Year
2024Credit points
10Campus offering
Prerequisites
Nil
Unit rationale, description and aim
A defining characteristic of modern-day migration law and practice is not merely specialised content knowledge, but also the ability to draw upon evidence to revise that knowledge and in so doing enhance and innovate professional practice. Research-informed decision making is now a term widely used across a range of contexts and it is therefore critical for practitioners to understand what constitutes valid research, how it has been produced, and in what ways such research can be applied. By fully understanding and utilising research, migration law practitioners and scholars can be leaders in their field and have a lasting impact on the future.
This unit is designed to provide students with an introductory understanding of various approaches to undertaking research and how research projects are designed and conducted. The unit provides a foundation for further studies in research by presenting students with a structured sequence of modules that cover broad research approaches such as quantitative, mixed-methods and qualitative methodologies while also encouraging student to be critical consumers of different forms of data and research findings.
The aim of the unit is to enable students to develop an understanding of the building blocks of conducting quality research and how to apply research evidence and findings appropriately and productively in an informed and ethical manner within their own professional workplace.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
| Learning Outcome Number | Learning Outcome Description |
|---|---|
| LO1 | Discuss advanced knowledge of key research principles, methodological approaches, and methods applicable to research |
| LO2 | Identify, analyse, and synthesise quality research literature |
| LO3 | Evaluate various methodological traditions and scholarly research practices and the appropriateness of using these to conduct research across diverse settings |
| LO4 | Design a feasible applied research project |
Content
Topics will include:
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit is offered in offered in multimode and uses an active learning approach to support students in the development of knowledge, skills, and critical insights related to a wide range of research methods. Students are introduced to the key principles of research design through a combination of lectures, online tutorials, and scholarly literature. The learning and teaching and assessment strategies include a range of approaches to support your learning such as reading, reflection, online discussion, webinars, case studies podcasts, workshops, self-directed learning tasks and assignments.
This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total.
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment tasks for this unit are designed for students to demonstrate achievement of each of the learning outcomes. In addition, the tasks represent an opportunity to align with the needs of students and their professional and research contexts. Assessment one is based on an initial scan of the research literature related to a migration law/practice topic or theme and provides an opportunity to examine how real-life examples of research projects have been designed and their findings published. Assessment two builds on this by requiring the development of a hypothetical scholarly research proposal that could potentially be implemented in a workplace or school setting. Combined this sequence of assessment tasks provides students with key skills and knowledge related to research design and practice and therefore serves as a foundation for higher degree studies.
In order to pass this unit, students are required to demonstrate achievement of the unit learning outcomes by submitting all assessment tasks and obtaining a combined final mark of at least 50 per cent.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes | Graduate Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment Task 1 Written Task: Critical review of a five high quality peer reviewed articles centred on core theme/topic | 20% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 | GC1 |
Assessment Task 2 Written Task: A research proposal of 1000 words in length setting out the literature and methodology to be used in the final paper. | 30% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 | GC1 |
Assessment Task 3 (50%) Written Task: A final paper of 4000-5000 words in length on a topic to be identified by the lecture, or by the student with the approval of the lecturer, in the area of migration law and practice. | 50% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 | GC1 |
Representative texts and references
Representative texts and references
Booth, A., Papaioannou, D., & Sutton, A. (2016). Systematic approaches to a successful literature review (2nd ed.). Sage.
Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods. Oxford University Press.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S., (2008). Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials. Sage
Denzin, N. K., Lincoln, Y. S., & Smith, L. T. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies. Sage.
Fink, A. (2013). Conducting research literature reviews: From the internet to paper (4th ed.). Sage.
Hobson, C., & McCartan, K. (2015). Real world research (5th ed.). Wiley.
Mills, G. E. (2014). Action research: A guide for the teacher research. (5th ed.). Pearson.
Shay, M. (2021). Extending the yarning yarn: Collaborative Yarning Methodology for ethical Indigenist education research. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 50(1), 62-70.
Yin, R. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (applied social research methods). Sage.