OVERVIEW

This critical action research project was derived from my multiple years of teaching practice in an organic way. It started as an informal group of qualitative methodology instructors coming together to support each other’s teaching. We then formalized it and enacted a critical action research design to explore teaching and learning in introductory level research methodology classes. Specifically, we examine students’ conceptualization of “research” and the evolution of their conceptualizations in a methodology class. Funded by Indiana University’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, the project explicates how a canon-based pedagogical approach to qualitative inquiry has alienated students from being fully engaged in their learning. Our research proposes an alternative pedagogy foregrounding student-centered learning and makes explicit links between everyday experience and research practice.

PUBLICATIONS 

Zhao, P., K. Ross, P. Li & B. K. Dennis* (2021). Making Sense of Social Research Methodology: A Student- and Practitioner-Centered Approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press.

Dennis, B. K., P. Li, K. Ross & P. Zhao* (2020). “Pedagogy as a form of praxis and commitment: A student-centered approach to teaching research methodology”. In T. S. Jenkins (ed.) Reshaping Graduate Education Through Innovation and Experiential Learning. 1-22. IGI Global.

Ross, K., B. K. Dennis, P. Zhao & P. Li (2017). “Exploring Graduate Students’ Conceptions of Research: Links Between Identity, Validity, and Research Conceptions.” International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 29(1), 73-86.

Zhao, P., P. Li, K. Ross & B. K. Dennis (2016). “Methodological Tool or Methodology? Beyond Instrumentality and Efficiency with Qualitative Data Analysis Software.” Forum: Qualitative Social Research.

SELECTED TALKS BASED ON THE PROJECT

A research conversation: New thinking about research design

SELECTED TEACHING MATERIALS 

Teaching Research Design through the Lens of Critical Praxis

Figuring Out What to Do: Making Methodological Decisions Across our Practices

An instructor’s manual for Making Sense of Social Research Methodology: A Student- and Practitioner-Centered Approach could also be requested via Sage Publishing.