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Group Projects

1. Hand out transcripts from two interviews from the same research study. Students will read both transcripts and determine emerging codes and themes. Students should generate a list of categories which is both mutually exclusive and exhaustive. Students will then break into groups and answer the following questions:
   1. Did everyone generate the same categories? Which categories did most individuals identify and which categories are unique to one or two students?
   2. What are the top 3 categories?
   3.  How much agreement exists among group members about which particular responses belong to which categories?
       
2. In groups of 3 or 4, students should choose a topic relevant to social work research that appeals to them. Students should then find a qualitative study that relates to this issue. Students should evaluate how this study helps them better understand the topic, as well as how it could be improved. What did the study not cover? Were the methods sound? What should be the researcher’s next steps?
    
3. Separate students into small groups and have each designate an exploratory research question (ask them to consider very broad social work topics, such as, social inequity, poverty, or gender roles).  Ask each group to find qualitative articles and quantitative articles on each topic (a minimum of one article of each type for each student in the group).  Note:  you may need to make sure that your library carries journals that have qualitative research, especially anthropology and ethnography journals.  Have each group review all of the articles found and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research on their topic specifically focusing on the data analysis section.
    
4. Have students in small groups go into public spaces, such as university libraries, cafeterias, or parking lots. Have them spread out and try to appear as inconspicuous as possible. Have them collect as much thick information on their surroundings as possible. Then have them come together and discuss their impressions of their environment as well as that of the actors present in the environment. Have them each try to vocalize as much of their tacit knowledge as possible. Use this information to help them design a research study that incorporates all localized complexity.

Mini Projects

1. Understanding the Values and Limitations of Informants

1. As social workers, students will work substantially with individuals in all types of settings. It is therefore important for them to have practice gathering information from people while also being aware of this information’s limitations.
2. For this exercise, students should set up in a public space, such as a coffees shop, a library, or a bus station.
3. When appropriate, student should strike up a conversation with a passerby.
4. Students should explain their motivations to this passerby (doing research for a class, working on a project, et al) and ask if they can interview them.
5. During this interview, students should take notes on the subject matter, but also on how the interview subject conveys this information.
6. After the interview, students should summarize the information gained from this interview. Students should also respond to the following questions:
   
   1. How credible was the informant?
   2. Were the statements made in response to the researcher’s questions or were they spontaneous?
7. In conclusion, students should summarize how they perceive the legitimacy of their interview subject.
    

2. Write an Email to a Potential Consulting Client 
Imagine you have the ability to vie for an account to do some research for a client. You are supposed to send the client a write up of all of your potential research skills. Given that most researchers competing for this job are only capable of doing quantitative analysis, you choose to discuss your qualitative skills primarily.

In three paragraphs, explain to your client (who is not stupid but is also not a qualitative analysis buff) how you can use at least 3 different qualitative analysis or alternative thematic techniques to help them solve any research question they might have.

Make sure to use professional language and anticipate the needs and questions of your client. Win the contract!

3. A Simple Card Trick (Waite, 2011)

1. Give each student a used deck of cards (if you use a new deck, shuffle the cards).
2. Ask students to think of the cards, all mixed up as they were, as their data set. They will need to sort their data.
3. Ask students to sort their cards. Once everyone has done this first sort, take note of the way they have sorted their cards and ask them to now sort their decks a different way.
4. Some students will group all the cards with the same numerical value together. Some group them according to the value they have in the person’s favorite game.
5. Now, ask students why they sorted the deck the way they did the first time. Chances are their answer will be, “Well, that’s the way the cards go.”
6. Ask them “Why is that the way they go?” chances are they’ll be at a loss for an explanation.
7. What this ordering according to the generally assumed common sense notion shows is what Maggie LeCompte (2000) terms the application of tacit theory to data analysis:
8. In the first sort they are applying tacit theories to their data. Chances are, after the second, different sorting, students can explain why they sorted their deck of cards as they did.
9. This illustrates what LeCompte (2000) refers to as the application of explicit theory or theories to qualitative data analysis.