A ten week course covering:
- Human and social science methods vs. natural science methods
- Induction and theory building. Hermeneutics, interpretation, personal meaning and subjectivity, narrative versus objective truth. Experience vs. reality.
- Grounded theory and thematic methods, discourse analysis, participant-observation, template analysis
- Phenomenological approaches
- Formulating a research question.
- Locating and selecting research participants.
- Methods of data collection and validation. Semi-structured and unstructured interviews.
- Illustrations, anecdotes, case studies. The role of rhetoric in science and practice. Self-reflection. Reflexivity. Ethical considerations.
- Designing and conducting qualitative research.\
- Mixing methods: the relative strengths and limitations of qualitative and quantitative research. Mixed qualitative methods.