research, or doing ‘science’, terrifies a lot of people. Many have a ‘mental block’ at the thought of it. ‘Research is what scientists do and I'm not a scientist!’ So, this is where I give my first, and possibly, most important piece of advice:
‘Don't Panic!’
Can you think of the source? These words were written by Douglas Adams in 1979 … That's right! They are from his book, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and on the back of the Guide are found these immortal words. Remember them. You don't need to panic when you are learning about research. You can do it.
My goal is to de‐mystify research. I aim to help you understand research, to be able to appraise research in scholarly articles, to be able to design a research project, and to believe that you could do research yourself. This book is not intended to impress my colleagues and bewilder students. I hope that, by explaining research in a straightforward and simple manner, I can make the process of learning about and understanding research easier. I shall try to explain jargon terms wherever possible and I shall use examples of classic research as well as some of my own and that of my students. (Over the past 10 years, I have supervised over 70 masters students' dissertations to completion.) I aim to illustrate the theoretical with examples of research in practice.
The other aspect of research which frightens the heck out of learners is … that's right – the ‘S’ word – statistics. Well, I guess I have to touch on the subject, but I shall leave it to those more able than myself to cover that subject in depth. I have included some parts on data analysis, but I shall try to make these as pain‐free and understandable as possible.
What is ‘Research’?
If I were to ask you to come up with a definition of ‘research’, I guess that most people would aim for something which included words like ‘rigorous’, ‘bias‐free’, ‘academic’, ‘random’, ‘systematic’, ‘generalisable’, and so on. They would probably be right … ‐ish. But I do not try to give a flowery, posh definition. The answer to the question is much simpler:
Research is about getting answers to questions.
And it is something which we all engage in every day of our lives. Let's consider what ‘research’ we do in our everyday lives. Think about it. What sort of things do you come up with?
Planning your journey to work?
Which car to buy?
What house to buy?
What to cook for dinner?
Where to go on holiday?
Etc., etc.
All of these involve us in some ‘research’. Let's see … What are the options in travel to work? Walk, bicycle, bus/train, car, etc. So, we calculate how long each mode of transport might take – that is relatively easy. It has an answer in numbers. It is quantifiable – so it is what we call quantitative (sorry! There's an early bit of jargon!) data. So we know how much time each type of journey should take. Next, we work out the cost of each. Again, this is straightforward – we get a number in pounds and pence, and it is easy to say which costs more than another.
Now we are faced with a different form of question – which is the most convenient, and which is the most reliable? The answers to these are based upon personal choice and preferences – they have more to do with the quality of the experience and we can't measure these in numbers, so we are dealing with qualitative (sorry!) data and different types of information will guide our decisions.
The same sets of information can guide us when we buy a TV, a car, a house, or decide upon a meal. If you reflect on the last time you bought something, you may be aware of the sorts of ‘research’ you got involved in and how you found the information which informed your decision. Good old Google! Search engines have helped to make us all much more able to search for answers to questions – to do research.
So, research is something we do every day. But how did we learn to be researchers?
How Early Do we Start ‘Researching’?
We start researching the moment we are born. Some scholars might insist that we explore our environment and learn whilst we are still in the womb. Maybe so. I know that as soon as we are born we start to explore out environment to learn more about it and to get answers to important questions such as ‘What is food?’ What is the first thing a newborn baby does? S/he will search for food. Can I eat this, or this, or that? It puts things in its mouth and lets the universe know it is looking for food by crying out. This early, trial and error learning (literally – suck it and see) experimentation is a fundamental type of research. The results will inform the baby's future actions. That's how we learn. We are continually testing our environment (the world around us). So, when we give an infant a clock to play with and it ends up in pieces on the floor, be proud, not angry! That infant is trying to make sense of the thing we call ‘clock’ and is trying to answer the excellent research question ‘how does this work?’ Sometimes we are aware of it. Sometimes we are not. We do it in our physical world and in our social and psychological worlds. If we are lucky and don't stick our finger in a live electric socket, we live and learn and are all the wiser from it.
But What Makes our Research a Science?
We are all doing research every day, and we are all learning from it, but we are not all ‘scientists’. For it to be scientific, we have to select a specific area (or field) to research and then we have to be systematic and rigorous in getting our answers to very specific questions. We may search a lot around a subject to find out what has already been researched, and we might, think about where the unanswered questions are and begin to plan our own study. Then we call it ‘research’, we write lots of scientific articles and become famous – I wish!
There are different types and levels of scientific research. I remember being interviewed for a job to do some research in learning difficulties and was surprised to hear the Chair of the interview panel say to me ‘We want real, meaningful research. We are not setting out to count angels on pinheads!’ What did he mean by that? Then I realised that his stereotype of researchers was of ‘academics’ who engaged in what is termed ‘blue skies research’. That is, research which may advance our knowledge, but is of no practical benefit to people on an everyday level. Some people differentiate between ‘applied research’ and ‘blue skies research’. To my mind there is no difference really. At some point and in some way, all research has an application and to try to differentiate which is which is like … trying to count angels on a pinhead!
OK – So we all Do ‘Research’ but I Am Not Good Enough to Do Meaningful Research
Many people are put off doing research because they don't think they can achieve the ‘perfection’ needed for good research. Don't panic! That is a myth. There are very few research projects which might be described as ‘perfect’. Many are weak in some regard. But most are ‘good enough’ – good enough to provide us with answers which can advance our knowledge – at least by signposting us to other questions which still remain unanswered.
My dear friend Mick Bloor and I ran a brief research course together once in the Highlands
