Research...

Researching about research is something that I never thought I'll be doing. After being asked to discuss the idea of research during the Skype session, I realised that 'the act of researching' is something that I sometimes overcomplicate. Research is definitely the act of exploring and investigating, but it is also as simple as typing something into the search engine to find out more.

Going through the Handbook, I came across the term qualitative research which I thought I should look further into and also start to have a rough idea of what type of research method I would like to use for my inquiry.

Qualitative research looks beyond the 'what' in questions and goes into the 'why' and 'how' of it. This method of research relies on non-numerical data collection and analysis, and it is often used to gain an understanding of underlying opinions and concepts. Unlike in quantitative research, descriptive data is collected in qualitative research as open-ended questions are usually asked so as to give the respondents the space to explain their choice and also further discuss the topic asked. The analysis of qualitative data involves the process of identifying and examining data patterns and recurring themes/concepts.

Quantitative research relies on numerical data, and the analysis of data is often a mathematical approach. This method of research looks into statistics and percentages and uses surveys, polls and questionnaires to collect data. As compared to qualitative research where recurring themes are identified, the data collected from quantitative research is into numbers.

After reading up on these two types of research and with the suggestion from the Handbook, I think qualitative research would be my choice of research to use for my inquiry. Qualitative research would allow me to look further beyond numbers, and into the whys and hows of my Practice and the topic of my inquiry. My next steps would be to continue with the cycle of building a practice-based inquiry, looking further into the methods of qualitative data collection and also to decide on the topic that interests me the most as at the moment I have got several topics jotted down. Maybe, mapping of the individual topics would be a good idea for me to have a deeper and more visualised understanding before having to make the decision.

A concise article about qualitative and qualitative research, "Understanding Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research" https://medium.com/@FlexMR/understanding-quantitative-vs-qualitative-research-8f7cbf748765