Teaching Of Qualitative Research Research Articles

Teaching qualitative research in adverse times

This article discusses how the teaching of qualitative research in higher education is threatened by the effects of new public management, by academic culture wars and by a growing belief in big data. The controversy over Alice Goffman’s book On the Run presents one recent example of this. In an effort to counterbalance these developments, this article stresses the importance in social science curricula of ‘naturalistic inquiry’ – the artisanal core of qualitative research. Explicitly acknowledging emic viewpoints, naturalistic inquiry upholds the emancipatory ideal of making society transparent to its members. Teaching naturalistic inquiry as a craft may be the best way to assure ‘qualitative literacy’ among graduates in their various careers as socially responsible professionals.

Editorial

In this issue of Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences, authors from Denmark, Jamaica, the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom analyse measures to encourage students to change their educational expectations and complete their degrees earlier; the experience of inclusive pedagogy on a doctoral programme; the impact of new managerial practices on the teaching of qualitative research; the positive effects of using the online platform Socrative to involve less confident students and stimulate discussion; and a game that reinforces students’ understanding of important issues in research ethics.

Teaching Qualitative Research Methods in Political Science: Does One Size Fits All?

Despite the relevance of qualitative methods in political science, the process of teaching qualitative research has received relatively little attention in the literature. What is it like to teach qualitative research in political science? This article focuses on the teaching of qualitative research by exploring examples from Brazil. The country is home to some of the largest higher-education providers of political science in Latin America; however, the teaching of appropriate research methods is still incomplete. This article identifies challenges to qualitative-methods education in the country and its evolution. It provides lessons about the teaching of qualitative methods that can be relevant to educators in less institutionalized political science departments, to non–English speaking learners, and to Global South scholars.

Lives & Legacies

Over the last decade, academic institutions around the globe have archived qualitative data. While scholars have deliberately used them for research purposes, insufficient attention has been directed to their utility for the teaching of qualitative research (QR). In this article, I will discuss how I have used 39 interview transcripts of new immigrants to Canada to develop Lives & Legacies, an online digital courseware available free of charge through Open Access to advance the teaching and learning of qualitative interviewing (QI) for students and other novice researchers. After discussing challenges in teaching QI, I identify four pedagogical principles I have used and draw examples from the courseware to demonstrate their applications. I also discuss the transgressive potentials of using Open Access and a digital format for the courseware. I conclude this article by discussing the future prospects of using archival qualitative data in the teaching/learning of QR.

‘I Don't Get it’: A Critical Reflection on Conceptual and Practical Challenges in Teaching Qualitative Methods

This article is a reflective piece that concentrates on facilitating student learning styles and reflexivity when teaching qualitative methods. It elaborates specifically on the challenges of deep and surface learning, and managing these differences in conjunction with the practical challenges posed by qualitative research. The introduction of reflexivity to undergraduate students and how this can be conveyed effectively is also discussed in connection with learning how to execute qualitative work. The teaching context was a section on qualitative methods that formed part of a larger research methods module. Student feedback indicates that time constraints and group-work affect the learning process. In conclusion, improvements can be made by attending more closely to deep learning strategies and reducing the number of activities in class, to ensure that the quality is maintained within the teaching of qualitative research.

The Case for Edge Ethnography

Whereas the teaching of qualitative research has long been sacrificed for instruction on quantitative approaches, alternative fieldwork orientations are rarely professed. Edge ethnography represents a strain of qualitative inquiry employing atypical qualitative fieldwork strategies characterized by: (1) the conduct of research within the context of the immediacy of social action, (2) atypical researcher involvement in research settings and activities intentionally maximizing the value of deep involvement, and (3) potential risk to researchers and subjects, as well as related ethical issues raised by close association with active criminals and knowledge of ongoing criminal activity. Despite the strategic value of unconventional qualitative strategies based in full immersion into fieldwork environments, such as entrée to closed and esoteric study settings and contact with otherwise inaccessible subjects, they are seldom employed. Ostensibly, limited application is a function of a lack of coverage in graduate‐level research methods courses—a neglect fostered by multiple issues, including ethical objections. After briefly reviewing the two major forms of alternative qualitative fieldwork, the principal advantages and ethical justification for engaging edge ethnography are presented.

Passionate Pleas for “Passion Please”: Teaching for Qualitative Research

This article traces how the language of the authors’ students jolted them into questioning their teaching of qualitative research. The authors discuss many of the inherent difficulties in trying to learn how to be a qualitative researcher as well as how to teach for qualitative research within a technical and academic structure. The authors argue that academic control of research has tamed desire and removed reality from everyday experience into a classroom conceived of and assessed by the maxims of modernity. Mindful of these constraints, the authors believe that there are things that can be done to disrupt the effects of disciplinary power, emphasizing an emotional engagement involving desire, passion, and eros when teaching and learning for qualitative research.