The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project
Fourth Edition
Chapter 10: Understanding Methodologies: Evaluative, Action-Oriented and Emancipatory Strategies
A. Checklist for Methods Appropriate to Evaluative Research
- Have you determined if you will be conducting outcome or process evaluation?
- If process oriented:
- Have you determined if you will be exploring the perspectives of the providers, the recipients of the wider community?
- Have you thought through the pros and cons of interviews, focus groups, and small-scale surveying?
- If outcome-oriented:
- Have you determined if you will be exploring the perspectives of the providers, the recipients of the wider community?
- Have you thought through the pros and cons of interviews, document analysis, focus groups, and small-scale surveying?
- Can you pull off an experimental/quasi-experimental comparison?
- Can you find a matched control group?
- Is baseline data available?
B. Checklist for Managing Action Research
Successfully managing action research will require:
- Facilitating rather than directing
- Managing the scope
- Ensuring rigor in methods
- Managing the pace
- Keeping momentum
- Managing people
- Acting ethically
- Needing a range of skills
- Ownership