Material on qualitative designs addresses focus groups interviews, key informant interviews, participant observation, unobtrusive observation, text and content analysis, and the use of archival and historical data. Special attention is given to ethical and political issues in the conduct of research. Students undertake independent significant and methodologically rigorous research involving design, implementation, analysis and dissemination of a research project. The substantive areas include health, mental health or substance abuse. School of Social Welfare faculty, affiliated faculty members from the Health Sciences Center and the University social science departments, and principal investigators in community research projects serve as preceptors.
Students spend ten hours each week for two semesters in a practicum setting.
Students have a supervised hands on, practical experience with an ongoing research project. Typical activities include data analysis, interpretation of results, research report writing, subject recruitment and screening, instrument development or data collection. The primary objective is to strengthen students ability to synthesize various phases and components of social research. A focus is on articulating linkages among the research questions, the data gathered to address these questions, the techniques selected for manipulating and analyzing the data, and the interpretation of findings. Students are encouraged to pursue publication stemming from the practicum.