Learn the fundamentals of writing and publishing your qualitative research work in a top-tier journal!
Dr Sarah Wijesinghe
Understanding social phenomenon is no easy task, and social science research, in general, allows us to get a closer look at the processes of human nature. Qualitative research, in particular, entails a world of research tools and techniques that venture into deeply explore people’s stories and lived experiences and the dynamic nature of what we call society. Indeed, qualitative research stresses on the nature of reality which is socially constructed and aims to provide answers to questions on how social experience is developed and given meanings. That means we believe in the unique and subjective nature of each perceptual reality. One could say that a qualitative researcher is someone who is fascinated with stories. After all, human beings are all storytellers.
However, as research in social science has predominantly guided by positivistic and quantitative research philosophies, especially in Asia, qualitative research methods had only recently gained momentum as an important addition to social research. Within the qualitative science itself, several moments have passed, underlined by varying paradigmatic traditions. As a beginner, traditionally trained within the positivistic traditions, it can be daunting to understand the dynamic nature of qualitative research, including its unique belief systems, ways of inquiry and analysis, and communication of findings. It is even more daunting to grasp the many particularities of writing such work. This course will help put these elements into perspective and give you the confidence needed in your writing and publishing journey. To help grasp the context of each aspect easily, I will bring my personal experiences in learning, experimenting, conducting, analyzing and writing various qualitative works.
In this course, you will be introduced to the fundamentals of writing a qualitative research paper. This includes a deeper understanding of the basic tenets of the qualitative research process, good practices, and how to put together a valuable output. You will be guided through on how to write an article based on qualitative research principles, including the specific flows of a qualitative literature review, methodology, results and discussions. While this course is not targeted at teaching the basics of qualitative research methodology, you will also be provided with an outline of dominant paradigmatic beliefs guiding qualitative research methodology, and its dynamic data collection and data analysis methods. Ideally, the participants of the course should have a basic idea of qualitative research before joining this course.
This course is aimed at anyone interested in qualitative research: writing and publishing. It may be of particular interest to people who are undertaking a qualitative research project related to their area of study.
Keep calm, and join me on this qualitative research journey.