THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL

What is it?

(from Translating Culture, 76)

The research proposal asks you to create a plan for your data collection. As is the case with most research connected to people and community, things may not always go according to your plan and you may learn things (hopefully) other than things you image you will learn, but the proposal is a very important piece of the process. The proposal asks you to question what you know, what you don't know, what you hope to know and creates a pathway for your research [as well as describes the ways in which you are going to treat--with great respect, of course--the community you are investigating and the data you are collecting to represent them]. 

What's it look like?

(again, from Translating Culture, 76)

The format of your ethnographic inquiry proposal follows what is generally understood as a proposal format, something that you can adapt to a variety of contexts, academic and otherwise. The central elements include:

• a discussion of what you hope to accomplish (with background information, [for us, primarily generated through your first three writing assignments in Literacies in Context and all relevant readings included in that same text]

• an explanation of why the research is important to you (local) and how you have framed the central questions or lines of inquiry for your research.

• [a statement describing the ways in which you will approach your data collection, analysis, and write up that will ensure the participants in your study will be treated with the utmost respect and that the process will follow the ethical practices set by university researchers and the Institutional Review Boards that oversee such research]

• [a discussion of how you have obtained the requisite permission and a copy of all signed permission forms]

• a detailing of your research plan--when and where you will research

• a description of the methodology for your research--how will you collect the data [Your data collection must include multiple observations and extensive fieldnotes (how many times will you visit?) and informal/formal interviews with one or more informants (who will be your informants? how does this informant display insider status and a willingness to guide you through this research site?). Your research methods might also include surveys and/or other, more traditional means of collecting data; if so, describe those here too.]

• a discussion of how your research or idea or plan connects to the wider community [here is the place where you will tie your project more deliberately to the arguments made (those you accept and those you are actively resisting) in Literacies in Context.]

      [. . .]

. . . while the broad proposal format described above is widely applicable to research proposals for other contexts, we suggest that you use the following, more  detailed frame to draft a proposal for your ethnographic inquiry. As you write, keep in mind that your responses to the guiding questions [should be integrated] into a coherent essay. Your paragraphs should not stand as separate, isolated responses to the questions, but should be held together as a cohesive proposal by the exploration of what you want to research, why you want to research it, and the connections you make between your research and the world [specifically, how literacies might function in a particular context and what that might tell us about writing for school].

Ethnographic Inquiry Proposal

1. What and where is your proposed research and research site? What background on your selection process can you provide? Use this section as a general introduction to your research--what you know about the site, what it is connected to, what you don't know, and why you chose it. You should write at least 1-2 sentences, which serve as the introduction to your essay.

2. What are your research questions? What do you aim to discover through this research? [remember, part of the aim is to examine the way literacy functions in a particular place among a particular community and/or in the life (lives) of a particular person or group of people (or perhaps across multiple generations of a single family)]. Here you must be specific and dig a little deeper than the introductory paragraphs above. Exactly, precisely, what does this place or these people mean for you? What attracted your interest? --a personal experience? explain [how]. a personal question? [explain what you mean and how it is personal and how this personal question might have more global consequences]? What makes it a site of research for you? What are your research questions? How do you see this connected to culture and community? [How do you see this connected to the question of literacy (or literacies) as defined and examined in Literacies in Context?] Why is it important? If you can't figure out why you are interested or what your questions are, change your research site! This is a very important section and you should push yourself to write two or three paragraphs or more and really push the discussion of your inquiry.

3. Where and how will you conduct your research? Specifically, where and when do you plan to go? Do you have the access you need? Will you observe? Will you interview? Will you do both? How will you participate or not participate in the social interaction? How might this research be reciprocal; in other words, how can you serve this community through your research? [remember: there should be no intention/plans to change the community or its members in any way; the only type of reciprocal relationship is one that serves both parties without dominating either one--serves within the confines of what the recipient actually wants and needs rather than what the researcher thinks she should want or need]. This section gives you the opportunity to reflect on and share your methodology. This is a nuts-and-bolts section. Write 1-2 paragraphs here.

4. What previous research or other ideas does what you are doing connect to? What larger cultural or social questions are you examining? [This is the place to make explicit reference to the key arguments from Literacies in Context you are working with/against/extending/resisting. Which articles are going to be most relevant to your project? How? What makes them relevant? What key arguments do you expect to try to work with/against?]. Don't be afraid to make connections here. When you are researching these ideas may change and grow, but you must begin to wonder in this proposal. What sources might your work build from? [Remember to describe the key sources you will be using from Literacies in Context.] What larger ideas might you be able to explore in this research? [Remember the ideas you developed and extended in WA1-3, written in response to key readings in Literacies in Context]. In this concluding section of your proposal, you must articulate the "so what?" of your research. That is, why is this important and interesting? To you? To others? This section should bring your proposal essay to a powerful close. Write 1-2 paragraphs here.

How will the research proposal be graded?

The requirements for the proposal may differ somewhat from instructor to instructor; however, most researchers can expect their proposals to be graded via criteria like these:

•     Has the researcher discussed the "what" and "where" of the proposed research site?

•     Has the researcher made explicit connections to the relevant arguments/scholarship presented in Literacies in Context?

•     Has the researcher explained how the current project will contribute to/further our discussion of how literacy manifests itself in a particular context/among a particular community/ within the life (lives) of a particular person or a family (across multiple generations)?

•     Has the researcher explained--explicitly and specifically--the ways in which she/he will collect her/his data and write up her/his findings responsibly and ethically--treating her/his research participants and the research site with the utmost respect?

•     Has the researcher included copies of all the requisite (and signed) permission forms?

•     Has the researcher described his/her research questions and the project's significance?

•     Has the researcher discussed his/her methodology in very specific terms? (that is, has the researcher included a discussion of how she/he will gain entry into the site, how she will make it know to all key folks within the site that she is conducting research for a class [and what she hopes to learn from this research], how she will establish a reciprocal relationship with research participants, how many times she intends to visit the site and how she will go about observing and taking the extensive field notes required, how she has selected her key informants and how they are connected to the research site, etc)

•     Has the researcher included a rather extensive discussion about how the research as proposed will connect to larger social or cultural questions (Remember, this is the place to make explicit reference to the key arguments from Literacies in Context you are working with/against/extending/resisting. Which articles are going to be most relevant to your project? How? What makes them relevant? What key arguments do you expect to try to work with/against?)

•     Is the proposal well organized and coherent?

•     Does the research plan seem do-able?

Once your proposal has been graded and approved, you are on your way to collecting and analyzing that data (see Research Portfolio) and writing up your findings (see Final Ethnographic Project).