Qualitative Research Methods

Taught by a team of experts in qualitative methods, this introductory two-day course will take participants through the stages of a qualitative research project. Topics include:

• What is a qualitative research question?
• How to collect data appropriate to your project (including interviews, focus groups, observations, document, media and social media sources)
• How to analyse data (we will focus in detail on thematic analysis and content analysis, but will introduce a range of other analytic techniques such as discourse analysis, narrative analysis, framework analysis, conversation analysis, realist evaluation, ethnography, participatory action research)
• How to report results of qualitative research.

The course will be interactive, with taught content alternating with exercises to help you gain the practical skills needed at different stages of a qualitative research project. There will also be opportunities to ask questions about project ideas you might have relevant to your interests and organisations.

Coffee, tea and lunch will be provided, allowing networking opportunities with academics doing qualitative work, as well as other attendees who are interested in doing qualitative research in their organisations.

The course team are drawn from ARU's Social Justice and Empowerment research area, which contains researchers in a wide variety of areas. These include body image across cultures, the benefits of nature, improving mental health services, communication and interaction in social care, mental health apps, gender, cancer services and recovery, human rights abuses, intergroup conflict and political communication.

For attendees with a research project in mind, we can also provide one-to-one support tailored to their particular project for an additional £186 fee (including VAT).

This would consist of three one-hour online or face-to-face meetings after the course to advise on data collection, analysis and presentation.