How Things Work - Doha Academy of Tertiary Studies

78 QUaLItatIVe ReSeaRCH
what someone else assigns you to study, but even then, a lot depends on
what you want to do.
Some studies are planned in great detail at the outset, and some
are open and developing as the study goes along. Most faculty members
and bureau directors think that, for your own good, you should make
a strong plan. Along the way, some of them will encourage you to stick
to your plan and—as you find out more of what can be learned—other
advisors will encourage you to move on to another question or other
complications and contexts. Think big, plan big, but do a small, wellcontained
study. Usually.
Sun Yat-Sen (1986) said, “In the construction of a country, it is not
the practical workers but the idealists and planners that are difficult to
find.”
To get a suitable amount of data— aggregative data and interpretive
data— planning can be difficult. Two years from now it will seem easier.
You have to consider expectations of bosses and faculty members and
others as to how much digging you should do and how much intellectual
territory you should explore. But the size of the event or the territory is
not a very good guide. You might do a study on what several international
consultants have been doing in recent years and still end up with
too small a study. Perhaps you just didn’t find enough to make a good
report. Or you might do a study on what one local consultant did during
one week, and your study could turn out to be too big. Perhaps you
reported so much detail that only two people will read the whole thing.
So you need to get some idea as to how much readers will want to know
and how much patience they will have in reading your stuff. Luckily, you
have lots of experience as a reader. And you can get some advice from
people more experienced, and you can try out your table of contents
and some draft sections on a few thoughtful readers. It’s something like
coaxing an African violet.
4.3. a liBRaRiaN thiNKiNG OF a DesiGN
Let us take the case of an inexperienced researcher, call her Marie, wanting
to improve her skills as a workshop director. She decides it might
help her to study a forthcoming computer- enhanced workshop for school
librarians. She thinks about the workshop as a case to be studied.
Marie knows that school librarians routinely help children use computers
for individualized projects on different topics. Her study could be