Florida International University
School of Social Work
Ph.D. Program in Social Welfare

RESEARCH METHODS IN SOCIAL WELFARE II
(Qualitative Methods)

SOW 7493, Summer 2023

Professor:	Richard L. Beaulaurier, Ph.D., MSW
Office:	AHC5-573
Telephone:	305-348-5876
Email:	beau@fiu.edu
Website:	http://beau.fiu.edu

Catalog Description:

This second course in a two-semester sequence focuses primarily on design, measurement, and analysis issues in ethnographic field studies, surveys and group experiments for the evaluation of intervention technology in social welfare. Prerequisites: SOW 7492 and STA 6166, or equivalent.

This course will introduce students to the principles and methods of qualitative research in the social sciences, with special emphasis on behavioral health and social work research. The course assumes a basic knowledge of social science research, especially quantitative approaches. Contrast between qualitative and quantitative methodologies will be drawn, and students will explore assumptions and some aspects of epistemological debates regarding the use of qualitative methods.

The primary focus of the course will be on developing understanding of and skill in the use of some of the major main methods used by qualitative researchers in the social sciences. These include participant observation, individual interviewing, focus groups, content analysis and archival research.

The course will consist of discussions, readings, and hands-on assignments.

Course objectives:

• Familiarize students with the methodological and epistemological debates concerning qualitative research.
• Develop understanding of the kinds of research questions that can best be answered using qualitative approaches, and those for which qualitative methods are not appropriate.
• Develop ability to develop research proposals and studies that use qualitative methods.
• Provide a structured opportunity to practice and implement these tools.
• Develop knowledge and skill in the use of the methods for collecting data, data recording, data analysis, reporting findings and project organization.

This course is designed as a doctoral seminar. The primary means for instruction will be lecture and group discussion, with an emphasis placed on the latter. The role of the instructor will be that of a guide and organizer for discussion of material in the readings for this course, as well as facilitator of group discussion. Since doctoral classes tend to be small, and student learning will be highly dependent on class participation and discussion, the importance of attendance and adequate preparation before class cannot be overstated.

• Students must come to class ready to raise issues, pose questions and make comments that are not only valuable to themselves, but also to their colleagues in the class.
• Students must come prepared to practice interview techniques and being interviewed.

Any student who is unable to attend a class session due to illness or personal emergency should alert the instructor before class AND take responsibility for obtaining class notes and any handouts from a classmate. However, since interviewing and class participation are of such high value in this course, failure to attend class OR failure to engage in verbal participation may result in points deducted from the final grade.

Students are responsible for all information given in class regarding assignments readings discussed in class, whether they are present for the class session or not. Moreover, class attendance and punctuality will be important not only to individual students but to their classmates as well. Therefore, students who must miss a significant portion of the class should expect low marks regardless of the reason for their absences or tardiness.

Course Assignments:

There will be one graded assignment for the course. The instructor uses a “mastery learning” approach, such that students will have ample opportunities for feedback on their work before the final assignment is due. There are two possible approaches to the final assignment. Unless otherwise noted, The primary assignment will involve:

• Collecting data using at least three interviews. You may supplement these interviews/groups with other methods discussed in the course if you wish (e.g. Participant observation, focus groups or document analysis).
• Entering and analyzing data using Atlas.ti software.
• Write-up of research questions, methods and findings.

Students have the opportunity to get feedback on their research protocols and interview schedules, coding, HU's and write ups. However, to make maximum use of this opportunity, students should provide the instructor with materials to review earlier rather than later in the semester. Students should begin to have materials for the instructor to review by no later than the third week of the course. Both the final Atlas.ti "HU" and write up will be due on the last day of the course.

Before the final assignment is due, the instructor will ask students for a copy of their:

1) Research objectives and research questions (about 1 page).

2) Interview protocol and schedule.

3) Coded HU

4) Summary of the final paper

5) Final paper.

The instructor will review each of these assignments and make comments. In many cases he will ask that they be revised and resubmitted for further review. The first assignment, the research objectives can be submitted as early as the second class session. These assignments will not be graded, however failure to submit these assignments for review at least once during the semester will result in a deduction of points from the final grade. Students will need to pace their efforts. Interviewing and coding are time consuming activities, and students need to allow the instructor time to provide feedback from written work. Leaving the work for the end of the semester could have disastrous results.

Students often ask about how to write-up findings from qualitative research. The standard for this class is the peer reviewed journal article. The instructor recommends going to journal articles in the students area of interest and searching for reports of qualitative research. Interested students may also want to follow the links on this page to one of the following articles that are are initial reports of qualitative research done by the instructor:

Beaulaurier, R. L., Seff, L. R., Newman, F. L., & Dunlop, B. D. (2007). External barriers to help seeking for older women who experience intimate partner violence. Jounal of Family Violence, 22(7). 

Beaulaurier, R. L., Seff, L. R., Newman, F. L., & Dunlop, B. D. (2005). Internal barriers to help seeking for middle aged and older women who experience intimate partner violence. Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, 17(3). 

Both of these articles emphasize the use of ATLAS.ti, and report a research format that is similar to the major assignment for this course. Please note that at the current time, FIU supports only the Windows version of Atlas.ti through site license an eLabs. The Mac version of Atlas, while available is NOT COMPATIBLE with the Windows version. Therefore students are strongly encouraged to make arrangements to do their analysis on a Windows machine.

