Qualitative Research Methods and the Study of Current Issues of Nationalism 2018/2019 Spring

COURSE SYLLABUS

 

Qualitative Research Methods in the Study of Nationalism and Ethnicity

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Instructor: 

Margit Feischmidt                                                                                           

Associate Professor Guest Lecturer                                            

feischmidt.margit@tk.mta.hu

 

Department : Nationalism Studies Program

Central European University

Semester/term, year: Spring 2019

Course level (MA, PhD)

# Credits (# ECTS Credits)

Pre-requisites (if applicable)

Course e-learning site:

Office hours: days, location: Monday

 

Course Description and Learning Outcomes

 

This course is designed to familiarize students with the methods of qualitative inquiry in nationalism studies and the studies of minorities and ethnicities; as well as to equip them with skills they will need to formulate research questions and carry out research in this field. Through practical exercises, we will focus on planning a research, doing fieldwork and interviewing. We will also consider certain analytical dimensions of research and writing, especially from the perspective of studies of nationalism and minority issues.

 

 

Course Requirements

 

Grades will be calculated as follows:

 

                                Class participation and attendance                            10%

                                Research plan assignment                                         10%

                                Interview guide assignment                                         20%

                                Field notes and observation assignment                     20%

                                Final presentation of research plan                             20%

                                Final essay: qualitative methods statement                 20%

 

Course assessment

 

Research plan assignment: Individually or in groups of 2-3, formulate a research question, make it clear what is it you want to research and why? How do you go about finding the answers? Choose a method and find a research site. Explain why these fit adequately to your research question and conditions. Please, bring a hard copy of your research plan to the class (Week 3) where you have to present it. The assignment is to turn in:

 

1.       research topic (title)

2.       research question (should be problem oriented, formulated in analytic terms)

3.       short literature background (2 items and not longer than one large paragraph) showing the analytic terminology and the applied methodology in the field, including some previous research findings

4.       research sites

5.       methods to applied

 

Field notes and observation assignment: Individually or in groups of 2-4, agree on a place and the topic (ex. a space of activity, a ritual, or public event) for ethnographic observation which should be related to your research question. Each group member should spend at least twice 2 hours conducting observation in the agreed-upon place(s). Record your observations as fieldnotes typed up as soon as possible afterwards. Whether you take notes or make jottings during the research will depend on the circumstances. The observation and fieldnotes assignment is individual. Bring a hard copy of your fieldnotes to the class on Week 5 where you will present it. The assignment is to turn in: 1. your field notes, strictly descriptive (no analysis and not opinion) presenting the actors participating in the situation, their interactions, the circumstances and what did actually happen (min 1,5 page (3000 characters) - max 2 pages 4000 character); and 2. a short analytical reflection.

 

Interview guide assignment: Individually or in groups of 2-4, create an interview guide for a semi-structured or focus-group interview about a topic related to your research question agreed upon by the whole group (if this is the case). Bring a hard copy of your interview guide to the class on Week 5 where you will present it.

 

Final presentation of your research plan: this is an oral presentation of the research plan in Week 5, which can be collective if the research was conducted in group. Please use power point presentations and pictures if you have. Start with your research questions, methods and sites, continue with your interview guide, present your preliminary field work and observations and finally refine your research questions.

 

Final Essay – Methods statement. This is a written presentation (5-6 pages, 10.000-12.000 characters) with references to our class readings and discussions and using your previous works done for this seminar (research plan, interview guide, fieldnotes).

 

1. Begin with a clear statement of the topic and an overarching research question. 2. Briefly give some background explanation of why is necessary to understand your question (including references to the literature in the field). 3. Then outline the methods and overall design of the project, explaining and justifying them according the state of the art. 4. Present the interview plan. 4. Reflect on your preliminary fieldwork. 5. Finally, point out the experienced limitations of your planed methodology and how you can revise your research plan to transcend these limitations.

Week 1                                

Introduction to qualitative methods. Qualitative investigation of nationalism and ethnicity

 

Topics

What are methods? What do they do for us?

What are qualitative methods?

Studying everyday nationhood and vernacular forms of neo-nationalism

Applying qualitative methods in nationalism studies

Studying ethnicity and ethnic identities with qualitative methods

 

Readings

Denzin, Norman and Yvonna S. Lincoln (2011): The Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Research and Part I: Locating the Field. In: Denzin, Norman and Yvonna S. Lincoln ed. Handbook of Qualitative Research. Sage, 1-26.

