When I Think of Research

                                  Research papers are best when they focus
                                  on a narrow topic, such as a certain aspect of
                                   the life cycle of a specific type of fish......


     Research is a process and researchers need to go through various steps if we want our research to be ethical, meaningful, and informative. Research is a tool and researchers learning to use those tools will be able to answer the questions or question they set out to address, in order to inform others of what they have found.

    Grieshaber (2010) in her article, Equity and research design in my opinion gives the term research great meaning. She states that research is systematic investigation of a topic or issue that is culturally specific and which seeks information and or solutions (2010).

My ideas  about the nature of doing research are:

Before taking this course I never thought or envisioned doing research of any kind. I never thought that it would entail so much information to be collected or to follow so many steps.  But since taking this course I have came to the understanding that any one can do research studies. I think research on children is very beneficial to the early childhood field. As a researcher we just have to keep in mind all the reasons why we are studying children and how our study will help improve circumstances for the children we are investigating. As Mac Naughton, 2010, states individuals affected by research can do research, and should do research. However, researchers must consider that knowledgeable information that can benefit society at large.

When planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood I have learned a great  amount of information. Ethics was what really interested me most. The risk equation involved, the greater the benefits to be gained from research, the greater the more risks are acceptable, and the greater the risks the more questions asked.

The challenges I encountered when I first starting my research process were; I was very undecided about my specific topic, and conducting the literature review. I went back and forth, before I finally decided on the topic of Culture.

 In week seven, searching for the literature to support my hypothesis was very tiresome, and time consuming, and very frustrating, but I think the reward for all the work will be rewarding in the end. I will be able to do research by following all of the necessary steps. Some of the literature was hard for me to understand, and I did not understand whether it would fit my research questions or better yet my topic of interest. But, if I did not gain any thing else, I  realized that I can do research.

Some of my perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of taking this course are:

This course allows for critical reflections due to my own experiences when conducting research, as well as the opportunity to share in the critical reflections of the participants under study. As a early childhood professional my self, I understand that my views are totally different from what I believed, meaning that what I know now about research today as compared to what I did not know before taking this class will benefit me greatly. Taking stock of where we are today and what the future holds is a reflection of how important research is in order to gain a better understanding of different phenomenon's. We now can see things with a new insight and vision.

 To all my professional colleagues, I thank you for helping me on this research journey, by sharing your ideas, insights, and thoughts in our discussions. Thanks for your support and encouragement, I can say we are all on our way to doing great research involving our children and their families.

Resource:
Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S. A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. ( 2010).  Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice 2nd ed. New York, NY. McGraw-Hill.