MSc Research Methods with Planning and Environmental Management

This unit engages critically with the generation, recuperation, and analysis of empirical data. Students will consider a range of qualitative tactics ranging from interviews, focus group interviews, visual methods and fieldwork observation. The focus on the unit is on learning to choose appropriate methods of qualitative analysis in keeping with the research question and wider researcher design, and then on how to conduct such analyses. The unit will also introduce students to NVivo as a platform for data management and will encourage thinking critically about the role of the researcher in the analytic process. The unit has a strong practical emphasis and enables the student to appreciate challenges and affordances of working with secondary datasets and of Open access processes.

Develop students’ familiarity with qualitative research strategies and approaches, and to provide practical experience of qualitative analysis, including the use of qualitative analysis tools and techniques and reporting in written form on this qualitative analysis

The content of this unit includes an overview of the following topics:

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  An overview of a range of approaches to qualitative data collection and approaches to qualitative analysis.
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  The relationship between the type of interview, the research question, its data and choice of analytic approach.
• Practice in applying different qualitative analysis approaches to data.
• A brief introduction to using NVivo to manage a qualitative data-based project.
• An awareness of uses and challenges of using AI in qualitative analysis.
• An understanding of ways to enhance quality in qualitative research.
• An appreciation of researcher reflexivity, co-construction of meaning-making, and various ways of reportage, including use of visualisations.
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This unit will involve a variety of lessons and learning methods such as interactive lectures, exposition, reflective group work, tutorials, as well as online forums and independent learning resources. This means that there are synchronous and asynchronous elements of the unit.

Throughout the unit students will engage in practical tasks before, during and after the sessions. The pre-task is an individual activity such as a reading, watching a video, working through some specially prepared independent learning resources and/or trying out an analytical approach, which is then purposefully shared during the session). The after-task involves further individual work in which students are provided with a range of resources that can be engaged with to gain greater depth on the topic of the in-person session.  

The in-person lecture sessions build on the pre-tasks set, so that there is a degree of flipped-learning in-built to the pedagogy of the unit, although the in-person sessions provide additional content input alongside a chance to reflect and consolidate. The unit also draws on SEED PGR research training provisions, particularly using some of the recorded lectures to give further context (either as part of the pre-task or after task activities) to the main unit sessions as agreed in the programme approval process.

Small group online tutorials are also provided to help support students with addressing their questions and to help guide them through the analysis tasks.

This is supported outside of formal lectures or tutorials by individual email feedback and support in various forms such as in-person or online meetings, or online forum.
 

• Identify appropriate methods of qualitative data collection and analysis to align with a researchable question and epistemological standpoint.
• synthesise relevant literature on qualitative data generation and analysis and use it to support their understandings of their own analysis as they engage with secondary research data.
• Identify their own researcher reflexivity, drawing on both lived experiences and key concepts from the literature.

• consider and examine the range of dimensions involved in producing a credible qualitative research analysis and how these can influence the decision-making process.

• produce an analysis of a secondary data set.
• Critically reflect on the process of analysis used to answer a research question.
• use appropriate analytical tools and/or techniques to manage a qualitative project
   

• interpret different kinds of texts, distinguish the relationships between different key concepts and apply such concepts to their own research studies.

Core books

Kvale, S. (2007) Doing interviews [electronic resource] . Los Angeles, [Calif.] ;; London :, SAGE.

Ritchie, J. and Lewis, E. (2003) (Eds.) Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers. SAGE Publications.

Willig, C. (2022) Introducing qualitative research in psychology . Fourth edition. London : Open University Press.

Qualitative Analysis Books & Chapters
Ellis, C., Bochner, A., Denzin, N., Lincoln, Y., Morse, J., Pelias, R. & Richardson, L. (2008) Talking and Thinking About Qualitative Research. Qualitative inquiry. 14 (2), 254–284. doi:10.1177/1077800407311959.

Denzin, N.K. Lincoln, Y.S., Giardina, M.D. & Cannella G.S. (eds.) (2024) The SAGE handbook of qualitative research . Sixth edition. Thousand Oaks, California :, SAGE Publications Inc.

Content Analysis

Elo, S., Kääriäinen, M., Kanste, O., Pölkki, T., Utriainen, K. & Kyngäs, H. (2014) Qualitative Content Analysis: A Focus on Trustworthiness. SAGE open. 4 (1), 215824401452263-. doi:10.1177/2158244014522633.

Hsieh, H.-F. & Shannon, S.E. (2005) Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis. Qualitative health research. 15 (9), 1277–1288. doi:10.1177/1049732305276687.

Nagar, K. (2021b) Representation of women managers in hospitality and tourism: a content analysis of related magazine articles. Gender in management. 36 (3), 329–348. doi:10.1108/GM-10-2019-0180.