*University of Stavanger*
Content
Researchers use the qualitative methodology for a variety of purposes, be it to investigate the meaning ascribed to social and cultural phenomena by individuals or groups, or the construction of meaning/discourse in society at large, to study historical processes, to gather more factual information about enterprises or political processes, etc. Furthermore, we can analyse qualitative data on how they inform us on people’s perspectives, information about processes, as well as for the joint construction of meaning between researcher and participant. All this may differ between academic disciplines. This course highlights especially the practical and applied side to qualitative research.
The course will make students acquainted with methodological issues within qualitative research in general. It will help students to frame their respective research studies in a methodologically sound manner and to identify key practical-methodological issues within their studies. Topics include:
- Some classical and recent methodological tools for constructing and interpreting qualitative data, by way of interviews, field conversations, written documents, media publications, photos, and observations.
- The course will enable participants to reflect critically about crucial practical aspects of qualitative research, regarding access to the field, obstacles in the recruitment of participants, and other practical aspects of carrying out of the research.
- The course will also prepare participants to argue epistemologically for the methods they apply in their theses.
- Crucially, the course will achieve the above by grounding the discussions and the students’ individual papers in methodological reflections about the respective PhD projects.
The course is integrated with PHD101: Research Design, but can also be taken as a stand-alone course.
Learning outcome
Knowledge
After completing the course, the students should:
- have advanced knowledge about key qualitative methods, such as interviews, document studies, fieldwork/ethnography.
- have advanced knowledge about methodological positions within qualitative research, especially as regards the theory-data interface (cf. grounded theory, abductive analysis, etc.), and be able to contribute to such debates
Skills
By the end of the course, the students should be able to:
- identify methodological implications of specific qualitative methods
- be able to evaluate the use of different qualitative methods in the applied analysis of social phenomena, in ways that mirror the status of the research front
- be able to navigate complex questions in qualitative methods, and to challenge established methodological positions.
- produce new knowledge about methodological tools that enables them to plan and conduct interpretive analyses of various data sources such as interviews, conversations, observation, and documents.
- reflect critically on methods, and to produce scientific papers on the theme of qualitative methodology, departing from one’s own ongoing research; papers of the near-publishable standard
- handle complex methodological implications in ongoing qualitative research.
- communicate the results of his/her reflections in speech and writing in a clear and systematic way, and in ways that contribute to moving the research front.
General competence
By the end of the course, the student will be able to:
- meet social phenomena and theoretical-academic subjects with methodological assumptions that must be a basis for an analysis of the data through research-based production of insight and knowledge.
- contribute to social science debates (research front) about the methodological choices one makes in developing and conducting qualitative research
Required prerequisite knowledge
Participants must be enrolled in a PhD programme.
Application deadline: 1 December