Qualitative Methods and the Politics of Knowledge

Catalog description

This course is designed to help students design, conduct, revise, and analyze qualitative research and modes of inquiry in the social sciences and education. Taking a global perspective, students will have the opportunity to practice qualitative research, including the developing of a research question, designing a study, interviewing, and conducting observations, and analyzing and writing up data. The course provides students with skills in the application of key qualitative methodologies, as well as perspectives of the politics of knowledge production, or how knowledge, data, and evidence are claimed, captured, and shared in educational and international development. Throughout the course students will reflect on their own positionality within international educational development and qualitative modes of inquiry while considering alternatives to the dominant modes of knowledge production through an exploration of decolonial and indigenous epistemologies and practices.