Note: This course was previously entitled "Introduction to Qualitative Research Techniques".
This is an introductory course designed for the individual with limited or no previous experience with qualitative techniques of data collection and analysis.
The aim of this course is to give you an accessible and comprehensive coverage of the current state of qualitative research, especially with regard to theoretical underpinnings, methodologies and techniques of both data collection and analysis.The course will combine lectures and practical 'workshops'. Time will also be set aside during the breaks for participants to discuss their own research.
The target audience for this course is those who would like to become more familiar with qualitative research techniques, from postgraduate university students and staff to researchers in government and private organisations.
Topics scheduled are:
Day 1
Introductory session. Outline of the course and identification of participants’ research interests and expectations. Framing. Theoretical underpinnings from positivism through post modernism to performative research. Types of qualitative methodologies. Issues of qualitative design: sampling; triangulation; validity and reliability and ethics.
Day 2
Interviewing. Casual and formal techniques of faceto face interviewing (access, rapport, recording, and types of questions). Data storage: transcribing interviews, preliminary data analysis, recursive techniques of data collection. Workshop on face to face interviewing. Group interviews.
Day 3
Focus groups and participant observation techniques. Workshop on running a focus group. Participant observation - usage, ethical issues and procedures involved. Workshop on participant observation and writing up observation sessions. Preliminary data analysis on interviewing and observation data.
Day 4
Data analysis: types of analysis during and after data collection. Workshop on thematic analysis and developing a coding system. Content analysis techniques and issues. Workshops on content and discourse analysis (cultural rather than linguistic).
Day 5
Computer management tools for qualitative data. Writing up data for different types of research: thesis, articles, and reports. Techniques of data presentation and display. Criteria for assessing good qualitative research.
While most ACSPRI courses finish just before 3pm on the Friday, this course typically finishes around lunchtime. Time is generally made up during lunch breaks throughout the week (one-on-one consultation).
There are no prerequisites for this course
The instructor's bound, book length course notes will serve as the course text.
Other reading:
Grbich, C., Qualitative Data Analysis London: Sage International, 2013.
Grbich, C. New Approaches in Social Research. London: Sage Publications 2004
Denzin, N., and Y. Lincoln, Handbooks of Qualitative Research, California: Sage,. various versions, various years of publication.
Minichiello, V., R. Aroni, E. Timewell, and L. Alexander, In-Depth Interviewing: Researching People, (2nd ed), Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 2008.
This course will take place in a classroom. No equipment is needed.