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  2. EDU S507

Interviewing in Qualitative Research
EDU S507

Course Information

Description

This course explores qualitative interviewing as a research strategy and as a practice. The course focuses on learning the craft of interviewing. This course is apprenticeship-based, designed to help students situate their own qualitative interviewing experiences within readings and discussions that critically engage with theoretical and methodological issues and debates. Students will engage in mentored interviewing practice through a research project. Interviewing can be thought of as a conversation in relationship, an inherently interpersonal and social enterprise. Students will build relationships with research participants that span from initiating the research to collecting data, discussing analyses, and reporting findings. We will discuss ethical issues in qualitative research and consider how the researcher's positionality, identity, and power dynamics between the researcher and participants influence the research process. Students will have the opportunity to develop their own personal approach to interviewing, where we support each other’s development as researchers.
Permission of instructor required. Enrollment is limited. HGSE Ph.D. students given preference. Course may only be taken on a Satisfactory/No Credit basis.

School Graduate School of Education
Credits 4
Cross Reg

Available for Harvard Cross Registration

Department Education
Course Component Regular Course
Instruction Mode In Person
Subject Education
Grading Basis HGSE Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Learning Goals <p>This course is designed as an apprenticeship in research using qualitative interviewing methods. In the spirit of apprenticeship and collective learning, we (as a class) will focus our research inquiry on a research topic. This topic provides a context for exploring multiple issues in education. As a class, we will determine the specific research questions we will examine over the semester.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br><br>During the course, we will work collaboratively on a research project from beginning to end. This process will include:<br><br>• developing relationships and gaining access to a site/ sample of participants<br>• becoming familiar with a site/ research participants through participant observation<br>• writing fieldnotes<br>• defining a research question<br>• selecting participants to interview<br>• developing interview guides (for multiple types of research participants and different research goals)<br>• developing rapport with research participants<br>• conducting interviews (3 over the semester)<br>• writing Listening Notes<br>• transcribing interviews<br>• sharing transcripts with research participants<br>• writing analytic memos<br>• analyzing data, including coding with Dedoose<br>• writing up findings<br>• presenting and discussing findings with research participants<br><br>The research process is iterative; we will reflect on each component of the work in class and through written assignments, and use our shared learning to inform the next stages.</p>
Career Focus N/A