Multi-Methods in Longitudinal Research.pptVIP

Multi-Methods in Longitudinal Research Bren Neale and Janet Holland (University of Leeds, London South Bank University) Research Practice Principles of research methodology cannot be allowed to stand on their own but must always be figured in relation to practice. …The world of research practice is multi-sited and multi-dimensional in its substance. … [hence] it is unwise to privilege any form or level of social reality over another. … We should be loath to seek ultimate knowledge of the world from [one source], whether a theoretical construct such as ‘social structure’ or the seemingly authentic inner world of the individual [Seale et al 2004, 1-4] Choosing methods The choice of research design and method is in practice likely to depend upon the nature of the research problem … how important is it to be able to describe a particular social process or to create a typology of different modes of relationship? How far is it the study’s aim to test a hypothesis…[or] to find out how people think about a particular phenomenon?... The aims and questions posed by many research investigations are varied and cannot be addressed by a single research approach or strategy … a multi-method approach is therefore likely to be called for. [Brannen 2004] Integrating or complementing? Different types of data need to be seen as constituted by the assumptions and methods that elicit them. In this perspective, qualitative and quantitative data need to be treated as broadly complementary, though not necessarily as compatible, rather than as adding up to some rounded reality, as advocated by exponents of triangulation (Brannen 2004: 313) Longitudinal Research: theoretical drivers Researchers have developed new modes of enquiry that take account of the dynamic nature of people’s lives … Approaches to ‘thinking dynamically’ have triggered the beginning of an intellectual revolution, one that blends insights from across the social sciences, merges quantitative and qualitative method