Qualitative Research Methods 4.5 HP + 3 HP
This course is designed to provide PhD students with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of qualitative research methods in social sciences and to make use of it. It is focused on three main techniques of data gathering in qualitative research (participant observation/ethnography, in-depth interviewing and focus groups) in addition to discuss three key topics in design and analysis of social research with qualitative methods (sampling and verification issues, qualitative discourse analysis and participatory action-research).
Throughout the course students will practice fundamental skills of post-graduate level reading, writing, summarising, collecting and analysing data, and presenting arguments based on research. Students will present their research exercises during five seminars. The skills developed in the course are intended to support the methodological planning of their PhD thesis in case they use a qualitative approach – otherwise, they should be able to identify and evaluate this approach in other academic works.
