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Greetings Qualitative Researchers,
I hope that all of you had a productive, yet relaxing holiday and that you are
ready to become (and excited about becoming) qualitative researchersat
least for a semester! I look forward to working with you on that task. In
preparation for that, here are a few thoughts about the importance of
research classes in general, this class in particular, its reading list, and what
you need to do before our first class.
ABD, as Im sure most of you know, is the acronym for all but dissertation
and a certain percentage of every doctoral cohort ends up there. I have
often wondered how that happens and I have come to understand that it has
a lot to do with how people engage with, and what people get out of, their
research classes. Students, who fear their research courses and just want to
get through them as quickly as they can, end up with very few research tools
with which to build their dissertation. Those, on the other hand, who take up
the challenge to learn the foundational knowledge and develop the skills
(tools if you will) to do research, end up with the preparation they need at
the end of their course work to design and implement their capstone project
the dissertation. Research is not a matter of following a set of guidelines
that will produce a credible conclusion; it is a matter of thinking through the
best way to address a problem, developing a strong, critical knowledge of the
related literature, framing a significant research question(s), gathering and
analyzing data in a systematic and rigorous way, and interpreting the results
in such a way that takes into account the ways in which our subjective and
cultural lenses (and our biases) might impact our conclusions (validity). This
is a complex and demanding task and the task that you must undertake if
you are to complete your dissertation. It is my hope and my intention that
this classif you are willing to take up the challenge and do your part, will go
a long way to prepare you to do just that, to complete your dissertation. I
believe this to be true whether you choose a quantitative study, a qualitative
study, or a mixed method study. Now on to the specifics of this class.
The major requirement for this course is for each of you to design,
implement (at least in part), and write up a qualitative study that will use
some combination of observation and interview to gather your data.
Qualitative researchers use observation, participant observation, interview,
and analysis of documents and other texts as data sources but we dont
always use all those sources in our studies. Some of you, for example, may
choose to use only interviewing as your data gathering techniquewe can
settle those details in our discussions when we meet. To begin the process of
designing and implementing your study, I would like you to choose a focus
for your study. Think of several topics or problems about which you are
curious and write down the reasons you are interested in them, why you
believe they are significant topics to study, and what your goals (see chapter
3 in Maxwell) would be for conducting such studies. You now have a
foundation upon which to design a research strategy to investigate your
topic/problem. Two of our books for the class will help you do that: Maxwell,

J. A. (2013), Qualitative Research Design: An interactive approach (be

sure that you get the 3rd edition) Newbury Park, CA: Sage, and the Patton
text (Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, 3rd ed.) that you
bought for RSCH 9800. Use Patton to help you understand what are
particularly appropriate applications for qualitative research (see particularly
chapter 4). Before you actually implement your study, you will need to learn
how to design qualitative research. Use Maxwell to learn about the 5
components of qualitative design and how to piece them together in an
integrated research plan. If you read the preface and the first 2 chapters in
Maxwell (pp. vii -38), it will give you an overview of the task and then you
can read the rest of the book to develop a deeper understanding of each
component of your research plan as we move through the semester. One of
the biggest difficulties our doctoral students have when it comes time to
write a dissertation proposal is that they dont really understand how to
design a study and write the proposal. If you read Maxwell and write up a
brief overview and plan for a qualitative study, based on his ideas and
suggestions, you should be prepared for that task. I will discuss in class the
specifics of how I want you to do that. For now, read the pages indicated
and work through exercise 2.1 on page 34 in Maxwell. To do that, you will
have to decide on an idea for a study you would be interested in doing. For
now it can be just a possibility of what you might do for a dissertation or, of
course, if you already have a strong inclination about what you want to do,
use that.
Pattons chapter 5 also deals with designing qualitative research and it too,
will be useful for you as you work on your plan. Patton provides a useful
overview and Maxwell supplies the nuts and bolts of how to develop your
research design. The advantage of Maxwell is that he gives you writing
prompts and exercises to help you develop your ideas. The writing you do in
response to those prompts and exercises are called memos and memos are
the basic building blocks of qualitative researchthey will provide the
foundation for your research design. The first of those memos is will be the
Researcher Identity Memo (Maxwell, p. 34), which I will ask you post in
BlazeView. Remember that the focus of this class is on constructing your
design, not on writing a polished proposal. We will discuss what this should
look like during our first meeting. To get an idea of how to organize design
components into a proposal outline, look ahead to chapter 7 in Maxwell. I
think you will also find it useful to look ahead to Appendices A and B, which
are examples of qualitative proposals. If you decide that you do want to
develop your research design into a proposal draft for a qualitative
dissertation, we will work on that in the advanced qualitative research class
(RSCH 9830).
On our first weekend (8/22), we will talk about the nature of qualitative
research, the distinctions between it and quantitative approaches, strategic
themes, theoretical orientations, and particularly appropriate qualitative
applications, (all of which is discussed in Patton). I know that you have
done some reading in Patton in your RSCH 9800 class. For our first meeting
please familiarize yourself with the first hundred pages or so (by that I mean
read them in a way that gives you the main ideas without necessarily going