Schiff, Claire (2014): Introduction: Understanding the Salience of Ethnicity in the Educational Experiences of Minority Adolescences across Europe. And Margit, Feischmidt: Dampened Voices. A Comparative Look at Roma Adolescences’ Discourses of Being ‘Othered’ at School. Both In: Szalai, J. and Schiff, C. ed. Migrant, Roma and Post-Colonial Youth in Education across Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, 1-15 and 120-135.

Recommended readings

Fox, Jon and Miller-Idriss, Cynthia “Everyday Nationhood”. Ethnicities, 2008, 8 (4), 536-582

Week 2                

Research question and research structure

 

Topics

What is it you want to research? Why? Why does it matter?

Research questions originating from everyday experiences

Literature review. Refine your research question in analytical terms

How do you go about finding the answers?

Choosing and mixing methods

Choosing your field and research subjects

 

Example: Research plan

 

Assignment: research plan

Choose a topic (potential thesis topic) and formulate it into a research plan that indicates what you will study, what you want to find out, and what you want to understand or show through this inquiry. Indicate the methods and the analytic concepts to be applied.

Please bring the research plan (1,5-2 page, 3000-4000 characters) to the next class.

 

Readings:            

Hammersley, Martyn and Paul Atkinson (1983): Research design. Problems, cases and samples. In: Ibid: Ethnography: Principles and Practice. London, NY: Routledge 23-53.

Recommended readings

Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams “From Topics to Questions” and “From Questions to Problems.” (1993): In Ibid. The Craft of Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 29-63.

Week 3

Ethnographic methods                  

 

3.1. Discussion: students’ research plans

Assignment:

Please, bring with you and be prepared to read it out your research plan.

 

 

3.2. Entering the field and doing ethnographic research

 

Topics

How to select research settings and cases?

How can you find the informants?

How to establish relationships?

Stages of participant observation (entering the field and doing participative research)

How to deal with personal attachments?

What anthropologists do with fieldnotes? Professional and personal uses and meanings of fieldnotes

Writing up fieldnotes. Concepts and styles in writing fieldnotes

Organizing descriptions based on fieldnotes

 

Readings:            

Schensul, Stephen (1999): Entering the field. In: Schensul, Stephen et al ed. Essential Ethnographic Methods. Seven Oaks Innovation. CA: Altamira Press, 69-89

Bernhard, R. Participant observation. (2006): Ch 7 in Bernhard R. Research Methods in Anthropology. Oxford: Altamira Press, 136-164.

Recommended readings

Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz and Linda L. Shaw (1995): “Fieldnotes in Ethnographic Research” and “In the Field: Participating, Observing, and Jotting Notes,” In: Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995): 1-38.

 

Assignment: Field notes and ethnographic observation

Choose a field where you can do participant observation (min. two times in the field). Make a description of the observed event, interactions etc. based on your fieldnotes (max. 2 pages, 4000 characters) and bring your ethnographic description to the last class. (Week 5)

Week 4

Interview methods: Unstructured, semi-structured individual interviews. Focus group interviews

 

Topics

Structure, setting, and the role of the interviewer

Interview types based on the research aim and degree of control

Oral history, narrative interview

Semi-structured individual interview

How to stimulate the interviewee to produce more information?

Interview guide examples: semi-structured and structured individual interview

Interview guide example and exercise (In the class make a draft of your interview guide wording, order, and content of questions)

 

Readings:

Bernard, R (2006): Unstructured and semi-structured interviewing. In Bernard R. Research Methods in Anthropology. Oxford: Altamira Press, 208-236

Recommended readings

Briggs, Charles (1983) Learning how to Ask. Cambridge: CUP. Chapter 5 93-111.

Holstein, James and Jaber Gubrium (1997) Active Interviewing. In: Silverman, David (ed.) Qualitative research: theory, method, and practice. London, Sage 113-129

Morgan, David L. (1997) Focus group as qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

 

Examples

Semi-structured individual and focus group interview guides

 

Assignment: interview guide

Please prepare and bring your interview guides to the next last class. (Week 5)

Week 5

Presentations and Writing

 

Presentation of the students’ participant observation based field notes and interview guides

 

Assignment:

Please prepare and bring a power point presentation including:

- your individual or collective revised research plan,

- your individual or collective interview guide

- your individual field notes

Week 6

Writing: ethnography and the argumentative empirical study

 

Topics

Creative reading, creative writing

Writing up: making arguments flow from the data

Interpretation, pre-existing theories and assumptions

 

Readings:            

Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz and Linda L. Shaw (1995): Writing an Ethnography. In: Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995): 166-210.

Recommended readings

Hammersley, Martyn and Paul Atkinson (1983): The Process of Analysis. In: Ibid: Ethnography: Principles and Practice. London: Routledge 23-53.

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