Qualitative Health Research

3.0 credits

Qualitative health research involves understanding issues and problems from the point of view of those most directly affected. The focus is on interpretation: how do people construct and maintain meaning? An analysis of qualitative data generates highly contextualized accounts of people's ideas and actions that can then be used to inform assessments, programs, policies, and evaluations. Several "strategies of inquiry" (ethnographic, life history, case study and grounded theory) and a variety of data collection tools (participant-observation, key informant interviews, focus groups, and narrative analysis) will be covered. Students will complete weekly exercises and work on teams conducting qualitative inquiry into a public health issue. This learning process will prepare students to write qualitative research proposals, collect and analyze data, and generate reports.