FDP

 SKILLS IN SOCIAL RESEARCH

Internal Quality Assurance Cell, School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya organized a faculty Development Programme for the teaching fraternity titled “Skills in Social Research” on Saturday, March 20, 2021 from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm at Maria Paiva hall. Dr. Vinay Rajath, Prof and Chairman, Department of PG Studies and Research in Sociology, Mangalore University was the resource person.

During the brief introductory programme compered by Ms. Shalini Prabhu, a prayer song was led by Ms. Jinsa. Principal Dr. Juliet CJ gave the opening remarks focussing on the Adelaide Research centre and the relevance of the topic for the day. Dr. Kiran Prasad, Head, Department of Sociology introduced the resource person.

The first session by Dr. Vinay Rajath threw light on the meaning of Social Research and emphasized that equal weightage needs to be given to its three areas namely- thinking research, doing research. and writing research. The types of social research, into its binaries namely quantitative/qualitative, theoretical/empirical and inductive/deductive as well as the sets of skills namely theoretical (know-what) and methodological (know-how) were highlighted.

Dr. Vinay Rajath encouraged research scholars to seek to produce a rational construction of social sciences, to critique it, to understand the social world better through the process of introspection, and also to deconstruct an attitude towards an area of research study. The four components in the philosophy of Social research namely Ontology, Epistemology, Hermeneutics, and Semiotics were well explained. He mentioned that besides referring to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) details, access relevant census details from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), social scientists ought to engage in oral history analysis, seek to understand the symbolism and social practices of the respondents of the study. Dr.Vinay shared his experience as a student research scholar during one of his visits to Sumanahalli Leprosy Rehablitation Centre, Bengaluru. Topics on ‘Concepts’, ‘Conceptualization’ and ‘Operationalization’ were distinctly elucidated.

Dr. Vinay Rajath addressed the steps involved in doing research, inductive research, and the pitfalls of hypothesis testing. He stressed that the research design a scholar chooses depends on the extent of one’s informed area and focussed on technical (thesis) report writing. The structure of the research report, referencing styles, plagiarism, differences between References and Bibliography were all well explained through sharing of his experiences besides the powerpoint presentation.

Pertinent doubts voiced by young research scholars were clarified. Asst. Prof. Anuradha Shetty, Head, Department of Rural Development thanked the resource person. The programme attended by 28 faculty was well appreciated.