Environment General Courses (ENVIRON)

taught in Durham

298.87  Applied Qualitative Reserch Methods
This seminar focuses on the needs of masters and doctoral level graduate students considering or involved in qualitative research, with an emphasis on applied tools: project design, data collection, data analysis, and interpretation. Although theory is included, practical application will be emphasized. The course has five primary objectives:

1. Students will gain experience with qualitative research methods: observation, interviewing, document analysis.
2. Students will design and conduct a brief qualitative study, and will translate data gathered through a series of activities into analyses and interpretations. The results will be written as a proposal for further research, and presented orally. The study will be conceived for a specific audience of the student’s choice (i.e., government, not-for-profit, program evaluation, etc).
3. Students will be able to describe the spectrum of research paradigms in quantitative and qualitative research and to articulate their likely point on this spectrum.
4. Students will critically examine specific studies and interpret different methodological genres.
5. As authors, students will consider and write about their positions, subjectivity, and how they represent qualitative data.