A Beginner's Guide to Applied Educational Research using Thematic Analysis

Interest in applied educational research methodology is growing as educators and researchers strive to seek empirical evidence about what is effective teaching within distinctive contexts.However, for beginner researchers who are interested in conducting case studies within educational settings and are looking for an appropriate starting point, there is limited literature that shapes comprehensively the theory and application of a rigorous research design.This article outlines the theoretical foundation, philosophical assumptions and application of a research design suitable for implementation in educational settings.For researchers and educators pursuing a case study approach within a specific context, an inquiry framework provides the roadmap to navigate the journey.The main components of this systematic inquiry framework include the interconnected practices for: identifying the issue; collecting the data; preparing and engaging with the data; analysing thematically the data; interpreting the data analysis; and composing the research findings and generalisations.Throughout the discussion, examples are drawn from a case study to illustrate how the innovative design and the sixstage qualitative data collection and thematic analysis were implemented to investigate the prevalent roles that teachers play in generating environments for self-regulated learning.Finally, research design considerations are discussed to reflect high standards of ethical practice for reporting research findings and interpretations that can be trusted and contribute practically, theoretically and methodologically to educational research.It is not uncommon for educators transitioning into the role of researcher to be overwhelmed by the broad collective of literature that is littered with unfamiliar terminology used to explain the complexity of research methodology.The purpose of this article is to articulate a case study research design that implements a data collection and thematic analysis approach as an appropriate starting point for beginner researchers.The methodological design and approach are presented as an inquiry framework that offers systematic procedures for collecting data, and then for analysing the data, by generating codes and themes.To demonstrate the utility of the inquiry framework, examples from an exploratory research project are articulated.The examples are intended to guide the researcher by offering evidence of the interconnected practices and by illustrating the stages involved in the data collection and thematic analysis.In addition, the flexible inquiry framework has multidisciplinary application for educators and researchers in all fields to design and conduct research, and to analyse and interpret data.In this article, the inquiry framework is presented as a roadmap to direct applied educational research that involves the complexities of studying the cognitive processes, behaviours, motivations and personalities of individuals and of groups of learners in varied contexts.Applied educational research is valuable for developing new knowledge about teaching and learning.Furthermore, the intention of this research design is to support researchers and educators to examine practice in context (Duran et al., 2006).Integral to the inquiry framework is a method of data collection and thematic analysis that is introduced as an approach suitable for research within the qualitative paradigm.