into details). In other words, look over the appropriate sections to refresh
your memory. Be sure to bring your books to class so you can use them as
resources as we discuss the above issues. In addition, please work through
the module on Subjectivity and Culture that is posted in BlazeView
and, as I mentioned above, do the related exercise 2.1 from Maxwell.
These two tasks will provide the basis for our very important discussion
about the role of subjectivity and culture in framing, designing, and
implementing researchparticularly qualitative research. In addition, please
read 2 case studies from the Merriam bookchapters 3 and 10. Write a brief
reaction paper (a page or two) about each study.
On Saturday (8/22) we will meet on the second floor of the building where
our departmental offices are (the southwest corner of Brookwood and
Patterson streets) at 9 am. (will advise on the exact room). I will give you
an overview of the class and the tasks you need to complete over the course
of this semester. I will ask each of you to introduce yourself and tell us what
program you are in (Leadership or C&I), where you work and what you do,
and a little about your interests. I will address your questions and concerns
at that time. On Saturday we will meet from 9 am to 5 pm with a one-hour
break for lunch. We will discuss the topics I outlined in the paragraph above.
We will also, as time allows, discuss the two readings from Merriam. The
final thing I would like us to do (on Saturday afternoon) is for each of you to
tell us about a possible topic for your study in this class. I would like us to
create research teams (of 2 or 3 people) based on similar interests. Such
teams create small groups in which the members can share resources,
critique one anothers work, and provide support for one another. If there is
time, I will give you the opportunity to meet with others who might have
similar interests to discuss the possibility of forming research teams.
I am a great believer in the value of face-to-face time for teaching research
particularly qualitative research. With only 4 Saturdays to work with, we will
need to make maximum use of our time. I would appreciate everyone
making an effort to be on time and keeping lunch and breaks to agreed upon
limits. Over the course of the semester, I will be available to meet with you
on a small group basis (I encourage you to form research teams in this class)
or an individual basis. I will also be available on the phone after Saturday
class meetings.
As I mentioned above, the tasks you will need to complete before the first
class are the subjectivity module and exercise 2.1 from Maxwell. For our
second meeting, you will complete a fieldwork exercise. Modules for each
exercise, with background and instructions, are available in BlazeView. Take
a look at what is involved in the fieldwork exercise and begin to work on
finding a partner(s) to work with you on that exercise. You and your partner
will also need to find a site in which to conduct your fieldwork. I will discuss
this task in class on our first Saturday. By the third class you will need to
have conducted and transcribed at least one interview (from the research
study you will be designing). Each researcher will bring 3 to 5 pages from
that interview for us to analyze in class. The themes for that class will be
interviewing and data analysis. That class is extremely important because I
consider data analysis to be the most difficult aspect of doing quality

qualitative research.
The fourth class will involve each of you (or teams of you) presenting
(teaching us) something from your class work this semester. (This last class
is subject to change on an as needed basis). We will use those presentations
as vehicles for wrapping up our learning about designing and conducting
qualitative research. My hope is that those of you who intend to do a
dissertation that involves qualitative research, either as the driving force or
as add on, will have the foundation to do so by the end of this semester. It is
admittedly a lot to accomplish in one semesterparticularly one where we
have only 4 face-to-face classes, but if everyone works diligently I think we
can do it. By the way, students from classes past have always been
concerned about accomplishing all we have planned and are invariably
amazed at the end that they have done it. So dont worry, it is possible!
Most of you are aware that you now have the option to take advanced
research classes in either quantitative or qualitative methods. Those of you
who, at the end of this class, believe that you want to do a qualitative
dissertation should strongly consider the advanced qualitative class (RSCH
9830). Similarly, those who believe you want to do a quantitative
dissertation should take the advanced quantitative class (9850). The third
option is to take mixed methods (RSCH 9860) as your 4th research class. I
will be happy to discuss these options with any of you who would like to do
so.
I look forward to working with all of you this semester and I believe that you
will find this work to be demanding, interesting, and rewarding.