Research Design

Put simply, research design refers to the way in which a research idea is transformed into a research project or plan that can then be carried out in practice by a researcher or research team. However, research design is more than just the selection of methods or techniques to be used in collecting data for a particular study. Rather, the term refers to and encompasses decisions about how the research itself is conceptualized, the subsequent conduct of a specific research project, and ultimately the type of contribution the research is intended to make to the development of knowledge in a particular area. Importantly, the process of developing a research design combines three broadly connected and interdependent components: the theoretical, methodological, and ethical considerations relevant to the specific project. This entry explores these in more detail.

The theoretical understandings and assumptions about research held by a researcher and/or research team provide an overarching frame that shapes and influences the research design at every point. For example, if a design is qualitative in nature, then one can assume that the researcher has a commitment to, and has identified the need for, some form of naturalistic interpretive approach to inquiry so as to explore or address the particular substantive focus or question. Such a commitment will influence all parts of the research design, from the way in which the aims and objectives of the research are thought about and articulated, to the methods/techniques/approaches used in collecting the data, to the analytic processes undertaken with respect to the types of theoretical lenses that are applied to the data collected.

However, qualitative designs vary with respect to how theory is explicitly used in a particular study. In some research designs, a specific theory may provide the organizing construct for the entire research design. For example, in a study design that is overtly Marxist in orientation, Marxist theory and traditions will shape and influence that design at every point. Other qualitative research designs may use theoretical concepts, as opposed to entire theories, to shape the design. These theoretical concepts may be derived from one or a number of theoretical traditions to provide the focus for the study and/or as a vehicle to explore a topic of interest. For example, the concept of power might be used as the overarching theoretical construct in a certain research design. The understanding of power in use may draw on one, two, or several theoretical traditions or variants thereof. In such a research design, power provides a theoretical lens or perspective to guide the study, which might be exploring, for example, the outworking or use of power in a particular substantive area. Similarly, gender or class as concepts can provide a theoretical lens or frame in qualitative research. In addition, some research designs may employ combinations of these concepts—for example, in a study looking at the effects of power in a group of women living in a particular social situation or setting.

Another type of research design is one in which the researcher collects and analyzes data with the goal of generating or deriving theory from the study undertaken. Thus, the generation of theory constitutes an endpoint to the research. Yet other study designs, such as (but not invariably) those that are submitted for funding, might not explicitly refer to theory at all in [Page 762]the proposals that outline the research designs to the funding bodies. However, as discussed, such studies do in fact draw on the theoretical traditions that inform qualitative research generally. Thus, there is a great deal of variation in the way theory is used in the design of qualitative studies. It is not a case of one way necessarily being better than another way of using theory. Rather, the key point is that theory does inform the design of all qualitative research, and it is important that this be taken into account and acknowledged in the research design.

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