Something happened at my children’s school the other day that prompted me to muse again about interpretivism. It doesn’t matter what exactly the incident was, but let’s say that it was something as simple as a teacher asking some pupils to keep the noise down during a group task. How many different ways are there …
Tag: methodology
Musings on focus groups
Several of my students have used, or are planning to use, focus groups in their research projects. I’ve seen this method of data collection used in rigorous research settings as well as looser market or customer research settings and have been pondering on the pros and cons presented. ‘A focus group saves so much time …
Musings on appreciative inquiry
When I was doing research for my MBA back in the late 1990s (yes, I’m ancient) I came across a peculiar effect that my presence as an interviewer had on participants. With the exception of the Dissertation, none of my MBA assignments required me to do any primary research. But of course I did some. …
Musings on the research onion
Many of you will recognise the term ‘research onion’. Disappointingly, this is not a sentient onion that has mastered the skills of research, but is a shorthand reference to a well-known and well-used model showing the various methodological decisions one must make when designing a research project, devised and published by Mark Saunders, Adrian Thornhill …
Musings on the nature of reality
My 12-year-old son loves computer games such as Minecraft and Roblox. He is totally absorbed by them and loses himself in the blocky little worlds on his computer screen. He has an avatar, an alter-ego and becomes that character when playing the games. Left to his own devices (both literally and metaphorically) he would play …
Musings on ways of doing research (and socks)
There are some words and phrases you will encounter in methodological discussions and it’s important to understand what they mean and how they are used by researchers. Let’s start with ‘methodology’ itself. I tell my students that ‘method’ is what you do and the ‘ology’ is why and how you’re doing it that way. A …
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Musings on methodology 