Facilitator: Prof Kambidima Wotela studied demography and population studies for all his degrees. He is a recipient of various scholarships and fellowships including the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation fellowship and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation scholarship. He teaches systems thinking, monitoring and evaluation, as well as research and analytical methods at the WITS Graduate School of Governance. One of his current research strands is on approaches to research supervision.
Target Group: Research supervisors and postgraduate students doing their masters and doctoral research studies.
Background: This workshop looks at four research processes and the resulting six components that provide for a quality research product. We then detail the most important of the six components since this holds the six components together. Using this interrogation, we propose the 20 research steps that we should consider in an effort to produce a quality research product. Further, within each step, there are five concurrent tasks that we should be undertaking with varying intensities, that is, (i.) framing, (ii.) sourcing, summarising, and synthesising literature, (iii.) writing, (iv.) re-conceptualising the research, (v.) peer-reviewing. To appreciate these tasks, we shall use the most crucial Steps 7 and 9 as examples.
Expected Outcomes: The aim of this workshop is to provide a clear orientation for both supervisors and their postgraduate students about the hallmarks of a quality, coherent research process, and its resulting research report, be it a thesis or dissertation. We hope such an orientation will assist them to understand the specific issues around the different stages of the research journey.
Requirements: Participants should be supervising research or undertaking postgraduate research
This workshop is funded by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) through the University Capacity Development Grant (UCDG)