The Final Post - and the importance of looking from different perspectives

I made a Google Docs with links to the comments I’ve made during the course and also pasted the actual comment underneath it. Unfortunately I wasn’t aware that we were supposed to make comments from the start, so some of them are posted a couple of weeks after they were supposed to be. This, on the other hand, could be good in the sense that I had learnt more about the subject when commenting! I also wasn’t aware that we were going to compile the comments in this way, so I think that I have lost some of them, but that’s life on the vast internet! I have commented about 2-4 comments each week (and some additional that unfortunately are lost) so I guess that I’m aiming for the grade C.

However, here is the link for the Google Docs, and I’ve made it commentable for everyone with the link so feel free to comment there as well if you like to! But I rather get more comments here on the blog since it’s easier to have all in one place so to speak! :)

So, this is going to be my final post for this course. It will consist of some reflections of the course and what I’ve learnt about combining different methods in order to answer complex research questions.

I’ve always thought of myself as a person that doesn’t like to write (or read), but during this course I’ve started to enjoy writing and reading. I don’t consider myself as a good writer (yet), but I think that it’s something one can continue working on the entire life! As for reading, it has been fun reading others’ blog posts. Many of my fellow students is really good at writing which have made it a good way for me to experience new ways of expressing myself in writing and I've learnt a lot of new words and expressions.

But what have I learnt about combining different methods in order to answer complex research questions then?

I would say that theme 4, 5 and 6 has been the most hands-on themes from which I have learnt specifically methodological knowledge. Theme 1, 2 and 3 was more background to what knowledge, theory and critical thinking really are, which also has been needed in the course when discussing the different methods and what each of them contributes with.

When starting at theme 4 on quantitative studies with Olle Bälter we also got into qualitative studies in a natural discussion flow. It’s often easy to start comparing the two types of methods. I think a combination of these two are always to prefer. They complement each other in good ways.

This was some of the pros with quantitative and qualitative methods that we discussed during the seminar:



I’ve also learnt that it’s good to use qualitative methods when researching a relatively new subject to get qualitative results for others to use in further research later on. However I still think it’s good to also use quantitative methods as a complement to get an overview of how the masses responds to the questions of the research. It’s also often a good way to get statistics that can be presented graphically, which I like when reading a research paper. It often makes it more easy to grasp.

The most important methodological knowledge I learnt when continuing on to theme 5 was the importance of defining the problem. I also learnt that the divide of time often is quite unfair. Haibo said that 10% of the time is placed in the defining and almost 90% goes to solving the problem. If we instead put more effort into the defining of the problem the solving hasn’t got to take that much time and we can actually find a simpler solution. I think this way of thinking also is applicable for using methods in a research. If you start by putting more effort into defining your research then you can see more clearly what methods you should use or what to ask, and then it also can be more time efficient, because you might realise that you were about to use almost redundant methods. Haibo also said that to define a problem properly you should look at it from different point of views, which also can be connected to the profitability of using different methods when doing a research. It will give the research more inputs and open it up for more solutions, or experiences.

Here is a really short video of one who knows how to approach things from another perspective that I think you'll enjoy: http://instagram.com/p/uLFkRejJyo/?modal=true

Theme 6 was a bit confusing at first, but I think I have gotten a more defined view of what a case study research is. The whole method of case studies is building upon using different methods in order to explore and drag conclusions from real life complex phenomenon. What I’ve learnt from this theme is that a case study is based on a real problem, uses different methods and that it’s inductive and doesn’t have any prior hypotheses but rather depend on the experience that is gained during the research. I also really liked the Eisenhardt text and think it will be good to use it when doing a case study research, to be sure to get all the components needed for a valid research.


The most challenging parts of the course were probably theme 1 and 2. I've written, in my Reflection after Theme 2, "You need to seek the truth by logical arguing but also by looking at the object from different perspectives" and also "When discussing Adorno & Horkheimer we talked about a gap between the existing and the possible ("A society that we live in, and a society that we want to live in") and that we need to change the way we think to change the society". I found this interesting now when reading it again. I see this course as an eye-opener in the sense of the importance to look at things from different perspectives, thinking in different ways and thereby using different methods also fit nicely into the picture. (I also got a lot of interesting comments on that particular post, which you can read more about in the comments compilation.)


All in all, I think I've learnt a lot more than that I can think of right now, and I hope that all we have discussed will stick with me and that I get chances to develop these thoughts further in coming courses.

I guess that's all for now, and thank you who have read my postings and commented all your cleaver comments!

//Malin Bokström