It is argued that future research capacity building for the social sciences needs to incorporate methods to accelerate the acquisition by researchers of holistic expertise relevant to their roles as researchers and as developers of others. An agenda is presented, based on a model of learning that highlights missing elements of current provision,…

This article explores how concept maps and mind maps can be used as data collection tools in mixed methods research to combine the clarity of quantitative counts with the nuance of qualitative reflections. Based on more traditional mixed methods approaches, this article details how the use of pre/post concept maps can be used to design qualitative…

Establishing rapport between researcher and participants when conducting ethnography is essential to the successful outcome of the research. However, when participants are unwilling to engage, a different approach must be adopted. This article is an examination of the appropriation of a situated learning model during fieldwork with a group of…

All social science serves some agenda: social science research is a value-bound, value-determined, context-situated, and ideologically loaded enterprise. Each researcher makes choices in the following areas, whether tacitly, implicitly, or deliberately: (1) a paradigm choice, either conventional (rationalistic) or emerging (naturalistic); (2) the…

This research sought to determine whether any measure(s) used in the Carnegie Foundation's classification of Doctoral/Research Universities contribute to a greater degree than other measures to final rank placement. Multilevel Modeling (MLM) was applied to all eight of the Carnegie Foundation's predictor measures using final rank…

For various well-documented reasons, the feminist social movement has been critical of academia as a worksetting and of the social sciences as a set of disciplines. For these reasons, feminists claim that the assumptions underlying several research designs and procedures are sexist. They have developed a feminist methodology to examine these…

Introductory educational research courses are often based on the scientific model of research derived from natural science. Scientific research using theoretical constructs and measurement of variables establishes a body of verified knowledge through replication of experiments. The conceptualization of the introductory research course presented in…

Examines the increased interest in ethical issues in social science and presents a broad framework for prediction and analysis of ethical problems. Based upon the interdependencies among sponsors, researchers, subjects, the media, and the general public, the model is illustrated with four actual research projects and is found to be predictive in…

An information feedback model and an ideology of evaluation are posed and contrasted with experiences in evaluation research. Impact on policy is the criterion for success of an evaluation and political constraints block this impact. Some ways social researchers might conceptualize and construct an appropriate base of power are considered.…

New perspectives on social science research suggest five propositions: studies in higher education must not be value-singular; higher education researchers must not ignore "harbingers of the paradigm revolution"; they must take into account new interpretations of knowledge acquisition; they must not depend on prescriptive models; and they must…

Describes the evolution of the qualitative-quantitative debate, and suggests that educational researchers learn to live with the necessary tensions resulting from accepting elements of each approach. The proposed critical educational research model is illustrated through examples that go beyond a positivist-interpretivist split. (SLD)

The relationship between social science researchers and practitioners in various sectoral bodies is being investigated in Sweden to increase understanding of "knowledge development." In addition to this general analysis, a subproject focuses on the knowledge development resulting from the interaction between consumer research and…

With the view that social scientists conduct too little exploratory research, the author outlines the methods and attitudes of the exploratory analyst and describes the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) as a source of research data. Exploratory analysis, in which no paradigm is used, is contrasted with confirmatory research, which…

This document comprises a collection of workshop papers addressing the issues of doing research on the complex social and human problems faced in any community from an Asian American perspective. The following topics are discussed: (1) the nature of community research; (2) the pros and cons of pure basic and applied research; (3) the nature and…