SRM-R11

SRM-R11
(PGDM-RM 2011-13 : Term-II)

XIM DR. P. MISHRA
Bhubaneswar Dr. K. Misra

SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODS
TERM – II PGDM-RM I (2011-13)

COURSE OUTLINE

Course Objectives

This course provides a first understanding of the various theoretical, methodological and empirical aspects of doing social science research. It aims to help participants to appreciate the range of methodological approaches used in the social sciences, develop skills for formulating research topics, preparing research designs and using suitable methods, tools and techniques. It is expected that sufficient understanding and basic skills required to conduct independent research work will be developed amongst the students. This will enable them to appreciate research products such as journal articles.

Course Content

PART I: Concepts – This will provide the theoretical and methodological overview, and understanding of the research vocabulary, including concepts like science and scientific approach, features of social science research and the typologies, etc. The focus will be on generating a discerning appreciation of the range of contemporary research approaches, including the positivist (quantitative) approaches as well as the interpretive and constructivist (qualitative) methodologies.

PART II: Operationalization – This part focuses on developing familiarity with and skills for the research process - development of a research proposal, doing a literature review, working out a valid research design, designing the instruments, using various techniques for data collection and analyses, and interpreting and reporting the results. This will be done in two segments –

Segment A

– Qualitative approaches

to research, including various strategies, methods and techniques. While a range of approaches will be discussed, the focus will be on understanding the case-study approach, skills for using the methods typically employed by qualitative researchers and interpreting qualitative results. This segment will include identification of a research topic relating to the rural society/economy and development of a suitable proposal for multi-method field research during the course (group work).

Segment B

– Participatory and structured questionnaire method

for data collection are used in poverty assessment, monitoring & evaluation and impact assessment, etc. Students will add appropriately to the methods identified in the proposal methods like Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), questionnaires and other tools and learn use of statistical tools for quantitative analyses and the interpretation and reporting of the results.

PART III: Field study (group work) to implement the proposal developed for study of the rural society/economy (segments A & B above), and learn use of the various tools for data collection and analysis, including participatory techniques. During the field trip, the groups will collect data in the villages with the tools developed in PART II (A & B). Research reports will be prepared by the groups and also be presented in the class for discussion. After the presentation of the report and feed back, a final report will be submitted by the groups at the end of the term. (The groups will be formed by the instructors by the end of Part I)

Topics and sessions

PART I: Conceptualization (4 sessions - K.Misra) Sessions

· Understanding research, scientific research & social-scientific enquiry 01
· Basic vocabulary of research 01
· Research purposes, paradigms, approaches, typologies 01
· Research quality – reliability, validity, generalizability 01

PART II: Operationalisation

SEGMENT A (6 sessions - K.Misra)
· Developing a research proposal – Question, literature review, strategy 01
· Qualitative Research Design – methodology, methods, participant/ case selection (sampling) instruments & techniques 01
· Methods for qualitative research – Archival, Observation, Interviews 02
· Analysis of qualitative data – Coding, Thematizing and Inferring 01
· Writing the Research Report 01
Methods of qualitative data collection and analysis will be learnt through short in-class and outside exercises. Participants will develop a group research proposal for a rural case study by the end of this segment, incorporating the methods already discussed. Participatory and survey methods (to be discussed in Segment B) will be added in the proposal before implementation of the proposal in Part III – Field Study.

SEGMENT B (5 Sessions - P.Mishra)
· Problem Identification and Hypotheses
· Types of Variables
· Scales of measurement
· Statistical sampling design/ techniques and their uses
· Collection of data; Participatory and Questionnaire methods
· Participatory Tools and Techniques: Demonstration and explanation of the exercises in the class room.

(A few exercises on participatory techniques will be discussed in the class which will be used in the field since it will not be possible to use many due to time constraint.)

· Questionnaire Construction and operationalisation of variables

PART III: Presentation and Analysis of Data ( 5 Sessions - P. Mishra)

The research proposal developed above will be implemented during a field trip after the mid term examination. The participants will collect data from the rural areas using the qualitative, quantitative and participatory methods learnt above. Different methods of data analyses learnt will be used to analyze the data collected from the villages.
i) Tabulation & diagrammatic representation of data (Including participatory tools.)
ii) Explanation, uses and applications of univariate and bivariate tools (includes two variable regression and ANOVA)
iii) A brief introduction to the multivariate tools
iv) Explanation and uses of Multiple Regression

The data collected from the field will be used in the above statistical tools. For processing and analyzing the data the students will be using of Excel and SPSS. The groups will prepare a research report on their topic incorporating the data analysis and conclusions; present it in the class for discussion and submit a final report at the end of the term.

Evaluation

Till mid-term (Parts I and II-A) ……………….. 50
Quizzes 10
Exercises 20
Proposal 20

Mid- to end-term (Parts IIB and III) ………… 50
Exercises 10
Research Report 10
End-term test 20

Attendance in the class and discussions with participants will be correction features.

References

There are a number of books on Social Research Methods in the XIM Library. However, three books viz. Landscape of Qualitative Research by N.K. Denzin and Y.S Lincoln, Foundations of Behavioural Research by F.N. Kerlinger and The Practice of Social Research by E.R.Babbie are quite handy for Part I of the course i.e. Conceptualization.

For the Part II (Segment A) two books are useful to get an overview and understanding of the diverse approaches to doing research and building knowledge –
· Creswell, John W: 2007: Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design – Choosing Among Five Approaches, and
· Yin, Robert K. 2003. Case Study Research: Design and Methods.
Other materials will be handed out in class to help with proposal development and to illustrate the use of specific methods.

For Part II (Segment B) and PART III, any good book on Social Research Methods or statistics will be helpful. Students are advised to refer Basic Econometrics by D.N.Gujarati or Introduction to Econometrics by Christopher Dougherty for regression analysis.

References will be given during the sessions. Materials collected from several sources relating to different topics and relevant references will also be given during the sessions to help the participants in understanding the basics of the concepts & tools to be used. The following books(some of them mentioned to earlier) may be referred to by the participants for the present course.

1. Landscape of Qualitative Research by N.K. Denzin and Y.S Lincoln
2. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design – Choosing Among Five Approaches, by John Creswell
3. Case Study Research: Design and Methods – by Robert Yin
4. Strategies of Qualitative enquiry - by N.K. Denzin and Y.S Lincoln
5. Foundations of Behavioral Research by F.N. Kerlinger
6. The Practice of Social Research by E.R.Babbie
7. Business Research Methods by Cooper and Schindler
8. Social Research Methods by C.R.Kothari
9. Basic Econometrics by D.N.Gujarati
10. Introduction to Econometrics by Christopher Dougherty
11. Business Statistics by Ken Black
12. Scientific Social Surveys and Research by P.V.Young
13. Applying Regressiion and Correlation By J Miles & M Shevlin

Good Luck!

Created By: Hemanta Ranjan Deo on 09/14/2011 at 03:54 PM
Category: PGPRM-I Doctype: Document

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