2.3 Research Design
The preliminary research design comprised of three research cycles (RC). There were four main stages for each RC– plan, act, observe, and reflect — as adapted from McNiff’s (2013) action research model.
The first stage was the initial planning which outlined each RC’s philosophical stand. As knowledge accumulated with every RC, the initial plan could be improved and updated with more appropriate research procedures.
The second stage — “act” — would see the plan being put into action, providing insights into the research area, through active observation or reflection in the research context.
The third stage — “observe” — required analysis of research findings and triangulation of data collected.
The final stage — “reflect” — would bridge theory and practice, drawing insights from analysis and reflecting on insights gleaned from the “plan”, “act’, and “observe” stages to engage in new areas of theory.
The research philosophy and strategy defined in section 3.1 informed the design of the three RCs. A post-positivist stance recognized the value of subjectivity and methods were implemented at the outset to gain an understanding of the immigrants and locals’ perceptions to inform the the design principles required for developing a solution. The following section provides an overview of the steps taken in each RC to answer the research question.
Research Cycle One: Literature Review
The literature review conducted during this RC was essential to the development of the research philosophy and strategy (see section 3.1), outlining the background for this research, and in particularly identifying the need for engagement with immigrants and locals to further explore issues relevant to them. The challenges of social integration were reviewed, made more challenging by the confusing concept of “immigrants” in the academic and public domains. The case study of New York City showed that there were benefits to social integration, but gaps remained even in a culturally diverse city.
Research Cycle Two: Interviews
This cycle explores, from the “outside in”, the experiences of immigrants and locals in New York City. The purpose of the field trip to New York City was to gain first-hand knowledge and find out from immigrants and locals there about what was happening today, through in-context interviews. Although US was not a country which received the most immigrants — Argentina and Brazil, for example, received more — New York City was a melting pot of people from such a wide variety of countries and cultures, a trait unmatched by other cities (Koilb, 2009).
Taking a post-positivist stance, qualitative data continued to be collected through interviews with users and experts in Manchester, UK. The intent was to draw key insights, and generate design principles and possible concepts to promote social integration.
Research Cycle Three: Action Research
Using an action research approach, the intent of this cycle was to user perspectives from the “inside-out”, in order to develop solutions that were relevant to them. Co-creation workshops were to be done in Manchester, UK, to co-design solutions with users and update if the design principles were still valid in promoting social integration between immigrants and locals.
The intent was also to engage in reflective inquiry influenced by Gibb’s reflective cycle (The Open University, 2015), to improve upon the way the researcher conducted the co-creation workshops.
Summary
The research philosophy, strategies and design have been set out above in Chapter 2. However it should be noted that the research approach did change as more knowledge and understanding were gained about the subject.
