[Interpretationandmethods] Interpretationandmethods Digest, Vol 43, Issue 1

[Judy Brown]

Hi Patrick, Dvora and Jack
 
Many thanks to the three of you for your prompt and generous responses.  I realise now that I should have provided a bit more background information, so here goes to clarify:
 
1.  I currently teach a course in Accounting Research Methodology: Interpretive and Critical Theory aimed at just the sorts of issues Patrick raises.  Our Honours students take this course and another course focussing on positivist research, for the purposes of exploring different research possibilities and (for students going onto Masters/PhDs) to help them identify research that feels "right" to them.  We now have a (growing) group of students pursuing interpretivist/critical theory work.  
 
2.   Patrick and Dvora - yes, I totally agree that the overall structure of a PhD proposal is similar for all types of research. It is in the latter area that Dvora identifies that I would really welcome examples - talking about research not based on hypothesis testing - specifically at the proposal stage.  We are very short of examples here - particularly in the area of interpretive research.  This would be helpful not only to students, but also to those of us supervising to help ensure quality work (not least of all to counter colleagues who still "test" proposals by positivist standards and expect to see hypotheses, statistical tests etc. etc.).  While students can look at examples of published research, it is still not quite the same as having proposals to look at.
 
3.  The student about to start will be examining the involvement of accountants in the decision-making processes surrounding information technology governance. In particular, she wishes to explore the ways in which the ideas and attitudes of accountants and IT practitioners might enable or constrain the involvement of accountants in IT governance.  An interpretivist methodology will be adopted in order to explore the impact of various "ideational" aspects on IT governance design choice e.g. the ways in which IT governance is conceptualised by accountants and IT practitioners, interpretive schema and institutional 'habits', professional identity, organisational culture and politics. I am meeting her later this week, and will encourage her to join the list so she can tell you more about her interests.
 
4. Jack - many thanks for the lead to Hansen's work.  I have already Googled it and it looks fascinating - it will be on my next book order!!  
 
 
Cheers, Judy.