Course description
This 4-day PhD course is targeted PhD students at any stage of their study that may be entirely qualitative or include a qualitative component. The course is relevant for students who are at an introductory to intermediate level training on qualitative research.
The course aims for the student to gain theoretical and practical knowledge on how to analyze data from qualitative interviews and other types of unstructured, qualitative data. We wish to provide the student with knowledge and abilities to manage the different stages of creating a research design and the progression of a qualitative study from elaborating and conceptualizing the topic (research questions), deciding the data collection and analytic strategy and interpretation of results.
Participants are supported in how to critically reflect on and strengthen methodological, theoretical and analytical approaches of their research study through lectures, student presentations, and discussions.
Lectures in the morning will present qualitative research methods in relation to dominant philosophies of science and urge the students to critically reflect on own research.
Workshops in the afternoon will include students presenting their own research focusing on conceptualization and methodological, theoretical and analytical perspectives according to the topic of the day.
Students are encouraged to participate actively, to debate their particular views, methodological problems, and research issues during class
Lecture plan - tentative
Day 1: Philosophy of science and research paradigms relevant to qualitative research
Workshop: presenting students projects discussing philosophy of science and impact on methodological approach
Day 2: The qualitative research design – research strategy and approaches.
Collection of unstructured data: text, video, audio, documents, photos by various data collection methods, i.e. interviews, field work, social media, case studies, action research, participatory design, co-creation workshops
Research ethical considerations, legal considerations regarding GDPR
Workshop presenting students projects discussing various aspects of the chosen data collection, pros and cons given the chosen method
Day 3: Analytical strategies, i.e. thematic analysis, discourse analysis, grounded theory, structuralistic narratology (tentative, to be decided according to available lecturers)
Day 4: Using software in qualitative data analysis, exemplified by NVivo software
Presenting and publishing qualitative research findings
Workshop presenting students’ strategy for analysis
Intended learning outcome:
Knowledge – the student does
1. Understand and can describe the central characteristics and processes of a qualitative research project and the different scientific, theoretical and analytical approaches employed in qualitative research
Skills – the student can
1. Conceptualize and plan a qualitative research project, including the tools used to produce and analyse data
2. Explain and demonstrate the consistency of a chosen analytical approach in a study’s problem, methodology and data analysis
3. Apply central quality criterions in qualitative research, including the importance of establishing audit trail, credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability
Competences – the student is able to
1. Critically reflect on the process of producing qualitative data
2. Evaluate ethically sound research conduct and academic integrity in qualitative research
3. Apply a range of selected analytical approaches to qualitative data, and discuss the limitations and possibilities, interaction between data and results
Teaching metods
Lectures in the morning will present different topics relevant for qualitative research methods in relation to dominant philosophies of science and urge the students to critically reflect on own research.
Workshops in the afternoon will include students presenting their own research focusing on conceptualization and methodological, theoretical and analytical perspectives according to the topic of the day.
Students are encouraged to participate actively, to debate their particular views, methodological problems, and research issues during class
Student preparations
1. The student submit a research proposal prior to the course (max 5 pages). The student will present and discuss the proposal according to the topic of the day (30 min)
2. Each student will review another students proposal, for a deeper peer-feedback during presentation
Readings, literature will be advertised on Its-learning
Course fee
The course is free of charge for PhD students enrolled in Universities that have joined the "Open market agreement" and are members of NorDoc
For all other participants the course fee is:
DKK 3000
EURO 402