The course passes through three parts:
methods of knowing (the epistemological and ethical foundations of qualitative research);
methods of gathering (the many means of encountering qualitative social evidence);
methods of telling (performing qualitative research through writing and other means).
The format of the course will be a cross between a seminar and a workshop. We will meet once a week in seminar format to discuss the readings (usually on Tuesdays), and once a week to try out various qualitative methods for ourselves (usually on Thursdays). Our focus, then, will be both on the intellectual underpinnings of qualitative methods and on the practical doing of the stuff.
Along the way, there will be numerous small workshop assignments, as well as a weekly intellectual journal of 250-350 words. Students will share their entries with a 3 to 4 member “journal group,” via email, with a cc to me, by midnight on Sunday each week. Keep everything in a portfolio. A few times during the semester I will collect and grade the portfolios.
The final assignment will be to write up a qualitative research proposal on something you might actually study, or are already studying. There will also be three short assignments to help you develop your thoughts on your proposal, and to loosen your mind and your pen.
The course will conclude with a series of workshops on the research proposals, and an "un-final un-exam"—an ungraded, in-class collective exercise.
• 50% on the portfolio
• 25% on participation in class
• 25% on the research proposal