Doing Social Research: A Global Context

Claire Wagner holds a PhD in psychology and works in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Her Masters training was in research psychology after which she specialized in issues of methodology and its pedagogy. Her PhD research encompassed a survey of research methods courses at South African universities as well as interviews with teachers of methods courses. She continues to write on developments in the field of social research pedagogy. Currently she teaches a generic under-graduate methods course in the Faculty of Humanities and is responsible for the Masters qualitative methodology course in the Department of Psychology. Barbara Kawulich received her PhD in Human Resource Development and teaches in the College of Education at the University of West Georgia in the United States. Her doctoral dissertation was an ethnographic study of Muscogee (Creek) women’s perceptions of work. She has taught ethnography, qualitative research, and action research to students in business and education. Her publications address qualitative research methods and issues of importance to Muscogee (Creek) women. Mark Garner teaches applied linguistics at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He is also engaged on a national communication project for British police. His first teaching positions were in foreign languages and teacher training. He later designed and taught Master’s programmes in applied linguistics at universities in Australia, Indonesia, and England, as well as in his present position at Aberdeen. It was through developing these courses that he acquired his interest in teaching research methods. In 1995 he won an Australian government teaching grant to develop a teaching video that was distributed to research methods courses throughout the country.

• Section 1: Getting started in social research1. Introducing social research in a global context - Claire Wagner2. Developing a research topic and planning the research project - Claire Wagner, Anja Botha and Melody Mentz3. Writing a literature review - Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie and Rebecca K. Frels4. Selecting a research approach: paradigm, methodology and methods - Bagele Chilisa and Barbara B. Kawulich5. Ethical considerations in conducting research - Tamra Ogletree and Barbara B. KawulichSection 2: Identifying a useful methodology and methods6. Measurement - Melody Mentz and Anja Botha7. Methods of sampling - Sumaya Laher and Anja Botha8. Survey research - Melody Mentz9. Experimental research - Craig A. Mertler10. Qualitative research - Jan Nieuwenhuis and Brigitte Smit11. Document analysis - Adilia S.F. Silva12. Collecting data through observation - Barbara B. Kawulich13. Multi-method research - Charles PotterSection 3: Analysing and presenting data: Exercises in analysis and interpreting your research14. Descriptive statistics - Melody Mentz and Anja Botha15. Inferential statistics - Melody Mentz and Anja Botha16. Qualitative data analysis - Barbara B. Kawulich and Laurel Holland17. Writing up your research - Mark Garner and Anne Ryen