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Post-Positivist Theory Development With Qualitative Methods (March 12-16, and April 16-19, 2012)

Faculty
Professor Ojelanki Ngwenyama, Ryerson University, ojelanki@ryerson.ca
Course Coordinator
Associate Professor, Jacob Nørbjerg, ITM, jno.itm@cbs.dk
Prerequisite/progression of the course
The course is aimed at PhD students who have collected or are about to collect qualitative data. Prior knowledge of philosophy of science and research methods are required.
It is a precondition for receiving the course diploma that you attend the whole course.
Send a Personal Profile and Statement of Research Interests to the instructor two days before the course. You should reflect on the following question prior to writing your statement:
What is your interest in doing this course?
Read chapters, 1-6 and 27 of Book 3 (see literature list) before the first class. Readings for the rest of the course are listed in the schedule.
If possible, you should familiarize yourself with the basics of your qualitative analysis tool and import your research data into the tool.
 

Three qualities are necessary for doing this course:

Great faith, great doubt, and great effort!
 “Work is love made visible;  and if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy” (Kahlil Gibran).
 
On becoming a scientist
Plato: Protagoras
Hippocrates rouses Socrates from sleep to tell him that the sophist Protagoras is staying at the house of Callias, and that he hopes to become his student. Socrates says; “You study with a doctor to become a doctor, and with a sculptor to become a sculptor, Hippocrates what do you hope to become by studying with Protagoras?” Hippocrates answers: “On the basis of your analogy, I should be hoping to become a sophist” (Dialogues of Plato).
Aim of the course
The purpose of this course is to provide:
  • An overview of the philosophy of science of qualitative theory development
  • Comprehensive training in qualitative theory development and theory testing methods
Course content, structure and teaching
 
The course focuses on developing competence for systematic theory development and testing using qualitative methodology. We will explore philosophically different approaches to post-positivist theory developing and theory testing using qualitative methods and software tools.
The course is intended as a hands-on learning course for PhD students who are already collecting (or have collected data). You must put the techniques into practice in the course if you intend to develop the relative competences. Opportunities are created throughout the course for PhD students to apply the ideas being discussed to their own personal research situations, and to develop theory from the data they have collected during their research project.
The course includes a two day workshop on using software tools for qualitative analysis. Students are expected to bring their own data in an electronic format suitable for a software analysis tool. The instructor will use HyperResearch during the workshop, but students may use their preferred tool as well. A limited number of licenses for Atlas, InVivo and QD Miner will be available for participants during the course.
 

Lecture plan

Week 1: March 12-16 Time: 9:00-12:00 and 13:00-16:00; Location TBA
Week 2: April 16-19 Time: 9:00-12:00 and 13:00-16:00; Location TBA
The lecture plan will be sent to the participants in due time before course start.
Lecture plan
Time/period    Faculty    Title   
Week 1, day 1, morning    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    Introduction to Research   
Week 1, day 1, afternoon    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    The Basic inferential logics of scientific research   
Week 1, day 2, morning    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    Basic Principles of Qualitative Inquiry   
Week 1, day 2, afternoon    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    The Research Question   
Week 1, day 3, morning    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    Research Design 1   
Week 1, day 3, afternoon    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    Research Design 2   
Week 1, day 4, morning    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    Principles for Deductive Theory Developmen   
Week 1, day 5, morning    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    Principles for Inductive Theory Development   
Week 1, day 5, afternoon    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    Doing Grounded Theory Analysis   
Week 2, day 1    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    Data analysis with HyperResearch Workshop 1   
Week 2, day 2    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    Data analysis with HyperResearch Workshop 2   
Week 2, day 3, morning    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    Theoretical Elaboration Workshop 1   
Week 2, day 3, afternoon    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    Theoretical Elaboration Workshop 2   
Week 2, day 4    Ojelanki Ngwenyama    Writing up your study results. The Seven Basic Claims revisited    
Course literature

Books

Book 1: Blaikie, N.: Designing Social Research, Polity Press, 2010.
Book 2: Booth, W., G. Colomb, J. Williams, The Craft of Research, University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Book 3: An Introduction to Reasoning by Stephen Toulmin, Richard Rieke and Allan Janik, McMillian Publishing. 2nd ed. 1984.

Articles

You are responsible for downloading the papers from your university portal.

1. General Discussions of Qualitative Research Methods:

Article 1: Heinz K. Klein and Michael D. Myers A Set of Principles for Conducting and Evaluating Interpretive Field Studies in Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 6793, 1999.
Article 2: Lee, Allen "A Scientific Methodology for MIS Case Studies" MIS Quarterly, March 1989.
2. Examples of Inductive Qualitative Research:
Article 3: Scheepers, R., Scheepers, H. & Ngwenyama, O., “Contextual Influences on User Satisfaction with Mobile Computing: Findings from Two Health Care Studies”, European Journal of Information Systems, 15(3), 2006.

3. Examples of Abductive Qualitative Research:

Article 4: Ngwenyama, O. and J. Nørbjerg, “Software process improvement with weak management Support: An analysis of the dynamics of intra-organizational Alliances in IS Change Initiatives”, European JournalofInformation Systems, Vol. 19, pp. 303-319, 2010.

4. Examples of Deductive Qualitative Research:

Article 5: Ngwenyama, O. Nielsen, P., "Competing Values in Software Process Improvement: An Assumption Analysis of CMM from an Organization Culture Perspective", IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 50(1), 100-112, 2003
Article 6: Sarker, S., J. Valacich, and S Sarker, "Technology Adoption by Groups: A Valence Perspective", Journal of the Association of Information Systems, Vol. 6, No.2, pp. 37-71, 2005

5. Examples of Critical Deductive Qualitative Research:

Article 7: Middleton, C. and W. Cukier, “Is mobile email functional or dysfunctional?: Two perspectives on mobile email usage”, European Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 252-260, 2006.
Article 8: Cukier, R., Ngwenyama, O., Bauer and C. Middleton; “A Critical Analysis of Media Discourse on Information Technology: Preliminary Results of a Proposed Method for Critical Discourse Analysis”. Information Systems Journal Vol. 19, No. 2, 2009.

Sidst opdateret af Katja Høeg Tingleff 01.12.2011