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Course Descriptions (organized by date):

TWO-DAY COURSES

EVERYDAY ETHNOGRAPHY
August 9-10 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Elijah Anderson

This course provides knowledge and insight into the ethnographic method. The ethnographic approach to social research involves substantive and methodological issues. Anderson’s classic work, A Place on the Corner and the more recent Code of the Street are used as examples to describe, analyze and explain the process of selecting a social setting, 'getting in,' writing field notes, 'making sense,' and representing ethnographic research. The course will consist of lectures in a seminar-style/workshop format. Participants are encouraged to bring their own work for commentary and assistance.

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WRITING RITES FOR QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
August 9-10 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Kathy Charmaz

Qualitative analysis continues throughout the writing process. Learn to increase the originality and incisiveness of your writing. This class focuses on writing qualitative research for professional audiences. We address strategies for completing books, finishing dissertations, and preparing manuscripts for journal submission. The class introduces a step-by step approach to writing that makes it manageable and enjoyable. You will gain tips about writing well and surmounting writing blocks. The sessions cover writing for discovering ideas and revising for specific audiences. Think about dusting off that unfinished manuscript in your bottom desk drawer and revising it for publication. The writing rites from this class provide a foundation for building skills and advancing your ideas. Topics include:

• Getting started
• Learning tricks of the writer’s trade
• Crafting elegant prose
• Editing your work
• Choosing journals
• Engaging your audience
• Framing theory
• Presenting your analysis
• Integrating references
• Obtaining constructive critiques
• Submitting your manuscript
• Working with editors and reviewers

Our class schedule includes several writing exercises as well as discussion of techniques and problems. If you prefer to write on a laptop, then bring one. Plan to bring a short piece (5-7 pages) of writing you are working on and one short piece (3-5 pages) you are willing to share. Use the sessions to advance your current research project, if you have one. If not, bring excerpts from an earlier book review, proposal, report or essay. Together we can re-form writing hurdles into joyous, cooperative pursuits.

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QUALITATIVE DATA COLLECTION
August 9-10 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Alison Hamilton

This two-day course focuses on the practical aspects of qualitative data collection. How do you get fieldwork, interviews and focus groups done?
We will focus on strategies to maintain paramount attention to four critical aspects of the qualitative data collection process:

1. Topic – What is the overall point of the data collection? How does the data collection flow and movement assist the researcher in achieving project goals? How can you ensure that data collection topics do not direct attention away from project goals? Or, how do you know when that is a good thing?
   
2. Audience – Where will your fieldwork take place? Who will you work with and/or observe? Who are your interview or focus group participants? How does knowledge of the participant inform question format, questioning approach and observation strategies?
   
3. Questioning – What do you ask participants? How is a discussion managed? How do you create and manage a fieldwork protocol? Our focus will be on the tension between attention to the plans for your qualitative data collection episode vs. attention to the developing discussion and flow of the episode.
   
4. Adjusting – When and why can and/or do you make adjustments while in the act of data collection? How do you track and understand the meaning these changes have on the project?

Course participants will provide summary information on projects before the session and will be asked to actively engage with and share their own examples. The main goal of this course is to leave participants with a sense of where to direct attention for successful qualitative data collection.

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SORT AND SIFT, THINK AND SHIFT – MULTIDIMENSIONAL QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
August 9-10 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Ray Maietta

Sort and Sift, Think and Shift is a multidimensional qualitative analysis method that utilizes aspects of several major qualitative analysis traditions in conjunction with the functionality of qualitative data analysis software in order to generate a thorough treatment of data. Though different in many respects, Grounded Theory, Case Study, Phenomenology, and Ethnography all emphasize careful and conscious review of data. Each offers techniques to define categories that run across a data set and each pays attention to context. Qualitative software can facilitate these approaches by helping researchers to review qualitative data, recognize and record observations, organize these observations and access them in dynamic ways. Software coalesces with the core techniques of these major qualitative methods, thereby inviting researchers to carve out their own analytical path that takes advantage of the strengths of each resource.

The Sort and Sift approach, built from core elements of the traditions and software features mentioned here, is non-linear and is not step-by-step. Fluid movement between the “diving in” and “stepping back” phases of the method drives next steps and opens opportunities for criticism of an unfolding analysis. Decisions for maintaining or changing direction in an analysis can and should yield substantive conclusions. Careful memoing that is grounded in the content of data solidifies this process.

Participants in this session will apply the Sort and Sift technique to real data by hand. Software will be presented in seminar format and its role in this process will be debated and explored.

