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Qualitative Methods in Educational Research (2006-2007)
Spring Quarter Schedule Class #1 In this class we will reconnect as a community of scholars, based in part on the Memos to Yourself that you have prepared. We will also look ahead to the process of analyzing qualitative research and writing it up for presentation to a scholarly audience. In this regard, we will consider the big questions that concern analysis in this mode of research:
Finally, we will think practically about the current stage in your research. Everyone will be at different places, but all of you will be facing the question of how to initially organize your data. With reference to the study of the week, we will imagine different ways to organize qualitative data, with an analytic process in mind. Here, we pay attention to ways that one can both organize the volumes of data (e.g., transcripts, fieldnotes, documents) and begin to reduce it, noting that organizing and reducing data are among the first steps in the analysis process. Required Readings:
Assignments Due:
Class #2 In this class we will continue our discussion of data management and start to examine closely and systematically strategies that are especially useful in the early stages of analysis. Keeping in mind that different traditions construe the analytic task somewhat differently, we will discuss different kinds of initial coding of data, alongside a process of familiarizing yourself with your data, which we refer to as "wallowing". Using small slices of data that students have brought to class (alongside some prepared data sets of our own), we will practice coding, noting how initial codes can give us a first-level understanding from our data. We will also discuss the process of memoing, in anticipation of an analytic memo which you will be preparing in the ensuing weeks. Required Readings:
Assignments Due:
No Class Use your time during this week to bring data collection to a conclusion (if you have not done so already), and to get a head start on future reading, as well as prepare the next Analytic Memo. Class #3 In this class we will return to the matter of transforming data through analysis into claims and meanings that the data support. Here we take the coding process farther, guided by examples in readings that show how one can return to the same data and extract deeper levels of meaning through the application of successively refined codes. We will also consider how coded data begin to suggest themes that run through substantial portions of a qualitative data set, and which deserve more careful scrutiny as you progress through the analysis process. Required Readings:
Assignments Due:
Class #4 As qualitative researchers work with coded data, they begin to search for patterns and meanings within and among the coded segments of data (the initial steps in this search generally happen even before coding begins). By linking up different data items which have common codes, researchers move beyond initial classification (the basic act of coding), through more refined coding, towards statements that assert something about the phenomenon they are studying (or that offer initial answers to the research questions they posed). In this sense, qualitative data is being used to generate and support inferences and ultimately theoretical propositions. Class time will be spent examining how a qualitative researcher can generate, test, and support propositions. Students will have the opportunity to draw in their own data for discussion and exercises. Required Readings:
Assignments Due:
Class #5 In this class we return to some of the issues addressed earlier in this quarter and in the first quarter: What "general" insights do qualitative researchers derive from the particulars they are studying? What does "generalization" mean in qualitative research traditions - to what precisely is the researcher "generalizing"? Second of all, how do qualitative researchers know their findings are sound? That is, how do they verify their conclusions? Required Readings:
Assignments Due:
Class #6 The process of generating meaning from qualitative data involves various ways of representing relationships among different aspects of the data. Data displays of various kinds have particular usefulness in this regard, and we will consider various ways that displays can serve the purposes of qualitative analysts. Displays may incorporate words or numbers, and in fact counts and other quantitative data play a variety of useful roles in certain traditions of qualitative research. In the class we will address how quantitative and qualitative data might be incorporated into qualitative studies and consider examples of various data displays such as graphs, visuals, and charts, as well as other data display forms such as narrative and pictorial or media-form accounts. Required Readings:
Assignments Due:
Class #7 Analysis in qualitative research flows naturally into the writing process, and in many ways the two are inseparable. In this class, we will consider how qualitative researchers approach the questions of audience, voice, style structure, length, use of literature, presentation of data, and other writing issues, noting how differing traditions may approach this task. We take pains to distinguish between the written product and the full analysis, which generally represents a much larger volume of material, text, etc. Required Readings:
Assignments Due:
Class #8 Writing up a report of one's qualitative study is one thing; getting it published is another. Put succinctly, the qualitative researcher confronts the task of sharing research findings and conclusions with professional audiences, through the means that scholarly discourse communities (or other audiences) consider to be appropriate. Ideally, the intention to publish research informs how one approaches the writing task, because different audiences and outlets have different expectations about what constitutes acceptable writing. During the class, we will discuss different strategies for getting your work published, and share craft knowledge that will help you achieve this goal. We will also address the relationship between a formal paper and an oral presentation based on that paper. We will provide a few examples of accepted presentation proposals and share some advice about writing presentation proposals. Required Readings:
Assignments Due:
No Class Use this time to work on your final report. (We will try to e-mail you comments by Memorial Day Weekend.) Class #9 This class is the grand finale of two quarters' work! Students will make a brief oral presentation of their studies in a conference-like format that will have been developed throughout the quarter. (The planning for the final class is up to the students; we will offer examples from past years, so that people have a sense of how this event has been structured in the past.) Required Readings:
Assignments Due:
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amandao@u.washington.edu Last modified: 4/15/2007 8:42 PM |