INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION

Instructor: Dr. Christine M. Rodrigue; Butte Hall 539; 898-4953 or -5285

Instructor's E-Mail: rodrigue@csulb.edu

Office Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Critical survey of contemporary methodologies available for research in geography and planning

COURSE OBJECTIVES

1. to discuss research methods and models useful in a variety of specific subfields in geography
2. to read and discuss applications of these research methods and models in order to analyze and critique how the authors went about their purposes and whether they were successful
3. to become acquainted with a variety of ways to obtain data
4. to develop a graduate student's general area of interest into a feasible thesis or project proposal

COURSE FORMAT AND PROJECT

• the course will be conducted as a graduate discussion seminar
• between 3 and 5 readings will be on reserve most weeks: students are responsible for doing all of the readings each and every week, thinking about them, and preparing notes on the main points of the articles and questions they raise
• the principal seminar product will be a formal proposal for your thesis or project
  • this proposal will probably be around 10-20 pages long
  • it will include the following elements:
    • the very specific purpose of the thesis or project (the purpose statement is very important: every word in it has implications for methodology and scope)
    • the context of the problem, justifying it in terms of prior literature, legislation, and/or social need
    • the data to be used to address the problem and how you plan to acquire them (e.g., original fieldwork, surveying and interviewing, Census material, historical maps or documents, Internet material)
    • likely problems in acquiring or using the data (e.g., inherent biases) and how you plan to address them so your use of them is legitimate for your purpose
    • methods you plan to use to analyze your data, why they are appropriate, any shortcomings in your methodology, and how you plan to deal with such shortcomings, so that your use of the methodology will be legitimate
    • a tentative outline of the structure of your thesis, with each chapter broken down to at least four levels of organization (e.g., I, A, 1, a)
    • an initial bibliography of at least 20 sources, including 10 research articles
    • an understandably tentative timeline for each of the major tasks implied by your data search, analysis, and writing
    • a signed statement by a faculty member indicating that s/he has accepted the responsibility of chairing your committee
  • for those of you who have already written a thesis or project proposal, which has been approved by your chair:
    • if the proposal does not address all of these points, you are welcome to revise and rewrite your proposal to suit these guidelines
    • otherwise, you are to write the literature review chapter of your thesis or project, in which you develop the justification for your research problem and specify the original contribution it will make to that literature
  • participants are ACTIVELY to help one another develop their proposals (or review chapters): serve as sounding boards, vicious critics, and shoulders-to-cry-on

GRADING

• 40 percent of your grade is based on the quality and completeness of your proposal or review chapter
• 40 percent is based on your participation in seminar discussions:
  • is it evident you have really done all the readings each week?
  • is it evident from the quality of your comments that you have thought about the readings in depth -- thoroughly digested them?
  • do you support and encourage others in their attempts to express themselves? do you notice when someone is shy and having a difficult time breaking into the discussion and help draw him or her in?
  • while you must actively participate, do you go overboard and harm discussion by domineering others and "showing off" for the sake of hearing yourself talk?
• 20 percent is based on your frankness, thoroughness, and professional courtesy in critiquing your colleagues' proposals and review chapters
• at the graduate level, I feel no obligation to grade on a curve: Helping others improve their work will NOT hurt your position in the seminar. It will help both you and them in a truly win-win situation (except for the bruised feelings to be expected along the way!)
• I will assign all grades from A through F, but, since you are graduate students, I fully expect most of you to earn "A's" and "B's." PLEASE don't disappoint me.

DEADLINES

initial statement of probable thesis/project topic: 2/23

critiques of all colleagues' initial statements: 3/2

first draft: 4/6

critiques of select colleagues' first drafts: 4/13

final draft: 5/18

TENTATIVE TOPICS (not in any particular order)

• what constitutes a good thesis or project design? (originality of contribution, generalizability, primary and high quality data, methodological design, scope and feasibility)
• Meriam Library boot camp
• the Human Subjects protocol on this campus and in the law
• theoretical and non-theoretical approaches; the use of hypotheses
• quality of data and sampling
• interviews, surveys, questionnaires, focus groups
• literature content analysis
• field mapping and surveying
• Census data and archival materials
• Internet
• maps, air photos, and remote sensing imagery
• physical data and methods
• statistical methods: descriptive and inferential

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Document maintained by Dr. Rodrigue
Last revision: 10/01/99