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CHAPTER 1: THE SELECTION OF A RESEARCH APPROACH
Research Approaches – plans and the procedures for
research that span the steps from broad assumptions to
detailed methods of data collection, analysis, and
interpretation.
Research Method – specific approach of data
collection, analysis, and interpretation.
Research Design
- procedures of inquiry
- the overall decision rooted from a plan which involves
philosophical assumptions the researcher brings to the
study
- more specific compared to research method
Research Problem – issue being addressed, the
researchers’ personal experiences, and the audiences
for the study.
Research Components
1. Philosophical Worldviews
- worldview meaning “a basic set of beliefs that guide
action”
- can be also called paradigms, epistemologies,
ontologies, or broadly conceived research
methodologies
- has four categories:
a. Postpositivist
- major elements are: determination, reductionism,
empirical observation and measurement, theory
verification
- comes from 19th century writers, such as Comte, Mill,
Durkheim, Newton, and Locke (Smith, 1983) and
more recently from writers such as Phillips and
Burbules (2000).
- represented the traditional form of research hold
true more for quantitative research than qualitative
research the scientific method, or doing science
research.
b. Constructivist
- major elements are: understanding, multiple
participant meanings, social and historical
construction, theory generation
- often address the processes of interaction among
individuals.
- focus on the specific contexts in which people live
and work in order to understand the historical and
cultural settings of the participants.
shape their interpretation, and they position
themselves in the research to acknowledge how
their interpretation flows from their personal, cultural,
and historical experiences.
- researcher’s intent is to make sense of (or interpret)
the meanings others have about the world.
- inquirers generate or inductively develop a theory
or pattern of meaning.
- typically seen as an approach to qualitative
research believe that individuals seek understanding
of the world in which they live and work.
- individuals develop subjective meanings of their
experiences—meanings directed toward certain
objects or things.
- the goal of the research is to rely as much as
possible on the participants’ views of the situation
being studied.
c. Transformative
- major elements are: political, power and justice
oriented, collaborative, change-oriented
- holds that research inquiry needs to be intertwined
with politics and a political change agenda to
confront social oppression at whatever levels it
occurs (Mertens, 2010).
- cction agenda for reform of research may change
lives of the participants, the institutions in which
individuals work or live, and the researcher’s life.
- specific issues need to be addressed such as
empowerment, inequality, oppression, domination,
suppression, and alienation which becomes the
focal point of the study
- assumes that the inquirer will proceed
collaboratively so as to not further marginalize the
participants as a result of the inquiry
- the participants may help design questions, collect
data, analyze information, or reap the rewards of the
research.
- provides a voice for these participants, raising their
consciousness or advancing an agenda for change
to improve their lives. It becomes a united voice for
reform and change.
- focuses on the needs of groups and individuals in
our society that may be marginalized or
disenfranchised
- theoretical perspectives may be integrated with
the philosophical assumptions that construct a
picture of the issues being examined, the people to
be studied, and the changes that are needed, such
as feminist perspectives, racialized discourses, critical
theory, queer theory, and disability theory
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experiences of diverse groups that have traditionally
been marginalized and how their lives have been
constrained by oppressors and the strategies that
they use to resist, challenge, and subvert these
constraints
- research focuses on inequities based on gender,
race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, and
socioeconomic class that result in asymmetric power
relationships
- links political and social action to these inequities
- uses a program theory of beliefs about how a
program works and why the problems of oppression,
domination, and power relationships exist.
d. Pragmatism
- major elements are: consequences of actions,
problem centered, pluralistic, real-word practice
oriented
- arises out of actions, situations, and consequences
rather than antecedent conditions (as in
postpositivism).
- there is a concern with applications—what works—
and solutions to problems (Patton, 1990)
- instead of focusing on methods, researchers
emphasize the research problem and question and
use all approaches available to understand the
problem (see Rossman & Wilson, 1985)
- as a philosophical underpinning for mixed methods
studies, Morgan (2007), Patton (1990), and Tashakkori
and Teddlie (2010) convey its importance for
focusing attention on the research problem in social
science research and then using pluralistic
approaches to derive knowledge about the
problem
2. Research Designs
a. Quantitative – is a research approach that utilizes
the testing objective theories by examining the
relationship among variables (e.g. Survey Research,
Experimental Research)
b. Qualitative – is a research approach that
exploring and understanding the meaning
individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human
problem (e.g. Narrative Research,
Phenomenological Research, Grounded Theory,
Ethnography, Case Study)
c. Mixed Methods – inquiry involving collecting both
quantitative and qualitative data, integrating the
two forms of data, and using distinct designs that
may involve philosophical assumptions and
 theoretical frameworks (e.g. Convergent, Integration of Research Approaches as Worldviews,
Explanatory sequential, Exploratory sequential) Designs and Methods

Quantitative Qualitative Mixed Methods

3. Research Methods  Constructivism
- involves the forms of questions, data collection, data  Experimental  Pragmatism
analysis, interpretation, and validation that researchers design  Collection of
propose for their studies  Pretest and both
posttest quantitative
 Post-
Quantitative Qualitative measures of and
Mixed Methods positivism
Methods Methods attitudes qualitative
Both pre- data
determined Emerging  Transformative sequentially
Pre-determined
and emerging methods  Advocacy in the design
methods  Participatory
Both open-
Instrument
and-closed Open-ended References:
based
ended questions
questions
questions Bacani, M. K. (2020) Module and Syllabus on Field
Interview data, Methods in Psychology
Performance
observation
data, attitude Multiple forms
data, Creswell, J. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative,
data, of data
document Quantitative and Mixed methods Approaches (5th Ed.).
observational drawing on all
data, and CA: Sage Publications Inc.
data, and possibilities
audiovisual
census data
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Statistical Statistical and Text and image Compiled by: Bryle Zyver R. Pineda | @brylezyver
Analysis text analysis analysis
Across Themes,
Statistical
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interpretation
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Research Approach Model

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