Report on Research Design Workshop conducted as Symbiosis Scholar in Residence

Duration: I was at Symbiosis SSIS for about two and half weeks in January-February 2019, in the capacity of Symbiosis Scholar in Residence

During that time, I worked intensively with the Senior last semester Masters Students on refining their dissertation research topics into concrete research questions and coming up with a research design.

Please find attached a rough syllabus that I followed during my time with the Master’s students. In class time, we primarily spent time using their research topics as examples or cases to learn the following lessons:

• Please find attached a rough syllabus that I followed during my time with the Master’s students. In class time, we primarily spent time using their research topics as examples or cases to learn the following lessons:
  

  Much of this session involved an in-depth discussion of certain topics, breaking them down, explaining why they were not suitable research questions and practicing how to formulate concrete questions.

• Much of this session involved an in-depth discussion of certain topics, breaking them down, explaining why they were not suitable research questions and practicing how to formulate concrete questions.
  

  We also talked about what an annotated bibliography can do in terms of organization and assessment of the literature review in a project and I urged students to begin working on one. I also shared examples of annotated bibliography entries

• We also talked about what an annotated bibliography can do in terms of organization and assessment of the literature review in a project and I urged students to begin working on one. I also shared examples of annotated bibliography entries
• Session four: We focused on case studies since many of the projects involved using cases. We talked about the importance of a case selection rationale, knowing what the universe of cases is and talked about how a case is an instance of something – the something being the key thing to get right.
  

  I also introduced them to Structured Focused Comparisons

• Session five: We focused on discourse and content analysis as many of the projects dealt with narratives and ideas
• Session six: We talked a little about interviews but spent most of our time thinking about how to collect and organize data, how to begin analysis while still working on literature and how to structure a dissertation
• The last session involved one on ones with all the students on answering their questions about their projects, discussing their methods and data and problem solving.

In addition to the sessions, I spent approx. 3 hours every week meeting one on one with students and answering their questions on their projects, suggesting reading and refining their topics. We also discussed other issues such as plans for graduate school etc.

- Deepa Prakash