Decisions! Decisions! Decisions!

There are so many decisions to make when undertaking research, It feels like 1,000,000 micro-decisions that need to be defended at any time. Lecompte & Pressie, (1993) cited in Mutch, (2013) shared a list of 7 decisions that all researchers need to make (and eighth one added by Mutch). I will attempt to answer these over the weekend (I am in my study cave), I do argue however that there are more micro-decisions made throughout this process, which I hope to reveal in the sections below or in further posts.

Research Question: How do Cook Island leaders in New Zealand primary schools understand listening as a leadership skill?

1. Formulating the problem

We often hear how communication skills are essential for leadership, but I wonder about the importance we place on listening.

2. Selecting the research design

I will be using the Turanga Framework to guide my work (a Cook Island framework developed by Dr. Jean Mitaera).

3. Choosing who and/or what to study

I have experience across early childhood primary and tertiary. Of all of these sectors, I am most interested in primary school education (for now).

I still have some thinking to do around the following questions (will save for another post).

4. Deciding how to approach participants

5. Selecting a means to collect the data

6. Choosing how to analyse the data

7. Interpreting and applying the analysis

8. Disseminating the findings

References:

LeCompte, M. D., & Preissle, J. (1993). with Tesch, R.(1993). Ethnography and qualitative design in educational research, 2.

Mutch, C. (2013). Doing educational research. Nzcer Press.