A Starting Point – Qualitative Research By Professor Dan Remenyi Dan.remenyi@gmail.com
November 26, 2012
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Primary Objects of Seminar Language of Research
Research Tools & Techniques
Confidence Building
Self-Awareness Reflection
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Assumptions underpinning research
The world is knowable/understandable We want to know and are open minded to accept the results There is no definitive understanding There is no via regio or privileged way We are to recognise certeris paribus We have to use occam’s razor
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Values required to be a successful research…..1
Curiosity is important; Lifelong learning is critical for sustained success; Business and management is worth researching; Scepticism….Opinions need to be supported by evidence; Preparedness to make mistakes and rectify them;
Values required to be a successful research…..2
The value of your own discovery; Neither exaggerate or attempt to understate achievements or obstacles; Other peoples’ opinions are important; Change driven by research findings; Research should delivery some practical value in the near term.
Doctoral research ď Ž
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Doctoral research requires the researcher to add some thing of value to the body of theoretical knowledge This requires clarity concerning what is knowledge and what is theory
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Knowledge 1
Knowledge based on analytic propositions
By definition there are 180 degree in a triangle (if we ignore spherical trigonometry) This can be argued to be true by reference to basic ideas
Matter of fact
Gravity (known to us by perception or by memory) This cannot be said to be true by reference to basic ideas Causal relationships underpin our claim to knowledge in this instance and this comes from experience Extrapolation from the present/past to the future
Knowledge 2
Intuition
Sensory evidence
Can we perceive with our senses and which we can describe and inform others there of
Demonstrative
Something which is self evident or some knowledge for which we cannot give a clear justification
Can be argued to be correct by logical ‘proof’! Rational connections from one step to the next Can be shown by experiment
Reasoning from experience
Rational connections from one step to the next based on experience We rely on the principle of uniformity We often rely on probabilistic connections
Knowledge 3
What we have experienced is a guide to what we will experience This is an assumption without which we cannot live. We have to ‘believe’ that the basic laws are ‘consistent over time’. This understanding appears to be ‘hard-wired’ into the human experience. We are psychologically prone to believe this proposition. It cannot by definition be proved or disproved. Our knowledge will always be limited The ‘ultimate’ principles of science is something we are unlikely to ever know or understand. They may well be beyond our reasoning power? We simply do not know what we do not know.
Theory ď Ž
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A theory is an explanation of a phenomenon which addresses issue related to input variables or starting conditions and describes the result of the combination of juxtaposition of these variables Theoretic knowledge offers an explanation of a phenomenon or a situation so that there is a fuller understanding of its components and how it works.
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Every human law ď Ž
Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity, He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity. TS Eliot
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Qualitative research some definitions ď Ž
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By the term qualitative research we mean any type of research that produces findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other means of quantification. Strauss A and Corbin J, 1998, Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques, 2 ed, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA Qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that makes the world visible. These practices turn the world into a series of representations including field notes, interviews, conversations, photographs, recordings and memos to the self. At this level, qualitative research involves an interpretive naturalist approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpretive, phenomena in terms of the meaning people bring to them. Denzin N and Lincoln Y, (Eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2003, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA The way in which people studied understand and interpret their social relativity is one of the central motifs of qualitative research. Bryman A, 1988 Quantity and quality in social research, Unwin Hayman, London
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High Level Research Model Evidence Processing - Q1 Develop the Research Question
Evidence Collection Evidence Processing – Q2
Develop Dissertation Publish November 26, 2012
Guidelines
Analysis, Test & Interpret
New Extended Theory 13
Research options Research Quant Research
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How certain can we be? ď Ž
In science, nothing is certain, and nothing can be proven, even if scientific endeavour provides us with the most dependable information about the world to which we can aspire. In the heart of the world of hard science, modernity floats free. Giddens A, The consequences of Modernity, Polity Press, p39, Cambridge, 1990.
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Richard Feynman on Scientific Method http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYPapE-3FRw&featur
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Theory Building 1
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Sometimes of value to the body of knowledge ? ď Ž
Knowledge is in the end based on acknowledgment. Ludwig Wittgenstein On Certainty, sct. 378 (ed. by Anscombe and von Wright, 1969).
