Introduction to Qualitative Interpretive Methods

This course offers an introduction to different interpretive methods. You will learn to ‘read’ texts while becoming familiar with contemporary thinking about interpretation, narrative, and discourse. During the course we will focus on narrative method, hermeneutics, phenomenology, discourse analysis, deconstruction method and genealogy. The course is organised with the following six objectives in mind:

1. To examine the scientific criteria of interpretive research and to give you basic training in how to formulate an interpretive research question
2. To expose you to issues of conceptualisation, theory, research design, and strategies of framing questions and selecting cases
3. To help you organise and process material through interpretive coding strategies
4. To teach you how to choose the best strategy of interpretation for your research question
5. To explain how to condense and present interpretations
6. To draw conclusions from interpretive analyses.

The course will cover basic techniques for collecting, interpreting, and presenting analyses. Throughout it, we will operate on two interrelated dimensions, one focused on theoretical approaches to various types of interpretive research, the other on practical techniques for data collection, coding strategies and interpretive strategies of analysis, writing, and presenting findings.

Theoretically, the course considers questions such as:

• What is ‘interpretive’ research?
• What questions is it best suited for?
• By what criteria does it meet or fail to meet the standards of scientific evidence?
• What are the roles of concepts in interpretive research?
• Can interpretive methods verify hypotheses, or only generate them?
• Can interpretive research explain social phenomena, or only interpret them?
• Do interpretive analyses have a small-N problem?
• In what ways is interpretive research 'grounded'?

Practically, the course considers questions such as:

• What scientific criteria apply for interpretive methods?
• How do researchers ask the ‘right’ question to the ‘right’ material?
• What collecting techniques can be used to enhance the quality of the material?
• What interpretive position should ground the research?
• What is the unit of analysis?
• How do researchers organise the material and how do they ‘read’ it?
• How can they make sense of their interpretations in a transparent, authentic and inclusive way?
• How can they draw conclusions from their interpretive analyses?

The course introduces a broad spectrum of interpretive approaches; however, its theoretical focus will be on narrative method and discourse analysis, to expose you to methods which put rather different weight on inductive and deductive strategies of interpretation. This will strengthen your general knowledge of interpretive methods, and give you a solid basis for choosing the ‘right’ strategy of interpretation after the course.

This course will give you a basic understanding of how to choose between interpretive methods, including insight into hands-on tools that can be used during an interpretive research process. It will prepare you to take advanced courses in interpretive methods with a more specialised focus on (for example) ethnographic method, grounded theory, narrative method or discourse analysis.

By the end of this course, you should have a basic understanding of how to:

1. operationalise an interpretive research question
2. select and collect data for interpretation
3. organise and process data through interpretive coding strategies
4. analyse data using strategies of interpretation
5. condense and present interpretations.

None

Each course includes pre-course assignments, including readings and pre-recorded videos, as well as daily live lectures totalling at least three hours. The instructor will conduct live Q&A sessions and offer designated office hours for one-to-one consultations.

Please check your course format before registering.

Online courses

Live classes will be held daily for three hours on a video meeting platform, allowing you to interact with both the instructor and other participants in real-time. To avoid online fatigue, the course employs a pedagogy that includes small-group work, short and focused tasks, as well as troubleshooting exercises that utilise a variety of online applications to facilitate collaboration and engagement with the course content.

In-person courses

In-person courses will consist of daily three-hour classroom sessions, featuring a range of interactive in-class activities including short lectures, peer feedback, group exercises, and presentations.

Disclaimer

This course description may be subject to subsequent adaptations (e.g. taking into account new developments in the field, participant demands, group size, etc.). Registered participants will be informed at the time of change.

By registering for this course, you confirm that you possess the knowledge required to follow it. The instructor will not teach these prerequisite items. If in doubt, please contact us before registering.