Contents
This course will provide Ph.D. students with the necessary knowledge to navigate the challenging transition from project description/protocol to conducting qualitative research. Students will emerge with a deeper understanding of the theoretical, practical, and ethical aspects of qualitative research methods.
Day one: Creating and entering a subject field
This day will provide in-depth insights on how to proceed from research design to doing actual research, in particular how to create and engage a research field, how to identify and work with gatekeepers, build rapport and how to operationalize research questions. We will also discuss why qualitative researchers must be flexible and adaptive in their approach, and why qualitative research cannot be protocolled. We will alternate between lectures and hands-on work with the PhD-students own research projects.
Day two: Theory, positionality and iterative processes
This day will provide the students with in-depth understanding of how theory informs research, as well as the reflexivity and open-endedness that characterizes the use of qualitative research methods. We will also engage with ethics as an ongoing activity that commence at the beginning of research. We will alternate between lectures and hands-on work with the PhD-students own research projects.
Day three: Methods and analysis
This day will provide in-depth insights on how to bridge and reflect on relations between a theoretically and practically informed subject field and the practice of generating empirical material. We will introduce different methods and also talk about when to begin the analysis, and what is characteristic of analytical work when doing qualitative research.
Intended outcome of the course
The objective of the course is to:
• Facilitate reflection on transitions from research design to initiating and conducting qualitative research.
• Provide in-depth understanding of how theory informs research, as well as the reflexivity and open-endedness that characterizes the use of qualitative research methods.
• Provide students with a foundation in discussing research ethics and analyze which ethical questions they need to address in relation to their specific research project.
• Reflect on their own positionality and its impact on their research.
Learning objectives
At the end of the course, the students will be able to:
• Reflect on and define what constitutes their subject-field of research
• Operationalize research questions.
• Analyse and identify ethical questions
• Reflect on positionality and how theory has informed the research process.
Teaching arrangement
Lectures, group discussions that encourage critical thinking, student presentations and collaborative, responsive feedback sessions
Lectures
Rikke Sand Andersen, professor, Department of Public Health, SDU
Lotte Huniche, associate professor, Department of Psychology, SDU
Susanne Ravn, professor, Department of Sports Sciences and Clinical Biomechanics, SDU
Elisabeth Assing Hvidt, associate professor, Department of Public Health, SDU
Course fee
The course is free of charge for PhD students enrolled in Universities that have joined the "Open market agreement".
For other participants there is a course fee of:
DKK 3000
EUR 402