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Now we think more tolerantly about what might count as science. Habermas J, Postmetaphysical Thinking -
Philosophical Essays, p6, translated by Hohengarten, The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1993. November 26, 2012
Theory Building 2
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Einstein’s pen
Once, when asked by someone if they could see his laboratory, Einstein took a fountain pen from his pocket and said, ‘There it is!’. On another occasion he commented that his most important piece of scientific equipment was his wastepaper basket where he threw much of his paper work containing mathematical computations. Ashall F, Remarkable Discoveries, p62, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994
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Getting Academic Papers Published
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Another way of looking at research
Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our senseexperience correspond to a logically uniform system of thought. In this system single experiences must be correlated with the theoretic structure in such a way that the resulting coordination is unique and convincing. The sense-experiences are the given subject-matter. But the theory that shall interpret them is man-made. It is the result of an extremely laborious process of adaptation: hypothetical, never completely final, always subject to question and doubt. The scientific way of forming concepts differs from that which we use in our daily life, not basically, but merely in the more precise definition of concepts and conclusions; more painstaking and systematic choice of experimental material; and greater logical economy. By this last we mean the effort to rescue all concepts and correlations to as few as possible logically independent basic concepts and axioms. Einstein A, ‘The fundamentals of theoretical physics’ Science (Washington DC, 1940) May 24. Reprinted in Out of my later years (Philosophical Library, 1950) p. 98 and in Ideas and Opinions (Bonanza Books, New York, MCMLIV) p. 323.
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Scientific objectives
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking. Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years, ch. 12 (1950)
One thing I have learned in a long life : that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike–and yet it is the most precious thing we have. Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein: Creator and rebel 1973 (London: Hart-Davis, MacGibbon)
Who would have thought around 1900 that in fifty years time we would know so much more and understand so much less? In Albert Einstein and the Cosmic World Order by C. Lanczos (John Wiley, New York, 1965), cited in Nature 278 (1979).
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Galileo in The Assayer ď Ž
"Philosophy is written in this grand book the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze," Galileo said in The Assayer, "but the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and to read the alphabet in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and her geometric figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one wanders about in a dark labyrinth. Rowland W, Galileo’s Mistake, Thomas Allen Publishers, Toronto, 2001
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Lord Kelvin ď Ž
When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind. Found at http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Quotations/Thomson.html 10 July 2006
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Wireless [telegraphy] is all very well but I'd rather send a message by a boy on a pony!
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Galileo’s Understanding
Galileo was hard at work explaining and justifying scientific knowledge as opposed to the knowledge handed down by revelation In this context his excessive emphasis on mathematics is understandable Kelvin is more measured but old ideas die hard
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Remember out limitations ď Ž
The final conclusion is that we know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power. Russell B The ABC of Relativity (1925) (Mentor Books, New American Library, by arrangement with George Allen and Unwin, 1960) p. 144.
