The Journey of PhD Students’ Learning Qualitative Research
Location
DeSantis Room 3029
Format Type
Plenary
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
16-1-2020 1:45 PM
End Date
16-1-2020 2:05 PM
Abstract
This presentation aimed to share experiences of five PhD students as they learn the qualitative research designs, creating interview protocols, practicing observations and semi-structured interviews and coding qualitative data manually and/or using MAXQDA. We will share our self-reflexive process focusing on the following questions: What did we learn from qualitative research courses? What opportunities in these courses were or were not helpful in learning how to conduct qualitative research? How is it different to code qualitative data manually and in MAXQDA? We will particularly share the course activities done collaboratively and our take-aways from these activities. We will also share our contemplation about which learning opportunities might help graduate students learn qualitative research both theoretically and practically. The courses we enrolled allowed us to learn that a qualitative study is as systematic as quantitative research. However, we could not fully comprehend how to decide the most appropriate method for a particular qualitative study. We also believe that most graduate students need to practice all stages of qualitative research to become more capable of doing qualitative research. During our courses, we had a chance to experience some steps of data collection and analyses processes such as observation, interviewing, transcribing, and coding because it was not possible to practice each in one course. With this reflective presentation, we hope to share our needs, challenges and suggestions as graduate students and so contribute to the second theme of the TQR 11th Annual Conference.
Keywords
qualitative research experiences, PhD students
The Journey of PhD Students’ Learning Qualitative Research
DeSantis Room 3029
This presentation aimed to share experiences of five PhD students as they learn the qualitative research designs, creating interview protocols, practicing observations and semi-structured interviews and coding qualitative data manually and/or using MAXQDA. We will share our self-reflexive process focusing on the following questions: What did we learn from qualitative research courses? What opportunities in these courses were or were not helpful in learning how to conduct qualitative research? How is it different to code qualitative data manually and in MAXQDA? We will particularly share the course activities done collaboratively and our take-aways from these activities. We will also share our contemplation about which learning opportunities might help graduate students learn qualitative research both theoretically and practically. The courses we enrolled allowed us to learn that a qualitative study is as systematic as quantitative research. However, we could not fully comprehend how to decide the most appropriate method for a particular qualitative study. We also believe that most graduate students need to practice all stages of qualitative research to become more capable of doing qualitative research. During our courses, we had a chance to experience some steps of data collection and analyses processes such as observation, interviewing, transcribing, and coding because it was not possible to practice each in one course. With this reflective presentation, we hope to share our needs, challenges and suggestions as graduate students and so contribute to the second theme of the TQR 11th Annual Conference.