CONSTRUCTION AND STANDARDIZATION OF RESEARCH TOOLS IN

SOCIAL SCIENCES
Concept, Nature and Gaps in Educational Research
The Basic Commitments

Joy Kirt Sidhu

Himalaya College of Education, Ranwar, Karnal

Abstract

In order to make the research study more objective, systematic and authentic, the
construction of tools and selection of the techniques for collecting data are of prime
importance in social sciences and education is no exception. It is more vital and
important task for' the trainee researchers in educational institutions. Due to lack of
awareness and proper knowledge about research among them is the main reason for
lower quality and ineffective research in the field of education. The most important link
in the entire research process is the researcher. The training imparted to the researcher
determines the quality of research generated therefore it becomes imperative that
adequate focus be given to this vital aspect of research. Research in Social sciences is
intrinsically different from research in natural sciences therefore the sensitization of the
apprentice researcher to this aspect of research is also needed. There is also a perceived
lack of connection between research and practice. This paper aims at enlisting the Basic
Commitments which should guide any research work so that good quality of research is
accomplished.

Modern social science is about finding those conventions, those predictable patterns, with
which we can make sense of our lives. Particularly important to the social scientific
method is the use of language for identifying, maintaining, and sharing our propositions.
"In Western and especially modern consciousness, ... the idea of method draws its power
from the fact that certain objects and processes can be experimentally isolated and
thereby controlled" (Gadamer, in Grondin, 1994, p. 118).

Four hypotheses have been put forward to account for a perceived lack of connection
between research and practice by Prof. Mary M. Kennedy of Michigan State University:
(a) Educational Research needs to be more authoritative,
(b) Educational Research needs to be more relevant,
(c) Educational Research needs to be more accessible, and
(d) The education system itself is inherently too stable or too unstable and therefore
unable to respond coherently to research findings.

Research in Social Science should lead to innovation, build interdisciplinary and

international networks, and focus research on important public issues. It should be
independent and not-for-profit, and should be guided by the belief that justice, prosperity,
and democracy all require better understanding of complex social, cultural, economic,
and political processes. The aim should be to work with practitioners, policymakers, and
academic researchers in all the social sciences, related professions, and the humanities
and natural sciences. With partners around the world, it should be able to mobilize
existing knowledge for new problems, link research to practice and policy, strengthen
individual and institutional capacities for learning, and enhance public access to
information. It should ideally bring necessary knowledge to public action.

Research in social sciences is characterized by fact-finding and empirical approach. That

is partly because it originated from critical views against philosophy-bound pedagogies
which had focused on the history of the educational ideas, and against politically biased
educational theories which had superseded the traditional pedagogies. On the other hand,
while researchers tend to isolate a slice of the question so that they can handle it more
easily, their task is not accomplished until they place the output back into the context of
intertwined social problems and see the question in its proper perspective.

In the second place, educational research is macroscopic while that in fields like natural
sciences and educational psychology it is microscopic, though these disciplines have
positivism in common. Within social sciences, fields such as the history of education and
comparative education also pursue macroscopic research but sociology differs from them
in having policy-oriented stance. It is true that sociologists should keep on paying close
attention to social needs and historians should do the same but this does not mean that
they should act in obedience to the request from their clients.
Thirdly, the members of the present Society show a rich variety in their disciplines. It
comprises of specialists in economics, politics, geography and history as well as
sociology, and accordingly, "educational research" is used as generic term for researches
in the field of education done by social scientists. This intercommunication between
various disciplines can be regarded as an asset to the Society, because educational
research is inherently of multi-disciplinary nature. Moreover, research interests for a
Japanese sociologist cannot be the same as those for an American sociologist. Different
countries are faced with different social problems and policy issues. Discouraged by the
foreign culture and social milieu, expertise transplanted from another country hardly ever
bears good fruit. Therefore, a researcher must not remain too sensitive to the trends in
other advanced countries. Instead, he is expected to develop an original theory with a full
understanding of the situation and problems in his country.

In addition, educational research includes not only quantitative analyses but also
qualitative analyses, being free from the limitation of natural science which considers
what cannot be measured to be negligible. It is well known that natural science goes in a
linear way through the steps of pure research, applied research, and development before it
is turned to practical use for policy markers. In contrast with natural science, educational
research in social sciences is not often utilized directly for policy formulation and
administrative decision making. Its chief function is to exert influence over educational
policies through diffusion or enlightenment in a long term, usually by heightening the
awareness of new problems or new perspective on the problems.

The Basic Commitments

The approaches to the research work should be guided by five basic commitments:

Fostering Innovation
To work on problems that need new approaches; the researchers should act as a catalyst
for new thinking, seeking to mobilize the most creative and knowledgeable researchers
and to help research institutions be more dynamic. Renewing existing expertise, putting
knowledge to work on new problems, and generating novel data and theories are all
crucial to advancing social science for the public good.

Investing in the Future

Its aim should be to ensure the future of knowledge production through nurturing new
generations of researchers, enabling practitioners to act on scientific knowledge,
enhancing cross-fertilization among intellectual fields, developing capacity where it is
most lacking, and facilitating the internationalization of social science.

Working Internationally and Democratically

Better understanding of basic social processes is a resource for improving the lives of all.
It should be available to all. Participation in the production of scientific knowledge
should also be as broad as possible. Work should be in support of the internationalization
of social science and opportunities for under-represented groups both as matters of equity
and as requirements for ensuring that the production of knowledge is informed by
different contexts and perspectives.

