Resources for teachers and supervisors
This page is a selection of some of our resources that may be of particular interest to you if you teach qualitative and/or mixed methods, or supervise PhD students using qualitative and/or mixed methods in their study.
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Using method "X"
Sometimes you will just need a resource based on a particular method or methodological approach, either as further reading, a starting point for a discussion or in the planning stages of a PhD project. A lot of our toolkits are used in this way, and some of our working papers. See the full list of titles on our toolkits and working papers pages, or start with these topics:
- Blog analysis
- Email interviews
- Music elicitation
- Walking interviews
- Participatory maps
- Participant-produced video
Resources from the coal face of qualitative social research
The following resources will be especially useful for PhD students using qualitative data. These are practical resources which also touch on methodological issues.
- Transcribing your own qualitative data toolkit
- popular with students because there are lots of time-saving tips and sensible advice on planning and doing your transcribing;
- popular with supervisors because it includes a spreadsheet for working out just how long in hours, days or weeks it will take to transcribe all the interviews.
- Anonymising data working paper - deals with the ethics and practicalities of anonymising research data.
- Door knocking to recruit participants toolkit - also includes sample documents such as a leaflet introducing the project for prospective participants.
Writing with data
A particularly tricky part of any project, but these resources might be useful:
- Disciplined writing: On the problem of writing sociologically - working paper about using qualitative data to tell compelling 'stories' in your writing
- The Emotional Challenges of Writing - video clip discussing why academic writing is so hard!
Mixed methods
Methodological reasons for mixing methods, and how this affects the process and output of your research.
- Six strategies for mixing methods and linking data in social science research - working paper outlining six approaches for mixing methods and how they can be useful
- Combining data, enhancing explanation - working paper
- What to do with contradictory data? - toolkit, useful for PhD students using mixed methods who find that their data is not agreeing with itself!
Visual methods
- Researching with visual images: Some guidance notes and a glossary for beginners working paper - just what the title says, a good starting point
- Visual Research Ethics at the Crossroads - a look at ethics in visual methods
- Informed consent in visual research toolkit - deals with negotiating consent to use visual data (in this case, family photographs