Course Description: Research Design & Qualitative Research Methods
This course is an interdisciplinary doctoral seminar designed to introduce you to the fundamental precepts of research design and qualitative methods. As the first semester in a core sequence of methods coursework for the LBJ PhD program, it is intended to provide an introduction and foundation for the other methods coursework you will complete during the program. Participants will finish the course with:
• Knowledge of the process by which researchers can translate their research interests into tractable research questions suitable for successful social science inquiry and analysis.
• An understanding of key research design topics including research ethics, concept formation, case study selection, and operationalization/measurement.
• The ability to determine when particular approaches or methods, qualitative and quantitative, are appropriate and/or useful in answering a research question.
• Knowledge of how to use a range of qualitative methods, including archival research, interviews, and ethnography, and initial practice in actually using these methods.
• An understanding of how to integrate qualitative research into a multi-method research design (where appropriate).
Both research design and qualitative research are largely matters of craft, learned by doing. Accordingly, the course requires participants to engage in regular, practical exercises that develop a research project of their own choosing.