ABSTRACT
The chapters in this book provide accounts of quantitative and qualitative research methods and analyses, as well as offering illustrative projects and describing particular issues which confront a researcher in the field of early childhood education. Attention has already been drawn to the manner in which researchers report on their work and the implicit assumptions these may carry about their own implicit theoretical and methodological beliefs and goals. Whatever views are held concerning the role of theory and the sequence and significance of research procedures involved, the research process – as observed in Chapter 3 – is, in practice, a much less rational and far untidier business than the average research report would suggest. Accordingly this chapter will attempt to report the authentic ‘lived experience’ of carrying out a piece of research in which two of the writers have been engaged. The intention is to give the reader some insight into the problems and dilemmas which can be associated with carrying out real research in the real world.
