Social science is a very broad discipline which covers many different areas and development is one of them. The discussion about development has been a major concern for social scientists including myself. This research is a very useful academic exercise which allowed me to advance not only my social research skills, but also my knowledge of development. I regard the combination of advancement of social research skills and knowledge of Cambodian development as an essential preparation for my future career.
Throughout the course of this research, I also learnt that qualitative methodology is time consuming and requires a lot of patience as well as analytical skills. It takes much time in the field, much time to analyze the data, and much time to write the report. However, it has been a very beneficial exercise because it compelled me to get involved directly in the human aspect of this issue, rather than exploring it from a distance through the computer and using only numbers to draw conclusions about what is happening to the human beings represented by those numbers. This research also taught me that qualitative research needs a lot of flexibility, especially during fieldwork. There are three approaches to in-depth interviews: structured, semi-structured and unstructured. I learnt that semi- structured interviews, which is the type that I used to collect the data, best suits this type of exploratory research. It is directive, but it gives enough flexibility to participants to share their knowledge of the issues under examination. This means that while the direction of this technique helps ensure that the participants talk about the specific topics that the research has proposed, its flexibility gives freedom to participants to share the knowledge which they believe to be relevant to the specific topic and which the researcher may not have anticipated.
Thus, this research has been a very valuable experience which has connected my academic skills to my future career. Although not all research techniques were applied this research has helped me to develop my social research skills so that I can establish myself as a social researcher.
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