BER 631 | Qualitative Inquiry 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. |
BER 632 | Qualitative Inquiry 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. |
BER 633 | Qualitative Inquiry 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. |
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. |
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. |
BER 687 | Field Experience | This course offers one-on-one work with a select faculty member to design, implement, and write a research project resulting in a manuscript of publishable quality. 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. |
BER 690 | Readings in Educational Research | This course considers and critically examines contemporary dialogues and debates in qualitative inquiry. For spring 2017, the course centered (and decentered) around the notion of post- qualitative and new materialism work. The readings engaged students with the various theories, perspectives, criticisms, and arguments associated with post- qualitative inquiry. The aim was not to reach consensus, rather to grapple with the layers and complexities of post- qualitative inquiry in the current qualitative landscape. |