Becoming a Researcher: A Research Companion for the Social Sciences

Dr Mairead Dunne is Senior Lecturer in Education at Institute of Education, University of Sussex. John Pryor and Paul Yates are also at the University of Sussex.

• Chapter 1 Introduction What sort of book?Writers’ voicesMaking a ReadingThemesStructurePart 1 - Distinguishing Data - Constructing textChapter 2 The Logic of EnquiryFinding a Place to Stand The Nature of the SocialPositivism and Social ValuesReflexivityThe Logic of EnquiryChapter 3 Talking with people - InterviewingIntroductionThe broad schemaInterview texts as ‘ resource’Interviews as social actionPower and process in the interviewKnowledge and PowerQuestions and DesignChapter 4 Knowing with Numbers- Questionnaires IntroductionQuantification as Scientific InquiryThe Questionnaire as Scientific ApparatusConstructing the Respondent / ReaderTheoretical structuringDeconstruction Using QuestionnairesChapter 5 Being There - ObservationIntroductionAction in the FieldFrom Action to DataFrom Data to ReportConclusionPart 2-Dicing with data – Deconstructing textChapter 6 Breaking Down Data – Routes to Interpretation IntroductionFrom Field to TextDicing with DataPerhaps not...?Complex RealismsInterpretivist RepertoiresReflexivity and RepresentationChapter 7 Worrying at Words – Discourse AnalysisIntroductionTranscripts and SummariesCritical?Uncritical?Reference Outside the Text: Circularity of ArgumentThought and Language: More CircularityGeneralizingSpotting FeaturesDiscourse Analysis and Researcher IdentityChapter 8 Pulverizing Policy – Deconstructing DocumentsPolicy and ProcessDeconstructing the TextThe Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural CurriculumAnalysing Key DocumentsThe QCA Draft GuidancePart 3 -Data with Destiny - Reconstructing TextChapter 9 Writing Research – Authoring TextWriting and the RealArt and ScienceWriting the RealQualitative EmpiricismEpistemologyLanguage and the Real: Writing and PostmodernismAudienceReadingIntertextualityForm and GenreKnowledgeChapter 10 The Selfish Text – Research and IdentityThe Late Modern SelfNarrating the SelfPostmodern Selves: Agency and DeterminismIdentity and Social TheoryCulture and the Global PerspectiveThe Democratization of ResearchChapter 11 Methods and MethodologyWhat is Methodology?Methodology, the Research Process and IdentityMethodology and Legitimacy – Identity and NarrativeA Way Forward for Social Research?P.S.