EDF5613: Research

approaches in
education
Workshop 1
Acknowledgement of People
and Country

• We pay our respects to the Peoples of

the Kulin nations on whose traditional
estates we are today, to their
ancestors, and to the children who we
are educating into the future
• We also acknowledge other
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people who are participating
• We also acknowledge the Indigenous
Peoples where participants are living
and working around the world and
pay our respects to them
 Schedule for today
Time Topic Room

10-10.30 Introductions and getting to know each other RM Plenary session

LTB 304
10.30-10.45 Introduction and outline to the GCER course RM Plenary session
LTB 304
10.45-11.00 Morning tea
11.00-12.00 What is research (1)? RM Plenary session
‘An exercise in research’ LTB 304
12.00-1.00 Lunch Lunch
1.00-2.30pm What is research? (2) BREAKOUT GROUPS
Cycling towards health & Research possibilities in Group 1 - Colleen 304
everyday education setting Group 2 - Steve G58
Group 3 - Fleur online
2.30-3.00 Grab a cuppa and have a break Afternoon tea break
3.00-3.30 Visitors: Lelani Dugong, Annette Magill and Blake LTB 304
Cutler
3.30-4.30 What is research? (3) RM Plenary session
Wrap up: Exploring project possibilities LTB 304
4.30-5 Time for questions and staff consultations RM Plenary session 3
LTB 304
 Introductions: Your support teams

• Course Leader: Dr Megan Adams

• Chief Examiner/Unit Coordinator: A/P Scott Bulfin; Megan Adams
• Teaching team: Dr Fleur Diamond, Prof. Colleen Vale, Prof Steven Roberts
• Support team
• Lucy Kehoe, Faculty Education Advisors Lelani Dugong JUVO
• Dr Lynette Pretorius and Dr Anna Podorova (Academic literacies support)
• Samantha (Sam) Helfrich and Susie Phillips (Monash Library)

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Fleur Colleen Steve Scott Megan
Dr Fleur Diamond

Teaching background: Secondary – English, Theory of Knowledge, and Studies in Society and
Environment (SOSE)

PhD research: “Rewriting the romance”: feminist poetics and narrative; queer theory; feminist theory

Philosophical approach: interpretivist; feminist theories; situated knowledges

Research interests: Teacher professional identities; issues in subject L1 English/literacy; gender and
education; digital literacies

Methodological interests: Narrative research; autoethnography; case study; ‘memory work’; life
history research; praxis based research

Current major projects: Cultural memory and English teaching (life history project); Literacy in the
machine (literacy teaching and the digital)
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Professor Colleen Vale

• Teaching background: Secondary – mathematics and economics

• PhD research: Gender and Computer Based Mathematics in Selected
Secondary Classrooms
• Philosophical approach: Socio-constructivist learning theory; feminist
pot-structural theories of social justice
• Research interests: equity and social justice in mathematics
education, students’ mathematics learning, teacher professional
learning
• Methodological interests: Mixed methods, case study, design-based
research, ethnography, quantitative
• Current major project: Out-of-field teaching; mathematical reasoning;
mathematics leadership
 Prof Steven Roberts
• Teaching background: Sociology of Youth/
Education/ Masculinities; Director of PG Qual in
Post Compulsory Education and Training; 15
years as managing director of social enterprise
delivering CPD to English teachers in rural
Guangdong Province, China
• PhD research: Changing education policy and
impact on youth-adult transitions in the UK
• Philosophical approach: Knowledge is
contingent; practice, action, possibility and
meaning is collaboratively and socially
constructed
• Research interests: inequality education and
work experience and outcomes; changes and
continuing impact of social class and gender
• Methodological interests: Mixed methods, but
mostly qualitative and digital methods
• Current projects: Many!! Including studies of
young people’s experience of careers services;
men in low paid care work; effectiveness of
‘healthy masculinity programs’; school
responses to adolescent family violence
Associate Professor Scott Bulfin
• Teaching background: Secondary English and history
• PhD research: Literacies, new technologies and young people: Negotiating
the interface in secondary school
• Philosophical approach: a variety of social and critical theory
• Research interests: young people and new/digital literacies, sociology of
education and technology, curriculum, teachers’ work and knowledge
• Methodological interests: qualitative approaches, ethnography, case study,
narrative inquiry, discourse analysis
• Current projects:
• Teaching L1 in the COVID-19 pandemic: International case studies of L1
teachers at work
• Literacy teaching in the machine: Teachers’ work and commercial
educational platforms
• Cultural memory and English teaching: Continuity and change in subject
histories and professional lives
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 Dr. Megan Adams
• Teaching background: pre K- year 12, a range of subjects
• PhD research: international mobility, investigating education
transitions for young children, their families and teachers
• Philosophical approach: socio-constructivist – use of different
theories, methods and research designs to deepen
understanding of different problems
• Research interests: transitions, from Initial Teacher Education
to Graduate teachers, leadership and change
• Methodological interests: qualitative, quantitative, mixed
methods
• Current major project: How can we change our education
system so it is equitable for all?
Publications from the teaching team

