NOTE: this course is fully booked! New applicants will be placed on a waiting list.
In this summer course, you will receive an introduction to qualitative research methods. We will discuss the philosophical grounds of qualitative research and indicate how to check the quality of qualitative research. You will receive an interview training and you will be working on a vignette – a form of writing/reporting common to ethnography. We will give an overview of the methods of data analysis, and you will practice with inductive coding, following Grounded Theory procedures.
Grounded Theory involves grounding findings in data and hence it is interpretivist in nature. Grounded Theory about a process, action, or interaction is generated by exploring the views of the participants. Ethnography, an interpretivist method, is dedicated to exploring and understanding how people perceive the world from their particular position in a society, organization or setting. One of the main goals of ethnography is to clarify why people act in a particular manner within a specific socio-cultural context.
In this course, you will discuss the whole research process involved in doing qualitative research in a nutshell. Bearing in mind the flexibility of qualitative research and that various formulations and types of qualitative research have different stages, steps and decision points, we will look into data selection, data collection and data analysis. As a final step, different rigor / trustworthiness, ethics, and overall quality concerns affecting the methods will also be dealt with.
The course is formulated in a way that allows the students to learn by practicing. Therefore, the students will perform various practical exercises which will give them a hands-on experience on how to do qualitative research.
Participants are requested to bring their own laptop computer. Software will be available online.
Lecturers
Prof.dr. Martijn Oosterbaan, Drs. Marieke den Otter
Target audience
This course introduces students to qualitative research methods. A preliminary understanding of general qualitative research is preferable (although not mandatory).
For an overview of all our summer courses offered by the Department of Methodology and Statistics please click here.
Aim of the course
The course aims to provide students with the fundamentals of qualitative research methods. By the end of the course the students will be familiar with the following aspects:
- Data selection
- Data collection
- Data analysis
- Presentation of results
- Rigor/ trustworthiness
- Ethics
- Quality
Study load
On an average day of the course, the students will be in class for eight hours. These eight hours will include lectures and practical exercises. After the class, the students have to spend an average two hours per day for self-study.
Costs
The tuition fee for PhD students from the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences from Utrecht University will be funded by the Graduate School of Social and Behavioural Sciences.
There are no scholarships available for this course.
Additional information
We also offer tailormade M&S courses and in-house M&S training. If you want to look the possibilities, please contact us at ms.summerschool@uu.nl