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A Complete Research Design Schema

When I started my PhD journey, completed the coursework, and began planning my research, it seemed like there were so many decisions to make. As a novice, it was overwhelming. I read several textbooks on the subject and while each made sense, they did not all seem consistent. But, one in particular resonated with me and I have laid out in this article a schematic of the process required to design a research approach. In addition, I have enumerated the options available for each choice in my qualitative study. You can follow the process in sequential order for the most part. But, don’t be surprised if it becomes a bit iterative. In other words, some choices you make later (e.g. a method choice like Grounded Theory), may cause you to return to and revise previous choices (like philosophical perspective) in order to achieve an integrated and internally consistent approach. I hope that this will help other PhD students process through the key design decision in a rational manner – especially those who perceive a lack of direction from their supervisor. The only caveat about this process diagram is that it does not include a mechanism for ensuring internal consistency of all the choices. Nor should it – I didn’t intend for this to be a form you fill out and your done. Rather, the researcher should study the elements or building block sufficiently well to know in advance that they will integrate. If you don’t, the recovery or redesign effort is likely to be longer and may not even be possible from an epistemological perspective. I recommend this article for all PhD candidates planning their research methodology & design.

The schematic chart included in article presents a research design framework based on Blaikie’s (2010: 33, Figure 1.1) sequential organization of the design choices together with:

- adaptations made to accommodate some alternatives not made explicit by Blaikie such as research question purposes and paradigm alternatives (e.g. Pragmatism and Pragmatic Constructivism, as well as some variants of Interpretivism);

- a structural grouping of tools & techniques comprising research methods; and

- the specific research design choices made for my PhD dissertation, by way of an example.

In research and other aspects of work and life, I am influenced by a Pragmatic perspective: value and usefulness are key objectives (rather than some ultimate truth) and form my axiology. I found Blaikie’s approach to assembling research design elements into a complete, coherent, logical, and sequenced structure helped me to comprehensively address all design issues. If you consider yourself to also have a Pragmatic philosophical orientation and are doing qualitative research, I also recommend you investigate Pragmatic Constructivism, which I have published a synopsis of in another article on this website.

The schematic included in this article is made available as a comprehensive design tool for PhD students planning their research. The last two columns could be customized in terms of identifying alternatives relevant to your design choices. The lists of alternatives do not need to be exhaustive. But, you may wish to include a limited set of alternatives that you consider relevant and can effectively argue and discuss why you decided on a particular selection and why you decided against the others. I am happy to provide a larger (more legible) version of this schematic broken into three parts (on three pages) in response to an email request.

Please help yourself to any of the articles in this collection and if you use them, please provide an appropriate citation. You are also welcome to email me to check whether any of the papers you are interested in have been published elsewhere.

… / Brad

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brad@macmaster-ecfo.com

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©2023, Brad MacMaster

MacMaster | eCFO

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