This is the question we tackled in my Friday night class (Yes. It’s on Friday night from 5:30-8:20 pm = Awesome). #ATTD6480: Research Methods is one of my final courses in my doctoral program designed to help graduate students create an empirical research article and/or develop our dissertation proposal. I am looking forward to it – so far we started to talk about our preferred research methods and potential topics for the semester.
Cartoon image c/o Sheldon Comics
This was our opening activity. We had to read this cartoon and respond to this question: Are you more drawn to qualitative or quantitative research? Why?
My response is that I dabble in both areas. For areas of study and research, I really do need to take a mixed method approach. In class, I identified with the pragmatism and constructivism worldview philosophy for research. In looking around the table, I am fortunate to be the only one applying mixed methods based on my experiences in research, work and collaborating with some great authors. As a researcher, I seek to understand rather than test a theory (postpositivism), and I am usually looking to generate practical, real-world solutions with my research. Here is a quick breakdown of four world views of research from Creswell (2009, p. 6):
| Postpositivism Determinism Reductionism Empirical observation and measurement Theory verification |
Constructivism Understanding Multiple participant meaning Social and historical construction Theory generation |
| Advocacy/Participatory Political Empowerment Issue-oriented Collaborative Change-orientated |
Pragmatism Consequences of actions Problem-centered Pluralistic Realist-world practice oriented |
Where in the world does your research lie? What sort of research methods do you prefer? What strategies of inquiry do you apply for your qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods approach? I will continue to share ideas from this class and my first official qualitative class (#ANTH 5031: Ethnographic & Qualitative Methods) over the course of the semester. I welcome your research methods, applications and resources.
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