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Science is driven by induction and deduction
Science is driven by logically focused enquiry which attempts to explain the world. Induction moves from data to theory which then offer the opportunity to move to other data Deduction from theory to data to theory again if necessary
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What is Induction? ď Ž
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The term induction is used in a number of different ways. In science induction is the process of deriving general principles from particular instances or observations. When this process is employed it is said that general principles are infered by inductive reasoning. This form of induction should not be confused with Mathematical Induction which is an important tool for formal proofs in Mathematics. Popper and others did not accept induction as scientific. They saw a fundamental problem with this approach. http://dieoff.org/page126.htm For Popper Falsification was the scientific issue
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Induction
There is no inductive method which could lead to the fundamental concepts ……………Logical thinking is necessarily deductive; it is based on hypothetical concepts and axioms. Einstein A, ‘Physics and Reality’ Journal of the Franklin Institute 221 (1936) reprinted in Out of my later years (Philosophical Library, New York, 1950) p. 78
No new truth will declare itself from inside a heap of facts.... Medawar P, (1979), Advice to a young scientist, p 83, Harper and Row publishers, New York
“Some who believe in inductive logic are anxious to point out ….that ‘the principle of induction is unreservedly accepted by the whole of science and that no man can seriously doubt this principle in everyday life either’. Yet …I should still contend that a principle of induction is superfluous, and that it must lead to logical inconsistencies.” Popper K, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, p29,Hutchinson, London, 1980
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Induction and the generative act in science ď Ž
........the imaginative guesswork that is a generative act in science..Medawar P, (1979), Advice to a young scientist, p 20, Harper and Row publishers, New York
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......... we cannot know a priori which observations are relevant and which are not; every discovery, every enlargement of the understanding begins as an imaginative preconception of what the truth might be. Medawar P, (1979), Advice to a young scientist, p 84, Harper and Row publishers, New York
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Verbal language first then mathematics
We can say that first we tell stories, then - in the blink of an eon – we cite statistics. Paulos J, 1998, Once Upon A Number, p6, The Penguin Press, London
Thus our ability to understand the world through language predates our numerical facility. But mathematics or numerical facility is actually a type of specialised language. However a substantial amount of what can be done with mathematics, in research, can also be done with verbal descriptions, explanations and argument.
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Numbers need context ď Ž
Mathematics is also beautiful, but it is aesthetic, minimalist and austere, can blind one to the messiness and contingencies of the real world. Paulos J, 1998, Once Upon A Number, p30, The Penguin Press, London
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Being able to manipulate symbols and objects like a sidewalk card shark does not necessarily imply any understanding of underlying mathematical principles. Paulos J, 1998, Once Upon A Number, p30, The Penguin Press, London
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Not by numbers alone ď Ž
But even where mathematics or statistics is the preferred way of understanding the situation, ‘without an ambient story, background knowledge, and some indication of the providence of the statistics, it is impossible to evaluate their validity. Common sense and informal logic are as essential to the task as an understanding of the formal statistical notions.’ Paulos J, 1998, Once Upon A Number, p14, The Penguin Press, London
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Elegance deceives ď Ž
There is a deceptiveness about mathematics or statistics. Their apparent elegance can often mask the messiness of the assumptions underpinning them. This same elegance can also be misleading in terms of the knowledge expectations we associate with mathematics or statistics.
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The understanding gap between people - ‘talk tango’
There is always a gap between different levels of understanding and meaning and it is a key part of the research process to minimise this gap. Cultural, social, personality and educational differences combined with our inherently different abilities related to tacit knowledge make mutual understand a difficult challenge. We try to bridge these gaps through what Paulos (1998, p107) referred to as ‘talk tangos’. We have to chew things over – sometimes over and over again.
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Contemplation and conceptualisation ď Ž
But although we cannot often if ever have perfect understanding it does not mean that we have to accept that we have no understanding. Understanding is achieved through careful reflection throughout the whole research process. Contemplation and conceptualisation are essential for sound research.
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Reflection in research
But methodologies can drive out reflection and to this extent we have to be weary of them…..too much reflection! Many researchers will find hybrid research a way of trying to bridge the gaps referred to here. In a sense hybrid research forces reflection because when anything is seen through two different lens it will not produce identical images. Nothing can substitute for reflection but reflection has been romanticised.
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Where does our knowledge come from?
It is clear, then, that the idea of a fixed method, or of a fixed theory of rationality, rests on too naïve a view of man and his social surroundings. To those that look at the rich material provided by history, and are not intent on impoverishing it in order to please their lower instincts, their craving for intellectual security in the form of clarity, precision, ‘objectivity’, ‘truth’ it will become clear that there is only one principle that can be defended under all circumstances and in all stages of human development. It is the principle: anything goes. Feyerabend P, Against Method, p18, 3rd Ed, Verso, London
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High level perspective - - ---- the research process About the research question About the research question About your methodology, data About the methodology, data About your test About the test About your conclusions About the conclusions November 26, 2012
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Pratical issues ď Ž
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Create a learning log or a diary of research Develop a personal research glossary
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Exercise 1 ď Ž
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We would like to examine a change management initiative to explore what can be learnt from its failure. From an academic research point of view how would we go about this?
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