The problem with most commissioned studies is that they are generally anchored on research protocols, guidelines and theoretical underpinnings imposed by research grant makers or the external Principal Investigator's (PI) own research design preferences. Furthermore, the problem is that researchers who are recruited during various phases of…

This study was aimed at determining whether a specific research methodology was dominant within a cohort of master's level engineering management students and, if so, whether this preference was directed by their personal epistemology, rather than the dictates of their research questions. Secondary data were used to determine the dominant research…

Participants in a study on learning the clinical aspects of medicine in a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum repeatedly referred to themselves as "Guinea pigs" at the mercy of a curriculum experiment. This article interrogates and problematises the "Guinea pig" identity ascribed to and assumed by the first cohort of…

This article presents a reflection on an aspect of research methodology, particularly on the interpretation strategy of data from a Science and Indigenous Knowledge Systems Project (SIKSP) in a South African university. The data interpretation problem arose while we were analysing the effects of a series of SIKSP-based workshops on the views of a…

This article focuses on the complexity of researching institutional culture and the ethical dilemmas posed in representing staff according to race and gender, drawing on three qualitative studies undertaken at a previously white South African university between 2000 and 2007. During the research process, issues of representation became a concern…