Analysis and Understanding of the Methodology - Essay Example

? Review of the Article: “In the eye of the beholder Girls’, boys’ and teachers’ perceptions of boys’ aggression to girls Number: Key Assumptions and Reasoning( I think you misunderstand the first point in the full instruction, please refer to it again. Identify the key assumptions or reasoning which underpin methodologies and methods, and explain the relationships between methodology and methods in the paper) not to explain what is methodology and what is method but simply explain them. The focus should be explain the relationships between methodology and methods in the paper The term methodology when used in relation to research refers to the way in which the research is conducted; that is how we go about getting answers to certain questions - procedures (Taylor and Bogdan 1998, p. 3). The methodology that is chosen is based on our assumptions, interest and purposes (Taylor and Bogdan 1998). The methodology chosen is dependent on the theoretical perspective which the researcher seeks to follow. Taylor and Bogdan (1998) indicate that there are two major theoretical perspectives which have dominated social science – positivism and phenomenological or interpretive. Positivist seeks to obtain facts or to determine the causes of social phenomena which are outside of the subjective states of individuals. The interpretive approach seeks to understand social phenomena from the actor’s point of view – that is what individuals perceive the reality to be. Methodology represents the main ways in which researchers act on the environment in which they are interested – the methods (experiments, surveys, etc.) they use to gain information lead to ‘different characteristics of their reality; and it is through the methods they utilise that make their research public and reproducible by others. In addition to theoretical principles a methodology provides a framework which forms a guide to the way in which research is carried out. Dawson (2002, p. 14) indicates that in order to understand research methodology it is important to understand the difference between qualitative and quantitative research. Both methodologies use various methods to collect data – interviews, focus groups, surveys. However, Creswell (2009, p. 3) advances three methodologies – Qualitative, quantitative and a mixed approach which incorporates elements of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The qualitative and quantitative approaches are differentiated by their basic philosophical assumptions that researchers bring to the study, the strategies they employ in their research – quantitative experiments or qualitative case studies, and the particular methods they employ in carrying out these strategies – collecting quantitative data versus collecting qualitative data by observing a situation or through participation. Denzin and Lincoln (2005, p. 3) qualitative research is a ‘situated activity that locates the observer in the world.’ It is a set of interpretive practices that makes the world visible to the researcher. Researchers make use of conversations, field notes, interviews, photographs, recordings, and memos which act as reminders. Qualitative research then becomes ‘an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world.’ This implies that qualitative researchers’ take advantage of natural setting in their attempts to interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings constructed by the people involved in the situation that is being studied. Methods for collecting data such as interviews are capable of being used under different methodological presuppositions. This is also true for sampling methods. What's the relation between this to the journal content? In their paper, Owens et al (2005) uses the word method to indicate the methodology that they used in their research. In that they indicate the method they used to choose the participants for the study, the procedures they followed to collect data and how the data was analysed. In the section relating to the analysis of data the researchers indicate that a qualitative software programme to analyse the data which would seem to indicate that that is what defines whether the methodology the methodology is quantitative or qualitative. This would seem to imply that if I followed the same procedures with the exception of using a quantitative software program instead of a qualitative software program, then the methodology is quantitative. Nothing is further from the truth. That whole section suggests that a qualitative methodology was employed and not specifically the software program that was used. The quantitative approach is based on the positivist paradigm and follows the process of the scientific method. In doing so researchers form hypotheses which they test using formal instruments. The results of their findings are then generalised. Quantitative research uses methods such as questionnaires and structured interviews to generate statistics (Dawson 2002). This type of research reaches more people than but more quickly than the qualitative approach (Dawson 2002). Results of findings from quantitative research can be illustrated with the use of tables, graphs and charts. Owens et al (2005) sought to gain an understanding of how girls, boys and teachers view boy to girl aggression. They use a variety of methods to collect data in order to gain an understanding of the phenomenon which they set out to gain insights about. These methods are what Denzin (1986) describes as methodologies – the way they choose to interact with the participants. Owens et al (2005) chose to interact with their participants by conducting focus group