Course Objectives: This course aims to:

• Familiarize participants with the process of conducting qualitative research.
• Develop participants’ knowledge and critical reflection on the strengths, values, ethics, and practical issues of conducting qualitative research.
• Enhance participants’ understanding of theoretical, ontological, epistemological, and empirical issues related to qualitative research.
• Teach participants how to apply the main methods of qualitative data collection.
• Teach participants how to conduct thematic data analysis.
• Teach participants how to present qualitative data.

Course Outcomes: At the end of the course, the participants should be able to:

•  Reflect critically on the process of conducting qualitative research, its strengths, and its limitations.
•  Know when and how to conduct qualitative research.
  
•  Understand diverse theoretical, ontological, epistemological, and empirical issues associated with qualitative research.
  
• Recognize different qualitative research methods of data collection and of data analysis.
• Know how to use the main qualitative research methods of data collection.
  
•  Know how to conduct thematic data analysis.
  
•  Know how to present qualitative data.
  

Training Strategies: The following training strategies will be adopted for this course:

• PowerPoint and whiteboard delivery.
•  Use of audiovisual materials (e.g., newspaper articles and videos)
• Real and simulated empirical studies.
• Interactive class activities.

Trainer Biography: Ana Cristina Marques is an adjunct researcher at the University of Kurdistan, Hewlêr. She gained a Ph.D. in Sociology from ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon, in 2014. She is currently doing an MSc in International Development at SOAS, University of London.  Her work has appeared in Symbolic Interaction, and Gender, Place & Culture. Her research interests include gender; family and personal lives; Kurdish studies; and qualitative methodology. She has been working in academia, as a lecturer and/or as a researcher, since 2007. She believes in a student-centered approach, in which students knowledge and needs are essential to the design of learning strategies and to successful learning outcomes. She is dedicated to the development and promotion of academic and practical skills for professional and personal purposes, as well as the students’ general well-being.

Certification: UKH Professional Executive and Education Centre.