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LARGE-SCALE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
August 9-10 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Debra Skinner

With the emergence of “Big Science”, funding agencies are increasingly promoting large-scale, interdisciplinary, and mixed methods research. Both public and private funders recognize that complex questions (e.g., poverty, health disparities, the “achievement gap”) require complex studies that incorporate diverse perspectives and methodologies. This two-day course will prepare participants to conceptualize, design, and conduct large-scale qualitative studies. We will use examples of completed large-scale studies and work through ideas for potential large-scale studies to discuss what conceptual and logistical features are necessary for successful implementation. Specific topics to be covered in discussion and interactive formats include:

• Overview of the types of questions and research being done using large-scale qualitative research
  
• Important decisions to make in large-scale design—issues of integration with quantitative components
  
• What going large-scale means for research methods, team building, and project management and communication
  
• How going large-scale requires more attention to incorporating diverse perspectives and disciplines, team ethics, and building consistency across multiple sites and researchers
  
• Choosing software for large-scale projects
  
• The data journey—collecting, reflecting, transferring, analysis from a distance
  
• Innovations to assist in large-scale data analysis and management
  
• Different models for reporting findings and/or integrating with quantitative findings and challenges to this (e.g., timing, journal politics).

Participants are encouraged (but not required) to come to this workshop with an idea for a large-scale study that can be developed over the two day period. At the end of the course, participants should have a solid overview of the components of large-scale qualitative research, challenges of conducting this kind of research, and solutions to those challenges.

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INTRODUCTION TO GROUNDED THEORY: A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST APPROACH
August 12-13 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Kathy Charmaz

This class introduces grounded theory methods from a social constructionist approach to new and experienced qualitative researchers. You will gain practical guidelines for handling data analysis, a deeper understanding of the logic of grounded theory, and strategies for increasing the theoretical power and reach of your work. I treat grounded theory as a set of flexible guidelines to adopt, alter, and fit particular research problems, not to apply mechanically. With these guidelines, you expedite and systematize your research. Moreover, using grounded theory sparks fresh ideas about your data. The sessions cover an overview of basic guidelines and hands-on exercises. I offer ideas about data gathering and recording to help you obtain nuanced, rich data. We discuss relationships between qualitative coding, developing analytic categories and generating theory and attend to specific grounded theory strategies of coding, memo-writing, theoretical sampling, and using comparative methods. You will receive guided practice in using each analytic step of the grounded theory method.

If you have collected some qualitative data, do bring a completed interview, set of fieldnotes, or document to analyze. If you do not have data yet, we will supply qualitative data for you. If you prefer to use a laptop for writing, bring one, but you can complete the exercises without a computer. Before concluding the class, I suggest how you can develop your analysis while writing the research report.

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MIXED METHODS RESEARCH: DESIGNS AND PROCEDURES
August 12-13 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - John Creswell

This seminar will focus on major research designs in mixed methods research. Mixed methods research is the collection, analysis and mixing of both qualitative and quantitative research in a single study or a multi-phase investigation. The core concept in the seminar will be the identification and use of several distinct mixed methods designs. Activities and discussions will address a definition of these designs, the criteria used in selecting a design, and how the choice of a design influences many aspects of the process of research, including the data collection, data analysis, and research report writing. This seminar will be a hands-on experience and participants will review published studies and design their own mixed methods projects. Individuals are encouraged to bring to the workshop a project idea that involves the collection of both qualitative (e.g., open-ended interviews, observations, use of documents, etc.) and quantitative (e.g., close-ended survey instruments, observational checklists, or census data) data.

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WRITING AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AND NARRATIVE IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
August 12-13 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Carolyn Ellis

This session will include assistance in writing narrative and autoethnography as stand-alone research articles or as an integral part of grounded theory and interpretive qualitative research projects. Those taking the workshop will concentrate on writing personal narratives and reflexively including themselves and their interaction with research participants in their research.

We will work continuously on improving your written work. Thus, you should bring with you 5-10 pages of material (if available) from any qualitative project–including ethnography, interviews, focus groups, autoethnography, or other. This may be work that already is written narratively and/or autoethnographically, or that would benefit from developing scenes, characters, conversation, and dramatic action, and/or from including the experiences of the "I" of the researcher. Handouts will be provided.

If possible, please purchase and be familiar with The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography by Carolyn Ellis, AltaMira Press (altamirapress.com), 2004.

