It is assumed that students would have acquired an adequate and comprehensive understanding of research methods at the certificate and diploma level. This course is aimed to develop competence amongst students to conceptualize a problem and undertake research. The main purpose of this course is to provide a coherent and integrated understanding of qualitative approach.
· Epistemological considerations: Positivism and Interpretivism.
· Ontological considerations: Objectivism and Constructionism.
· Qualitative Data Analysis: General strategies (Analytic theory and Grounded theory),Thematic Analysis and Narrative Analysis.
· E-Research: The Internet as the object of Analysis.
· Using the Internet to collect data.
· Qualitative Research using online focus groups and online personal interviews
· Online Social Surveys: E-mail surveys, Web surveys.
· Blaikie, Norman, Approaches to Social Enquiry, Cambridge, Policy Press, 1993.
· May, Tim, Social Research: Issues, Methods and Processes. Buckingham, Open University Press, 1997.
· Patton, Michael Quinn, Qualitative Evaluation Methods. New Delhi, Sage Publications, 1988.
· Reissman, Catherine K. Qualitative Studies in Social Work Research, New Delhi. Sage Publications, 1994.
· Swartz, Omar, Conducting Socially Responsible Research, New Delhi, Sage Publications, 1997.
· Ramachandran, P. Issues in Social Work Research in India, Bombay, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, 1990.
· Society for Participatory Research in Asia, Participatory Research: An Introduction (Participatory Research Network series No. 3), New Delhi PRIA, 1995.
· Wright, Susan E. 1986 Social Science Statistics. Boston: Allyn & Bacon Inc.
· Loether, H.J. & McTavish, Donald. 1974 Inferential Statistics for Sociologists.
· Boston: Allyn & Bacon Inc.
· Kurtz, Norman R. 1983 Introduction to Social Statistics. Paris: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
· Elifson et al. 1990 Fundamentals of Social Statistics. McGraw Hill Publishing Co.
· Levin, Jack .1983 Elementary Statistics in Social Research. New York: Harper & Row Publishers
· Cohen, Louis & Holliday, Michael. 1982 Statistics for Social Scientists. New York: Harper & Row Publishers
· Malec, Michael, A. 1977 Essential Statistics for Social Research. New York: J.B.Lippincott Co.
· Ahuja. Ram. 2006, Research Methods, Rawat Publications.