Qualitative Courses

BER 631

Qualitative Research I

This course serves as an introduction to basic theory and history of naturalistic inquiry, including the growth of methods and frameworks for conducting research. Students will have a practical experience developing a qualitative research project.  This includes skills such as development of a basic research design, research questions, interviewing, and protocols.  Students also practice data analysis skills including coding, memo writing, and analysis. Throughout the semester, students learn to critically read and write about qualitative research while gaining understandings of this field of inquiry.

Offered: Fall & Spring Semesters

BER 632

Qualitative Research II

Anthropological methods and theoretical skills grounding data collection, analysis, and writing with a focus on ethical research practice concerning researcher/subject relations.  Students continue to build a data corpus and conduct a second hands-on project of ethnographic observation and field work to develop the skills of writing field notes and collecting field documents, coding, analysis, write up of data; focus groups are also covered in this course.

Offered: Fall & Spring Semesters

BER 633

Qualitative Research III

This course focuses on the writing phase of qualitative research.  Basic skills of assertions and warrants, data presentation, and other forms of qualitative writing are studied and practiced.  Students develop a qualitative-focused prospectus as part of their final project.  Issues of ethics and representation are discussed through the post-structural and interpretive frameworks that ground the field.

Offered: Fall Semester

BER 630

Case Study

This course is about case studies.  It is also about the production of case studies as a legitimized research approach in multiple disciplines.  We will approach the case study critically, with the idea that we cannot critique that which we do not know.  As such, we will explore and employ case study techniques even as we interrogate the assumptions and rationalities that grant them meaning.  In this way we will consider the case of the case study.

Offered: Every Other Spring Semester

BER 634

Narrative Inquiry

This course serves as an introduction to narrative inquiry and analysis in qualitative research. Topics covered include: theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of narrative inquiry, ethics and reflexivity in narrative inquiry, analytic methods in narrative inquiry, narrative interviewing, and (re)presenting narrative work.

Offered: Every Other Spring Semester
Prerequisite: BER 631

BER 635

Materialist Theories in Qualitative Research

How do we overcome a bias towards linguistic forms of knowing in qualitative inquiry?
Contemporary formations of materialism begin with the assumption that social space, material place, power, and identity are forever entangled and at work in the production of meaning-making. This course takes seriously such assumptions, examining the “materialist turn” in educational research that has impacted methodological practice for the past two decades. Specifically, this course examines materialism as engaging the principle tenets of neo-Marxism and poststructural thought even as it informs recent assertions of “materialism” in inquiry practices (seen most directly in theorizations of “new” or “critical” materialism). As such, we will read foundational texts in critical geography, contemporary manifestations of the materialist turn in educational research, and design qualitative studies informed by our emergent understanding of materialism.

Prerequisite: BER 631

BER 636

Qualitative Interviewing

This course emphasizes human subjects research and considers various qualitative interviewing and transcription approaches, as well as the research designs best served by specific approaches. The course examines the conceptual and theoretical frameworks that inform interviewing as a research approach, the criteria used to assess interviewing, the range of ethical issues in interviewing, the relationships between interviewers and interviewees, and the ways that interviewing is implemented across various research situations and designs. Students consider issues such as selecting interviewing approaches, interview participants, transcription conventions, and data analysis approaches.

Offered: Every Other Fall Semester
Prerequisite: BER 631

BER 637

Arts-Based Research

 How do we come to inquire differently in and through our research?
The possibilities in/of artistic expression and inquiry move many researchers to consider and systematically explore human experience through the modalities of visual arts, poetry, music, dance, fiction, performance, new media, and endless others. Arts-based research, then, creates spaces for researchers to think outside of written language (or normative research practices) and to inquire and make meaning through a more embodied artistic practice. This course considers both the historical and current landscape of arts-based research and its place in/against the field of qualitative research. Further, it engages students in readings that span the breadth of arts-based research practices, while cultivating opportunities for students to become arts-based research practitioners.

Offered: Every Other Spring Semester
Prerequisite: BER 631

BER 638

Social Justice in Qualitative Research

This course is designed to examine the role that research can play in uncovering and addressing systemic forms of oppression. The course explores the importance of and challenges involved in engaging in anti-oppressive, socially just, culturally sensitive, and decolonizing research activities. Students will also consider philosophical underpinnings and methodological approaches to educational research that support justice aims in research.

Prerequisite: BER 631

BER 672

Mentored Teaching in Educational Research Methodology

This course provides students with the opportunity to assist with teaching a class on qualitative inquiry. Working closely with a qualitative research faculty member, students will gain experience in designing curriculum, implementing thoughtful pedagogical practices, as well as insight into the affordances and challenges that accompany teaching various qualitative topics.Note: This course is only available to Qualitative Research Certificate students and students in the PhD in Educational Research program.

Offered: Fall & Spring

**Must coordinate with a Qualitative faculty member prior to registering for the course.

BER 687

Field Experience

This course offers support from a qualitative faculty member to design and implement a qualitative study, as well as write a conference paper or publishable papers. Projects and deadlines must be arranged with the instructor.Note: This course is only available to Qualitative Research Certificate students and students in the PhD in Educational Research program.

Offered: Every Fall Semester
Prerequisite: Recommended once students have completed all or most coursework.

BER 695

Special Topics

The topic for this course varies. Students will engage deeply with a contemporary topic or methodology that is relevant to the field of qualitative research. Recent courses have focused on critical geography, narrative inquiry, and qualitative interviewing.

Prerequisite: BER 631

BER 690

Readings in Educational Research

This course engages students with various and diverse foundational readings in qualitative research. Specific texts and topics will vary.

Offered: As Needed