5-Day Workshop on Research Methodology in Social Science for Advanced Learners

The Internal Quality Assurance Cell of Loreto College had organised a 5- Day Workshop on Research Methodology in Social Science for Advanced Learners sponsored by Indian Council of Social Science Research – Eastern Regional Centre during October 9 – 13, 2023 from 12.45-3.45 p.m. at Loreto College.
The inaugural session was held on October 9, 2023 at Loreto College auditorium. Sixty-four advanced learners from six disciplines - Education, Economics, Geography, History, Political Science, and Psychology attended the workshop.
The inaugural session was held on October 9, 2023. The speakers were Prof. Saibal Kar, Honorary Director, ICSSR-ERC, Prof. Shibasish Chatterjee of Jadavpur University and Prof. Subrata Sankar Bagchi of the University of Calcutta.
Prof. Bagchi delivered on the Rise of Scientific Method in Social Sciences. His lecture aimed to address the areas of sources of knowledge, the scientific methods, and scientific claims. He gave a thorough breakdown of all the sources of knowledge, enlisting the positives and negatives of each. He talked about the six necessary qualities that each study must possess. He spoke about the types of scientific claims and the difficulty of creating stable ‘laws’ in social science.
Prof. Chatterjee focused on the high subjectivity that social science necessarily brings, being a study of subjective beings. He mentioned two major aspects of social science research - collective living and context of power. The main discussion was about social science research methods, particularly the comparative approach. Prof. Chatterjee cited varied examples across disciplines to substantiate his point. He concluded by discussing about the types of comparative research paradigms.
Prof. Kar discussed some concepts essential for research such as scale reliability, falsifiability, and the importance of a random sample in quantitative research. He talked about the different perspectives of social science journals for acceptance of students’ research for publication. He discussed the results of a project ICSSR had conducted in some of the districts of West Bengal called the Minority Concentrated Districts Project. He ended by talking about qualitative data and its limitations.
The session ended with an overwhelming participation by the students during the interactive session.
During October 10-13, 2023, discipline - specific deliberations were organised with hands-on experience for advanced learners of six disciplines in separate rooms catering to the requirements of research for each discipline. The students greatly benefitted from the workshop because they were able to understand how to apply a range of research methods in a project, develop their analytical skills and get ideas about the importance of engaging in insightful research.