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Academic writing support sessions

• Lynette Pretorius will run

support workshops on the
following dates
• 21 July 6-8pm focused on the
first assignment
• 16 September 6-8pm focused
on the second assignment
• These will be online sessions at
the link below:
• https://bit.ly/
EDFStudyGroups (passcode is
640885)

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Now it is your turn: Using writing to clarify and reflect on your learning

Take 10 mins to write in response to the following questions:

• What in your personal and professional

background do you bring to this unit that
will be useful to your work on your project?
• What do you hope to achieve through your
active participation and learning in this unit?
• What concerns do you have about your work
in this unit?

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The ultimate goal of the course …

• Helping you develop research skills that you can use in your work now and the future
• Helping to shape your research interests and passions into a researchable project
• Some topics from previous students
• Early childhood educators’ perspectives on the touch screen generation
• What impacts the employability of Russian foreign degree holders? The case of a global education
program
• “Sparking ideas”: Teacher use of online tools for professional learning
• Through the eyes of a vision impaired student: The nature of the year 12 experience
• Narratives of inclusive government employment of young people seeking asylum
• School leadership, English teachers’ work and improved VCE median scores in two Victorian
government schools: A Foucauldian perspective
• This is only a small sample of the wide variety of topics past students have explored … you’ll need
to develop one that suits you and that can be done within the constraints of the course

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Full time and part time options in the ‘GCER’ course

Term Full time program Part time program

Term 1 EDF5613 EDF5613
Term 2 EDF5614
Term 3 EDF5613
Term 4 EDF5614 EDF5614

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 EDF5613 Research approaches – Term 1 schedule

Workshop Topic Dates (Assessment)

Workshop 1 Introduction to the unit: What is research? 7th Jul, 10am-5pm

Workshop 2 Finding and exploring research literatures 14 July, 5pm-9pm

Developing researchable topics, questions and problems
Workshop 3 Preparing and polishing a literature review 28 July , 5-9pm
Introduction to research design (Assignment 1: Sunday 7th August)
Workshop 4 Ethics and educational research 11 August , 5-9pm

Workshop 5 Exploring research design and methodology: 25 August , 5-9 pm

Generating research materials
Workshop 6 Exploring research design and methodology: 8 Sept , 5-9pm
Analysing and writing about data
(Assignment 2: Sun 18 Sept )

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 Learning outcomes of EDF5613

On successful completion of this unit, you should be able to:

1.Locate a research interest within broader research perspectives and methodologies in the field of education
and social sciences

2.Formulate research questions that are congruent with a chosen research approach

3.Design ways to generate and analyse qualitative and quantitative data that are congruent with specific
research questions

4.Use research processes with due regard to ethical procedures

5.Justify proposed research through scholarly and critical discussion.

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Assignment one: Scoping a research project

• Due date: Sunday 7 Aug 2022

• Required length: 4000 words
• Weighting: 50%
• You are required to undertake an initial literature search and initial critical review.
The main aim is to help you become more familiar with an area of research and to
develop, refine and justify possible research questions, problems or issues you
want to research.
• The assignment will require you to:
• outline background to your research interests and motivations
• locate and begin to critically review a relevant body of academic research and
scholarship
• develop and justify a possible set of researchable questions, problems or issues
appropriate for a small-scale education research project and consider implications for a
small-scale research design
• outline a framework/plan for an extended critical review of research literature based
on proposed research questions, problems or issues.
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Assignment two: Depth paper

• Due date: Sunday 18 Sept 2022

• Required length: 4000 words
• Weighting: 50%
• You will focus on one aspect of your project in more
depth—your study design and methodology. This will
allow you to carefully consider, scope and plan your
study, as well as generating useful text for your thesis.
• The assignment requires you to write about the
complexities of your chosen theoretical framework and
research approach (i.e., methodology) and strategies
(i.e., data generation methods), and to consider
possible research participants and the ethical
dimensions of your project, whether you intend to
generate data with humans or not.

