Introduction to Qualitative Methods (Ethnography) Summer School


Summer School

Aims

1) Understand what qualitative methods are and how they are different from quantitative methods; 2) Learn to design and implement a qualitative study; 3) Learn core qualitative skills such as interviewing, observing, coding and publishing. Ethnographic methods will be used as primary examples throughout the course.

Information

I. Qualitative Basics (overviews, “myths”, comparisons with other methods) & Introduction to Ethnography

II. Preparation Work (e.g., selecting context, research question, access)

III. Observing

IV. Interviewing

V. Coding

VI. Writing & Publishing (as time permits)

Assessment

Preparation and participation. 100% attendance is required. Students must also do various technique-building exercises as well as assigned readings for class.  

Materials

Spradley’s Ethnographic Interview & Participant Observation (selected chapters)  Specific readings:

  1. Pre-Course: Good, bad, ambivalent (Pratt)
  2. Pre-Course: Organizational ethnography (Rosen)
  3. Qualitative research in I-O psychology: Maps, myths and moving forward (Pratt & Bonaccio)
  4. Crafting and selecting research questions and contexts … (Pratt)
  5. Making descriptive observations (Spradley) 
  6. Interviewing an informant (Spradley)
  7. Fact of fiction in organizational ethnography (Van Maanen)
  8. Oval pegs (Pratt)
  9. Realist tales (Van Maanen)
  10. Post-Course: Designing for drift… (Pratt & Kim)
  11. Post-Course: For the lack of a boilerplate (Pratt)
  12. Post-Class: A researcher's toolkit for observational methods. In Oxford Encyclopedia of Business and Management. Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190224851.013.283 (Pratt & Sala)
     

Additional info

For the timetable of this course, please click here. The timetable is in the local time of Rotterdam, which is CEST (UTC+02:00).

This course is held fully online.

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Registration

ERIM PhD candidates (full-time and part-time): register directly via Osiris. Participation free of charge.

Non-ERIM PhD candidates: register via online form. The course fee 500 euro.

RSM/ESE faculty members with ERIM membership and PhD candidates at SIKS: register via online form. Participation free of charge.

Please note that the number of places for this course is limited. In case the number of registrations exceeds the number of available seats, priority is given to ERIM PhD candidates.

Please contact us at summerschool@erim.eur.nl if you have questions.