Program Overview

Qualitative Research Certification

Program Overview

The Qualitative Research Certification is a Graduate Academic Certificate (G.A.C.) offered by the Research, Measurement, and Statistics specialization. This program prepares individuals to teach qualitative research courses in higher education institutions (when accompanied by a Ph.D.) or accept a qualitative research position in the private industry.

Program Details

• Format: On Campus
• Estimated Time to Complete: 2-3 semesters
• Credit Hours: 18

Program Description

This program is designed for potential and practicing researcher scholars, both within and outside of the academy, who are or foresee being in a position to engage in qualitative research practices in education, policy, business, evaluation, intervention work, and more. The Qualitative Research Graduate Academic Certificate is listed on a student’s official transcript. All six of the certificate courses can also be used in various Master’s and doctoral degree plans, should a student decide to pursue a graduate degree along with the certificate.

Program Highlights

• Gain deep expertise in qualitative inquiry.
• Engage in a range of qualitative and mixed-method research examples and nimbly apply a broad range of theoretical and conceptual frameworks.
• Courses blend theory and application, contributing to a comprehensive grounding in qualitative inquiry.

Program Courses

• Research Methodologies as Contexts for Learning (3 hrs)
  • Explores multiple approaches to analysis of learning contexts and the iterative qualitative exploration of data that supports the learning of researchers and the iterative design of learning environments.
• Action Research and Evaluation (3 hrs)
  • Focuses on action research and evaluation for practitioners with emphasis on qualitative and mixed methods approaches.
• Design-Based & Participatory Research Methods (3 hrs)
  • Provides an overview of design-based research (DBR) observational methods, participatory action research (PAR), community-based research (CBR), and social design experiments (SDEs).
• Research Methods in Education (3 hrs)
  • Introduction to quantitative (survey, experimental design, correlation, causal-comparative, evaluation) and qualitative (case study, observation, action, participant-observation, historical, ethnograph, phenomenology) research methods used in conducting educational research.
• Qualitative Research in Education (3 hrs)
  • Focus on the knowledge and skill necessary for naturalistic research; observation, interviewing and other data collection procedures, as well as data retrieval, analysis techniques and reporting procedures.
• Qualitative Data Analysis in Education (3 hrs)
  • Data collection, analysis and interpretation using qualitative methodology such as participant observation and interviewing for data gathering; constant comparative/grounded theory and modified analytic induction for data analysis.