Cape Breton University & Lakeland College

Introduction to the course:

Doing research is fascinating; learning about doing research does not enjoy that reputation. Research methods courses often may be seen as being dull and uninteresting. However, undertaking a research project of your own is one of the most engaging activities I can imagine. It requires ingenuity, effort, and your unique talents to pull it off. Your research reflects who you are as a person and what you value. Human beings are built to learn, to discover and build new knowledge, and that is what research is all about. It’s about learning something new, telling a story that has not yet been told. This course will show you how understanding and applying research methods separates everyday stories from the systematic descriptions of people and processes that are trusted in academic circles.

In this course you will be introduced to qualitative research methods. You will learn by doing, taking the first steps toward writing your Major Research Essay (MRE). It is possible that you have other goals in mind as well (helping a community organization, better understanding a specific group, moving forward on an action plan, etc.) and these are perfectly legitimate, acceptable parts of the research process. If you will pardon the mixed metaphors, in this course you will not be a detached scientist working in an ivory tower laboratory seeking proof of an obscure phenomenon. You are working in the field of community economic development which means that your research will be more practical, more applied, and hopefully more interesting. For this course, your task is to begin becoming a researcher, someone whose observations can stand up to scrutiny, someone whose descriptions can be trusted. Research methods allow you to gain confidence in the quality of your explanations, and that is at the heart of good research.

Let me offer you this note of caution: the traditional view of research in North America is based on the scientific method. In that method, you set out to prove that your hypothesis is true, or at least very likely to be true. That is not what you will be doing in your MRE, or in this course. I would prefer if you thought of the research process that you will undertake as finding details that help you tell a story about something that is interesting, and making sure that your story makes sense. You are not setting out to prove anything, but to describe something.

Preparation:

1. Have an idea of a research topic ready for the first class. Think of it in general terms, “I would like to learn more about _____” or “I would like to tell the story of _____.” Think about why the topic interests you, what you already know and what else you would like to learn about the topic. This might turn into the topic for your MRE or it might not. Don’t put pressure on yourself to choose your MRE topic now, the pressure of that decision or waffling between topics really will slow you down. I recommend sticking with one topic for the duration of the 603 course; I think you will learn more about the research process that way. Once you get the hang of the process you can efficiently apply it to your MRE project.

For the first class: Prepare a draft of your first research memo, Researcher Identity. This is described in Exercise 2.1 in the Maxwell book, which is reprinted below.

2. One of the exercises we will do is a brief interview. Acquire a cassette tape recorder with a blank tape, or similar device to record a 5 minute conversation.

3. Make some free time before every class during the course for writing memos. This is an integral part of the course and it is best of you can arrange your schedule to allow time between each class to do some reading, thinking and writing.

Texts:

Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Qualitative research design (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
This is a very good book by an experienced researcher who explains the research process well, from a personal perspective. This is an account of what really happens in undertaking research.

DelBalso, M. and Lewis, A. D. (2005). First steps: a guide to social research (3rd Ed.). Scarborough, ON: Nelson Canada.
This is more of the traditional research methods text, fairly dry and like a cookbook. It is an nice summary of the tools that a researcher has available, their advantages and disadvantages, and how to use them.

MacIntyre, A. (2004). Jobs are not the answer, but then what is?
This is an example of a book-length, qualitative research report. There are four CED projects reported in this highly personal text.

Grading:

The course grade will be based on the following considerations:
1. Quality and quantity of participation in discussions in class (20%)
2. Quality of memos and other exercises, and completing them on time (30%)
3. Research proposal (50%)