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First page of “HISTORICAL RESEARCH: A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHOD”

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HISTORICAL RESEARCH: A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHOD

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This paper is a write-up about one of many qualitative research method, namely historical research method.

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International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET), 2023

Historical research describes the past things what was happened. This is related with investigating, recording as well as interpreting the past events with respect to the in present perspectives. Historical research is a procedure for the observation with which researcher. It is a systematic collection and objective evaluation of the collected data with respect to the first occurrence to verify causes and effects related to the events with the help of these two explain the present events as well as anticipate for the future work purpose

To find out how and why theories and practices have been developed which are now prevail in schools , a study on the purpose of historical research is very helpful. It deals with the significance of education and its interrel ationship with school and curriculum. In the said research, a study of Historical Research was conducted. Keywords - Historical, Perspective, Predictions, Facts, Past, Hypothesis

ICERI2009 Proceedings, 2009

The paper presents the results of a study on how historians conduct research in a historical archive, and the methodologies they use while searching. Historic research involves finding, using and correlating information within primary and secondary sources, in order to understand past events. Historians conduct research systematically, by examining past events to renew the past; historic research may involve interpretation to recapture the nuances, personalities, and ideas that have influenced these events, and the expected ...

Methods of Analysis, 2020

It would seem that historical method has always implied case study if interpreted as the history of single events, episodic history as different from universal history, courtes durées as different from longues durées. From the early twentieth century, historical case study was basically biography, particularities of individuals used to counter the “vast amount of generalization” marking most histories and textbooks (Nichols, 1927, p. 270). Yet historical case study, in the way historians think of it, is primarily a post-WWII methodology.

El uso de materiales de archivo como punto de partida al disenar y acometer la investigacion social da por supuesto que en nuestras sociedades complejas ha echado raices hace tiempo una cultura de archivo (para compartir y reusar). Esta mentalidad y practica de investigacion se ha desarrollado primero y esta bien asentada en el caso de las estadisticas, encuestas y otros documentos primarios o secundarios. En cambio, es menos frecuente y ciertamente no una actividad rutinaria por lo que respecta a los datos cualitativos. Unicamente algunos de los materiales primarios y elaborados que se reunen durante la investigacion cualitativa pasan a formar parte de un archivo para su ulterior re-analisis. Pueden ser practicas y experiencias de trastienda de un proyecto, materiales en bruto tales como notas de campo, grabaciones de audio y visuales, y otros documentos producidos a lo largo del proceso de investigacion. Este volumen presenta una variopinta gama de articulos que abordan experienci...

The Research on History I, 2023

The Research on History I Editors Özlem Muraz Budak Through its wide field of study, the science of history has succeeded in addressing all kinds of issues that have happened in the past. Many events that have happened in the past and affect the future have found a place in the science of history. It is important for every nation to know its history in order to learn lessons from the past. Every nation has a unique culture and these cultures extend to the present day. The science of history is used to learn about the past. This book aims to contribute to the development of scientific publications and publishing in social sciences in general and history in particular. In this sense, qualified studies covering every subject related to both national and regional history and world history are included. We will be pleased to contribute to the literature with these original works written in every field of history and to the qualified scientific studies related to the auxiliary branches of history. Citation Budak, Ö. M. (Ed.). (2023). The Research on History I. ISTES Organization.

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Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, 2022

Rola Kościoła w dziejach Polski. Kościoły w Rzeczypospolitej, red. J. Krochmal, Warszawa 2017, s. 552–583, 2017

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34 Comparative Historical Analysis

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Comparative historical analysis (CHA) is a long-standing, influential research tradition, which has generated foundational texts of political science and sociology as well as 20th-century “classics.” It continues to foster scholarship committed to asking “big” questions of substantial real-world importance and developing, in response, novel theoretical frameworks that push beyond conventional wisdoms. CHA’s theory is inductively developed through in-depth case study comparisons of a small number of cases. It prioritizes historical narratives that explicitly and meticulously detail the sequence and ways in which a configuration of factors influences their chosen outcome. CHA is committed not just to establishing but also to unpacking the how of a causal relationship.

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Historical analysis.

  • Edited by: Richard Thorpe & Robin Holt
  • In: The SAGE Dictionary of Qualitative Management Research
  • Chapter DOI: https:// doi. org/10.4135/9780857020109.n50
  • Subject: Business and Management , Communication and Media Studies , Marketing , Social Policy and Public Policy , Social Work , Sociology
  • Show page numbers Hide page numbers

Historical analysis is a method of the examination of evidence in coming to an understanding of the past. It is particularly applied to evidence contained in documents, although it can be applied to all artefacts. The historian is, first, seeking to gain some certainty as to the facts of the past. Establishing the facts also gives the researcher a chronology [dialogic] . The second task is to seek to establish cause and effect between those facts in order to understand why things happened. It is important to remember that while the past is the immensity of everything that has happened, history is what we know of the past [hermeneutics] .

Historical analysis is not only applicable to archive-based research. Any management research where the researcher is using documentary evidence, however recent, should bear in mind the principles of historical analysis [oral history] .