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Other important details

• Workshops: on campus vs online attendance

• On campus attendance is strongly recommended where it’s possible to get to campus
• Online learning is provided for those overseas or interstate who cannot get to campus
• Moodle, preparation and reading, forums, resources
• Assistance with your project?

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Managing your research project from EDF5613-EDF5614 …

• A first learning experience. Keep it as simple as possible!

• Must have a very focused scope, due to very limited space/words (10-11,000)
• ‘Group support’ and very tight time limits
• You must be highly self-directed and show lots of initiative
• You’re not writing your masterpiece, or a PhD!
• All research has constraints! And in this course, we need to apply a few more:
• A limited range of research methodologies/approaches
• Avoid ethically complex projects; vulnerable/high risk populations; sensitive/contentious issues;
children under 18 years; Govt institutions including schools
• Consider a project that doesn’t require ethics approval (eg publicly available data or data not generated
with humans!)
• Starting your project in EDF5613, completing your project in EDF5614

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what is research?
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Activity 1

• Two options
Option 1
• Stay where you are and take a look at the next few slides
Option 2
• Venture into your surroundings

Further details to follow….

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Search online for other articles regarding the impact of COVID

• What is happening? (describe the environment)

• What is going on? How is it going on?
• Try and describe the different kinds of information you could generate from the articles that would
• generate or support possible research findings.
• When, where and how would you generate the information?
• What do you as a researcher feel about your observations?
,

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Option 2

Venturing out into your surroundings

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Research in a café? bus stop? street corner? supermarket?

• Ideally, choose a public place to go, sit and observe for 15-20 mins
• If you are on campus, the main library, bus loop, campus centre, coffee shop …
• If you are online, see if you can get outside somewhere close, a building lobby, a street corner, a local
main intersection, local shops … (or failing that … an online forum like Reddit or the comments section
of a online newspaper … ?)
• As you observe, ask yourself the following questions:
• Where am I? (describe the environment)
• What is going on? How is it going on?
• Try and describe the different kinds of information you could generate from the setting that would
generate or support possible research findings. When, where and how would you generate the
information?
• What do you as a researcher feel about your observations?
• Be discrete about any observations you make
• Always think about researcher safety

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Quantitative Research Gathering

• Go to a public place such as:

• Coffee Shop: think about the different things that would make an interesting research project such as; number of people using
their mobile phones, people sitting alone, in a pair, orders, communication with the person serving
Traffic lights:
• Stand in a safe place–think about the different things that would make an interesting research project such as; number of people
using their mobile phones while driving; number of passengers using phones
Tram/bus stop
• Stand in a safe place- think about the different things that would make an interesting research project, people traveling in small
groups or individually- approximate age?
Supermarket car park:
• Stand in a safe place- think about the different things that would make an interesting research project such as what are shoppers
returning with their car with; trolley load of food vs single items; bags or no bags, how many people have no bags and bring back
single items? How many people are get parking tickets?
Look at Google analytics: what interests you about people using the web?
https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/provision/#/provision
• Try and describe the different kinds of information you could generate from the setting that would support possible research
findings. When, where and how would you generate the information?
Debrief

Discuss the following questions:

• How is research different from personal experience,
tradition, authority and opinion?
• How do you know something is ‘research’?
• How do you know something is ‘bad’ research? How
do you know something is ‘good’ research?
• Where do you go to find good research?
• What makes research ‘valid’ or ‘reliable’? How is this
related to ‘trustworthiness’?
• How is research separate from / or connected to
other elements of the social world (personal,
professional, political … etc)?

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So what is research?

• What can be learned from this activity?

• How is our picture of research developing?
• What aspects are becoming clearer? Or more complex?

• What role for context? Data? Research Questions?

• Research as an experiential and practical set of problems

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Defining research?

