Conceptual Framework

Elements

Conceptual frameworks consist of three elements: the researcher’s personal experience and viewpoints, existing information and knowledge of the phenomenon under study, and relevant theoretical positions regarding the phenomenon. A clear, well-developed conceptual framework functions as an integrated system that discloses these perspectives, illustrates interrelationships, and establishes boundaries. Any argument or thesis that drives a study emerges from the conceptual framework, and tools for analysis and interpretation are embedded within the framework.

Building a Conceptual Framework

The first element in a conceptual framework for any study begins with the researcher—the researcher’s knowledge, experiences, and interests related to the phenomenon. As thinking beings, researchers bring to the topic their interests, preferences, and interpretations. Systematic and rigorous inquiry requires that researchers make these central assumptions or claims explicit: Why have they chosen this topic? Why do they consider it important? What do they know about it already? What attitudes and opinions do the researchers hold regarding the topic? The answers help identify sensitizing concepts and orienting perspectives that suggest areas for focus, aspects and relationships to explore, possible ways to organize including boundaries to set, as well as currents of thought that can inform the inquiry.

The second element in the conceptual system is these currents of thought (i.e., relevant bodies of [Page 355]literature and the existing knowledge) about the phenomenon of interest. Recognizing these extant bodies or currents allows researchers to ground their work in scholarly and public discourse concerning what is already known about the phenomenon. Through the literature, researchers connect their particular interest to a larger, more general interest. Whatever the topic, someone has questioned, researched, or written about the general phenomena under consideration, so researchers critically read research studies, policy writings, reports about practice, evaluations, essays and opinion pieces, newspaper editorials and articles, and even popular communication on the topic. They ask: What have scholars or “experts” said about this topic? What is the discourse in the public domain? What questions have already been raised or explored? What previous research can be built upon? Relevant information and knowledge is woven into the framework to ground the study in what is already known, provide substantiation for points, clarify logic, define concepts, and suggest relevant theories.

Finally, the conceptual framework has a theoretical base that further connects the researcher’s perspectives, the specific study focus, and the larger scholarly or public conversations about aspects of the phenomenon. A researcher asks: What theoretical positions have informed my perspectives? What theories might usefully provide insights or direction for the inquiry project? A theory is a set of propositions that describe, explain, and predict phenomena; it models some aspect of reality. Theory with a capital T consists of what Peter Burke calls an accepted and coherent set of statements, assumptions, or axioms that have been tested and accepted as explanations for particular phenomena. These Theories carry labels (e.g., self-efficacy) and are often attributed to an individual or group of individuals (e.g., Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions). In addition, many references to theory imply hunches or intuitive propositions believed to guide actions. As Carol Weiss has noted, a theory does not have to be universally accepted or correct; theory can be viewed as a set of working understandings or hypotheses that underlie action and guide analysis and interpretation. Researchers bring theories to their studies, and they find Theories among the scholarly discourse. Both enlighten and broaden researchers’ perspectives, offer explanations, suggest patterns, and contribute to a generative foundational (i.e., based in theory) conceptual framework.

...