5.3 Research Questions
Jackie Hendricks; Amy Lueck; Loring Pfeiffer; and Maura Tarnoff
Having learned more about research methods and research justice, it’s time for you to think about a research question you have and the tool(s) you could use to answer that research question. We encourage you to begin the process of developing a research question by thinking about the issues that you know best: the ones confronting your community. To that end, start by brainstorming the communities you are part of. Then, consider the issues confronting those communities. This brainstorming may grow from the thinking you already began when thinking about exigence in Module 3 [Website].
Next, think about the research methods that you could use to help you analyze the issues you listed in the previous table. The following table, from The Institute for Othering & Belonging at Berkeley [Website], may provide some inspiration for considering how certain research methods could help you consider the issues you’re interested in:
Ingredient for Transformation |
Knowledge Needed |
Research Methods |
|---|---|---|
Analyzing the issues or problems in the community |
Community members’ testimonies about their most urgent problemsData on the existing problems and how widespread they are |
In-depth interviews [Website]Survey [Website]Participatory mapping [Website]Open mics and ancestral ceremonies [Website]Census and other agency data analysis |
Root cause analysis of the problems in the community |
Analysis of existing policies and institutional practices related to the issuesAnalysis of public budgets related to the issue history of what forces created the problems |
Oral histories of community eldersInterviews [Website] with policy experts, agency staff, and advocates; budget analysisArchival research [Website] |
Analyzing potential solutions and policy changes |
Community members’ visions for new systemsAnalysis of other communities’ responses to similar issuesAnalysis of academic or professional recommendations of policy solutions |
Arts-based visioning workshopsReview of case studies of communities with similar issuesSite visits to communities with similar issuesInterviews with policy experts and advocates |
Power networks and decision-making processes |
Charting the power that various people and groups have over the decision to adopt solutionsAnalysis of formal decision-making processes and laws to identify points of leverage |
Power mapping [Website] interviews with legal and policy experts |
Accountable implementation of policies and programs |
What is the impact on the community that the policy is supposed to have?What is the actual impact?What institutional processes, roles, and people are involved in implementing the policy or program? |
Interviews [Website] with impacted community members and agency staffLegal analysis comparing the written policy to actual implementation |
Public narratives |
What are the arguments that people make or might make against your proposed transformation?What are the “big lies” that are told about your community that are holding back progress on this issue? |
Interviews [Website] with stakeholders and influencersAnalysis of media coverageSurvey [Website] on public opinions |
Finally, bring together your reflections about community issues and potential research methods. To start, you’ll need to convert one of the community issues you’ve highlighted into a research question. In “Developing a Research Question” [Website], Emilie Zickel offers the following guidelines for generating a research question:
- Your research question is based on a topic that genuinely interests you
- Your question is not a simple “yes/no” question
- Your research question does not have an easy, obvious answer (a quick google check of your research question should reveal whether there is an easy, obvious answer. If so, this means that you need to revise and refine your question)
- The research question asks “how?” or “in what ways,” or “what”?
- The research question is focused, specific, narrow (enough)
- The research question is researchable. It is not asking about the future or about areas of faith, where we cannot find hard evidence about what is
Apply It
Using Zickel’s best practices and the guidelines for research methods justice you learned above, fill in the “Student Submission” table. Feel free to use the example below as a template for your responses.
Example
| Research Question | Chosen Research Methods | Reflection (How will the methods answer the question? What other methods could help?) | Potential Limitations (Which knowledges are privileged by the research methods? What risks might be associated with the methods you’ve chosen?) |
|---|---|---|---|
| How does gentrification affect public K-12 schools in California cities? | Interviews with affected families | Interviews provide qualitative, not quantitative, data—consider supplementing this strategy with publicly available data about changing housing prices and public school budgets. | If I only interview people I know, that will privilege perspectives similar to my own. Collecting quantitative data may provide additional context for my interview findings, or I might be able to find other perspectives in various media (newspapers, podcasts, etc.). |
_
Student Submission
Putting it All Together
Convert the content of the table above into a deck of 3-5 slides where you pose a research question, discuss some research methods you might use to answer that research question, and think through the implications and limitations of those research methods.
Attribution
“Research Questions” by Jackie Hendricks, Amy Lueck, Loring Pfeiffer, and Maura Tarnoff is adapted from “Planning Your Research Process” from The Transformative Resarch Tooklit: Strategies and Sources for Community-Driven Knowledge and Action by Jose Richard Aviles, Victoria Benson, Justice Alchemy, Evan Bissell, Cory Greene, H.O.L.L.A., Eli Moore, and Jah Elyse Sayers for the Othering & Belonging Institute, used under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. “Research Questions” is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
