Qualitative Research in Health Sciences: Foundations

In this course, you learn how to:

• Understand the philosophical and methodological foundations of qualitative research in health sciences.
• Reflect on own research’s philosophical foundations in relation to those underlying qualitative research.
• Formulate a research question (to be addressed with a qualitative study) for your own research project (appropriate to a specific research question, context, and epistemological position).
• Select and justify appropriate qualitative data generation methods (e.g., interviews, focus groups, participatory or arts-based approaches).
• Critically reflect on one’s own positionality, theoretical assumptions, and role in inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations.

A mix of teaching methods: plenary lectures, group work, plenary reflection, peer-feedback, case discussions. 

Study Load

• Course: 14 hours.
  > Two days of physical attendance from 9.00 - 12.30 and 13.15 - 16.45 with focus on what qualitative research is, key concepts, epistemological positions, qualitative role in health sciences, ethics, reflexivity, designing studies, and selecting approaches (interviews, FGDs, participatory, arts-based, mixed).
• Preparation BEFORE the start of the course: 
  > Maximum of 28 pages (4 hours) reading material.
  > Online MOOC developed by the University of Amsterdam on Qualitative Methods; https://www.coursera.org/learn/qualitative-methods. This course is 30 hours, and participants need to start at least 1 month in advance of the course to be able to complete it in time.

We will provide additional material, for those interested in a deep dive in certain topics.  

Group Size

12 - 24

Number of credits

1.5 EC

Trainer

The coordinator of this course has extensive experience in qualitative methods. Astrid Janssens of the Julius Center is trained as a psychologist and anthropologist and has conducted and supervised many projects using qualitative research methods. She has also contributed to the methodological development of qualitative methods (interviews, group-interviews, auto-ethnography). 

All lecturers on the course are experienced lecturers and conduct and supervise mixed methods and or qualitative research. Their PURE profile offers insight in their particular expertise and illustrative examples how they applied qualitative and mixed-methods in their research. 

Course certificate

You will receive a course certificate after actively participating in all course sessions.

We are happy to offer courses for free to all GSLS PhD candidates. However: free of charge does not mean free of responsibility. Once you have signed up for a course, we expect you to attend. For every late cancellation or no-show we have had to disappoint others who would have liked to attend. This is our policy:

• You may cancel free of charge up to 4 weeks before the start of the course. After this date you can only cancel if you have a GSLS PhD candidate to replace you in the course. Send the name and contact information of your replacement to pcc@uu.nl, at least 2 working days before the start of the course;
• We expect that you actively attend the full course, but at least 80%. It is mandatory to attend the first session. If you are absent the first session you cannot follow the remaining of the course. If the course is an E-learning, you have to complete all modules;
• Not meeting the above requirements means you will be charged a no-show fee (€ 120,-) We will send the invoice after the course has ended. We are unable to make any exceptions, unless you have a valid reason (i.e., illness or death in the family 1st/2nd degree or partner). Your supervisor has to send an e-mail to pcc@uu.nl indicating the reason.