1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of practice-led research in business and management.

Knowledge & Understanding

2. Critically evaluate different approaches to, and theories of, practice-led research in business and management.

Enquiry.

3. Assess the challenges of undertaking practice-led research in business and management.

Analysis

4. Critically reflect on the lessons of practice-led approaches for your own practice as a researcher.

Learning Reflection

You will undertake a critical evaluation of practice-led research (5000 words). Your evaluation will contextualise practice-led research in business and management (MLO 1), critically engage with different approaches and theories of practice-led research (MLO2) and reflect upon their implications for research design and your own practice as a researcher (MLO3 and MLO4).

This assessment will address Learning Outcomes 1-4.

Practice-led research offers novel methods of inquiry which generate new understandings of complex problems through a critical engagement with everyday actions and experiences. This module helps you to evaluate practice-led approaches and how you might draw upon them in your own research. You will be introduced to the challenges of constructing practice-based research projects and designing practice-led inquiries, calling into question approaches to practice and the concepts and assumptions underpinning practice-based research. You will develop the subject skills and capabilities to:

Understand the practice-led research in social science and business and management research.

Evaluate different theoretical frameworks and approaches to practice-led research.

Assess the challenges of undertaking practice-led research in business and management.

Reflect on the lessons of the practice turn for your own practice as a researcher.

At the end of this module, you will have the ability to critically evaluate different approaches to practice-led research in business and management. It will help you to reflect on how you can ground your research in ‘real world’ problems and everyday actions and experiences and what this means for your own research practice.

Your learning will be structured around a series of online/face-to-face seminars and workshops. Seminars and workshops will set out the key debates in practice-led research and help to frame your independent learning. Your independent learning will take the form of follow-up tasks, reflections on own practice, reading preparatory and relevant literature, assignment preparation, and engaging with online materials through the universities virtual learning environment (VLE), Blackboard. You will be expected to keep up to date with current business and management practices, engaging with academic journals and development sin professional practice.

Vear, C., Candy, L. and Edmonds, E. (eds.) (2024) The Routledge International Handbook of Practice-Based Research, London: Routledge.

Gherardi, S. (2019) How to Conduct a Practice-Based Study, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Skains, R.L. (2024) Designing and Conducting Practice-Based Research, Bristol: Intellect Books.

Vaughan, L. (2019). Practice-based Design Research, London: Bloomsbury.

Nicolini, D. (2012).¿Practice theory, work, and organization: An introduction, Oxford: OUP.

VLE learning support material to be provided for independent / self-directed learning
Google Skill Shop

Meta Blueprint
Microsoft Educator Centre
Open Textbook Library