Over the past few decades there has been a major shift in research methodology – away from technicist to more contextual and pragmatic approaches. This is reflected in a greater emphasis on interdisciplinary and applied research skills, the concurrent use of qualitive and quantitative methods, and more sophisticated understanding of the epistemological grounding research. Research in Practice incorporates these new trends while also providing comprehensive coverage of the full range of established research approaches and techniques.

Key Features

• A lively text which incorporates new trends while also providing comprehensive coverage of the full range of established research approaches and techniques
• Structured to facilitate systematic study of each phase of the research process in sequence
• Aims to ground research methodology in terms of practical outcomes, and to equip students with applied technical know-how and conceptual tools to evaluate and contextualise their work in terms of larger social and philosophical issues
• A strong emphasis on practical examples drawn from the southern African experience
• Richly supplemented by photographs, case studies, tips and checklists.
  
  

Section 1: The research process
• Histories of the present: social science research in context
• Doing an information search
• Research design
• Ethical issues in social science research
• Putting design into practice: writing and evaluating research proposals
• Publish or perish: disseminating your research findings
Section 2: Quantitative research techniques
• Generating quantitative data
• Evaluating research design
• Basic quantitative analysis
• Jumping to conclusions: an overview of inferential statistical methods
• Multivariate data analysis
Section 3: Qualitative research techniques
• Why qualitative research?
• From encounter to text: collecting data in qualitative research
• First steps in qualitative data analysis
• Lived experience and interpretation: the balancing act in qualitative analysis
• Calling it a day: reaching conclusions in qualitative research
Section 4: Research in applied contexts
• Jobs and careers in social science research
• Programme evaluation
• Participatory action research: a practical guide for realistic radicals
• Researching public policy
• Research methods in clinical research
• Assessment research
• Standpoint methodologies: Marxist, feminist, and black scholarship perspectives
• Postmodernism: a critical practice?
• Postcolonial African methods and interpretation

• Undergraduate and postgraduate students of psychology, sociology, anthropology and applied fields of social work, nursing and occupational therapy
• Practising researchers