Graduate Program (& Advanced Certificate) Status
Mandatory-Elective | |
Mandatory-Elective |
This course introduces students to qualitative research methods from critical and practical standpoints. First, we will explore and examine our own assumptions about truth and social reality and how these assumptions align and/or contrast with the epistemological traditions associated with qualitative research. Based on this critical foundation we will venture into how qualitative research assumptions translate into concrete methods of data collection and analysis, with a particular emphasis on in-depth, open-ended interviewing. In this approach, understanding how various actors perceive and articulate environmental phenomena provides analytical research insights into the dynamics and challenges of environmental issues.
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Critically reflect on your own (and others’) assumptions about qualitative environmental research, while discerning some of the key concepts and applications that support a rigorous qualitative study design
- Apply skills in qualitative data collection and preliminary data analysis
- Engage ethical research standards and the guiding principles of writing up qualitative research
In order to pass this course (it is a pass/fail course), you need to successfully complete all of the following:
Quiz
Observation Exercise
Interviewing Exercise
Interview Data Coding Exercise
Ethics Discussion Forum Contribution
Write-Up Wiki Contribution
None