Qualitative Research Methods & Design
In 2007, I established and managed the Applied Research Unit (ARU) with the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS) Sri Lanka to deliver high quality applied research for project design and evaluation. Examples of our mixed-methods approach are on the "about me" page. Later, I worked as the Senior Research and Evaluation Manager for Landesa (Seattle, WA). After I joined Clark and through mid 2018, I served as a qualitative methods consultant at the Cloudburst Consulting Group in Landover, MD. At Cloudburst, I designed interview and focus group discussion protocols for USAID projects as part of 'third-party' impact evaluations. Thereafter, I analyzed the data and report it out to the donor and in-country implementing partners. The theory and practice of methods are integral to my teaching in general and for this course in particular, as well as how we can use qualitative methods in the context of international development projects and programming.
I teach qualitative research methods at the undergraduate (ID 132) and graduate level (IDCE 30291).
Course Description: How do we construct knowledge? How do we ask questions of the world in order to create knowledge about the world around us? These questions, both philosophical and theoretical ones, have practical consequences for how we design research and thereafter present new knowledge to the world. This course on qualitative inquiry focuses on the interpretivist paradigm and the qualitative research design process and associated data collection methods addressing both theoretical and practical dimensions of conducting qualitative research. Particular epistemological positions and theoretical orientations guide our data collection decisions. Furthermore, data collection processes are interwoven with analysis and the two often occur simultaneously. I assume that most students enrolled in this course have a desire to acquire the knowledge and methodological skills that are part of qualitative research methods for application within your academic program and/or a future career in community or international development. I design this course with some flexibility so that you will be able to develop a research question and subsequent research design that suits your own academic and professional needs.
I use the following texts in this course:
Marshall and Rossman. 2016. Designing Qualitative Research. 6th ed. Thousand Oaks and London: Sage Publications.
Patton, M.Q. 2002. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks and London: Sage Publications.