Prior graduate coursework in qualitative methods is required (e.g. SWK6307H)
Constructivist Grounded Theory Method and Phenomenology: From Design to Data Analyses
Offered Summer 2025
This advanced research methods course will delve into two major qualitative designs –constructivist grounded theory method and interpretive phenomenology. Students will learn key theoretical assumptions and methods of these two approaches to facilitate ethical engagement with vulnerable research participants on sensitive topics, while also working towards the highest standards of qualitative rigor. The course will provide students opportunities to familiarize themselves with the nuances of these methodologies, and implications for data generation and analysis. Textual data will be the units of analyses. Initial and focused coding as well as open, axial and selective coding will be taught as practiced in the grounded theory tradition. As well, how to conduct thematic analysis for phenomenological based data will be taught. Interpretive methods and trustworthiness will be covered as part of the research process. Further, hands on practice will be required for research interviewing and in using NVivo software. Students will be provided data for analyses or may use their own.
Critical Discourse & Narrative Approaches to Interpretive Policy Analysis
Offered in previous years
This methodology course will focus on critical discourse and narrative approaches to interpretive policy analysis. We will examine the contemporary debates in the area of interpretive research and ground these debates in relation feminist, post-colonial, and critical race methodologies. In particular, we will examine the ‘linguistic turn’ in social science and how theories of language complicate the research process. We will also explore the ‘cultural turn’ in social science which reflect debates of how human life is lived across multiple cultural contexts. And finally, we will address the ‘critical turn’, which engages how power and knowledge are embedded in the process of research. In addition, will discuss and practice common strategies to access and collect data (e.g., observation, interviewing, finding existing documents), methods of organizing and representing different forms/genres of data for analysis (e.g., transcripts, electronic texts, images, hand-written notes); and strategies to analyze and represent your analyses for different audiences.
This advanced graduate course seeks to support social work and health science doctoral students to develop appropriate research designs and research proposals for either their comprehensive paper or their doctoral dissertation research.