ME405 Qualitative Research Methods

The 2016 Methods Summer Programme is now closed. Details for the 2017 Programme will be available soon.

The purpose of this course is to equip students to sensitively and critically design, carry out, report, read, and evaluate qualitative research projects. It is taught by a team of qualitative research experts, who regularly use the methods which they teach, making the course particularly practical and realistic. It covers the full cycle of a qualitative research project, from design, to data collection, analysis, reporting and disseminating. The course has the dual aims of equipping students with both conceptual understandings of current academic debates regarding different methods, and the practical skills to put those methods into practice.

This course is ideal for postgraduates, academics and professionals with an interest in using qualitative methods to undertake social research.  

Course benefits
This course will provide students with:

• a solid understanding of the core methods of qualitative data collection and analysis
• critical skills in interpreting and evaluating reports of qualitative studies
• experience in putting qualitative skills into practice
• realistic and practical teaching from established researchers who put these tools to use in their ongoing research projects 

Prerequisites
The course assumes little or no knowledge of qualitative methods. There are no formal prerequisites, however applicants should be at postgraduate level or higher.

This course presents the fundamentals of qualitative research methods. It covers the classic sources of qualitative data: interviews, focus groups, participant observation and documentary and historical work. It also discusses the challenges and opportunities of new media including visual images and Internet research. Three widely-used data analysis methods are covered: thematic analysis, content analysis and discourse analysis. In addition, issues including quality indicators, research design, ethics, writing up and disseminating are also addressed.

The format of the course is a combination of lectures and seminars. Lectures are interactive and introduce the key conceptual issues of each method, as well as giving practical guidance. Lectures also incorporate critical discussion of sample papers from the peer-reviewed literature, developing students’ skills in critically evaluating reports of qualitative research. Seminars provide hands-on experience of the core methods.

Assessment is through a two-hour exam (optional) on the final day. A sample exam paper is available, and a revision session is offered the previous day.

Main texts
Seale, C., Gobo, G., Gubrium, J.F. & Silverman, D. (2004). Qualitative research practice. London: Sage.
Bauer, M.W. & Gaskell, G. (2000) Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound, London: Sage.
Flick, U. (2009) An Introduction to Qualitative Research, London: Sage.  

Teaching schedule
The following teaching schedule is indicative only, and is subject to change.

Week 1

Week 1	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning (Lecture)	Qualitative research & design	Documents & archives	Participant observation	Interviewing	Focus groups
Afternoon (Class)	Quality indicators	Selecting & evaluating documents	Fieldnotes	Interview topic guides	Focus group topic guide s

Week 2	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning (Lecture)	Visual & online data	Thematic analysis	Content analysis	Discourse analysis	Writing up & disseminating qualitative research
Afternoon (Class)	Analysing visual data	Identifying & organising themes	Counting codes & content analysis	Discourse analysis / revision	Exam

 

All lecturers were incredibly knowledgeable about the subject matter and drew on their own experiences of research to make very valuable points about the nature of qualitative research. I have gained huge amounts of confidence from attending the course and am looking forward to applying both the theoretical and practical element of the methods to my own research.
2014 participant on Qualitative Research Methods

The course was really great and considerably more useful than I had hoped for. Jenn and Aude were enthusiastic and engaging, they made it very interactive and enjoyable. Thanks a lot!.
2014 participant on Qualitative Research Methods

Excellent course!
2013 participant on Qualitative Research Methods

The teaching was excellent and clarified complex concepts with pragmatic examples.
2012 participant on Qualitative Research Methods

Please note: A full timetable will be provided at registration on Monday 15 August. The provisional timetables below contain approximate hours only.

ME405

	Week One (hours)
	M	Tu	W	Th	F
Morning lecture	3	3	3	3	3
Afternoon class	1.5	1.5	1.5	1.5	1.5

ME405 Timetable

	Week Two (hours)
	M	Tu	W	Th	F
Morning lecture	3	3	3	3	3
Afternoon class	1.5	1.5	1.5	2	Exam