Working with large amounts of qualitative data (Online) (join a waiting list)
Date:
22/11/2023 - 24/11/2023
Organised by:
University of Leeds
Presenter:
Dr Emma Davidson, Prof Rosalind Edwards, Prof Lynn Jamieson, Dr Susie Weller
Level:
Intermediate (some prior knowledge)
Contact:
Marie Johnson
0113 343 4407
m.b.johnson@leeds.ac.uk
Venue: Online
Description:
Join us for an exciting and flexible online course that will develop your knowledge and skills for working with qualitative data at scale: ‘big qual’. Discover cutting-edge analytic methods with applications across archival research, social media research, secondary analytic practice and other research arenas in which large amounts of diverse qualitative data, including longitudinal, are brought together and analysed.
This course amounts to around 7 hours study over a 3-day period. It is tailored so that you can dip-in-and-out of resources and activities, self-directing your study to fit in with your work and life commitments. Live online sessions are also scheduled once a day with the course tutors for tailored support.
Gain guided experience of the unique four-step Breadth and Depth Method to enable you to combine extensive coverage with intensive illumination, moving between the span of big qual analysis and the detail of qualitative engagement.
In this course you will:
• gain hands-on experience of accessing, searching, obtaining and organising large amounts of qualitative data;
• practice identifying and exploring datasets using contextual metadata;
• learn how to undertake preliminary exploration across the breadth of big qual using basic text analysis software;
• acquire an understanding of using analytic software to identify points of interest and select cases to follow up;
• learn about and undertake in-depth analysis of selected cases to deal with context, complexity and detail; and
• understand the iterative relationship between extensive and intensive explorations enabled by the Breadth-and-Depth Method.
The course is suitable for early career as well as more experienced researchers. The course is accessible for researchers with quantitative, as well as those with qualitative skills, but you will need to be familiar with the purpose and process of qualitative research.
The course covers:
• hands-on experience of accessing, searching, obtaining and organising large amounts of qualitative data;
• practice identifying and exploring datasets using contextual metadata;
• learn how to undertake preliminary exploration across the breadth of big qual using basic text analysis software;
• acquire an understanding of using analytic software to identify points of interest and select cases to follow up;
• learn about and undertake in-depth analysis of selected cases to deal with context, complexity and detail; and
• understand the iterative relationship between extensive and intensive explorations enabled by the Breadth-and-Depth Method.
By the end of the course participants will:
• Have hands-on experience of accessing, searching, obtaining and organising large amounts of qualitative data;
• Know how to identify and explore datasets using contextual metadata;
• Have an understanding of text analysis and how to apply it to qualitative data
• Have knowledge and understanding of the Breadth-and-Depth Method, and how to apply it.
IMPORTANT: Please note that this course includes computer workshops. Before registering please check that you will be able to access the software noted below. Please bear in mind minimum system requirements to run software and administration restrictions imposed by your institution or employer with may block the installation of software.
Participants will be asked to download Antconc – this is free, open source software. No prior experience is needed and participants will be provided with full instructions on downloading and using the software in advance.
Pre-requisites:
Familiarity with qualitative research
We will use the free open source software, Antconc, but no prior experience is required.
Target audience: The course is suitable for early career as well as more experienced researchers. The course is accessible for researchers with quantitative, as well as those with qualitative skills, but you will need to be familiar with the purpose and process of qualitative research.
Emma Davidson, Lecturer in Social Policy and Qualitative Methods, Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh, UK. (e.c.davidson@ed.ac.uk)
Emma Davidson (she/her) is a sociologist with a background in qualitative policy analysis, research and teaching. A director of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, she is passionate about sharing expertise in qualitative research methods through teaching and knowledge exchange. Emma’s substantive research is concerned with the relationship between macro socio-economic structures and the subjective, micro-personal. She draws on qualitative methods, typically ethnographic approaches, that help understand people and their lives from their own vantage points. Areas of research include evaluating the impact of book-sharing; analysing the impact of interventions to address multiple needs homelessness; young people’s experiences of antisocial behaviour policy; the role of informal support in the care system; and interrogating evidence on the benefits of ACE-informed (Adverse Childhood Experiences) policy. Most recently, Emma has been leading research funded by the Leverhulme Trust on the everyday social world of the public library and the challenges faced under austerity. Emma’s work has been published in Social Policy & Society, Social Policy Review, Scottish Affairs, Social Inclusion, Sociological Research Online and Quality and Quantity.