• Research involves a systematic process of gathering, interpreting and reporting information.

Research is disciplined inquiry characterized by accepted principles to verify that a knowledge
claim is reasonable. (McMillan, 2004, p. 4)
• Research is defined as a way to build knowledge … to develop ways to understand. The intention
of research is to gather data and information, and in response to a topic (or question or problem)
to advance human knowledge. (Kervin et al, 2016, p. 1)

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Some common elements in social and educational research

• conducting a literature review

• using concepts and theories
• formulating research questions
• sampling of cases
• ‘collecting’ data
• analysing data
• writing-up of research findings

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Research is …

• distinguished from other forms of knowledge such as personal experience, opinion or ideology
• systematic process of gathering, interpreting and reporting information
• disciplined inquiry characterised by accepted principles to verify that a knowledge claim is
reasonable
• different ways of gathering, interpreting and reporting information
• numerous sets of principles accepted for determining what is reasonable knowledge

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Three primary types of research?

• Exploratory: research which aims to gain familiarity with an existing problem and to acquire new
insight, to form a more precise picture of a problem. It begins based on a general idea and the
outcomes of the research are used to find out related issues with the topic of the research.
• Descriptive: research which aims to describe the characteristics of the population or
phenomenon that is being studied; focuses more on the “what” rather than the “why” of the
research subject.
• Explanatory: research which aims to generate operational definitions, or to provide research
based models; aims to understand the “how” or “why” of a problem; does not need to propose
conclusive evidence or answers, but helps with understanding a problem, process or
phenomenon.

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Lunch break
After lunch
• See class lists on Moodle and the corresponding Zoom room details
• Group 1 Fleur’s group room - online
• Group 2 Colleen’s group room – G304
• Group 3 Steve’s group room – G58

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LUNCH

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Reading and understanding research - Workshop Zoom/Rooms

• Review the ‘Cycling towards health’ newsletter extract, and

as a group identify the following:
• The aims/purposes of the research
• The interest(s) of the researcher(s) (explicit or implicit)
• Any assumptions made by the researchers about the
phenomena under investigation or the participants (again,
explicit or implicit)
• Any ‘theories’ about health, fitness, exercise, motivation,
people, culture, education, learning etc informing and shaping
the research, whether stated or unstated
• Possible contributions or implications of the findings

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So what is research?

• What can be learned from this

example?
• How is our picture of research
developing?
• What aspects are becoming clearer?
Or more complex?

• Research as textual and

representational

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Another definition of research?

• Research is a systematic attempt to re-see the everyday, partly by stripping away from our
observations the typifications made available by our culture, and, in turn, by treating those
typifications as crucial aspects of everyday experience itself—available for analysis.
• (Freebody 2003: 42)
• “Making the familiar, strange”

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Research and the everyday
• Consider the Freebody quote as you examine
the images on the following slides
• What possibilities are there for research which
arise from a careful ‘re-seeing’ of the ‘typical’
activities in these images?
• In an effort to imagine research possibilities,
begin by identifying the immediate
setting/context, the people/groups seen and
unseen, any artefacts or objects, and any
activities …
• What wider social and cultural contexts are
relevant in understanding the situation?
• You might want to use the three primary forms
of research to assist you (exploratory,
descriptive, explanatory).

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So what is research?
• What might we learn from
this activity?
• How is our picture of
research developing?
• What aspects are becoming
clearer? Or more complex?

• Research makes ‘problems’

out of regular everyday
things, asking us to be more
critical of the taken for
granted, ‘natural’ or
’normal’

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Afternoon tea break 2.30-3.00pm in ROOM 304
snacks provided or bring your own….

Face to face See you in ROOM 304

Grab a drink and we’ll see you in room 304

3.00-3.30 guest speakers

Annette McGill
Lelani Dugong
Blake Cutler

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So what is research?

• How is our picture of

research developing?
• What aspects are
becoming clearer? Or more
complex?

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research is problematic

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Research is problematic because it:

• Aims to make and insist upon ‘problems’ (of various types)

• Is not at any point simple, straightforward or uninvolved

• What are some of the problems noted from the readings (small group discussion)

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Logics of research? Common sense?

