Shillong, Oct 15: A visit to the traditional seat of Hima Khyrim at Smit and the picturesque Laitlum landscape has given young researchers at North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) a different perspective on social science research — one rooted in Khasi customary governance, oral traditions and community heritage.
The field visit was part of a 10-day Research Methodology Course organised by NEHU’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, with sponsorship from the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). The programme concluded on Thursday.
At Smit, participants interacted with custodians of Khasi heritage to understand customary institutions, traditional authority and the oral transmission of knowledge, besides the cultural significance of the Nongkrem festival.
The interactions subsequently became the basis for research proposals developed by six groups of participants. Their subjects ranged from balanced tourism and environmental conservation to customary law, traditional authority, festival sustainability and the place of indigenous governance in the modern state.
The exercise highlighted how a single field visit could lead to several distinct research questions, underlining the importance of preliminary fieldwork before finalising a research design, said Dr Kamaljit K. Chirom, course co-convenor.
The course began on October 5 with 30 participants drawn from social science and humanities departments at institutions across Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Meghalaya.
Over 10 days, young scholars received training in research philosophies, methodologies, methods and study design through lectures and practical sessions conducted by faculty members and experts from across the country.
The programme covered both qualitative and quantitative research, with sessions drawing on the Indian Knowledge System. Participants received hands-on training in statistical techniques, including hypothesis testing, correlation, regression, composite indices and Structural Equation Modelling.
They also worked with software and analytical tools such as SPSS, Jamovi, ADANCO, Anaconda and Python.
Qualitative research sessions covered thematic analysis, grounded theory, interpretivist and ethnographic approaches, feminist and gender-based methodologies, behaviour change communication, pedagogical research and financial policy research. The programme also examined mixed-methods research and the responsible use of artificial intelligence in literature reviews and text analysis.
A visit to the NEHU Central Library familiarised participants with electronic resources, open-access repositories and the One Nation One Subscription initiative. Issues such as plagiarism, authorship, data integrity, predatory journals and publication quality were also discussed.
Addressing the valedictory programme, Prof. B. Panda, director of NEHU’s Internal Quality Assurance Cell, said there was no single universally correct approach to a research problem, provided the researcher could justify the method adopted.
Research, he said, was fundamentally about the ability to think and question. Different researchers could approach the same problem differently, making it important to understand methodological positions and explain why a particular approach had been chosen.
He also stressed that research should help scholars develop intellectually, uphold ethical standards and make their findings accessible to communities.
Participants said the course had broadened their understanding of research. Tonoya Bharadwaj said it had expanded her perspective on how to identify and approach a research problem, while Shubham Kumar Shah said it had provided clarity on research tools and techniques, from basic concepts to advanced applications.
Course convenor Dr Manash Pratim Goswami, professor and head of NEHU’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, said the programme was designed to equip young scholars with the skills to examine research problems holistically.
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