Comprehensive Introduction to Research Methodology and Design

About

This course aims to lay a solid, diverse and integrated foundation of knowledge and skills for conducting first-rate qualitative and quantitative research, and for embedding it in effective and feasible mixed-method research designs. At the end of this intensive course, students should have acquired a good understanding of the most important principles and practices of social science research. They should also be able to improve their knowledge and skills independently after the course, and thus pursue their substantive research interests without methodological hindrance.

The course starts with the presentation and discussion of the most important qualitative methods (participant observation as a key element of ethnographic research, the interview, and the focus group discussion), paying attention to their epistemological foundations and to their practical application in different disciplines such as anthropology, sociology or political science. In these sessions, issues related to the collection, analysis and presentation of qualitative data will be discussed, with a special emphasis on the semi-structured interview and on every step of qualitative text analysis. The course then focuses on the inferential possibilities and limitations of various case selection strategies, which will introduce students not only to a crucial issue of research design, but also to an essential topic in the vast domain of (comparative) case study research.

The quantitative component of the course introduces students to the statistical analysis of social science data. Topics include quantitative research design, descriptive statistics, and inferential statistics. In this part of the course, each session is paired, on the same day, with a lab session where students will become acquainted with the statistical software SPSS, while working with real-life survey data.

Finally, the course delves into the thorny issue of bridging the qualitative-quantitative divide, with a session on mixed-method research designs. Each of these three components of the course (qualitative, quantitative, research design) ends with its own practical assignment.

Course leader

Alex Voicu is a lecturer in the Political Science Department (Afdeling Politicologie) of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG), and is Academic Director of the Comprehensive Introduction to Research Methodology and Design. He has designed and taught courses on party politics, international relations, and social science methodology. His courses, workshops and guest lectures have had audiences from a variety of disciplines (political science, international relations, anthropology, sociology, human geography, development studies, medicine) and academic levels (BA, MA, Research Master, PhD). Alex received an honorable mention in the UvA Lecturer of the Year (Docent van Het Jaar) 2014 competition, recognizing his place among the top 5 lecturers in the faculty that year. His own research deals with political elite recruitment and its implications for democratic representation in Romania, Hungary and the UK.

Target group

Incoming UvA Master's students in the Graduate School of Social Sciences have priority (deadline 1st of June 2025), however each year we accept additional (UvA and non-UvA) candidates. All students (deadline 1st of May 2025) must have a Bachelor's degree (minimum). For external candidates, preference is given to current Master and PhD students.

Course aim

- understand the key notions and principles behind qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection and analysis; independently conduct qualitative research on a given topic using primarily self-generated interview data;

- independently conduct a short quantitative analysis on a given topic, using the SPSS software and real-life survey data;

- independently develop a short but sound mixed-method research design on a given topic, combining different case selection strategies in a meaningful and effective manner;
critically assess the value and validity of published research that uses a qualitative, quantitative or mixed-method design.

- critically assess the value and validity of published research that uses a qualitative, quantitative or mixed-method design.

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