A Typology of Research Purposes, Coursework Example

A Typology of Research Purposes and Its Relationship to Mixed Methods

This article focuses on the public health problem of diabetes; in particular, the paper adopts a unique perspective known as the “Community-based participatory research” framework in order to understand how diabetes is viewed and treated in the community.  Overall, the purpose statement does begin with action words such as “action research approach” that tries to capture the study’s ethos.

The statement goes further to describe the strategy of inquiry: typically, when academics go into a community to understand what the “problem” is- it is a one-way process initiated by academics.  The strategy of inquiry with community-based research is to flatten the hierarchical platform of inquiry in order to make researchers and subjects colleagues in understanding the problem.   The author expands on this by referring to “Citizen Health Care”, particular model that attempts to understand the resources in a community.  Although the author lays out the main contours of the statement nicely, they do not mention where the study will take place in that section.

This study is a qualitative study focusing on analyzing data from interviews and meeting

minutes taken in the community.  The purpose statement does focus on a single phenomenon or public health issue: diabetes.  This is clear throughout the paper.  The author uses the word “research” or “listen” or “examine” as the main action verbs that will convey that learning takes place.  Overall, the author uses neutral, non-directional language in describing how the qualitative process will take place.  Finally, the paper does a good job of introducing the main components of the research strategy, and provides a general working direction of how diabetes, a “lifestyle” disease that often times has intricate connections to the surrounding environment, is connected to the overall purpose.

The only question I had on the paper is: I wondered if a mixed-methods study would not have been better in this case?  While qualitative methods are obviously correct in this case, the availability of quantitative clinical outcomes may help to assess the methods.

References

Mendenhall, T.J. & Doherty, W. (2007). Partners in diabetes: action research in a primary care setting. Action Research, 5(4), 378-406.