discussions. The participants who were grade 9 adolescents aged 14 and 15 years from four middle class schools in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia were placed into groups of 5 to 7 students in order to facilitate the group discussions. The procedure that was used to choose the student participants (boys and girls) was not clearly stated. A total of 40 girls and 32 boys were chosen randomly from grade 9 students at the four schools. However, Owens et al (2005) did not state the size of the grade 9 populations in each of the four schools or how many students came from each school. This would provide information on whether the sample could be considered adequate or representative of the population although this is not the emphasis in the case where a qualitative approach is employed. Additionally, it may be assumed that grade nine students are between 14 and 15 but it is not clear if this was the case in this instance. Owens et al (2005) used a different method of obtaining information from the teachers of the adolescents in the student. They were all interviewed separately. Therefore, it is fair to assume that one teacher’s opinion was not influenced by another teacher or the other teachers. However, despite the fact that the finding concur with previous studies it cannot be assumed that members in the different focus groups were not influenced by others in their particular group in terms of how they responded to the questions raised. Additionally, teachers may give responses they think the researchers would like to hear since they would be more aware than the students in relation to the reason for the interview. Based on the information given in the paper in relation to the to the procedures followed, it is clear that except for the study done by Owens et al (2000a), the procedures were not closely aligned with the other studies to which the researchers indicate that their findings concurred. An important aspect of research is that if a researcher is trying to prove or disprove a theory then the methodology used should be similar to the work on which the theory is based. Though the research sought to determine the perspectives of different groups on the matter being researched boys were grouped separately from girls which indicates a sexist approach which might have influenced the seemingly consistency in the answers given by girls as opposed to boys in most instances. Mixing some of the groups might have revealed some varying perspectives among the groups. According to Dawson (2002) focus groups though having some clear advantages have some disadvantages including: the fact that not everyone may contribute; some participants may try to influence the views of others; and it may be difficult to extract participants views when the analysis is being done. The procedures for the teachers and student counsellors were also different. They were interviewed separately. There was only one case in which boys responses were similar to girls and teachers. Even though the findings of these studies concurred with the findings of other studies, some of these studies were done by the same researchers with somewhat different procedures. The teachers were chosen based on the fact that they were counsellors or grade coordinators but this does not necessarily mean that they know more about the students than their subject teachers. Therefore, I think the study was disadvantaged by not having the perspectives of other teachers. The use of only females to interview the participants appears biased and sexist and may have influenced the way the boy in particular responded to the discussion. The discussion would have placed males in a bad light and having male involved in some of the groups whether consisting of girls in some instance and boys in others might have led to different results. A semi-structured interview was used in order to obtain information from the participants. This type of interview indicates that they were not looking for set answers. This means that open-ended as opposed to close-ended question that are characteristic of the quantitative approach were utilised. There were no attempts to quantify the number of participants who responded in a certain way, instead the term some was used where there was not a 100% share perspective on a particular matter. The interviews were taped and transcribed. Audio is obviously one of the best ways of ensuring that there are no misunderstandings or misrepresentation of facts. It supports the information collected by the transcribers who can then go back and listen to the taped information to ensure that what they have transcribed is accurate. The tone in which the responses were given would also indicate their sincerity. Owens et al (2005) analysed the responses on the basis of the themes covered in the interviews. In order to ensure intercoder reliability an agreement checking exercise was conducted. The level of reliability of 85% was observed and this is considered satisfactory. However, the way in which intercoder reliability was checked may not be considered objective as reliability seemed to have been subjectively worked out among the coders. Participant observation in focus groups and unstructured interviews which were the methods used by the researchers is normally used when the qualitative research methodology is employed. The responses given to the questions in this study might not have been based on the meanings constructed from the experiences which the respondents had in relation to the phenomenon. Owens et al (2005) employed a random sampling method to choose the participants consisting of 40 girls and 32 boys. Mason and Lind (1996) indicate that a simple