BOOK: The Foundations of Social Research

The Foundations of Social Research

REFERENCE:

Crotty, M. (1998). The foundations of social research: Meaning and perspective in the research process. Sage.

MY SUMMARY

For me, as a novice qualitative researcher, understanding research paradigm is such difficult way. Reading Crotty book eases my journey of understanding a research paradigm concept as ‘scaffolded learning’. Crotty (1998) helps to understand ‘research paradigm’ onion starting from these the first two questions about methods and methodology and then followed by theoretical perspectives and epistemology. Crotty argue that every research is unique, however, we should justify that our chosen research paradigm would convince our readers and merit respect.

What methods do we propose to use?

“ Methods         : the techniques or procedures used to gather and analyze data related to some research question or hypothesis p.3”

What methodology governs our choice and use of methods?

“ Methodology : the strategy, plan of action, process or design lying behind the choice and use of particular methods and linking the choice and use of methods to the desired outcomes p.3”

What theoretical perspective lies behind the methodology in question?

“Theoretical Perspective : the philosophical stance informing the methodology and thus providing a context for the process and grounding its logic and criteria p.3”

What epistemology informs this theoretical framework? P.2

“ Epistemology                  : the theory of knowledge embedded in the theoretical perspective and thereby in the methodology (Crotty 1998)”

p.3

Date:  9 DESEMBER 2017

IMPORTANT QUOTATION

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION THE RESEARCH PROCESS

They call it ‘scaffolded learning’. It is an approach to teaching and learning that, while careful to provide an initial framework, leaves it to the learner to establish longer term structures. P.1

This is scaffolding, not edifice. Its aim is to provide researchers with a sense of stability and direction as they go on to do their own building: that is, as they move towards understanding and expounding the research process after their own fashion in forms that suit their particular research purposes. P. 2

As starting point, it can be suggested that, in developing a research proposal, we need to put considerable effort into answering two questions in particular. First, what methodologies and methods will we be employing in the research we propose to do? Second, how do we justify this choice and use of methodologies and methods? p.2

It also reaches into the understanding you and I have of what human knowledge is, what it entails, and what status can be ascribed to it. What kind of knowledge do we believe will be attained by our research? What characteristics do we believe that knowledge to have? Here we are touching upon a pivotal issue. How should observer of our research-for example, readers of our thesis or research report-regard the outcomes we lay out before them? And why should our readers take these outcomes seriously? These are epistemological questions

Methods         : the techniques or procedures used to gather and analyze data related to some research question or hypothesis p.3

Methodology : the strategy, plan of action, process or design lying behind the choice and use of particular methods and linking the choice and use of methods to the desired outcomes p.3

Theoretical Perspective : the philosophical stance informing the methodology and thus providing a context for the process and grounding its logic and criteria p.3

Epistemology                  : the theory of knowledge embedded in the theoretical perspective and thereby in the methodology (Crotty 1998) p.3

The theoretical perspectives we have described is a way of looking at the world and making sense of it. It involves knowledge, therefore, and embodies a certain understanding of what is entailed in knowing that is, how we know what we know. Epistemology deals with ‘the nature of knowledge, its possibility, scope and general basis’ (Hamlyn 1995, p. 242). Maynard (1994, p. 10) explains the relevance of epistemology to what we are about here: Epistemology is concerned with providing a philosophical grounding for deciding what kinds of knowledge are possible and how we can ensure that they are both adequate and legitimate’. Hence our need to identify, explain and justify the epistemological stance we have adopted. P.8

In subjectivism, meaning does not come out of an interplay between subject and object but is imposed on the object by the subject. Here the object as such makes no contribution to the generation of meaning. It is tempting to say that in constructionism meaning is constructed out of something (the object), whereas in subjectivism meaning is created out of nothing. We humans are not that creative, however. Even in subjectivism we make meaning out of something. We humans are not that creative, however. Even in subjectivism we make meaning out of something. We import meaning from somewhere else. The meaning we ascribe to the object may come from our dreams, or from primordial archetypes we locate within our collective unsconsious or from the conjunction and aspects of the planets, or from religious beliefs, or from…..that is to say, meaning comes from anything but an interaction between the subject and the object to which it is ascribed. P.9

Figure 1. elements of research paradigm Epistemologies, Theoretical Perspectives and Methodologiesand Methods (p.4)

           

Epistemology	Theoretical Perspective	Methodology	Methods
Objectivism Constructionism Subjectivism (and their variants)	Positivism (and post-positivism) Interpretivism *Symbolic interactionism *Phenomenology *Hermeneutics Critical inquiry Feminism Postmodernism etc	Experimental research Survey research Ethnologhraphy Phenomenological research Grounded theory Heuristic inquiry Action research Discourse analysis Feminist standpoint research etch	Sampling Measurement and scaling Questionnaire Observation *participant *non-participant Interview Focus group Case study Life history Narrative Visual ethnographic

p.5

Figure 2

à Constructionism

    à Symbolic Interactionism

       à Ethnography

          àParticipant observation (p.5)

Figure 3

à Objectivism

    à Positivism

         à Survey research

             à Statistical analysis (p. 6)

We need, of course, to justify our chosen methodology and methods. in the end, we want outcomes that merit respect…p.13

We may be positivists or non-positivists, therefore. Either way, we need to be concerned about the process we have engaged in; we need to lay that process out for the scrutiny of the observer; we need to defend that process as from of human inquiry that should be taken seriously. It is this that sends us to our theoretical perspective and epistemology and calls upon us to expound them incisively. From methods and methodology to theoretical perspective and epistemology, then. Now our arrows are travelling from right to left. P. 13

Speaking in this vein sounds as if we create a methodology for ourselves—as if the focus of our research leads us to devise our own ways of proceeding that allow us to achieve our purposes. That, as it happens, is precisely the case. In a very real sense, every piece of research is unique and calls for a unique methodology. We, as the researcher, have to developed it. P.14