Research methods – different approaches to research

Before conducting any kind of research the researcher must make plans for the research itself. One of the first things on the agenda is to specify what sort of information one wishes

to get out of the research. Constructing preliminary questions can help the researcher to narrow down the focal point of the research, which will make it easier to construct the questions for qualitative interviews and/or quantitative questionnaires. Furthermore, the researcher must bear in mind the “philosophical worldview assumptions” (Creswell 5) she carries with her in her research. Philosophical worldview refers to “the nature of research that a researcher holds” (Creswell 6) and implies that every researcher has certain beliefs that affect the way one approaches and experiences research. John W. Creswell offers four different philosophical worldviews and each worldview tends to favor one of the following methods of research, though they are not limited to just one: qualitative methods, quantitative methods, and mixed methods. The four worldviews Creswell offers are:

1. Postpositivism 2. Constructivism

3. Advocacy/Participatory 4. Pragmatism

The postpositivist worldview entails “a need to identify and assess the causes that influence the outcomes” (Creswell 7), meaning the outcome of an experiment is not sufficient to explain the experiment itself. There is a need to find out why the outcome turned out the way it did. A postpositivist also believes that there is no such thing as an absolute truth. Any evidence you may find in research is “imperfect and fallible”. Creswell further explains how

“the knowledge that develops through a postpositivist lens is based on careful observations and measurements of the objective reality that exists “out there” in the world, and in addition to this he explains how the “laws or theories that govern the world” need to be verified through tests with necessary revisions in order to understand and explain how the world is (Creswell 7). This worldview coincides with the quantitative method due to its numeric measurements in research.

Social constructivism on the other hand leans towards qualitative research method. A social constructivist holds “assumptions that individuals seek understanding of the world in which they live and work”. (Creswell 8) The focus is on the individual’s subjective meaning in relation to objects or things. Unlike the postpositivist worldview, the social constructivism does not seek to reduce meaning into smaller categories. It seeks out the complexity of the individual’s understanding of things and/or situations and relies as much as possible on this in research. Therefore the questions are often quite open or general in order to give the

participants room to establish meanings in relation to the subject of the research. The

meanings are generally constructed because of conversation or discussions with other people

and other social and historical norms that affect them in their life. Thus the researchers focus on “the processes of interaction among individuals” and “the specific contexts in which people live and work”(Creswell 8). As Creswell explains, the purpose of the research is to discover or interpret how other people understand the world. Social constructivism searches for subjective views of specific things or situations rather than measurable answers as sought in postpositivism.

Another type of worldview is the advocacy/participatory approach, which is most often connected with qualitative research, although it may apply to quantitative research as well (Creswell 9). This worldview is quite different from social constructivism in the way that the researchers who operate within this school of thought believe that social constructivism is not enough to help marginalized individuals or people who are victims to social injustice.

Thus the advocacy/participatory worldview holds assumptions that “research inquiry needs to be intertwined with politics and a political agenda”. (Creswell 9) The research focuses on what Creswell describes as action agenda for reform, meaning research where the desired result is reforms that may help improve the lives of the participants, both personal life and work life (Creswell 9).

Last but not least we have the pragmatic worldview, which derives from action,

consequences and situations. This approach is different from the previous three approaches, as the pragmatic approach does not favor one specific method of research (Creswell 10). This approach focuses on problems and the solution to those problems, and in order to understand the problem the researchers face they will employ all research methods accessible to them. In other words, a research project conducted from a pragmatic point of view will employ both qualitative and quantitative method to collect the necessary data. As Creswell puts it:

“Individual researchers have a freedom of choice. In this way, researchers are free to choose the methods, techniques, and procedures of research that best meet their needs and purposes”

(Creswell 11). It is important to note that the pragmatist researcher must establish a reason for using mixed methods in their research.

As for my study, the relevant worldview is pragmatism. The reason for this that I want to examine to what extent ICT implementation in the English subject provides students with the digital skills and knowledge that are necessary in order to engage with modern day society. I want to explore how English language learning can incorporate the students’

informal non-academic utilization of ICT with the formal teaching that happens in school in a manner that does not change the school’s position as an educational institution. The

introduction of the students’ lifeworld in language learning could give the students the

opportunity to be more active and autonomous in the learning process where the teacher serves as a guiding point or monitor. When I had decided on a topic and what kind of

questions I wanted to ask, I realized that one research method would not be sufficient to give me the answers I needed. I decided to use both quantitative and qualitative methods of research in order to gather all the data I felt was necessary to answer my thesis

question/statement. As previously mentioned, the ability to utilize all research methods accessible is what characterizes the pragmatic worldview, and therefore I argue for a

pragmatic approach in my research. More on the how and why I did this will be addressed in the upcoming sections of this chapter, but first I would like to take a closer look at the three types of research methods I mentioned earlier.