Research Methods Session Developing Conceptual Frameworks conceptual framework

Research Methods Session Developing Conceptual Frameworks

conceptual framework n n Your conceptual framework is the scaffold, framework of ideas, questions &theories, methodologies, & methods which help you ask your questions, develop your ideas, underpinning your research & dissertation It keeps you focused & on course, ensures what you find/conclude is underpinned by questions, theories, enabled by methods, arises from them goes some way to addressing them.

n n n You problematise your concepts (which might even be in your title , and certainly in your research questions) – ask what do you really mean by the ideas/concepts underlying your work? Eg identity, body, sustainable development

n n n You find the right theories to underpin inform and enrich your work- to act as a lens through which to explore ask questions produce knowledge -deepen your questioning , thought and ability to explore and understand eg theory of the relationships between identity and place (Baudrillard) , of psychogeography (Debord), of power( and gender, and surveillance , and control) (Foucault) Tend to have a name attached-

The conceptual framework contains, structures, actions ensures: · Ideas and aims and questions · Are underpinned by, enabled by particular theories & theorists · And your research methodologies and methods can actually act as the vehicle by which you ask these theoretically underpinned questions

· And how you can analyse and interpret what you find- themes in an author, responses from a focus group, documentary evidence from archives, statistical responses to questionnaire- · So you can draw conclusions, make recommendations (depending on the dissertation) based on these questions and aims, theories and methods and findings.

n Talking it through n Developing the framework of different chapters n Shape of the dissertation/thesis as it develops n Models

A typical plan of a dissertation n n · title · abstract · preface/acknowledgement · introduction · theoretical perspectives (containing the literature review-in dialogue with your arguments) · methodology and methods (including the design of the study, sample, timings, choices made) · presentation of results/findings/data · discussion of results/findings /data · conclusion containing a summary and possibly recommendations appendices/statistical tables and illustrations references