Day one will focus on personal narrative writing

• contextualizing autoethnography and narrative writing within qualitative research
• including the self in research
• personal narratives, short stories, poetry, performance, and arts-based autoethnography
• reflexive, interactive, and co-constructed interviews
• developing scenes, characters, conversation, and dramatic action
• writing vulnerably and evocatively
• writing exercises

Day two will focus on writing as inquiry

• issues of truth and memory
• ethical issues in autoethnographic research and writing
• writing to discover, understand, analyze, and reframe experience
• evaluatingand publishing autoethnography
• writing exercises
• individual writing instruction

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NARRATIVE INQUIRY: LIVING AND WRITING THE STORY WITH POETRY AND DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
August 12-13 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Valerie Janesick

The purpose of this session is to acquaint learners with the long tradition of narrative inquiry, including but not limited to: oral history, life history, autoethnography, personal narrative, journal writing and narrative writing as a research strategy. The art of writing the story will be a primary focus of the two-day workshop and members will practice writing during that time. The theoretical frames of phenomenology and interpretive interactionism will be two lenses to view our work. We will concentrate on past and present story making. The history and traditions of narrative inquiry will be addressed. Since all narrative in the end depends on social purpose, the qualitative researcher may use the tools of the narrative researcher to deconstruct the meaning of key participants by using the oral tradition and various written chronicles. During these two days, members will participate in learning modules which cover: multiple definitions of narrative approaches to inquiry, techniques including the long interview, reviewing documents and photography and video, and the use of technology to document the story. Technology will include digital photography, the video taped documentary, the audio tape and the use of competing approaches to photography. Members will practice interviews, autoethnographic writing vignettes, writing up key themes, and practice digital photography. Members are encouraged to bring digital cameras or any hand held camera of choice. By placing narrative inquiry in the context of qualitative research methods in the social sciences, the members of this workshop will be able to decide on the usefulness, importance and strength of narrative methodology. A bibliography of helpful resources including books, articles, websites and list- servs will be provided to members of the workshop.

Day One: Introduction to narrative inquiry, overview of approaches including theoretical frames, personal narrative writing and construction of interview protocols, co- constructed interviews, and writing exercises. Begin CONSTRUCTING found data poems, that is, constructing poetry from interview transcripts. Members should bring a digital camera or digital video camera and if possible a laptop computer.

Day Two: Cultural and ethical issues in narrative inquiry, writing to illuminate, evaluating the story, individual writng and critique in small groups, writing exercises, continue photography and found data poems.

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THE ANALYTIC BLACK HOLE: AVOIDING THE CODE-RETRIEVE TRAP IN QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
August 12-13 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Ray Maietta

Have you ever asked: “I’ve coded my data, now what?” If so, stop! This question signals a process that is usually oriented toward linear and predictable steps in data analysis where analysis plans are largely deductive and the analyst serves as a passive reader of text. Alternatively, active engagement with data requires a posture of learning from the unexpected and letting the pace and direction of an analysis approach grow and move as more data is reviewed. Decisions about analytic steps reflect substantive discovery. There are concrete exercises you can do to increase the likelihood of keeping a ‘nimble’ mind throughout your data review process. These exercises form the foundation of this course.

Participants in this course will be asked to submit material to shape each section of the course. Class exercises will build from the material participants submit. Each exercise represents an analysis module aimed at approaching data from multiple directions and using codes as one of several heuristic devices aimed at accessing both predicted and unpredicted information in the text of your data documents.

Exercise 1: Key Quotations

Episode profiles – how can you use key quotations from your data documents to shape dynamic pictures, in written and diagram form, of what you learn from these data collection episodes?

Exercise 2: Memo writing to develop stories and direct analytic tasks

Memos may provide core material that winds up in final presentations. Additionally, they allow you to think out loud, direct next steps and debate key issues. They also allow you to assess where you are at in your learning.

Key issues/topics for memo work are listed here:

Outloud thinking within memos
Points of curiosity that emerge during your work
Assessing: What do I know so far?
Assessing: Why important to the study?
Assessing: Reading your memos

Exercise 3: What is a code?

Codebook evolution is analytic discovery. Rather than just thinking of codes as topics for presentation we will examine examples of codes as tools that help us navigate through data. Don’t use a code unless it is useful to you.

Exercise 4: What winds up in a presentation?

This exercise may open our workshop. We will work backwards. Using examples from 2-3 participants, we will review short sections of favorite qualitative publications to discuss what preceded the writing. What has to happen to arrive at something publishable? Working with existing pieces is one of the best ways to answer this question.

Note: You are not required to submit any material before the course. You are also not expected to submit material for more than one section of the course. We will learn from multiple examples within each section and throughout the course. The exercises are organized in a way to invite new or experienced qualitative researchers, with or without their own data, to learn from each other. Rather than engaging with your own data throughout the course, you will work with a range of topics shaped by the work of your colleagues in our course.

