Qualitative Research Methods

Catalog description

This course offers a hands-on opportunity for doctoral and advanced masters students to experience the practice of qualitative research. We will address the nature of qualitative research in the administrative and policy sciences, with ample opportunities to discuss the implications of the choices made in designing, implementing and reporting on the findings of a “mock” project which we will determine in class, with your input. The course will require a considerable investment of time, with intensive reading and writing, recurrent team discussions based on assignments, and individual fieldwork (with journal writing before, during and after site visits). The course is a program requirement for doctoral students. For all masters students, it will help develop skills to collect qualitative data during capstone projects and for policy/finance students interested in a methods course sequence, it will also serve as a good complement to the available quantitative courses. For all students, understanding the basics of qualitative research will make you a better researcher (independent of whether your research is only qualitative or only quantitative) and will increase your research competency by offering a foundation to do mixed methods.