This course provides an introduction to qualitative inquiry or research and is designed for graduate students who have an interest or intend to do a qualitative study (for their dissertations/a journal article/simply for experimental purposes prior to tackling one of those academic products).

The central goal of this course is to enable students to create and critique methodologically sophisticated qualitative research designs in the social sciences. To accomplish this, the class will explore techniques, uses, strengths, and limitations of qualitative research methods.

Meanwhile, the class will also emphasize the relationships among different data collection methods, data analysis techniques, and contemporary debates in the philosophy of qualitative research. Students will be asked not only to think about writing as they interrogate the class readings but also to “do” writing that makes intelligible the underlying assumptions of the labor. In addition, students are expected to come to class prepared to engage the issues raised in the readings.

課程目標包含:
(1)界定質性研究起源、本質、哲理基礎與其範疇; 
(2)闡述質性研究設計原則與五種取徑的質性研究; 
(3)瞭解各質性研究設計對應的資料蒐集方法與技巧; 
(4)熟悉質性研究資料分析方法與型態; 
(5)介紹質性研究結果的詮釋與呈現。