Educational research
An African approach
Edited by Prof Chinedu Okeke
Prof Michael van Wyk
Table of Contents
Part 1: The philosophy of research
1:Afrocentricity as a research methodology
2:Positivism and interpretivism: Distinguishing characteristics, criteria and methodology
3:Interpretive research: Construction of meanings
4:Critical research: Understanding material constraints and engaging in transformative action research
5:Developing sensitivity in questions of gender, using feminist research and IKS principles
6:Objectivity, values and subjectivity: Issues of values and ethics in the research process
7:Ethics in human sciences research
Part 2: Planning, designing and conducting educational research
8:The literature review
9:Steps in the research process
10:Research design
11:How researchers define and measure variables
12:Achieving qualitative validity, reliability and generalisability
13:The logic of sampling
14:Survey research methods
15:Experimental methods and data collection
16:The observation method
17:The interview method
18:The questionnaire approach
19:The focus group discussion method
20:Using secondary sources of data
21:The pilot study
Part 3: Analysing fieldwork data
22:Quantitative data analysis: Descriptive statistics
23:Quantitative data analysis: Inferential statistics
24:Application of the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS)
25:Qualitative data analysis
Part 4: Reporting and disseminating research findings
26:Presentation of quantitative research reports
27:Presentation of qualitative research findings
28:Plagiarism: Causes, consequences and preventive strategies
29:Essentials of academic writing
30:Writing for publication: Sharpening your academic writing skills