Rosalind Edwards, Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Southampton, UK; ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, UK. (R.S.Edwards@soton.ac.uk)
Rosalind Edwards (she/her) has researched and published widely on qualitative longitudinal research methods, and is a founding editor of the International Journal of Social Research Methodology. Her relevant publications include Understanding families over time: research and policy and Researching Families and Communities: Social and Generational Change. Rosalind’s research interests are centred on how to think about and conceptualise family lives; how best to conduct studies into family lives and what goes on in people’s family lives and the ideas and assumptions shaping family policies. She takes a critical sociological approach coupled with feminist relational perspectives to address and understand theory, methods and substance, and is especially in how these are shaped by gender, social class, race/ethnicity and generation, within geographical, political and historical contexts.
Lynn Jamieson, Professor of Sociology of Families and Relationships, Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh, UK. (l.jamieson@ed.ac.uk)
Lynn Jamieson (she/her) is a Professor of the Sociology of Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh. She is known for her research on intimacy, identity and social change and has researched a wide range of topics within the field of families and relationships. Her current research interests include the theoretical significance of people living alone and the power of families and relationships to influence responses to climate change and issues of sustainability. Her portfolio of research also includes work on European identity and on gender violence. Lynn was the President of the British Sociological Association and is co-editor of the Palgrave Macmillan series, Families and Intimate Life and Associate Editor of the Policy Press journal, Families Relationships and Societies. She is a founding-co-director of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR), a consortium centre established in 2001 to grow capacity for research on families and relationships in Scotland, acting as a hub of a network of knowledge exchange and international collaborations. Her publications include Intimacy: Personal Relationships in Modern Societies (Polity 1997) and Researching Families and Relationships: Reflections on Process (co-edited with Caroline King, Zhong Eric Chen and Dr Roona Simpson Palgrave Macmillan 2011).
Susie Weller, Senior Research Fellow, Clinical Ethics, Law and Society, University of Oxford, and Centre of Personalised Medicine, St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, UK; Clinical Ethics, Law and Society, University of Southampton, UK; ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, UK. (susie.weller@well.ox.ac.uk)
Susie Weller (she/her) has 20 years’ experience of conducting research with children, youth, and families. She has been PI, Co-I, or senior researcher on a range of qualitative longitudinal studies examining connections between individual experiences and wider social processes. Throughout her career, she has worked at the interface between theoretical advances in youth and family research, and applied research that has policy and practice relevance. Much of this work has been in interdisciplinary teams straddling the social and biomedical sciences. Susie has (co)authored over 75 papers published in peer-reviewed journals, books and working papers including in: The Lancet, Social Science and Medicine, Journal of Medical Ethics, BMC Public Health, Qualitative Research, Sociological Research Online, and the International Journal of Social Research Methodology. She is a keen methodologist with expertise in qualitative longitudinal research, creative and participatory approaches, archiving and the ethical re-use of data. With colleagues, she pioneered the breadth-and-depth method of analysis and co-founded the Big Qual Analysis Resource Hub (http://bigqlr.ncrm.ac.uk/). She has collaborated with cultural industries (Mass Observation 2022, BBC 2017, 2009, British Library 2017, V&A Museum of Childhood 2009); policymakers (Prime Minister's Strategy Unit; Ministry of Justice; DEFRA); practitioners (health, education); and charities (London Play, 2003-09, Steps-Worldwide, DDH-UK 2015-19).
Cost:
The fee per teaching day is £30 per day for registered students / £60 per day for staff at academic institutions, Research Councils researchers, public sector staff, staff at registered charity organisations and recognised research institutions / £100 per day for all other participants. In the event of cancellation by the delegate a full refund of the course fee is available up to two weeks prior to the course. No refunds are available after this date. If it is no longer possible to run a course due to circumstances beyond its control, NCRM reserves the right to cancel the course at its sole discretion at any time prior to the event. In this event every effort will be made to reschedule the course. If this is not possible or the new date is inconvenient a full refund of the course fee will be given. NCRM shall not be liable for any costs, losses or expenses that may be incurred as a result of the cancellation of a course. The University of Southampton’s Online Store T&Cs also continue to apply.
Website and registration:
Region:
Yorkshire and Humberside
Keywords:
Qualitative Data Handling and Data Analysis, Secondary qualitative data analysis, Qualitative data analysis, Big qual, Qualitative archives
Related publications and presentations:
Qualitative Data Handling and Data Analysis