The primary assignment will be worth 100% of the grade.

Letter grades reflect the following:

A Outstanding
A- Excellent
B+ Very Good
B Good—Adequate graduate level performance
B- and Below Not adequate for doctoral work.

Required Reading and Software:

FIU has a campus site license for Atlas.ti. Students and faculty may download a copy from:

http://shoputs.fiu.edu.

You will need to use the "secure login" with your Panther ID and login. UTS will charge you $4.99, which will allow you to get a full featured version of Atlas.ti. Students with laptops are advised to bring their computers to class.

Required texts:

All of the required texts required for the course are part of the SAGE Qualitative Research Kit 2nd Edition. This includes 10 short books, of which we will use seven. I encourage you to buy the set, rather than the six individual books because (a) they are cheaper as a set, and (b) the three books we don't use are quite good—we just will not have time for them.

(1) Designing Qualitative Research by Uwe Flick

(2) Doing Ethnography by Amanda Coffey (not used in the class)

(3) Doing interviews by Svend Brinkmann & Steinar Kvale

(4) Doing focus groups by Rosaline Barbour

(5) Doing Grounded Theory by Uwe Flick

(6) Analyzing qualitative data by Graham R Gibbs

(7) Doing conversation,  discourse and document analysis by Tim Rapley (not used in the class)

(8) Managing quality in qualitative research by Uwe Flick

(9) Doing Triangulation and Mixed Methods

(10) Using visual data in qualitative research by Marcus Banks (not used in class)

All of these books were published by Sage Publications of Los Angeles in 2017.

There are also several other assigned readings that you will see in the course outline. The instructor will provide information about how to access these readings during the first class.

Course Outline:

The course has been designed in 8 modules. Each module will take one to two weeks to complete. We will go relatively quickly through the models to leave time at the end of the class for discussion of and work on your projects.

Module 1: Definitions, issues, assumptions and controversies in and about Qualitative research

Readings:

• Coffey, A., Holbrook, B., & Atkinson, P. (1996). Qualitative data analysis: Technologies and representations. Sociological Research Online, 1(1).
• Guba, E. G. (1990). The alternative paradigm dialog. In E. G. Guba (Ed.), The Paradigm Dialog (pp. 17-27). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Introduction, Conclusion chapters.

• Lee, R. M., & Fielding, N. (1996). Qualitative data analysis: Technologies and representations. Sociological Research Online, 1(4).
• Martin, M. F. (2000). Verstehen : the uses of understanding in social science. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers.
• Padgett, D. K. (1998). Qualitative methods in social work research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (Chapter 1).
• Carlson, R. G., Siegal, H. A., & Falck, R. S. (1995). Qualitative research methods in drug abuse and AIDS prevention research: An overview. In E. Y. Lambert, R. S. Ashery & R. H. Needle (Eds.), Qualitative Methods in Drug Abuse and HIV Research. Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.

(Students may also be interested in other chapters in this monograph, depending on their area of research).

• Some savvy students may ask why there is no reading by Tyson or Pieper?

Module 2: Design of Qualitative Studies

Reading:

• Flick, U. Designing Qualitative Research

Module 3: Qualitative Interviews

Reading:

• Kvale, S. Doing interviews

(entire book)

Module 4: Focus groups

Reading:

• Barbour, R. Doing focus groups

(entire book)

• Guest, G., Namey, E., Taylor, J., Eley, N., & McKenna, K. (2017). Comparing focus groups and individual interviews: Findings from a randomized study. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20(6), 693–708. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2017.128160

Module 5: Primary Data Analysis

Reading:

• Gibbs, G. Analyzing qualitative data

(entire book)

• http://www.atlasti.com/tutorials.html
  Do all tutorials
• Flick, U. Doing Grounded Theory

(entire book)

• Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (1990). Grounded Theory Research - Procedures, Canons and Evaluative Criteria. Qualitative Sociology, 13(1), 3-21.*
• Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
• Strauss, A. L. (1984). Qualitative Analysis in Social Research - Grounded Theory Methodology (Part Two). Hagen: FB Erziehungs- und Sozialwissenschaften der Fernuniversität Hagen.*

*You will need to have Atlas.ti installed on your computer to read these articles.

Module 6: Discourse, Documents and Secondary Analysis

Reading:

• Rapley, T. Doing conversational discourse and document analysis

(entire book)

Module 7: Member checking, internal validity and quality control

• Flick, U. Managing quality in qualitative research
  (entire book)

• Dye, J. F., Schatz, I. M., Rosenberg, B. A., & Coleman, S. T. (2000). Constant comparison method: A kaleidoscope of data. The Qualitative Report, 4(1/2).

• Patton, M. Q. (1999). Enhancing the quality and credibility of qualitative analysis. Health services research, 34, 1189-1208.

Module 8: Publication and Next Steps

• Flick, U. Triangulation and Mixed Methods
  (entire book)
• Levitt, H. M., Bamberg, M., Creswell, J. W., Frost, D. M., Josselson, R., & Suarez-Orozco, C. (2018). Journal Article Reporting Standards forQualitative Primary, Qualitative Meta-Analytic, and Mixed Methods Research in Psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board Task Force Report. American Psychologist, 73(1), 26-46. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000151