis, and in the articulation of the proofs to the posed research questions. Needless to say - statistical tools are not research, but the equivalent of this tool, which a farmer may carry to the farm to accomplish a certain agricultural task - like a machette (a panga). Use of statistical techniques, the techniques of randomization, and elaborate mathematical data analysis introduces rigor into our process of research so that our findings become more credible than mere hearsay or words of mouth information.
Characteristics of pure research
1. The research question. The world is full of unanswered questions. In fact, it is not an overstatement to assert that what the modern world knows through science, technology, and all the information systems existing, is a very small part of all the knowledge and information which actually exists within the ecosphere and the outer space; and which is waiting to be discovered. Everywhere we look, we observe things and phenomena, which cause us to wonder, speculate, and ask questions. This asking of questions ignites a chain-reaction in our minds, which has the potential of starting (and in fact very many times starts) the process of research. An inquisitive mind is the beginning of research. There is so much that we do not know, and that we do not understand. The hope of mitigating our ignorance lies in the questions we ask, and in the facts which we summon - in whose collection we may find answers to our questions, and new insight into the nature of our environment.
2. Research cannot proceed without a clear articulation of a goal. It demands a clear unambiguous statement of the problem. This statement is an exercise in intellectual honesty. The statement must be unambiguous and must state the obligations of the researcher honestly and clearly, in a grammatically complete manner. Subsequent research must adhere to fulfilling this goal in a straightforward manner without digressing. This is the essence of all successful research. No research can start without this kind of statement on what the investigator wants to do ..., and, precisely. This colleague of mine Dennis, who went into Mathare valley slums of Nairobi and had collected a carton-full of information in the name of doing research on informal-sector housing, without this kind of statement of the problem at hand, was easily disillusioned when I asked him to tell me precisely what he wanted to do. He had gone into the activity romantically, without this kind of statement, to try to complete his doctoral studies. Needless to say, he did not use any of the data he had collected aimlessly; and in fact did
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