Steps in Historical Research

 Steps in Historical Research

Steps to conduct historical research are:

i) Selection of the Problem:

As per interest, the researcher may select any problem regarding the history of teaching practices, curriculum, educational concepts and thoughts, institutions/organisations of educational importance, etc. A review of the literature provided by other educationists and historians, and/or experts' opinion, are very helpful and useful in selecting and defining our problem.

ii) Formulation of Hypothesis: Hypothesis (or hypotheses) guides us in solving our problem in historical research by focusing our attention to the tentative solutions, and by preventing us from a blind search. In historical research, hypotheses are not always explicit. Like other kinds of research, we confirm or do not confirm (or retain or reject) our hypotheses as the case may be. In testing our hypotheses, we may collect the evidence from a lot of sources like individuals, books, schools, etc., as is required by our particular research problem.

ii) Data Collection:

It is a necessary condition in all types of research that the researcher must collect relevant and accurate data so that the hypotheses may be correctly verified. In historical research, the data collection process is very time consuming and tedious. The researcher must be skillful enough so that he/she may select the relevant data, pertinent to his/her problem, from the vast ocean of available literature or various sources from where the data emerge. The sources of data are:

a) Primary sources of data:

These data provide first hand information from direct measurement, eyewitness accounts or observations. These data are actually collected by the researcher through questionnaires and schedules, and by using the method of observation and interview techniques.

b) Secondary sources of data: Secondary data refer simply to the second-hand data. The good examples of secondary sources are most of the published or unpublished material, reports, personal diaries, letters, books and encyclopaedias, It should be noted that the reliability and truthfulness of such information is questionable. So, the secondary data should not be regarded as much reliable and dependable and the researcher should critically verify it from other sources also if possible and available.

iv) Research Tools:

These are the instruments that are required to collect data from the subjects (subjects refer to the living organisms whom we study in the research; or, the 'respondents'). In historical research, we frequently make use of interview, questionnaires, observation, and different standardised tests.

v) Criticism of the Data:

After the data collection is over, it is Asubjected to rigorous evaluation, which, in other words, is called as criticism of the data. The truthfulness of the data and credibility of the source of the information is questionable; so, the researcher should critically evaluate his/her data and the sources of the data. The types criticism of the data are:

a) External criticism:

Here, the source of the data comes under the critical evaluation.

b) Internal criticion:

Here, we critically evaluate the content of the data. 

vi) Treatment or Analysis of the Data: In historical research, data may be treated or analysed in any one or more of the following methods:

a) Simple presentation of the data:

In this type of data analysis, no statistical procedures are applied on the data, and the collected information is presented as it is.

b) Data conversion:

Here, we may apply simple statistics on the data like mean, median, or percentages, as appropriate, just to make the data more meaningful and comparable. We may use graphs also for clear and easy presentation of the data.

Further statistical treatment: Simple summarising method is inadequate to find out differences between or among the groups. In such cases, still higher statistical techniques like standard deviation, chi square, analysis of variance, etc can be used.

vi) Interpretation:

In historical research, findings may be interpreted in the light of either the status or the differences between or among the investigated groups. This is very helpful in not only understanding the past but also in comparing the past with the present. It also gives due weightage to the trends and causes that emphasise the changes that have taken place progressively, over a period of time. It helps us a lot in 'decision making regarding preparing better curriculum, etc. But, the interpretation of historical data is not as simple and easy as it seems to be rather it requires a lot of skills and expertise.

viii) Report Writing:

The last and most important step of a research process is to write the concise, to-the-point and well-organised report of that research The report of an historical research includes statement of the problem, brief review of the pertinent literature, procedure of the data collection, actual source(s) of the data, criticism of the data, treatment, analysis and interpretation of the data, the conclusions drawn and references/bibliography. Although the reports of the historical research are criticised for being comparatively dull and uninteresting, the researcher should use all of his/her creativity and expertise to make it precise and interesting without using flowery language.