Contestable professional academic identity of those who teach research methodology

ABSTRACT

A professional academic identity is important because it supports a sense of belonging and contributes to the scholarly advancement of a discipline. However, a professional academic identity for those involved in teaching research methodology is particularly complex and diverse. This research surveyed 144 academics from 139 universities in 9 countries, who are involved in teaching research methodology, and examined the extent to which participants construct their professional academic identity around research methodology. The study also sought to examine whether participants view research methodology as a distinct discipline. Findings show that academics teaching research methods inhabit multiple identities. Some identified as expert researchers, while others associated with particular research methods, along with a clear epistemic attachment, within a particular area of scholarly inquiry. Furthermore, few participants described themselves as research methodologists, and stressed the significance of teaching research methodology as a distinct discipline. Findings also revealed that the majority of the institutions involved in the study approach research methodology as ‘a service course’ and predominantly taught by volunteer academics. This study contributes to our understanding of how research methodology courses are organized, and the broader implications of the different approaches to the scholarly advancement of research methodology as a distinct subject.

KEYWORDS:

• Research methodologist
• professional academic identity
• teaching
• qualitative
• quantitative
• mixed methods
• teaching research methods

Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge Dr Navé Wald for providing useful comments on the initial draft of this article. I also thank all participants for sharing their experiences and views on teaching of research methods courses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Data Science, is an emerging interdisciplinary field of study that brings together the fields of Social Science, Statistics, Information, Computer science, and the Humanities to examine data and the processes involved in creating, organizing and utilising them.