Complete thesis - Murdoch University

Chapter 4The research designThis chapter discusses the research design and approaches this from the perspectives of researchin education and research in IT disciplines. The methodology chosen, Action Research,is consistent with the style described as the ‘Deakin’ (Carr and Kemmis, 1986; Kemmis andMcTaggert, 1988) approach. This has merit in being adopted for studies in educational contexts(Zuber-Skerritt, 1982, 1995). Strategies for data collection and analysis are emergent,therefore a variety is discussed, and a summary of the approaches taken provided. Thenext chapter synthesises the knowledge gained from this discussion in order to develop andpresent a framework for the Action Research study undertaken. That framework is basedon the integration of several models, each addressing a specific aspect of the study: a modelfor Action Research in an educational setting (Borg et al, 1993), a model of organisationalculture that reflects the educational context of the study (Rogers, 2002), and a model ofreflection that incorporates the necessity for engaging in double-loop learning in order toachieve professional development (Hatten, 1997).This research is undertaken with the understanding that it is ‘applied’. The goal of basicresearch is to contribute to abstract, theoretical understanding by deriving new knowledge(Bunge, 1967), and is only indirectly involved in how that knowledge is applied to specific,practical or real problems. Applied research, on the other hand, contributes to understandingin order to be able to more effectively act or to ‘design interventions’ into the environment,which is the context of this study.The domain of this research is education, while the vehicle is within the discipline of IT (andspecifically RE) while the culture of the environment is an engineering one. This straddling ofmultiple disciplines provides a challenge for the researcher – to address the (research design)expectations across this context. By virtue of the nature of the disciplines that providethe context for the research, the philosophical and epistemological assumptions made arecontrasting. In particular, the Action Research family of methodologies is not well developed176