The modern concept of historical analysis stems from the move to a scientific approach to history advocated by Ranke and the German school of historians in the mid-nineteenth century. The focus was moved to the rigorous analysis of documents as the material for the re-creation of the past, the perceived historical patterns and an explanation of them. In addition, the emphasis was placed on understanding the context of the past. This understanding should be informed, but not overwhelmed, by the preoccupations of the present, either of society as a whole or of the specific historian (Jeremy, 2002). Classic studies using historical analysis are Chandler (1990) and North (1990).

In a business context, there is a wealth of documentary evidence retained as a matter of routine in archives or current files, which is a prime source of research material [content analysis; narrative research] . However, its interpretation is subject to the same rules of analysis as any other form of historical document. The key rules, adapted for the business context, are as follows.

  • When was the document written? Was it contemporary with the event being described, some time after the event or in anticipation of it? The closer the document is to the past event, both temporally and physically, the more reliable it should be.
  • Where was it produced? Was it in that part of the organization closely connected with the events under review? A divisional report may have an immediacy of detail, but where the division is seeking to protect or enhance its own reputation, a report may differ significantly from a more dispassionate account prepared by a central function with a wider perspective.
  • By whom was it produced? What was his/her position in the organization; what was her/his expertise and motive? A senior manager may produce a more wide-ranging account than a junior manager whose preoccupation and expertise run only to the immediate involvement. Equally, a senior manager may use more diffuse, diplomatic language than a junior professional.
  • For whom was it produced and for what purpose? A report issued to a superior may differ from an action memo to a subordinate in its account of events. Is the document seeking to make a case for a specific course of action, or excusing a mistake, or in anticipation of a performance review, either the author's own or that of the document's recipient? In each case the same author is liable to select a very different series of facts involved in a single event, the selection dependant on the story he/she is wishing to tell.
  • What is the form of the document? A formal report to the Board is more likely to be the product of careful thought, structured in such a way that it is defensible by the author when reviewed by experienced critics. An informal memo [Page 109] between peers is less likely to be carefully drafted, but for that very reason may be a more accurate reflection of reality than a politically sensitive report. 6. What is not said in the document? The author may consider certain things as so obvious that they do not need to be said, she/he may merely have overlooked them as she/he did not think them significant or she/he may be ignorant of them. The reason for the absence may influence the reliability of the author or reflect some more fundamental fact. For example, the absence of any mention of the impact of a strategy on employees may be significant in understanding industrial relations at that time. In each case an understanding of the wider context of the document is essential to make an assessment of its contribution.

These questions are specifically addressed to text, but they can, with modification, be applied to maps, statistical tables and other records, or even artefacts, in order to determine their evidential value (Marwick, 2001).

In the latter part of the twentieth century the poststructuralist [postmodernism; semiotics] concern with the problems of language put a new emphasis on discourse analysis (q.v.). In particular, the role of power and politics in the selection of language by an author has come to the fore in the interpretation of discourse. There is an emphasis on the location of the author in the hierarchy of the organization if the influence of power on the author's language is to be understood. It has been argued that this is simply a sociologist's belated recognition of what has been understood by historians for centuries (Alvesson and Sköldberg, 2000: 206).

At a more extreme level, there is a postmodernist view that each reading of a discourse could produce a new interpretation; deconstruction (q.v.) (or interpretation) of the text did not lead to understanding meaning, only to an endless deferral of meaning (Munslow, 1997). There is an implication that no history, in the sense of a truthful account of the past, can therefore be written and some postmodernists claimed that therefore any account of the past can be valid. In the light of the reaction to controversial histories, and in particular to those denying the Holocaust, there has been a withdrawal from this extreme view and a return to an assessment of the evidential value of the discourse. However imaginative an interpretation of the past, it must be constrained by the undeniable empirical evidence (Jordanova, 2000).

Theoretical concerns with the validity of positivist research and the inevitably subjective interpretation of documents have raised the question whether truthful history could ever be written. The prevailing view among historians currently is that while we cannot achieve a wholly accurate picture of the past [realism] , nevertheless with scrupulous care in relation to the analysis of sources, the account, even if it is partial and provisional, can be claimed to be the historical truth. ‘The stories we tell will be true stories, even if the truth they tell is our own, and even if other people can and will tell them differently’ (Evans, 1997: 249).

Hermeneutics

Individualism

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COMMENTS

  1. HISTORICAL RESEARCH: A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHOD - Academia.edu

    This paper will look specifically at historical research as a methodology for qualitative research. For this article, an overview of historical research which includes its definition, significance and values, stages, sources, approaches and reliability and validity will be provided.

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    CHAs theory is inductively developed through in-depth case study comparisons of a small number of cases. It prioritizes historical narratives that explicitly and meticulously detail the sequence and ways in which a configuration of factors influences their chosen outcome.

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    Historical analysis is a method of the examination of evidence in coming to an understanding of the past. It is particularly applied to evidence contained in documents, although it can be applied to ...