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Chapter I THE NATURE OF RESEARCH

Chapter ITHENATURE OFRESEARCHR esearch involves original work in answering aquestion or solving a problem. Of the severaldifferent RESEARCH approaches available, thisbook focuses on those approaches which can beapplied to solve questions or problems that aredirectly related to everyday life. The techniqueof community involvement in practical issues isoften called action RESEARCH . In this Chapter , youwill find an overview of the steps needed todevelop an action RESEARCH plan. Common errorsthat are made in the RESEARCH process arediscussed, from the perspective of both insidersand outsiders to the Community-Based RESEARCH : A Handbook for Native AmericansResearchisbydefinition originalwork,asearchingtoansweraquestion . The popular concept of RESEARCH can involve, for example, justlooking up some statistics in a book. A more formal definition of researchwould be:Studious inquiry; usually, critical and exhaustive investigation or ex-perimentation having for its aim the revision of accepted conclusions,in the light of newly discovered facts.

more basic types of research, requiring fewer research skills, yet is a very ... needs assessments, evaluations, surveys, and culture and fine arts pro-jects, are descriptive in nature. These same methods provide the ... The chart showing the flow of activities in a research project, Figure 1 .2,

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Transcription of Chapter I THE NATURE OF RESEARCH

1 Chapter ITHENATURE OFRESEARCHR esearch involves original work in answering aquestion or solving a problem. Of the severaldifferent RESEARCH approaches available, thisbook focuses on those approaches which can beapplied to solve questions or problems that aredirectly related to everyday life. The techniqueof community involvement in practical issues isoften called action RESEARCH . In this Chapter , youwill find an overview of the steps needed todevelop an action RESEARCH plan. Common errorsthat are made in the RESEARCH process arediscussed, from the perspective of both insidersand outsiders to the Community-Based RESEARCH : A Handbook for Native AmericansResearchisbydefinition originalwork,asearchingtoansweraquestion . The popular concept of RESEARCH can involve, for example, justlooking up some statistics in a book. A more formal definition of researchwould be:Studious inquiry; usually, critical and exhaustive investigation or ex-perimentation having for its aim the revision of accepted conclusions,in the light of newly discovered facts.

2 (Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary)Let's look at what this definition implies on the community level. Itsounds as though RESEARCH requires a lot of work. Although RESEARCH us-ually is time consuming, it need not be dull. Particularly, if the work isgoing to be applied to a community need, RESEARCH can be very involves defining the topic, idea, or problem to be solved andforming a specific question about that topic. The work of other people isexamined to see if the question has ever been researched, or if the work ofothers can contribute to the new question. The methodology, or waythe work will be done, is set out in steps. The data are collected, andanalyzed (or looked at in detail), and conclusions are reached. This is the"studious," "critical," and "exhaustive" part of data for RESEARCH can be from primary sources, where the RESEARCH -er observes directly and records events or data. This type of data has manyadvantagesasto reliability.

3 The researcher knows the kind of effort putinto collecting the data, how the participants in the study were chosen,and something about the possible biases during the study. The disadvan-tage of this type of data is that the process is time consuming and often ex-pensive. With secondary sources, the researcher uses data reported byothers. This approach is less time consuming, but sometimes also less reli-able. For many RESEARCH questions, both types of data are utilized and forsome questions there are no existing secondary sources of data. The meth-ods for RESEARCH described in this handbook focus on the direct collectionof data for is a time of enormous possibilities for applied RESEARCH . At onetime, people were brought into a system, and problems were definedaccording to the views of those who saw the "problem" and with theresources of a dominant culture. Now, priorities can be determined by acommunity that lives the socio-economic conditions, rather than by anoutsider who studies the community for informational purposes.

4 Andideally, insiders and outsiders can work together cooperatively, sharingknowledge and resources toward a common goal. Rather than assessingthe statistics of low income, educational levels, and health levels over andover again, RESEARCH can be used to evaluate the effectiveness ofinnovative and culturally-based techniques for alleviating Community-Based RESEARCH : A Handbook for Native AmericansCultural differences may affect the outlook of some persons towardresearch. It has been noted' that the underlying NATURE of RESEARCH as aprocess that continually questions first and seeks to prove facts, may be atodds with cultural beliefs that express---in trust first, and question lateronly if there is a need. Tensions that develop during RESEARCH are some-times due to cultural differences. Or, people of the same culturesometimes hold different views about documentation or RESEARCH relationships are open to discussion and compromiseabout these TYPES OF RESEARCHT here are many different ways to approach a RESEARCH question.

5 Re-searchers from different areas of study develop different methods to focusupon a particular aspect of the question. These are a few of the things toconsider in choosing an approach:Topic/ issue/ concernPurpose of the project Resources (such as time, people, funds)In discussing the topic with a community group, it is sometimes helpful totake notes on these items as a topic is discussed. This process enables thegroup to reach agreement as to the purpose of the project and to assess theresources that will be needed to complete the project. Then, the methodsto accomplish the work must be chosen. The RESEARCH methods covered inthis handbook are descriptive in NATURE and may be applied forcommunity ResearchThe purpose of descriptive RESEARCH is to describe accurately situationsor events, such as the characteristics of a population, a social condition, ora particular topic. In the process of descriptive RESEARCH , data arecollected and summarized, but relationships between sets of data andpredictions are not usually defined.

