The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with the requisite conceptual and practical skills in social science that will enable them to critically think about questions of philosophy and theory that inform the research practice, and enable them to competently conceptualise, design/formulate and execute a research project
The course will be conducted through lectures, seminars and group consultations
Evaluation:
Course work-30 Written Exam-70
Course Outline
1. Fundamentals of social science research
Definitions and theoretical issues (research, theory, hypothesis and science); basic elements of empirical research; purpose of research (exploration, description, prediction and explanation);
“the scientific approach, other sources of knowledge; and the research process 2. Philosophies underlying research in the social sciences
Philosophy of science (ideology, epistemology, ontology and methodology); empirical –analytical science (empiricism, positivism); historical hermeneutical science (behaviourism, phenomenology, existentialism, idealism and pragmatism); Critical science (Marxist approaches- marxism; realism, post modernism, post structuralism and feminism); Deductive and Inductive approaches, survival of hypotheses and paradigm shifts, theoretical influences on social research methods, social sciences and grounded theory. Which approach is best?
3. Role of theory in communication Research 4. Developing a research project- Introduction to research design
Types of research (participatory research, action-oriented research, causal-comparative research, survey research, descriptive research, evaluation research etc); qualitative and quantitative research designs; experimental and quasi-experimental designs; mixed methods designs
5. Structure of a research and proposal writing- Introduction (Choosing a topic/identifying a problem, narrowing the focus- The background; research questions and hypotheses, research objectives; relevance (academia, policy etc); operationalisation and measurement.
6. Introduction to Statistics
7. Measurements in Research
Selected Readings
Mugenda OM and A.G Mugenda 1999 Research Methods: Qualitative & Quantitative Approaches. Acts Press
Babbie, E 1993 The practice of social research, Belmont, California: Wadswork Publishing Company
Baker, T 1998, Doing Social Research. Belmont, California: Wadswork Publishing Company
Fetterman, D 1985 Ethnography Step by Step: Applied Social research Methods Series Vol. 17. London: Sage publications Inc
Margaret P 1999 Research Methods: A handbook for Africa. Nairobi, East African Publishers
Nachmias, CF & D. Nachmias 1996 (5th Edition) Research Methods in Social Sciences. NY St. Martin Press Inc.
Root M 1998 Philosophy of Social Science, Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers Inc
Hempel C (1965) Aspects of scientific explanations, Macmillan,NY 297-330
Galtung J (1969) Theory and methods of social research (Oslo) Ch 1-4 (H 61. G2)
Kant I (1781) Critique of pure reason ( cambridge, Hackett, 1996) ( B 1486. L6 1911
Hume D ( 1740) A treatise of human nature ( 1974 Dent, London) 11-175 (B 2778.E5M513 1934)
Chalmers AF (1982) What is this thing called science? (OUP) Cho Q 175. C 48)
Popper K (1972) Objective knowledge (OUP) (BD 161. P 727)
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