Methodology

• Aroha Mead
• Clive Aspin
• Fiona Cram
• Keepa Morgan
• Linda Smith
• Mera Penehira
• Moana Nepia
• Paparangi Reid
• Rau Hoskins
• Taina Pohatu
• Wally Penetito

Research methodology refers to the theory of the research and the reasons for the way the research has been designed. Methodology explains the research question and why the question is important. It explains the starting point of the research, the directions of the research and the possible implications of the research when it is completed. Methodology explains the literature the researcher is using, the language and terminology, the other theories and explanations being used, the methods and the type of analysis that will be used to interpret the data and information collected.

The methodology gives a justification for the approach a researcher takes and demonstrates that the researcher isn’t just doing things because it is convenient, cheap, or they just don’t want to do anything else. For example, the methodology will explain the reasons for talking to people face to face or in groups or not talking to people at all, the reasons for selecting some people and not all people, the reasons for talking to people rather than gathering the data from anonymous surveys or vice versa. If a researcher wants to get their information from people directly by interviewing them for an hour there is a purpose that justifies this approach and will not waste people’s time or the time of the researcher.

In The “Dictionary of Qualitative Inquiry” (2001), the author Thomas A Schwandt defines methodology as “a theory of how inquiry should proceed. It involves analysis of assumptions, principles, and procedures in a particular approach to inquiry (that in turn governs the use of particular methods). Methodologies explicate and define the kinds of problems that are worth investigating; what comprises a researchable problem” (p. 161).

Methodology comes before method in your head even if you are not aware. The moment a researcher decides to use a method such as a survey or an interview they are assuming that the method will help them get the information they seek. The methodology explains why they have that assumption, why they believe that that set of people will provide that set of information.

Some methodologies are very theoretical and philosophical and are arguing about the nature of knowledge itself, or the nature of life and other deep things. Other methodologies are so common that they don’t need to be written about much as the world at large accepts for example that the scientific methodology is the same everywhere and under every circumstance.