Small-Scale Research: Pragmatic Inquiry in Social Science and the Caring Professions

Capa
SAGE, 29/03/2002 - 223 páginas

`The author takes the student through the whole of the research process including anticipating common mistakes and `times of trouble' and offering advice on how to make things easier on yourself. The methods work is sound and the methodology is put across very well and nicely integrated with the `thinking out' of the research ... Rigorous, accessible, upbeat - I would expect this to become a widely used resource for students and lone researchers at all levels' - Roger Sapsford, School of Social Sciences, University of Teeside

Timely, assured and written with the needs of students uppermost, Small-Scale Research is a direct, comprehensive guide for student doing theses, dissertations, papers and projects. It systematically works through the central methods of inquiry and demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. The advice on when and how to use small-scale methods is pragmatic, recognizing that small-scale researchers are usually short on time and resources. Yet behind this pragmatism is the principle that research is, above all, about thinking. Whatever needs to be done in a research project has to be for the purpose of providing research audiences with the best possible answers, in the circumstances, to the research questions. The book argues that it is not enough to apply research methods. Sense-making and claims-making are central to good research practice.

 

Índice

Box 1
6
Research as Claimsmaking
17
1 Convergence and divergence in human experience
26
2 Typical stages in action research inquiries
39
1
40
3 Research methods and generalizations
47
Facetoface Inquiry Methods
63
8
69
Complexity
144
1 A degree programme represented
153
Doing It
161
ix
162
2 Collecting data
168
Sensemaking
173
1 Statistical techniques and four qualities of data
175
creating and applying
185

Research at a Distance
89
feminist
105
Bringing It All Together
114
1 Elements in a multistage research design
123
using interviews to validate
129
5 An internal validity prompt sheet
135
8
139
Writing Disseminating and Influencing
193
a connected outline
195
1 Research purposes and influences on practice
204
2 Ways of improving the chances that your work
207
Reflecting
210
Index
220
Direitos de autor

Outras edições - Ver tudo

Palavras e frases frequentes

Acerca do autor (2002)

Dr. Peter T. Knight has worked. in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University, UK, since 1990. He was previously the Head of the Department of History at St. Martin′s College of Higher Education, Lancaster, UK.

Informação bibliográfica