Complete thesis - Murdoch University

study requires data in each of these education domains, it is appropriate that the reflectionis similarly targeted.4.3 Reporting on the researchWhile data analysis and project evaluation lead to an interpretation of the study undertaken,the process of writing about the study and its context is a mechanism for both the gestationof ideas, and validation by peer experts.As well as maintaining a rough project draft which fleshed out the themes and backgroundrequired for the research, the idea of ‘first drafts’ (Becker, 1986) worked to focus a particularaspect of the study. In this way, discussing the study within the classes both withparticipants and with past students, presenting at conferences, and engaging in discussionand research with colleagues provided a context in which the ideas became clearer, the argumentsdeveloped more structure and logic and problems raised themselves and needed to beresolved.The next chapter reports on the Action Research cycles undertaken, and uses as referencethe peer reviewed publications produced through this process.4.4 Summary of approachIn summary this overarching framework for the study may be seen to address Avison et al(1999)’s framework for Action Research, which requires four elements to be considered:• the category of the Action Research used and its focus – it is an Enhancement/ Critical-Emancipatory/ Critical Science approach, valid for resolving conflict between espousedand applied theory. How practitioners do RE is in conflict with how educators teachRE. One of the purposes of this research is to increase the closeness between problemsencountered by practitioners in novice REs and the formal education (implying theoriesof learning used), and to assist practitioners (both in professional practice andeducation) in identifying and making explicit these problems by raising the collectiveconsciousness• the tradition and beliefs implied by its assumptions – as has been discussed in precedingchapters, the discipline of RE is presented from both a positivist and non-positivistperspective. These perspectives have major influence on the underlying knowledgestructures, skills (physical and cognitive) and techniques the Requirements Engineer207