Objectives
This course provides a concentrated introduction to the conceptual theories and practical mechanics that students confront while doing qualitative research. The course will be of specific interest to those planning to undertake qualitative immersion within an institution or community. Potential students could include those doing development-related interviews of villagers in another country; students conducting life-history narratives of patients in a hospital; and focusgroup studies of immigrants or refugees in an integration centre. The course is meant for GSSS students who have been selected for a selective English-language Master’s program, but who may have insufficient experience with qualitative research methods.
Students who are interested in this course will typically favour qualitative methods and already have in mind a particular location or community among whom they will undertake their future research. Qualitative methods can include participant-observation in a specific culture or organization, conversations over a long period with informants, and the gathering of a focusgroup of like-minded individuals. Those interested primarily in quantitative research methods such as statistics may also benefit from exposure to a different array of methods. However, students should note that the quantitative branch of social science research methodology will only be covered in a minority of classes within the overall course.
The course is designed to stimulate pragmatic orientation towards students’ field studies that they will undertake as part of their Master’s degrees at the GSSS. Therefore, the course will involve significant practical reflection, seminar discussion, and testing of various methods. Varying methodological approaches will be critiqued as the course progresses by students and supplemented by practical exercises designed to give a snapshot introduction to the strengths and weaknesses of different research methods.
Thus the objectives of this course are to acquaint students with different methods of data collection, processing and analysis, and to be able to make judgments regarding the reliability and pitfalls of various methodological approaches.
Contents
The class format will hinge on both lectures and practical tutorials. Lectures which synthesize the course material will be complemented by test exercises where the group will engage in role-play, and simulate the exercise of methods vis-à-vis other students and draw from local and life experiences. Further, students will, in the spirit of a practical methods course, choose among different qualitative methods that they may employ in their future research and engage in a modest fieldwork exercise that follows the execution of the methodology from beginning to finish. Course participants will be asked to undertake a research project in Amsterdam, involving a small number of individuals who will be interviewed, which will allow students to engage in interviews, field-note taking, coding, and analysis. This exercise will involve conducting an interview(s), including the electronic recording of a conversation, the production of a transcript, analysis of the interview, and class presentation of the student’s experience employing qualitative methods.
Format
Students’ assessment will be based on participation and individual assignments tailored to mastering particular research methods. 50% of the overall course grade will derive from the execution of a modest fieldwork project to be done in Amsterdam in tandem with a class partner, involving interviewing, coding, analysis, and a final presentation to other students. Attendance is compulsory, especially given the concentrated nature of the course.
Time
Please check the course schedules on
http://www.rooster.uva.nl for updated information.
Study materials
COURSE READINGS
All readings for the course will be available for downloading and printing from the UvA’s electronic library or the course’s Blackboard website. Particular sections and chapters of myriad texts will be employed, so as to give exposure to different methodological approaches. However, students should purchase the following text in advance of the course (the easiest method would be through an on-line retailer such as Amazon):
Uwe Flick 2009. An Introduction to Qualitative Research. Ed. 4, Sage Pub.
ISBN: 978 1- 84787 324-8
Any further readings will be published on the UvA blackboard.
SOFTWARE AND EQUIPMENT
As this is primarily a qualitative methods course, statistical software is not required. Students will also learn of different kinds of coding and interview-transcription software in the course, which UvA has installed in its various laboratories. Students may wish to purchase interview equipment in advance of the course, such as MP3 or tape recorders, which will be used in the practical component of the course and possibly during the course of students’ Master’s degrees for fieldresearch purposes.
Remarks
This course is only open to students in the preparatory programme.
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