Qualitative research methods
I have heard a lot of complaints from my doctoral students about how we are, or are not, teaching them how to do research methods well. I came across this description of a qualitative methods course at MIT, and wonder what my students would think of that? (I like the idea!)
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2 Comments
Peregrinato commented on 17 January 2008:I came to seminary after a fairly circuitous route that included a masters in counseling and work as a librarian in education policy. Even though I never conducted scientific research of either quantitative or qualitative types (I realize, many would say qualitative is not scientific, and that's an argument I'll sidestep). But I was struck by how research-blind many in seminaries were. Inspiration by the Holy Spirit won't make up for bad generalization or misconstruing causation or correlation, and I really think more clergy types need to have a better understanding of social sciences research.
The ethnographic research you're pointing to would probably be very useful for pastoral types who need to learn the basics of understanding and analyzing social trends. My apologies for the ramble...I don't have time to be concise, and wanted to make sure I actually responded!
Thanks for your comment! And I think you're right. Indeed, Lee Shulman, who's about to retire as president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Education, once wrote that religious education should include study of at least one empirical discipline as a way of learning how to be critical and aware of the fallibility of truth seeking.