ATPS fall 09
week 1
6:00pm
Welcome to your 2 nd year!
Knowledge is knowing what to do, wisdom is knowing what to do and when to do it, virtue is knowing what to do and when to do it and then doing it.
In both public administration and social science research the hardest part of our work is taking steps towards virtue . Acting on our knowledge at the right time can be tough.
However, we may be able to use analytical techniques to help us. This means that you develop useful thinking habits . These useful habits may involve systematic approaches to your own thought processes.
Ex. How and why do you make inquiries?
This year, by conducting your own research project, one of the major take aways for you will be recognizing the analytical techniques you use to think .
The ways in which we think effect the ways in which we act and react. By recognizing your thought processes, you are developing an analytical technique. --like a picture, our thoughts are “framed” or informed by our world view and then we see the picture by reasoning our way through it to find meaning. --- We frame our initial responses to readings or issues based upon the world view we've formed over time (our epistemology). After that first reaction, we then reason through readings or issues based upon where we deem “t”ruth comes from (our paradigm). Our frames of reference and our lines of reasoning inform each other in a continuous feedback loop.
I used to be a person who reacted to my external environment and then questioned my reactions later. Then I became a public administrator and this habit wasn't working to well for me anymore.
Today my analytical techniques for any work or research project are: 1) why does this matter? 2) am I attached or detached to the outcomes? 3) what assumptions am I making about the project or the presumed problem? 4) what do I know for sure about the project or problem? 5) why does this matter now ?
These 5 steps are an analytical technique that help me identify the way I frame and reason through a problem or decision. In our workshop later this evening you will assess what your own framing and reasoning.
These steps also help me to demystify science. Being scientific does not necessarily mean that you are always in pursuit of “answers.” Sometimes reaching enlightened continuations of your research question in order to pursue further research and ask more questions is the epitome of a scientific act. If all research projects ended with discrete findings and absolute answers then science, in my opinion, would be a very dull and short activity.
6:15pm
• Introduce our new students to the cohort.
• Note Agenda on board.
• Introductions of faculty
• Go over syllabus-
• announce change to readings Weeks 2 & 4.
• Explain timeline of project. HANDOUT RESEARCH COMPONENTS OUTLINE.
• Explain that project is a learning experience and everyone comes to it with different levels of experience with research. It is highly likely that your topic will change in the next few weeks.
• Announcements?- any news you want to share with the cohort?
SHORT BREAK
7:00pm
For the next two hours, we have one objective to focus on: how we “think” about doing research. Next week we'll begin to focus on how we go about actually “doing” research.
Therefore, tonight we have 3 take away objectives:
1) Connections between the paradigms of public administration and social science.
2) Assess how you think through questions and problems.
3) Develop an understanding of why all this stuff matters.
Why talk about research processes in an MPA program?
One reason is because much of how we design research is similar to how we design policy.
HANDOUT similarities between policy & research design.
But what informs our design process?
Well…..The goals of any social science research project are usually going to be one of (or a combination of) the following: prediction, understanding, description, exploration, explanation. However, the goals of your research project are informed by the paradigm your research aligns with.
Quick refresher of what these terms mean:
Epistemology : How you come to know- the lenses you use to acquire knowledge. How do you know to ride a bike? Example: relying on personal experience. (or science)
Theory : concept formulation and hypothesis testing. Speculation as opposed to facts. A proposed description, explanation or model. Example: theory of incrementalism in management.
Ideology : a generally accepted theory or idea. An organized collection of ideas. A comprehensive vision. Set of ideas proposed to all members of society. Example: peaceful resistance.
Paradigm : when an ideology becomes dominant in form and substance (institutionalized). Thought pattern within a discipline. Kuhn “logically consistent portrait of the world.” Ex. Performance measurement in public administration or capitalism in economics.
These go in a circle….. each informs the other.
That's the long explanation, here's my elevator explanation (we're in an elevator for two floors and I have to tell you what I just did, but I've only got 2 floors to do it.): “these categories of epistemology, ideology, theory, and paradigm help us researchers to see what our practices are informed by and why. For example, paradigms can give us an aerial view of the research behaviors we may already be engaging in or inspire new ones.”
Last year it sounds like you spent a lot of time on the major debates and paradigms of public administration.