random sample is formulated so that each person in the population has the same chance of being selected. This means that every member of the population of 14 and 15 year old students of all four schools studied had a fair chance of being selected as a participant in the study. This rules out any bias associated with the students chosen to take part in the study and so the results can be considered to be reliable. However, as previously stated the total population of grade 9 students from each of the four institutions studied is still everyone’s guess. An Alternative Approach to the Research Question (describe an alternative way in which the research question could have been answered and evaluate the relative strengths of the two different approaches;) An alternative way in which the question could have been approached is by using a quantitative approach instead of a qualitative approach. The advantages and disadvantages of both approach follows. No need to spend too much words on this. You should explain it with the Journal content concretely. Advantages and disadvantages of the qualitative research - An important advantage of the qualitative approach is the opportunity to obtain information from participants in their natural setting. Some of the disadvantages include the subjective nature of the process; and the length of time which it takes to obtain information which makes the process costly. Advantages and disadvantages of quantitative research – The advantage of this approach is that researchers get a chance to deal with more people quickly; it is very objective as it takes a scientific approach; results can be used to make generalisations; and the results can be analysed using graphs and charts which are easier to understand. The most important disadvantage is the fact that the questions used to obtain information are normally of the closed-ended type and therefore does not facilitate any additional answers outside of the narrow perspective of the researcher. The quantitative approach if utilised by Owens et al (2005) would have allowed for a larger sample size which would then be used for making generalisation. However, as Owens (2005) points out quantitative studies in this area normally use questionnaires that ask only generalised questions in which the context has been lost resulting in sexual harassment not be detected. However, despite the short comings in using the quantitative approach the researchers (ie., Owens et al 2005) indicates that future research should consider using a combination of both methods to an equal degree. This, I think would result in inconclusive findings. This would also increase the problems in relation to the integration of both two methodologies as pointed out in Bryman (2007). Full instruction: identify and discuss any ethical challenges and issues in the paper and suggest solutions. Or you can choose to appraise the relationships between research, theory and practice in the paper Ethical Challenges in the Paper(too fewer words on this section, and where is solution you suggested ) The structure is not good as a whole. According to Mane and Ganesan (2011, p. 33) ‘Ethics is an individual’s personal behaviour about whether a behaviour, action or decision is right or wrong.’ Owens et al (2005) used field research involving participant observation in the form of focus groups and individual interviews in order to gain information for their research. Babbie (2004, p. 285) indicates that this type of research brings into focus an ethical issue – one on which most researchers are divided. There is no indication in the research that ethical guidelines were followed. Though the teachers might have been aware the students were probability not aware and might not have consented to taking part in the process. The researchers should have given the participants the opportunity to decide whether they would like to be included in the study. Since this is just an overview or a pilot study to a more expansive study that will be done later, the researchers should obtain permission from parents and students themselves instead of deceiving them as to the true reason for the discussion. References Babbie, E. (2004). The Practice of Social Research. 10th ed. London: Thomson Learning Bryman, A. (2007). Barriers to Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research. 1(1), p. 8-22 Creswell, J.W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. 3rd ed. London: Sage Publications Dawson, C. (2002). Practical Research Methods: A user friendly guide to mastering research. Oxford: How to Books Ltd. Denzin, N.K and Lincoln, Y. (2005). The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. 3rd ed. London: Sage Publications Mane, A.S and Ganesan, P. (2011). Ethics: Pattern Regarding Belief for Workplace Behavior. World Journal of Social Sciences. 1(4), p. 33-51 Mason, R.D and Lind, D.A. (1996). Statistical Techniques in Business & Economics. 9th ed. London: Irwin Owens, L., Shute, R. and Slee, P. (2005). “In the eye of the beholder …”: Girls’, boys’ and teachers’ perceptions of boys’ aggression to girls. International Education Journal. 5(5), p. 142 – 151. Taylor, S.J and Bogdan, R. (1998). Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods: A Guidebook and Resource. 3rd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons Wilson, T.D. (2002). Alfred Schutz, phenomenology and research methodology for information behaviour research. Paper Presented on September 11-13 at Fourth International Conference on Information Seeking in Context (ISIC4) Universidade Lusiada, Lisbon, Portugal. [Online] Available at: http://informationr.net/tdw/publ/papers/schutz02.html. [Accessed 11 February 2012] Read More