EDUCATION: Academic Inquiry

Research is not a linear process. Research requires repetition of the same processes--utilizing background information, developing a research question, collecting evidence--in order to eventually define and develop a research question that is significant and manageable.  

(Process chart courtesy of A.Carr, 2011)

Learn more about narrowing a topic and developing a research question.

These search tips can be used in Library search systems:

First, generate a set of terms related to your topic.
 

education            reform                                       democracy

curriculum           change                                     citizen             

philosophy          educational accountability   justice                                                                

education* AND (democra* OR citizen*) : Use the AND operator to narrow your search to results that mention both keywords.  Use the OR operator to search for variants or synonyms of the same keyword.  The asterisk (*) is a wildcard symbol that is used to catch variant endings of a word.

“educational reform” OR "educational change" : Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase.