Syllabus
(1) Introduction: What is meant by ‘social research’? Why do social research? Differences between qualitative and quantitative research, inductive and deductive reasoning (2) Qualitative research in the social sciences: background, designs, approaches, techniques. The research process in qualitative research: relationship between data and theory, triangulation (3) Formulating the research question in qualitative research. Sampling (4) Observation: ethnography, participant observation, role of the observer, field notes, netnography (5) Types of interviews. Conducting an in-depth, semistructured interview for qualitative research: types of questions and interview guide (6) Group interviews: focus groups, preparation, moderating discussion, analysis (7) Analysing documents: media research, online research and qualitative content analysis (8) Data analysis in qualitative research: brief introduction and practical examples. Data coding (9) Using software in qualitative analysis (CAQDAS) (10) Research ethics (11) Writing the final research report. Presentation of qualitative research
Annotation
Do you want to try out qualitative research methods in the real world? Understand the differences between quantitative and qualitative research methods in Social Sciences? Learn how to conduct an interview, observation or a focus group? Understand and analyse the perception of other people? This introductory course is designed for students from 2nd to 4th semester, and it has three primary aims: 1. It aims to give students a grounding in the theoretical and practical application of qualitative research methods in the social sciences. 2. The course will prepare students for the methodological part of the Comprehensive Exam in Social Sciences (CESS). 3.
Completing this course offers a first step towards the skills students need to design and conduct their own research.