NORS 601 - Research Methods and Sources in the North
Dr. Judith Kleinfield
Spring Meetings:
Mondays, Seminar 2:00 to 5:00.
This course is offered in an on-line and distance version.
Contact Information:
My office hours are: T and R 3:30 --5:00 or by appointment.
Purpose of this Course:
Professionally, you may need to write grant applications and research proposals. Personally and professionally, you need to know how to find research and how to spot junk science. As a citizen, you need to know how to duel when research is used as a weapon. As a human being, you are concerned with finding the truth and this is the noble, always unattainable, but still noble, goal of research. This course aims to teach you social research skills you can use. It’s a hands-on, nuts and bolts course.
Assignments:
Proposal (30% of grade)
Your major assignment is to write a research proposal, from soup to nuts. I will be handing out an example of a research proposal on
our third class meeting and taking you through the steps. You will have a choice of topics. Feel free to relate the proposal to your
thesis or a practical project, but remember: Historical research is not the same as social research. We are learning the skills of social
research.
Designing Interviews and Surveys (20% of grade)
You need to know how to do a professional survey. This exercise shows you how.
Doing Qualitative Research (20% of grade)
You need to know that research comes in the form of fascinating, literary descriptions, not only numbers and statistics. You will
have a choice of exercises, such as: Observing a trial; Analyzing an oral history; Doing a life history of a friend or relative;
Describing an internet community that won’t shock me too much.
Blackboard Course (10% of grade)
I will be posting discussion questions and asking you to respond. I will also ask you to put up your research questions on a
discussion forum for response. Let’s see how we can use this new technology.
Final Exam (20% of course)
Sorry, folks, but I find that even the virtuous don’t do the reading without an exam.
Texts and Materials:
After years of searching for the perfect text, I have been forced to accept life’s realities. Since “Northern Studies” is not a discipline like “psychology,” no one has written a text that is perfect for us.
For this reason, rather than asking you to purchase lots of books, we will use one basic textbook:
How It’s Done: An Invitation to Social Research, Emily Stier Adler and Roger Clark.
Much of your reading will focus on the literature review you need to do your own research proposal.
You will also find considerable material on-line through the Rasmuson Library’s well-developed on-line databases. You will e shown how to use these.
Course Schedule:
THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH
January 22: The Quantitative and the Qualitative Research Traditions Sure You Can Lie with Statistics But You Can Also Learn the Truth
January 29: How To Do a Review of the Research Literature Standing on the Shoulders of Giants and Midgets
February 5: The Research Proposal; Measurement The Bread and Butter and the Meat and Potatoes with Something For Vegans Too
THE QUANTITATIVE TRADITION
February 12: Interviewing Techniques
Gossiping with a Purpose
February 19: Designing a Survey:
We throw away most of them. Why should yours be any different?
February 26: Sampling:
How Do You Know if You’re Right On?
March 5: Data Analysis:
You’ve Got the Results. Now What The H ...(eck) Do You Do With Them?
March 12 SPRING BREAK THE QUALITATIVE TRADITION
March 19: Using Available Data and Content Analysis
Steal This Data---It’s There for the Taking!
Major Assignment Due: Design of Survey
March 26: How to Conduct a Focus Group
Figuring Out What People Know When They Don’t Know Themselves
April 2: The Ethnographic Eye
Seeing the Invisible
April 9: Fieldwork Techniques
Cooking It Up and Writing It Down
Major Assignment Due: Qualitative Research Experience
April 16: Research Ethics and Institutional Review Boards
Do Not Pass Go Without Touching Base!
April 23: Evaluation Research
Some think this is a contradiction in terms but it’s a way to earn your bread and butter.
April 30: The Politics of Research
It can be nasty but then you can be smart!
May 7: RESEARCH PROPOSALS DUE--FINAL EXAM
Yes, Virginia, There is a Final.
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