Writing Your (Reflective and Reflexive) Methodology (2024)

Welcome to Writing Toyu (Reflective and Reflexive) Methodology 2024

Please be aware, the course is reserved mainly for participants from AAU, and external applicants will only be admitted if there are available seats in the course.

Description:

This PhD course focuses on writing your methodology chapter in a manner that is thorough, transparent, reflective, and reflexive and is intended for students using qualitative, applied, field-based, and/or action-oriented approaches. Moreover, this course takes a problem-based approach and aims to meet students’ needs in addition to covering essential elements of writing a methodology chapter (or sections in your synthesis).

Although there are courses oriented toward learning about qualitative methods and planning/crafting one’s (intended) research design, this course starts where these leave off: what to do about ‘writing up’ and explaining the considerations, choices, modes of analysis, and how you position yourself within your research.

Prerequisites:

Students should be enrolled in PhD program and at a point where they are writing their methodology (or at least a portion of it) and reflecting on what transpired in the field/during data collection. The course targets students whose PhD has not quite gone according to plan and must address a level of ‘messiness’ increasingly associated with social research and qualitative, mixed methods, field research. 

Students doing qualitative or mixed method research are especially welcome in this course

Learning objectives:

1. Reflect on own methodology from conceptualization to actualization
2. Understand what makes for a ‘good’ methodology chapter for your discipline/epistemological approach
3. Recognize differences in methodological ‘standards’ for quantitative versus qualitative research (including mixed methods variations)
4. Improve writing on methods and methodology in terms of transparency, positionality, and other considerations relevant to your approach

Teaching methods:

This course will run in a workshop style and orient toward the problems/challenges facing enrolled students in writing up their methodology chapters/sections. There will be some introductory lectures and discussions based on course readings, but we will focus on ‘writing up’ and thus students will be expected to provide drafts for peer review and critique from the instructor and course participants.

Course plan/design:

1st encounter (3-4 October 2024): 2 days of lectures/discussion/exercises and getting to know one another and the methodological challenges to be addressed.

1 month interim (October 2024): time for writing your draft, exchanging drafts, and preparing for the workshop

2nd encounter (6-7 November 2024): 2 days of methodology workshop

Post course (±1 month deadline): complete peer review

Criteria for assessment:

Active participation in the course including brief presentation of ‘methodology challenge you wish to tackle’; high-quality, peer review completed; submitted draft of methodology chapter/section after workshop, submitted by TBA to kristen@plan.aau.dk

Organizer: Kristen Ounanian

Lecturers: Kristen Ounanian and Rikke Becker Jacobsen

ECTS: 4

Dates: 03, 04 October and 06, 07 November 2024

Place: Fredrik Bajers vej 7c, Room 2-209

7 November: Fredrik Bajers vej 7c, Room 3-204

Zip code: 9000

City: Aalborg

Number of seats: 12

Deadline: 12 Spetember 2024


Important information concerning PhD courses: We have over some time experienced problems with no-show for both project and general courses. It has now reached a point where we are forced to take action. Therefore, the Doctoral School has decided to introduce a no-show fee of DKK 3.000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start. This can hopefully also provide new students a chance to register for courses during the year. We look forward to your registrations.