Admission requirements
This course is obligatory for students of the MSc Governance of Sustainability.
Description
Sustainability issues often involve complex social dynamics. The exploration of these dynamics can reveal why, for instance, certain governance arrangements work while others do not, or how historical context impacts sustainability transition. Qualitative research methods allow scholars and policy makers to gain a deeper understanding of these dynamics. Using these research methods, we can zoom in on the social interactions, problem perceptions, policy processes, preference formation, or processes of empowerment that are so crucial in sustainability transition.
The goal of this course is to help students develop research skills in qualitative methods. While this course cannot be exhaustive, it aims to prepare students for the qualitative methods that they are most likely to use during the Sustainability Challenge course (3rd semester of Governance of Sustainability programme), and the Thesis Research project. The selected methods are also commonly used by policy makers and consultants.
Students will be guided through the research process, from the initial idea, problematization and the formulation of research questions, to the data collection techniques, such as interviewing, and focus groups, and the analysis of qualitative data. The course will cover several qualitative techniques. During the course, students will reflect on several steps of this research process, bearing in mind the singularities of qualitative research. They will also be encouraged to put themselves in the shoes of a researcher using qualitative methodology through several practical exercises and assignments.
Course objectives
After completing this course, students will be able to:
Critically evaluate various qualitative research methods and their advantages and disadvantages.
Develop a comparative case study research proposal to answer a qualitative research question detailing research design and data collection methods.
Assess when and what kind of qualitative data collection method is appropriate.
Conduct a mini-research project by performing different types of qualitative data collection techniques and reflect on its methodological rigor.
Design a qualitative data analysis strategy and reflect on its methodological rigor.
Critically reflect on the research methods employed in a qualitative research and suggest an improvement strategy.
Timetable
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
The course follows an interactive lecture approach, combining classic lectures with working groups.
The lectures will cover the main points of the readings. Lectures will also be oriented to practice: students will be encouraged to actively engage in the examples and small exercises.
During working groups, practical exercises will be carried out, in which active participation of the student is required.
Each session ends with self/group study time, where students are expected to spend time preparing the gradable activities and studying the readings and additional materials.
Please keep in mind that certain assessments will be based on the reflection of what happens during the working groups.
Bear in mind that the order of each day session is subject to change from session to session.
Assessment method
All assignments are compulsory and need to be completed to pass the course. There are three short group-based assignments and one individual assignment:
Assignment 1 (group-based): 20%
Assignment 2 (group-based): 20%
Assignment 3 (group-based): 20%
Assignment 4 (individual): 40%
Important: The students are free to make their own groups.
The weighted average of the grades for the group-based assignments needs to be 5.5 or higher to pass the course. The grade for the individual assignment also needs to be 5.5 or higher to pass the course. It is not possible to compensate between individual and group-based assignments. It is possible to compensate grades within the group-based assignments.
Retake policy
In case the grade for the individual assignment is lower than 5.5 there will be an opportunity to retake the assignment before the summer break. Please see MyTimetable and Brightspace page for more information.
In case the average grade for the group assignments is lower than 5.5 there will be an additional assignment. Please see MyTimetable and Brightspace for more information.
In case the retakes do not amount to at least 5.5 grade for the individual assignment or the group assignments, students can request the Board of Examiners to take their partial grades to the next academic year.
Reading list
Every session will have a list of assigned readings. It is advised that students go through each of them prior to the sessions to get the most out of the lectures. A reading list will be available on Brightspace at the beginning of the course, specifying the mandatory readings for each session.
Please keep in mind that all assignments require an embedding in the readings assigned for this course.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
Course Coordinators: Dr. Julián Villodre de Costa and Dr. Elena Bondarouk
Remarks
Other students than MSc Governance of Sustainability that are interested in following this course need to contact the study advisors of the programme via studyadvisor-gofs@cml.leidenuniv.nl
Brightspace
A Brightspace page for this course will be made available one week prior to the start of the course. On this website, you can find the online modules, readings and assignments. Brightspace will be used for course communication, the distribution of additional course information and for the submission of assignments.
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.