Quick refresher: REFER TO BOARD------------
Divide between the classics and the challenge. Classics : Efficiency, Facts, Science, Objectivity, Administration (Experts), formal authority, sameness (rational model) ….. versus…. Challenge : Effectiveness, Values, Qualitative Analysis, Subjectivity and Politics, informal authority (the faces of power), otherness (difference)
Defining the Classics :
Public organizations should operate with power located at the top to maximize efficiency. Public administration should be about value free, neutral professionals who are experts that maintain bureaucracy. Army of experts.
Made a clear distinction between politics (legislation that follows the public will and values) and administration (the execution of law by value free experts).
Defining the Challenge :
The aim of the challenge is to show what is wrong with the world and as it is and to help improve it. They question whether an effect is morally or politically desirable. Recognize that social constructions exist= we cannot know “facts” separate from interests. Emphasize the imbrication of theory and practice. The goal of the challenge is to bring about social and political change.
Social Science Paradigms have similar divides.
The paradigms differ in where they locate the sources of “truth” (where we locate the “soul” of science). Here's some background about where these paradigms came from:
1) Age of Enlightenment– 17 th to 18 th centuries- ushered in Modernity and developed Positivism which are still alive and well today ---
The Enlightenment sought to establish a new nature of knowledge where subjective ideas such as religion did not rule the landscape. Instead, philosophers and scientists would rely on proof, physical observation and verifiable predictions to claim knowledge. They were looking for basic truths of the world ( UNIVERSAL TRUTHS ).
The central claim was that there was an objective truth of reality out there to be discovered that was separate from the observer , instead of the subjective views of reality expressed in religion and politics. This could be discovered through the scientific method of observation, hypothesis, experimentation and verification . Enlightenment thinkers believed in a rational, orderly and comprehensible universe which could then form a rational and orderly organization of knowledge . -- positivism--- which was formalized by Auguste Comte.
The order of the scientific method was seen as a way of keeping chaos out and ordered efficiency in……things were seen in absolutes, either you could prove knowledge scientifically or you could not. This was what is known as “empiricism” or dependence on evidence.
Western societies felt protected by “scientific experts” rather than ruled by traditions or a King. Keep in mind this was the time of Newton and regularizing inventions such as the telescope and microscope. Enlightenment set the stage for the modern era, industrialization, and scientific revolutions.
Critique : knowledge generated by science is (generally) accepted as “true”; this passes enormous power to the elites with the skills needed to generate this knowledge – positivism
2) Postmodern Era - ushered in the interpretive and critical paradigms which have definitely gained standing in the research practices of today-- some debate about when these concepts really hit U.S. in a visible way---I tend to focus on the 30's to the 60's because we started to see a real shift in science that we are still feeling today.
This was a move to get away from the “experts” of science. Science was insufficient in answering the individual questions of global suffering and sacrifice (WWI, WWII, depression). Views science as inherently corrupt and not based in the realities of individual experience. These paradigms want to get at the things we can't see , such as emotion and prejudice and hate .
It sees knowledge as coming from individual realities. All that's real are the images we get through our points of view.
Critique : If there is no universal reality, then how can we ever have a women's movement? If there is no universal woman-ness.
*Note: you do not see the words methodology or method on this handout.*
The methodology is your "approach" to the research: what types of data do you want to yield? (quant, qual, mixed) We need to have this clear in our mind before designing our method: the "tool" we use to physically gather the data. (survey, interview, focus group, etc.) Just by deciding to do a survey it doesn't mean they are automatically going to get all quant data back. It depends on how they intentionally design the questions and response options within the tool itself. In other words, "a" tool does not equal "a" approach or data yield.
* methodologies and methods - it is crucial to remember that any methodologies (quant., qual, mixed mode) and any methods (surveys, interviews, focus groups) can be present in any paradigm. The tool and the approach do not make the paradigm . You can have highly quantitative methodologies in the critical paradigm. You can use surveys in the Native Science paradigm.
Why consider the philosophical underpinnings of research? SHOW VIDEO Author discusses ‘Justice' Sept. 17: TODAY's Meredith Vieira talks to Harvard philosophy professor Michael Sandel about his new book, “Justice.” http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/32892712#32892712
8:15pm
Workshop on framing and reasoning related to Kirlin article. HANDOUT
9:00pm
Research topic sharing. Turn in concept papers.