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HALF-DAY COURSES

MOVING FROM CODES TO FINDINGS
August 11 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Leslie Curry

A vast body of methodological work conducted over decades has produced impressive innovation and advancement in qualitative research techniques. Recently, several important methodological papers have augmented seminal texts to provide guidance to researchers seeking to ensure the quality and rigor of their qualitative studies. However, translating this rich methodological literature into concrete action steps for generating meaningful, manageable findings results from qualitative studies can be challenging. This session will examine the data analysis and results generation phases of qualitative research, with the larger goal of improving the quality and accuracy of insights garnered from this increasingly popular method of scientific inquiry. Practical techniques for moving from the reams of open-ended, qualitative data to study findings suitable for publication in peer reviewed scientific journals will be presented.

Qualitative research can generate a variety of types of findings including, but not limited to, case reports, ethnographies, and oral histories. In this session, we address data analysis strategies for 3 distinct types of analytic output: taxonomy, themes, and conceptual models. Taxonomy is a formal system for classifying multifaceted, complex phenomena according to a set of common conceptual domains and dimensions. Themes are recurrent unifying concepts or statements about the subject of inquiry. A conceptual model represents a set of propositions or a set of hypotheses concerning the relationships between various determinants, mediating factors, and consequences of the phenomena of interest. The format will be highly interactive, with opportunity for discussion and review of illustrative examples from published papers.

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THE QUALITATIVE STORY: PROCESS AND PRODUCT
August 11 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTORS - Alison Hamilton

The word "story" is used liberally in qualitative data analysis, without much clarity as to what constitutes a story, how to get to a story, how to discern where a story "begins" and "ends," how to handle stories that don't agree, and how to tell a story (i.e., to turn the story into a product).

This course is founded on the premise that we do qualitative research, for the most part, because we believe that there are untold stories to tell about our topics of interest. We also believe that through the data analysis process, we can find and then "produce" stories, which represent some synthesis of what is typically a complex array of mini-stories.

One common stumbling block for those who are analyzing qualitative data is the movement from data to product, whether it be a dissertation, an article, a presentation, or a report. This course approaches this challenge by focusing on the process of making stories from qualitative data. Participants will be encouraged to think of "mining" their data in terms of actors (both individuals and groups), actions, attitudes and behaviors, turning points, "plot" dynamics, and patterns. Using these components, participants will work on developing stories, with careful attention to issues of audience and purpose. While the session draws concrete examples and exercises from qualitative datasets pertaining to drug use, health risk behaviors, health services, and mental health, the techniques demonstrated in this course aim to apply to qualitative data on any topic.

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BUILDING A CODEBOOK AND WRITING MEMOS
August 11 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Paul Mihas

This course focuses on coding and writing memos on qualitative data. Coding and memo writing are presented as simultaneous tasks that occur during an active review of interviews, focus groups, and multi-media data. Our discussion of codes is defined by codebook evolution and includes the following topics:

• Deductive, inductive, and thematic codes
• The importance of code names and definitions
• How many codes are too many?
• How do codes emerge and change?

The class will present memos as notes capturing out-loud thoughts and cumulative reactions to data. Memos can also be deep, involved reflections that resemble early writing for reports, articles, chapters, and other forms of presentation. The memo-writing discussion will include:

• Mining memos for codes
• Project description memos
• Thematic memos
• Data-reflection memos

Both codes and memos are discussed in the context of a qualitative research project that begins with data collection and moves through final presentation

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INTRODUCTION TO ATLAS.TI
August 11 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Patricia Pugliani

Learn how to introduce ATLAS.ti into your qualitative analysis style. Major tasks performed within the qualitative analysis process shape the session outline.

Areas of focus include:

• Data preparation
• Creation and management of analytical notes
• Discovery of emergent themes
• Options for inductive and deductive analysis strategies
• Exploration of question and answer facilities

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LONGITUDINAL QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
August 11 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Debra Skinner

Qualitative research that is conducted in the same sites or with the same research participants over a period of several weeks, months, or years may require somewhat different methodological and analysis approaches than a study based on one-time observations or interviews. This seminar will focus on why and how to do longitudinal qualitative research. Using an interactive format and concrete examples, we will discuss:

• What kinds of research questions are best answered with a longitudinal design
• What conceptual and methodological questions are raised by longitudinal studies
• How to adapt qualitative methods for longitudinal research
• How to manage, and analyze longitudinal data

At the end of the seminar, participants should have a good idea of the issues involved in longitudinal qualitative research and an overview of how to go about doing it.

