Course Description
Qualitative sociological analysis that emphasizes participant observation, intensive interviewing, and analysis of text; examples of field work studies; the design and completion of an independent field research project.
Athena Title
Qualitative Methods
Prerequisite
SOCI 1101 or SOCI 1101H or SOCI 2600 or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
In this course students will do the following: 1. Read and critique classical and contemporary research studies using a variety of qualitative approaches. 2. Determine when a qualitative research approach is appropriate, and which approach best fits a question. 3. Through short-term projects, practice a number of qualitative research data collection and analysis techniques, including the use of analysis software such as MAXQDA. 4. Learn to assess the quality and validity of qualitative social research and to understand research ethical issues as they apply to qualitative inquiry. 5. Learn to write up results of qualitative research studies Students will be asked to demonstrate their mastery of the course content in written work that is appropriate for an academic context. Students will be asked to demonstrate their mastery of the course content in speech that is appropriate for an academic context.
Topical Outline
I. Choosing and Designing a Fieldwork Project Fitting methods to questions Designing qualitative studies Assessing the validity of qualitative research Assessing ethical risks in participant Observation II. Evidence-collection in qualitative research Participant observation Grounded theory approaches and their critiques Interviewing-structured and unstructured Focus-group interviewing Content analysis Analysis of media, discourse, text and historical materials Analysis of cultural documents Combining qualitative and quantitative analysis III. Data analysis and presentation in qualitative research Grounded theory approaches and their critiques Interpretive approaches Issues of validity, reliability and persuasibility Oral presentations of qualitative research Written presentations of qualitative research Nonwritten presentations of qualitative research IV. Interviewing Structured versus unstructured approaches Group and focus group interviewing Oral history and narrative approaches V. Analysis of text, documents, media and content VI. Analysis of Qualitative Data VII. Writing and Presenting Qualitative Accounts VIII. The relation of theory to evidence in qualitative research