Teaching Qualitative Methods: An Interview with Phil Nyden

Abstract

Dr. Nyden has published numerous research articles and has published as well on the use of qualitative methods in applied research. Moreover, because his approach to teaching this course is unique in several respects, the editors thought his approach would be of special interest to our readers. Q. How does this course fit into your curriculum and how do you teach it? A. It's a straight qualitative methods course. Every graduate student has to take it. One thing about our department that probably sets it apart from a fair number of other sociology graduate programs is that we have a fairly nice balance of qualitative and quantitative methods in the department. In fact, we probably have a stronger qualitative expertise in the department than a typical graduate department. So it's in this environment that our qualitative methods course has developed. Not everyone teaches it the way I do. I usually involve students in a social policy-oriented project. I think there are a couple of ways in which you can teach a qualitative methods course. One style is to have each individual student engage in [his or her] own field work project. Another style, which I use, is to have a group project. The advantage that I find to this second teaching method is that students spend less time trying to understand each other's substantive project focus. Instead, they can concentrate more on the methods and how they relate to the particular research at hand. Both styles of teaching-focus on a single project or focus on multiple student projects-are legitimate. Most qualitative