EDEM 690: Schedule and Readings

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Week by Week Overview

Week
Topic
Due at start of class
1
Getting Started about me
2
Orienting yourself with theory
3
Interviewing
4
Qualitative coding research memo I
5
Discourse analysis find five papers related to your research topic proposal
6
Descriptive stats & questionnaire design
structured critique I (qual, picked by me)
7
Using stats to differentiate groups structured critique II (qual, picks by you)
8
Correlation and bias
optional: resubmission of structured critique II

Reading week
10
Regression
research memo II
11
Canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic

12
Canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic
13
Autoethnography structured critique III (quant, picked by me)
14
Everything else! optional: make-up for structured critique I
16

final research proposal due





Week 1: Getting Started

Before class:

  1. Read: Three short articles about reading:
    1. Kyle M Shannon on Medium: Guide to Reading Academic Papers
    2. How to Read (and Understand) a Social Science Journal Article
    3. Elisabeth Pain on Science: How to (seriously) read a scientific paper
  2. Watch: the YouTube videos on this playlist for week 1 (~20 mins)
  3. Selectively Read: Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1994). Competing paradigms in qualitative research. Handbook of qualitative research, 2(163-194), 105.
  4. Set up: Slack and set your notifications
  5. Fill in: The Get-to-Know-You questionnaire (it's pinned in the #homework channel of the Slack)

In class:




Week 2: Theoretical Orientations

Note: last class before add/drop

Before class:
  1. Watch: these YouTube videos to articulate the difference between sociological thinking and liberal thinking:
  2. Thoroughly Read: Willis, Karen, Jeanne Daly, Michelle Kealy, Rhonda Small, Glenda Koutroulis, Julie Green, Lisa Gibbs, and Samantha Thomas. "The essential role of social theory in qualitative public health research." Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 31, no. 5 (2007): 438-443.
  3. Selectively Read: Marquardt, M., & Waddill, D. (2004). The power of learning in action learning: a conceptual analysis of how the five schools of adult learning theories are incorporated within the practice of action learning. Action learning: Research and practice, 1(2), 185-202.
  4. Selectively Read as supplements to Marquart & Waddill:
In class this week:

Week 3: Interviewing

Before class:

  1. Properly Read:
    1. Leech, B. L. (2002). Asking questions: Techniques for semistructured interviews. PS: Political Science & Politics, 35(4), 665-668.
    2. Mini-reference: The Ethnographic Interview
    3. Spear on Medium: Note-taking for beginners: a brief guide on taking notes in user interviews
  2. Watch: videos about interviewing, finding literature, and using a reference manager
  3. Set up: If you don't already use a reference manager (e.g. Zotero, Mendeley, BibTeX): Install Zotero (or another reference manager of your choice)
  4. Draft: a one page "reference sheet" of the material we've covered in the first two weeks, to help reinforce the concepts we've seen so far. It can be a concept map, a visual diagram of how different paradigms/theories relate, point-form, etc --- whatever is most useful to you. Be prepared to share it with your classmates.

In class:


Week 4: Thematic & Content Analysis

Before class:

In class:


Week 5: Discourse Analysis

Last class before the withdrawal deadline

Before class:
In class

Week 6: Descriptive Stats & Questionnaire Design

Due: structured critique I

In class: 


Week 7: Comparing Groups

Due:  structured critique II

In class:


Week 8: Correlation & Bias

Due: optional resubmission of structured critique II

In class:




Reading week



Week 10: Regression

Due: research memo II

In class:


Week 11: Canceled Due to Covid-19

Week 12: Canceled Due to Covid-19


Week 13: Autoethnography

 Due: structured critique III (extension: hand in by end of day) - DM a pdf to me on Slack

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the rest of term will be conducted online. You'll be assigned groups for you to arrange videoconferencing with at a time of your convenience with worksheets to discuss, including debriefing SC3.

Videos for this week are posted on Slack, there are four of them:
  1. Review (sorry for the poor audio quality!!!)
  2. Relating the news on Covid to topics from this course
  3. A little introduction to STS
  4. Autoethnography, ethnography, and discussing Wall & Fincher et al

You are to watch the videos (can be on your own or with your group), then submit a worksheet by 5:30pm Thursday:

Once all students have handed in SC3 I'll post a video debriefing SC3. I'll also post a video debriefing the Park & Wilmes paper once your worksheets have been submitted.

Week 14: Action Research And Other Things

Optionally due: make-up for structured critique I

Like last week, I'll be posting videos on Slack for you to watch (on your own or with your group). You'll have a worksheet to do with your group (same as last week), due 5:30pm Thursday.

Videos:

  1. Review of last week part 1, includes discussion of the Zingaro paper
  2. Review of last week part 2, includes discussion of the Park & Wilmes paper
  3. Talking about the final project
  4. Closing notes

Links:




Readings I considered but then removed

Optional: LaTeX for the humanities

Reference Manager Software: What Is It and What Can It Do?
How to Capture and Cite Sources with Zotero
Altmann: Observational Study of Behaviour: Sampling Methods

Some more background on action research:

https://academic.oup.com/her/article/18/3/363/592295