Application deadline

Type of course

Admission requirements

To take PhD courses you need at a minimum a master¿s degree or equivalent, or admission to a Medical Student Research Program.

For information about how to apply for admission, go to:

http://uit.no/helsefak/forskning/phd/emner

Recommended prerequisites:

Basic competence in qualitative research, either through former master studies in social sciences, the course HEL-8011, or equivalent courses, are recommended.

Course content

Objectives of the course

Knowledge:

At the end of this course, students should

• have knowledge and competencies necessary to plan and perform complex qualitative study designs;
• have knowledge about the aspects necessary to see a study through to completion;
• have knowledge about the value of being able to critically appraise qualitative journal articles towards an in-depth literature review - either within a thesis or as part of empirical research;
• have knowledge about how to facilitate data collection and analysis, different sampling strategies and recruitment techniques, and
• have knowledge about how to deliver and disseminate findings to best effect.

Skills:

At the end of this course, students ought to be able

• to consider the most appropriate methods for asking and answering complex research questions;
• to apply traditional and new methods to collect and analyse qualitative data;
• to distinguish between various qualitative methods, for example, to identify the difference between structured, semi-structured and open-ended interviews, and their concomitant schedules, and
• to distinguish qualitative analytic applications and their appropriateness for different datasets, including mixed datasets, and
• to work on qualitative research studies towards publishable findings.

Competence:

By the end of the course, students are expected

• to be well-versed in the qualitative literature related to qualitative research skills, theoretical approaches to methodology and qualitative methods
• understand the critical literature on method development and advances in qualitative methodologies
• to be able to conduct and critically appraise textual as well as visual data, including Focus Groups and interviews
• be able to work with complex qualitative research issues at all stages from designing to publishing

Language of instruction and examination

Teaching methods

Assessment

Work requirements
Compulsory participation in a 5-days seminar

Examination and assessment
An individually written home assignment (essay) over two weeks on a given topic (2-3000 words). Language: English. Evaluated with passed/not passed.

Continuation exam will be given early in the following semester. Application deadline for continuation exam is January 15th.

Recommended reading/syllabus

The following 300 pages are compulsory curriculum:

Interviews

King N. and Horrocks C. 2010 Interviews in Qualitative Research, Sage, London, UK. Pages 42-61.

The concept of theme as used in qualitative nursing research, DeSantis L., Ugarriza DN., Western Journal of Nursing Research, 2000, 22(3), 351-372.

The preparation and analysis of qualitative interview data, May C., Rae B., Webb C., Research and Development in Clinical Nursing Practice, 1998, ISBN 9780470699270, 59-83

Focus Groups

The use of focus group methodology ¿ with selected examples from sexual health research, Robinson N., Journal of Advanced Nursing, 1999, 29(4), 905-913.

Qualitative research: reaching the parts other methods cannot reach: an introduction to qualitative methods in health and health services research, Pope C., Mays N., British Medical Journal, 1995, 311, 42-45.

The analysis of focus group data: a challenge to the rigour of qualitative research, Twinn S., Nursing Times Research, 2000, 3(2) 140-146.

Critically appraising the qualitative literature

In your skin you are different: women living with ovarian cancer during childbearing years.  Schaefer KM., Ladd EC., Lammers SE., Echenberg RJ., Qualitative Health Research, 1999, 9(2), 227-242.

Evaluating meta-ethnography: a synthesis of qualitative research on lay experiences of diabetes and diabetes care, Campbell R., Pounds P., Pope C., Britten N., Pill R., Morgan M., Donovan J., Social Science & Medicine, 2003, 56, 671-684.

Critically appraising qualitative research, Kuper A., Lingard L., Levinson W. British Medical Journal, 2008, 337, 687-692.

The problem of appraising qualitative research, Dixon-Woods M., Shaw RL., Agarwal S., Smith JA., Quality and Safety in Healthcare, 2004, 13, 223-225.

Grounded Theory

1967  Glaser B.G, Strauss A.L. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. Part I (First 15 pages).

2012  Urquart C.  Grounded Theory for Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. Pages 14-34.

Case Study Methodology

2003  Denzin NK and Lincoln YS.  Case Studies. Stake R. E., pp. 134-164. In: Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry. 2nd Edn. Eds. Sage Thousand Oaks CA.

2003  Yin R.K. and Campbell D.T.  Case Study Research: Designs and Methods. 3rd  Edn., Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Pages 3-27.

Participant Observation

2010 Watts, J. H. Ethical and practical challenges of participant observation in sensitive health research. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 14(4) pp. 301¿312.

2011K.M. DeWalt, B.R. DeWalt Participant Observation: A Guide for Fieldworkers. 2nd Edn., AltaMira Press, Plymouth, England.  Pages 41-66 (¿Doing Participant Observation¿)

2006 Platt J. The development of the ¿participant observation¿ method in sociology: Origin myth and history. J of the History of the Behavioural Sciences, 19(4), 379-393.

Narrative Methods

H. Porter Abbott The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative Methods, 2nd Edn. 2008, Cambridge University Press, chapter 7 and 9 (29 pages).

Arthur Frank. Letting Stories Breathe: A Socio-Narratology. 2010. University of Chicago Press, chapter 5 (33 pages).

Interpretive phenomenology

Description versus Interpretation: competing alternative strategies for qualitative research, Giorgi A., Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 1992, 23(2), 119-135.

Dwelling-mobility: an existential theory of well-being, Todres L., Galvin K., International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Health and Wellbeing, 2010, 5(3), 1-6.

`The individual in the world ¿ the world in the individual¿: Towards a human science phenomenology that includes the social world, Dahlberg K., The Indo-pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 2006, 6, 1-9.

Preparing for oral presentations and academic publications

2002  Beverley J., (pp. 319-336.) 2nd Edn. Denzin NK and Lincoln YS. Eds Testimonio, subalternity and narrative authority. In: Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry. Sage, Thousand Oaks CA.