6 Descriptive RESEARCH is one of themore basic types of RESEARCH , requiring fewer RESEARCH skills, yet is a veryvaluable tool for community development. Most of the techniquespresented in this handbook could be termed descriptive, in the broadestsense of the steps that are generally taken in a descriptive project include thefollowing:1. Defining the topic or the goals of the projectThe NATURE of work that has been already done on the topic, to decide ifthe particular topic has been researched or if existing material cancontribute to the present the objectives of the project, or steps to the project in aclear, straightforward upon the methods that will be used to accomplish theobjectives, such as how the data will be collected, how theparticipants will be chosen, training of the personnel needed tocollect the data, and how the data will be the data according to the plan, the data according to the plan, the the community level, descriptive RESEARCH techniques such as sur-veys and needs assessments can be valuable in describing current socio-economic conditions, to identify conditions in need of improvement, andto document the opinions of community members as to how these changescan be put into effect.

7 A few examples of descriptive RESEARCH projects are: A needs assessment conducted to determine unmet health care needsin a rural community An evaluation of a social service program A survey of native language use to determine the extent of contin-ued use of the languageA photographic project to document the pottery making processIn the chapters that follow, methods that are presented for conductingneeds assessments, evaluations, surveys, and culture and fine arts pro-jects, are descriptive in NATURE . These same methods provide thefoundation for analytical RESEARCH , and can be taken further if the readerdesires to look into the additional sources provided for each ResearchThe purpose of action RESEARCH is to develop new approaches to solvequestions or problems that are directly related to everyday life. A verypractical approach, action RESEARCH is aimed toward applications of theresearch results through a constant exchange between the researcher andthe people or events being researched.

8 Action RESEARCH differs from mostresearch approaches in that changes often occur in the original researchmethodology when these changes are documented as part of the steps that are generally taken during action RESEARCH the goals of the project, according to a needed change orimprovement,6 Community-Based RESEARCH : A Handbook for Native the work of others, to see what approaches to the problemhave already been tested, a specific question to be asked, the methods to be used toaddress the RESEARCH question, and the methods for determiningprogressorchangeasthe data are analyzed, an inventory of existing human and material resources atthe community or local, and regional levels, the way the community or program will the direction of the project and whether changes are neededin the original plan, the data, the data, the results, including a description of the data andchanges in the methods9. Implementing a plan to apply the results for community examples of descriptive/action RESEARCH projects are:any A needs assessment to identify educational program needs , to be ap-plied to expand educational resources and to improve existing resources An evaluation of a new treatment approach for substance abuserswhich combines traditional and western healing methods, for thepurpose of documenting a model program for future widespread use A survey of the socio-economic characteristics of several communi-ties, used to develop comprehensive planning for community servicesAn oral history project which provides teaching materials for com-munity level programsThe chart showing the flow of activities in a RESEARCH project, Figure ,represents the descriptive/action RESEARCH Types of ResearchThe techniques presented for your use in this handbook are primarilydescriptive methods.

9 These methods can be used for action RESEARCH , andoften historical methods are utilized in gathering data to describe thesituation or problem. There are several other types of RESEARCH methods(see descriptions in Figure ) and these will be mentioned only NATURE of ResearchCommunityInputInventory Resources local (Indian communityand local institutions)regional otherDefineProblemDefine RESEARCH MethodologyHypothesis or specificquestion Instruments used tocollect data Methods of collecting data Methods of analyzing dataObtainfunding forproject, ifnecessaryCollectInterpret Data &Results Analyze DataPrepareResearcht chart OF ACTIVITIES FOR COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH7 TYPEMETHODCAUSAL-COMPARATIVEC asual-comparative RESEARCH explores cause-and-effectrelationships by observing an effect and collecting dataafter the fact, to explain causes. Provides a morepractical method than the experimental in situationswhere it is not always possible to randomly assigngroups, yet carries many disadvantages with the lack ofcontrol.

10 If a relationship appears between two vari-ables using this method, it is difficult to determinewhich is cause and which is STUDYWith case study, the researcher examines in great detaila broad range of items concerning a small number ofindividuals, groups, or communities. The purpose is todescribe and explain the relationships in a social situ-ation. This method seeks to describe a single situation,rather than to generalize about other social developmental RESEARCH , patterns of growth orchange are studied over time. A method used often foreducational and psychological RESEARCH , addressingsuch questions as patterns, directions, and rates ofgrowth, as well as variables affecting change. Cross-sectional studies measure change at one point in time,by comparing different age groups. Longitudinalstudies follow the change in one group over RESEARCH : A Handbook for Native AmericansThe Problem StatementResearch begins with an idea that leads to a question.


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