Qualitative Researching and Critical Inquiry
Qualitative research has won terrain in recent decades, much due to a social world that is increasingly thought to be complex and multi-dimensional. Hence, today, most social science study programs offers courses in qualitative, as well as quantitative method, both at bachelor and masters level. Nevertheless, there is a tendency to perceive qualitative method as less systematic and rigorous - less methodical - than quantitative method.
What distinguishes qualitative and quantitative research is first and foremost that they are designed to answer different types of questions. The requirements for thoroughness are equally strict in qualitative as in quantitative methods, but the procedures are different and more open to adaptation to the field and phenomenon under study.
- The evolvement of qualitative research
- The methodological basis for qualitative research
- The types and character of qualitative data
- The critical elements of qualitative designs
- The performance of qualitative analysis
- Critically scrutinizing and evaluating qualitative data
- The quality assessment of qualitative inquiries
Applicants must be admitted to a PhD-program.
Other students with a completed Masters degree can apply for admission. Admission can be done after an individual assessment.
Learning outcomes:
These are the following learning outcomes expected upon completion of the course.
Knowledge
After completing the course, students should have gained advanced knowledge about:
- The legacy of qualitative research methods
- The theoretical justification of qualitative research
- The properties of qualitative data
- Applicable methods to analyze different qualitative material
Skills
After completing the course, students should have advanced their ability:
- To design qualitative inquiries suitable to answer different qualitative questions
- To justify the methodological choices made in qualitative designs
- To generate and arrange different types of qualitative data material
- To analyze different types of qualitative data in ways that fit the purpose of the study
General competence
After completing the course, students should have advanced their ability:
- To plan, perform and explain qualitative research
- To participate in and contribute to academic discussions in qualitative research
To review and critically assess the quality of qualitative inquiries
Overlap refers to a similarity between courses with the same content. Therefore, you will receive the following reduction in credits if you have taken the courses listed below:
SAM9002 - Qualitative researching and critical inquiry - On generating, analyzing and critically assessing qualitative data - 5 credits