Research Design and Methodology

This chapter presents the research design methodology. It outlines the research process and the philosophical underpinning for this research. It has set out the research problem under investigation and mapped out the various steps that were undertaken. This research adopted a mixed research method approach as the most appropriate and a survey was the most effective instrument in addressing this enquiry of SPP. The philosophical position adopted within this study was one of the pragmatists, which has the capacity to hold different world views and not be constrained by one specific philosophical position. Pragmatists are not committed to one system of philosophy and reality, and researchers are free to choose the methods, techniques, and processes that have the best fit to meet the needs of the research.

Joachim Lelewel’s methodological ideas

The main aim of this paper is to capture the essence of a Polish historian Joachim Lelewel’s methodological ideas and their philosophical underpinning. For this purpose, I analyse his publication entitled History: Its Branching and What It Is Based On, which has thus far been overlooked in research. I propose a new perspective on Lelewel’s work, taking into account his European inspirations in the field of historical theory and his tendency to combine the contradictory research approaches of the Enlightenment and Romanticism. I address topics related mainly to the theory of historical cognition, the subject of historical study, source criticism, the concept of truth, historical interpretation, methods of historical analysis and selected rhetorical principles.

Pacific Women's Stories of Becoming a Nurse in New Zealand: a Radical Hermeneutic Reconstruction of Marginality

<p>This thesis examines Pacific women’s experiences of becoming a nurse and their first year of practice post Registration, within the New Zealand context. The participant’s stories of being students and beginning practitioners are inter-woven with my own reflections as a nurse and nurse educator who also claims a Pacific cultural heritage. To create the space in which our stories can be laid down, the thesis includes a description of the migration and settlement of Pacific peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This description shows how Pacific people have been systematically stigmatised and locked into marginalised positions by mainstream dominant culture. The thesis deconstructs taken-for-granted and self perpetuating conceptualisations of marginality that currently underpins most theoretical explanations and proposes a reconstructed map of marginality. This deconstructed/reconstructed map of marginality is used as a template through which the experiences of the participants are filtered and interpreted. Radical Hermeneutics provides a philosophical underpinning for this project that has as one of its objectives the desire to resist reducing complexity to simplistic explanation and superficial solutions. The thesis challenges Nursing to examine its role in reproducing the hegemonic power of dominant culture by applying unexamined cultural normative values that create binary boundaries between ‘them’ and ‘us’. At the same time the thesis challenges Pacific people to move past hegemonically induced states of alienation and learn how to walk in multiple worlds with confidence and power.</p>

Pacific Women's Stories of Becoming a Nurse in New Zealand: a Radical Hermeneutic Reconstruction of Marginality

<p>This thesis examines Pacific women’s experiences of becoming a nurse and their first year of practice post Registration, within the New Zealand context. The participant’s stories of being students and beginning practitioners are inter-woven with my own reflections as a nurse and nurse educator who also claims a Pacific cultural heritage. To create the space in which our stories can be laid down, the thesis includes a description of the migration and settlement of Pacific peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This description shows how Pacific people have been systematically stigmatised and locked into marginalised positions by mainstream dominant culture. The thesis deconstructs taken-for-granted and self perpetuating conceptualisations of marginality that currently underpins most theoretical explanations and proposes a reconstructed map of marginality. This deconstructed/reconstructed map of marginality is used as a template through which the experiences of the participants are filtered and interpreted. Radical Hermeneutics provides a philosophical underpinning for this project that has as one of its objectives the desire to resist reducing complexity to simplistic explanation and superficial solutions. The thesis challenges Nursing to examine its role in reproducing the hegemonic power of dominant culture by applying unexamined cultural normative values that create binary boundaries between ‘them’ and ‘us’. At the same time the thesis challenges Pacific people to move past hegemonically induced states of alienation and learn how to walk in multiple worlds with confidence and power.</p>

Why Assessment Which Carries No Grades and Marks is the Key for the Future of Education?