Combining Urgency and Patience

It must bring researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and broader publics together to
focus on topics of pressing public importance from health to human rights. But since
even the most urgent problems are seldom solved overnight, we must learn even as we
act, and we must continually renew existing knowledge.

Keeping Standards High

Practical action, policy, and debate on major public issues all need to be informed by the
best possible knowledge. This is produced by emphasizing scientific quality, engaging
important public questions, and ensuring openness to critical analysis. Theory and
research can then command the attention of those who approach practical issues with
different values or agendas.
To achieve the above listed basic commitments its imperative that research trainees be
trained so that the realization of basic commitments can be achieved with the aim to
support students, within an active research community, in identifying and designing their
own original research project on a modest scale. The learning outcomes by the end of the
unit, the students should be able to have the following:

Knowledge and Understanding

* understand the basic principles of research design and appreciate alternative approaches
to research;
* understand the significance of alternative epistemological positions that provide the
context for theory construction, research design and the selection of appropriate
analytical techniques

Intellectual skills
* define researchable problems and formulate questions and, where appropriate,
hypotheses;
* understand the relationships between, and the rationale for, particular qualitative and
quantitative research methods and be able to select appropriate strategies for research
and/or evaluation;
* understand and apply concepts of generalisability, validity, reliability and replicability;

Professional Practice Skills

* develop, apply, test and hone on a modest scale the professional practice skills taught in
the research methods units of the programme, depending on the particular nature of their
research apprenticeship
* understand issues posed by social research in relation to ethics, confidentiality and
legality;
* have a good command of language skills where appropriate.

Transferable/Key skills
* develop, apply, test and hone on a modest scale some of the transferable/key skills
taught in the research methods units of the programme, depending on the particular
nature of their Research Apprenticeship Project.

Content
Any area of social science research for which an adequate level of supervision can be
offered is suitable to be the content for the Research Apprenticeship Project. The nature
of the Short Research Apprenticeship Project should be that students 'learn-by-doing', and
so they will be expected to demonstrate their ability to identify a manageable research
question from an area of interest and literature, and then to plan the research process
through from problem identification to research choices, to data collection and analysis,
with clear consideration of ethical issues. The submitted research design, including pilot
data, is expected to conform to acceptable standards of presentation for a research
proposal.

Research Design
All research has a research design, but that sometimes this is left implicit, when it should
be made explicit and systematic. Emphasis should be placed on the importance of being
as clear as possible about design issues, even before writing a research proposal. At the
same time, it should be kept open to the premise on the assumption that those decisions
are likely to be revised throughout the process of inquiry; they are not conceived as the
formulation of a plan that is then simply implemented. While there is now a considerable
literature dealing with qualitative method, little of it focuses specifically on research
design; and one needs to deal with the issue in a practical, and at the same time
principled, way. The apprentice researcher should be made familiar to a range of different
aspects of research design i.e. purposes, conceptual context, research questions, methods,
and validity issues etc. There should be discussions of the different sorts of purpose that
can motivate research, and of the relationship between these and research questions; as
well as of the link between research questions and the methods to be used. The final
training should deal with writing research proposals.

The distinction between personal, practical, and research purposes is valuable with the
first two as the motives for research and the last as its goal. By making this distinction,
the different roles of these purposes in research are emphasized terminologically. The
variance and process theory is characteristic of quantitative research and involves
assessing the causal contribution of different explanatory variables. Process theory, is
more appropriate to qualitative research, and as the name implies is concerned with
describing processes as they occur. However some may find that causal analysis requires
both assessment of the relative causal power of potential explanatory factors and
documentation of the processes involved, neither is sufficient on its own. This relates to
more fundamental doubts about the very distinction between quantitative and qualitative
method.

With the above training the trainee / apprentice researcher will be well equipped for the
next set of research skills. The next step would be to equip the students with an
understanding of the rationale for and appropriate use of qualitative methods in social
research, and the skills to conduct qualitative research. The specific aim would be to
achieve the following Learning Outcomes:

Knowledge and Understanding:

* Appreciate the rationale for when to use qualitative methods, and where relevant the
relationship between qualitative and quantitative methods;
* Understand the epistemological assumptions that underpin qualitative methodology.

Intellectual skills
* Be able to define researchable problems using qualitative methods;
* Be able to select appropriate qualitative methods for research questions;
* Understand how issues of measurement, validity, reliability and replicability are
addressed within qualitative methods;
* Be able to conduct research using qualitative methods, including the use of recording
techniques;
* Know how to approach the analysis of qualitative data;
* Recognise how tools for research are developed in response to a particular research
question;
* Recognise the cultural context of the design, conduct, analysis and interpretation of
qualitative material and the implications of this for formulating research designs.

Content:
The unit should comprise of
1. Core lectures on issues in qualitative research, and key questions of context and
culture.
2. Lectures that combine traditional lecturing with workshop activities to provide
theoretical understanding and practical experience of methods of qualitative research in
terms of collecting and eliciting data, and observational and textual data analysis:
interviewing, focus groups, ethnography, participatory research, action research,
grounded theory and discourse analysis.
3. Introduction to computer aided qualitative analysis.
4. Seminars in which students discuss set articles related to each lecture topic.

Reference

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