Research MethodsQualitative Paradigm

Dr. Paula Charbonneau-Gowdy

Methodology and Methods

…looking at the classroom as a historically evolving and culturally

embedded system

“Increasingly, I have had to recognize that the gap between what second acquistion resarchers do and what teachers do has grown wider and that the former spend an increasing amount of time talking to each other in a language only they understand. “ (Ellis, 1997, pp. vii-viii)

Teachers as trainors vs Teachers as educators

Teaching as a…

Craft

Applied science

A reflective process

Case Study?

Exploring or describing a phenomenon in context using a variety of data sources

Action Research?

A (self-reflexive) inquiry undertaken by participants in order to improve their situations

Case Study

Action Research

Tools/Methods/Strategies (Ethnographic)

Tool/Strategy ExampleInterviews Key informants, depth, focus group

Observations Structured, unstructured, participant

Recordings Video and audio

Video and audio

Documents Existing, programs materials, records

Field Notes Contextual information, reflective journals, other stakeholders

Issues that arise…

Standards

Issues that arise…

Ethics

Issues that arise…

Reporting

Issues that arise…

Quality & sustainability

Accurate and fair ways of representing what teachers find in their research will require unconventional new discourses and genres. ( Freeman 1998)

What is to be gained ?

Agents rather than recipients of knowledge

New knowledge for your classroom, school, community…

International Perspectives on Teacher Research (International Perspectives on English Language Teaching)

Mar 4, 2015by Simon Borg and Hugo Santiago Sanchez

Contribute to the building of educational theories of practice for Chile

Move from micro to macro…ecological perspective

Context Discourses

Actions

Perceptions Nested ecosystems

Gain a voice!!!!

Questions

1. How can we decide which type of study is the most appropriate for our thesis?

2. How does one deal with issues of time and experience in terms of teachers conducting classroom-based research?

3. Shouldn’t the programs that train future teachers be teaching the different approaches to research, the idea of publishing and making change?

4. Could Action Research help students with certain disabilities – dyslexia, asperger, ADHD, for example – to improve their learning?

Questions cont’d…5. What is the ability to go from micro to macro in Case Study dependent upon?

6.  Wouldn’t the use of evolving issues force the researcher to write new questions that can make him/her deviate from the original purpose of the investigation? Should a researcher avoid, include, or save these new questions arising and use them for future investigations?

7. How can researchers be able to reduce new behaviors that might make the study to be aiming at a different problem solution?

Questions cont’d…

8. How can you focus your questions so that they are not too general or broad?

9. I definitely agree with the fact that it is powerful in order to explore our issue in depth but if we go deeply into the sub-units during the research, would it become more subjective? Or would it provide objective insights for researches?

10. In CS, the researcher has a role of detached observer in order to produce theoretical knowledge about a singular situation.

Questions cont’d…

12. I really want to explore what students think about in order to answer my questions and find ways to improve the issues but I am afraid they may not open their minds so I need to find the best qualitative methods to grasp their inner feelings and thoughts.

Questions cont’d…

13. Should it be a major concern about the lack of interest expressed by some teachers to participate and get involved in investigations or studies? Why is it that most of the teachers have never ever carried out any research in their own contexts, even when they may know they are one of the two main protagonists in charge of making huge changes possible?

Group Activity 1. You have been teaching in a new school since the beginning of the semester and you have come to understand that many of the innovative practices that you would like to put into practice in the classroom are not being tolerated by the administration. Knowing that you have recently received your Masters degree the head of the school has asked you to conduct some research that would lead to improvements in learning in the school. With your group, develop questions that you might use to frame a study and decide on a Case Study or Action Research methodology and the tools that you might use to collect the data.

Group Activity 2

Develop a scenario for another group in the class for your classmates to develop a research methodology and choose tools for data collection.