Formative assessments are commonly being mixed up with summative assessments which provide feedback. The ambiguity leads to a loss of distinction between the two. This blending is in direct contrast to the best practice of education, which advocates clarity of formative and summative function as a precursor to a quality assessment. In this commentary, we emphasise the non-credit bearing as the discriminatory feature, which illuminates the formative purpose of an assessment. We begin by revisiting the history from the time of the founding scholars who conceptualised formative and summative ideas. Subsequently, we compare it with the contemporary practice of assessment. Then we elucidate the philosophical underpinning of formative assessment and how the future of education relies on education, which move away from a pure exam-oriented focus of the curriculum. Finally, we relate the revolutionary concept of formative assessment with personalised education as the key curriculum design of tomorrow’s education.

PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERPINNING AND PHENOMENOLOGY APPROACH IN SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH

This paper is based on literature review discuss the philosophical underpinning like epistemology and ontological frameworks of theoretical and philosophical perspectives. These are usually known and referred as paradigm in the field of research, that we simply identify them as a worldview or a set of assumptions about how things work. Paradigms are comprehensive framework of the beliefs, experiences and beliefs of numerous theories and research practices, which are extensively used in the research process. Basic questions like epistemology tries to answer that what is true or what does distinguish the authentic knowledge from the false and (inadequate) knowledge. This gives birth to basic questions that what is truth, and what counts the knowledge? What is the relationship amongst researcher and what is the already known? How do we come to know? Whereas ontology is oriented the nature of social realism and the things which exist, such as settings of their reality of relationships amongst the objects. The paper argues that phenomenological approach or strategy of inquiry is one of the best approaches in the qualitative research study.

The Philosophical Underpinning of Athlete Lifestyle Support: An Existential-Humanistic Perspective

This study aims to highlight how an existential-humanistic perspective can inform athlete support and in doing so, emphasize the importance of explicating the philosophical underpinnings of athlete lifestyle support. Drawing on applied experience with elite youth cricketers over a 12-month period, ethnographic data were collected through the observation, maintenance of case notes, and a practitioner reflective diary. Based on thematic analysis, we created three nonfictional vignettes that we use to illustrate how existential-humanistic theorizing can inform lifestyle support. We discuss the implications of this professional philosophy in terms of considerations for performance and talent development programs, and how holistic support for athletes is positioned. We also discuss implications for athlete lifestyle and performance psychology practitioners, with regard to training, underpinning theoretical grounding of support and the strategic positioning of their practitioner roles.

Inclusive Approaches to School Counseling

At the core of the education system in Namibia lies the philosophical underpinning of inclusivity and its underlying principle of equal participation. Thus, to exclude any individual or societal group, directly or indirectly, from participation in education is tantamount to violating the primary meaning of democracy as it pertains to education. This assertion is consistent with the United Nation's SDG 4, which strives at ensuring “Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Promote Lifelong Opportunities for All,” and SDG 16, which is aimed to provide “Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions.” Two ethnic groups in Namibia, the Ovahimba and the San, are regarded as marginalized, and this marginalization cuts across all spheres of their lives. This research-informed chapter provides an insight into experiences of children from indigenous communities in schools. It further presents an argument for culturally responsive approaches to counseling for learners from indigenous communities.

The potential of working hypotheses for deductive exploratory research

While hypotheses frame explanatory studies and provide guidance for measurement and statistical tests, deductive, exploratory research does not have a framing device like the hypothesis. To this purpose, this article examines the landscape of deductive, exploratory research and offers the working hypothesis as a flexible, useful framework that can guide and bring coherence across the steps in the research process. The working hypothesis conceptual framework is introduced, placed in a philosophical context, defined, and applied to public administration and comparative public policy. Doing so, this article explains: the philosophical underpinning of exploratory, deductive research; how the working hypothesis informs the methodologies and evidence collection of deductive, explorative research; the nature of micro-conceptual frameworks for deductive exploratory research; and, how the working hypothesis informs data analysis when exploratory research is deductive.