Once you have decided on your research question and scope, you will need to decide on which methodology you will use.
There are different types of research methodology to consider.
Qualitative research is the process of collecting data that needs to be analysed in order to understand and interpret, lived experiences, emotions, and behaviors. This research aims to interpret events, explain why or how things occur, describe actions, and understand how individuals perceive and define meaning. This is associated with interpretive philosophy.
Data collection methods
This is how you will conduct your Qualitative research.
Interviews: These are planned interviews between the researcher and the participant /participants.
Focus Groups: Involves multiple participants discussing a specific topic. Researchers can facilitate these groups or observe.
Observation: The researcher may observe a phenomenon/ group. This aims to identify what and how people attach meaning to the action they take. Observation research requires the researcher to view, record, describe, analyse and interpret people's behavior or phenomena.
Oral history/ living memory: This involves the researcher gathering information from individuals.
Document analysis: This involves analysing letters, emails, correspondence, reports, etc. to draw conclusions.
Quantitative research is the process of gathering numerical data, that can be measured through analysis. It aims to identify relationships, discover facts about social phenomena or identify statistical inferences.
Data collection methods:
Experiments: This involves testing theories, cause and effect relationships in a controlled environment.
Surveys/ questionnaires: The researcher provides surveys/ questionnaires to a large sample of individuals. May involve using Likert scales to measure the data.
Structured Observation: The researcher will count the number of occurrences of phenomena in context.
The mixed-method is where the researcher will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. This method may assist the researcher in better answering the research question.