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MIXED METHODS RESEARCH: DESIGNS AND PROCEDURES
August 14 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - John Creswell
Note: This is a compressed version of Dr. Creswell’s two-day course on August 12-13.

This seminar will focus on major research designs in mixed methods research. Mixed methods research is the collection, analysis and mixing of both qualitative and quantitative research in a single study or a multi-phase investigation. The core concept in the seminar will be the identification and use of several distinct mixed methods designs. Activities and discussions will address a definition of these designs, the criteria used in selecting a design, and how the choice of a design influences many aspects of the process of research, including the data collection, data analysis, and research report writing. This seminar will be a hands-on experience and participants will review published studies and design their own mixed methods projects. Individuals are encouraged to bring to the workshop a project idea that involves the collection of both qualitative (e.g., open-ended interviews, observations, use of documents, etc.) and quantitative (e.g., close-ended survey instruments, observational checklists, or census data) data.

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PERSONALIZING QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
August 14 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Carolyn Ellis

This workshop will give a brief introduction to using the “I” in qualitative research. We will focus on writing personal narratives and reflexively including ourselves and our interaction with research participants. This workshop will include writing exercises and instruction as well as a discussion of the value of writing narratively and the ethical issues that arise.

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STRETCHING EXERCISES FOR QUALITATIVE RESEARCHERS
August 14 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Valerie Janesick

In this hands-on workshop members will practice exercises designed to improve observation, interview, document analysis and researcher reflective journal skills. Bring a digital camera, or digital video camera, and a laptop for effective use of time. Enhance the repertoire of your qualitative research techniques with this enjoyable set of activities designed to find the qualitative researcher in YOU!

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BECOMING A QUALITATIVE RESEARCHER
August 14 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Ray Maietta

This interactive seminar focuses on core issues pertinent to your personal evolution as a qualitative researcher. Participants will be asked to submit brief stories of their own personal evolution as qualitative researchers. These stories will be used in building course content.

Anticipated topics of discussion include:

• Why become a qualitative researcher vs. why do qualitative research?
• Where are you on Seidel’s Heuristic Scale? Do you lean toward searching for every instance of everything in a quest for verifiable information, or are you more inclined toward using tricks and other learning devices as you engage with new material?
• How do you handle battles between the expected and unexpected?
• How do you gain qualitative skill?
• How do you become a story teller?
• Are you prepared to serve as your own worst critic AND your greatest advocate?

This course will help you assess where you are at in your journey as qualitative researcher and prepare you to set the course for the next stops along the way.

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THE OTHER SIDES OF CODING
August 14 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Paul Mihas

While debates about the merits of coding in qualitative analysis persist, the reality is that it is accepted practice in the field. With this point in mind, this course attempts to contextualize coding within a larger qualitative analysis process.

Working from points covered in his course "Building a Codebook and Writing Memos," Paul Mihas presents the process of establishing codes as analysis in itself. In this spirit coding is coupled with memo writing and carefully acknowledges powerful segments within qualitative text. By the time a codebook that combines inductive and deductive elements is constructed, a researcher can begin to unearth themes and stories to tell about the data.

The "sides" of coding are presented as synergistic. Each phase of analysis, such as early memo writing, informs other phases and works to build a more powerful story. We will first lay out the process of codebook evolution and proceed with techniques for analytical inquiry through codes. Though codes are sometimes presented as a tool for data reduction and straightforward reporting, we will look at opportunities for data expansion, that is, ways in which we can look dynamically across codes to assess links and identify codes that share meaning and suggest abstract, evocative themes. Patterns of how topics are experienced across a population might emerge at this stage of analysis. Connections between component parts of larger ideas become clarified. The ways in which participants experience a social situation or phenomenon of study present themselves as well.

Qualitative software, demonstrated in this course with ATLAS.ti and MAXQDA, can help a qualitative researcher move through coded data in ways that help reach the benefits outlined here. The second half of this course will introduce techniques to review codes in context through the use of software. Here context may mean within the context of a data document or within the context of a research question or emergent theme.

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INTRODUCTION TO MAXQDA
August 14 SCHOLAR INSTRUCTOR - Patricia Pugliani

Learn how to introduce MAXQDA 2007 into your qualitative analysis style. Major tasks performed within the qualitative analysis process shape the session outline.

Areas of focus include:

• Data preparation
• Creation and management of analytical notes
• Discovery of emergent themes
• Options for inductive and deductive analysis strategies
• Exploration of question and answer facilities

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