Week 9. The importance of Theory in research

This week we talked about the importance of theory in research. I have to be honest, this is particularly hard for me at this point. I come from an operational job where philosophical assumptions received little consideration.

However, I'm aware that this is one of the skills I need to develop in this program in order to become a serious and respected researcher. I've had long conversations with Dr. Riveros about the theoretical approach to my Thesis research. He has given me the orientation I never had before and in conjunction with this Seminar, I'm sure I will reach my goal.

Theoretical frameworks are like glasses, they give us different perspectives of the same phenomena and because of that, it is really important that we select the most appropriate one. Before I come here I was confident that the binary qualitative/quantitative was all I need to learn for analyzing a problem or an issue. Now I'm aware of the different paths we can follow to find the truth (or truths).

We can use theory to select ideas, formulate and design research questions, even for predictions about the outcomes. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a strong knowledge about which techniques and methods can be applied to the theory we select. this will take me some time, but the OGS paper application will be a fantastic opportunity to test what my progress has been this far.