Qualitative designs and fieldwork activities

Course Description

The ever-changing research context has created a need for researchers to overcome the theory-practice gap in designing an applying qualitative research designs. Consequently, this course aims to unleash researchers’ competence in:

• designing qualitative research studies in the human, business, management, health and social sciences,
• applying various methods of data collection to ensure rich data, &
• doing research that is rigorous and ethical throughout the life cycle of a study.

Target Audience

The course is designed for postgraduate students and academic researchers who are working on scholarly journal articles or conducting research for a postgraduate degree. Both novice and more advanced researchers will benefit from the course.

Course Duration

The course is scheduled for 4 hours daily.

Importance of the Course

Research courses are frequently purely theoretical, giving students little chance to practice research skills and competencies in a practical setting. To overcome the theory-practice gap, course participants will be able to achieve the following learning outcomes:

• Explain the concept qualitative research
• Describe the philosophical underpinning of qualitative research
• Apply ethical principles to ensure responsible conduct of qualitative research, including eConsent
• Formulate a problem statement, research questions, aim and objectives to frame a qualitative study
• Understand the relevance of exploratory, descriptive and contextual research within a qualitative paradigm
• Compare key qualitative designs
• Demonstrate how to conduct qualitative one-on-one interviews, fieldnotes and focus groups
• Apply measures to ensure trustworthy qualitative research.

Course Facilitator

Dr Retha Visagie

Dr Retha Visagie is a Non-Executive Director and the Chairperson of the EthiXPERT Board of Directors. She co-founded the SARIMA Northern Regions Community of Practice for Research Ethics and Integrity and serves as co-chair of its Executive Committee. Retha established and has led the Research Integrity Office at the University of South Africa since it was first created in 2014.  She is an internationally recognised certified Vir2ue research integrity trainer and completed a course in Compliance Management at the university of Cape Town (Cum Laude). As a Fogarty Fellow, Retha completed a postgraduate diploma in Health Research Ethics (Cum Laude) in 2015 through the University of Stellenbosch.  She is the 2018 recipient of the DST/SARIMA Award for Professional Excellence in Research Management. Her research niche focuses on indigenous-centred research ethics and integrity scholarship. Since 2016, she has trained more than 2500 academics as a sought-after qualitative research facilitator and ethicist.