Philosophical assumptions

Someone asked me 'what is the theoretical framework around which your PhD is centred? I was stumped. Even though I had spent weeks thinking and reading on this, and had written a nice little half page under the heading in my proposal, i was unable to actually verbalise any coherent response! A prattled on about pragmatism, but what exactly does that mean in the context of my PhD.

I am now reading chapter 2 of Cresswell and Plano-Clarke's Designing and conducting mixed methods research. and relooking a the pragmatist worldview:

• consequences of actions
• problem centred
• pluralistic
• real-world practice oriented.

What is my worldview?

Evaluation of a project is left to the end – that is why it is often lacking.

No one wants to admit that their project ahs not achieved its goals and so will skimp on the evaluation or massage the results of the evaluation to make the project appear successful.

How is feedback from any evaluation fed back into the project? IS there ever time or money to realistically do this?

By asking the different people involved in the project, what their view is, will ensure different perspectives are heard.

Epistemology – collect data from available reports and interview MQ staff on those projects as this is easiest and ‘works’.

Combine data – methodology Use a checklist but also do interviews.

Casual discussions and add quotes when reporting on results.

The sticking point for me is the theoretical lense. 

 Theoretical Framework

A theoretical orientation for a mixed methods study would be the use of an explanatory framework from the social sciences that predicts and shapes the direction of a research study.

For example could use a change management or leadership lense.

Which social science theory will I use? IS the developmental evaluation (Patton) or MERI my framework?

To read (check if in library):

Mertens, D.M. (2009) Transformative research and evaluation. New York: Guilford Press.