• It has much in common with how we find things out in everyday life – thus, the description of
scientific research as ‘organized common sense’ is useful. Perhaps the main difference is the
emphasis in research on being organized, systematic and logical. (Punch, 2000, p. 7)

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But whose common sense? Whose logic?

• Research ‘through imperial eyes’ describes an approach which assumes that Western ideas about
the most fundamental things are the only ideas possible to hold, certainly the only rational ideas,
the only ideas which can make sense of the world, of reality, of social life and of human beings. It
is an approach to indigenous peoples which still conveys a sense of innate superiority and an over
abundance of desire to bring progress into the lives of indigenous peoples – spiritually,
intellectually, socially and economically. It is research which from indigenous perspectives ‘steals’
knowledge from others and then uses it to benefit the people who ‘stole’ it. (Tuhiwai Smith, 1999,
p. 56, in Decolonising methodologies)

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research is
political

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Purpose, position, persuade, claims, politics

• All social research sets out with specific purposes from a particular position and aims to persuade
readers of the significance of its claims; these claims are always broadly political. (Clough and
Nutbrown, 2002, p. 4)

• Some theories, analytic strategies and reporting formats thrive partly because they provide
rationales and ‘findings’ in forms that reflect or supplement the preferred ways of the funding
and policymaking bodies. Other theoretical, analytic and reporting approaches may, by
comparison, languish in conditions where funding bodies are either the same as or closely aligned
to policy-making bodies in education. Which is to say that, unsurprisingly, educational research is
no less political a pursuit than any other form of social inquiry. (Freebody, 2003, p. 20)

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The project …

• A first learning experience. Keep it as simple as possible!

• Must have a very focused scope, due to very limited space/words (10-11,000)
• ‘Group support’ and very tight time limits
• You must be highly self-directed and show lots of initiative
• You’re not writing your masterpiece, or a PhD!
• All research has constraints!
• Starting your project in EDF5613, completing your project in EDF5614

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Constraints to assist you

• Strongly consider a project that doesn’t require ethics approval (eg data not generated with humans!)
• If you must insist on ‘human data’, then you must have very limited numbers, and you should have
access to, or a prior relationship with, potential participants
• No vulnerable/high risk populations (eg Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders, people with a cognitive
impairment, an intellectual disability, or a mental illness, e.g. brain injury, dementia, ADHD, ASD etc)
• No sensitive/contentious issues (eg suicide, eating disorders, body image, trauma, violence, abortion)
• No children under 18 years
• No govt schools or govt institutions
• Overseas data generation (Indonesia)
• A limited range of research methodologies/approaches
• Try cutting your project in half, thirds or quarters and you might then be closer to what’s possible within
the constraints of the course!
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Exploring project possibilities and developing research ideas

• Now, at the end of the day … take 5-10 mins and write down some notes, ideas, or dot points on
your research ideas
• Consider a research topic or problem and why such a problem is important to you
• What do you know about the topic and how you know it?
• What do you want to find out or understand?
• What kind of project might you need to do?
• Has anything changed for you today? What?
• You will need to consider the constraints/restrictions/suggestions previously mentioned
• Form a small group of two or three and share your ideas, make sure everyone has time to share
• Listen carefully to each other and try to ask useful questions that can help your colleagues clarify
their ideas

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Engaging with Moodle! Conversation, information, questions, dialogue

• To ensure that you are feeling comfortable about using and

engaging with Moodle, we strongly encourage you to post a
short reflection on the forum after the workshop.
• You might consider one or more of the following questions:
• What is the most interesting thing you have learned during
the course of the day? Why or how is it important to you?
• How have your thoughts about research been challenged,
modified, or reinforced as a result of your engagement in the
workshop?
• What questions are you left with after the workshop?
• What topic are you considering exploring in your research
project?

• When you have posted, respond to someone else’s posting

• Use the ‘Post workshop 1: reflections and questions’ thread

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Workshop 2, Thurs 14 July, 5-9pm

• Topics
• Assignment one
• Finding and working with research literatures (including a session by Sylvia Pilz on Monash library
facilities and databases)
• Research foundations and research questions

• Preparation on Moodle: reading, activities and forum participation

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Group consultations

• Continue writing ‘Exploring project possibilities and developing research ideas’

• When completed, share with small groups of 2-3 while waiting for us to get to you.

• Thank you for being patient while we get to each group.