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Introduction to Public Health Research

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Course Type Course Code No. Of Credits
Discipline Core SPG2PH410 4

Semester and Year Offered: 2nd Semester; 1st Year

Course Coordinator and Team: N. Nakkeeran

Email of course coordinator: nakkeeran@aud.ac.in

Pre-requisites: None

Aim: The course aims

  • To equip the students with ability conceptualise and contextualise their research
  • To equip students with the knowledge of designing research studies of various types, using a wide range of methods
  • To provide skills to analyse qualitative data
  • To systematically and rigorously analyse and review other research studies in the field of public health
  • To appreciate the principles behind public health research ethics.

Course Outcomes: This course is expected to equip students to apply their understanding and research skills acquired in this course in research assignments they would take up in their internships and dissertation. On completion of this course students are therefore expected to:

  • Acquire the knowledge and skill to independently conceptualise and develop robust study designs around specific research themes and on questions relevant to public health
  • Develop an in-depth understanding of various qualitative research methods, data collection, and data analysis.
  • Gain sensitivity to ethical concerns in public health research

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

Module 1

Conceptualising research – introduction to basic concepts in research, Problem identification, framing problem statement and research question; framing research objectives; stage of research / research cycle

Module 2

Epistemological basis of qualitative research – positivism, constructivism, interpretativism (re-connecting with what was taught in social sciences perspectives); reflecting on contextualising research within specific theoretical, spatial and temporal contexts

Module 3

Research methodologies / Designs – Survey, Ethnography, Case study, Oral history, participatory research, different kinds of textual analysis; cross-sectional, longitudinal (cohort, panel), experimental designs

Module 4

Data collection methods: Interviews of different types, FGD, Observation based methods, case study, and participatory techniques;

Quality and rigour in qualitative research: meaning and types of data; Credibility, Transferability, Dependability and Confirmability; saturation; triangulation; member-checking; transparency and systematic data archiving; theoretical “sampling”; COREQ guidelines; reflexivity and positionality in research

Module 5

Analysis of qualitative data: Principles in qualitative data analysis; open coding & ground theory based analysis, framework analysis, and introduction to qualitative data analysis softwares.

Module 6

Preparation of research proposal - Key components of a research proposal / grant, time and resource estimation; planning the field movement; ethical, technical and administrative approvals

Ethics in public health research - core principles of research ethics; research ethics specific to public health research; ethical concerns in qualitative and ethnographic research

Assessment Details with weights:

The course will have the following assessment situations

  • A review assignment (30%)
  • Submission of a research proposal (30%)
  • End semester summative assessment (40%)

Reading List

(For complete reading students should refer to the outline in SCAP format)

  • Babbie, E., (2008) “Part 1 – Introduction to Inquiry”, in The Basics of Social Research, Thomson Wordsworth
  • Bryman, A. (1984). The Debate about Qualitative and Quantitative Research. A Question of Methods or Epistemology. The British Journal of Sociology. 35(1): 75- 92
  • Chambers, R., “Rural Appraisal: Rapid, Relaxed and Participatory”, in Amitava Mukherjee edParticipatory rural appraisal methods and appucations1n rural planning
  • Crotty, M., The Foundations of Social Research: Meaning and Perspectives in the Research Process, Allen &Unwin, 1998 (Chapters on ‘Introduction to Research Process’ and ‘Constructionism’)
  • Denzin, N.,‘The Comparative Life History’ in The Research Act, McGraw Hill, 1978
  • Durbin, Charles, G., “How to Come Up With a Good Research Question: Framing the Hypothesis”,  Respiratory Care (2004) 49/10: 1195-98
  • Garfinkel, H. G., Studies in Ethnomethodology, Prentice Hall, 1967.
  • Hammersley, M. and P. Atkinson (2007), Ethnography: Principles in Practice, Taylor & Francis London,2007
  • Harding, S., (1987) “Introduction: Is there a feminsit method?”,Sandra Harding (ed.) Feminism and methodology, Bloomington, Indiana University Press. Pp.1-14.
  • Kevin D. Haggerty, Ethics Creep: Governing Social Science Research in the Name of Ethics
  • Lincoln, Y. S. and Guba, E. G. (2000). Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and emerging influences. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 163-188). Thousand Oaks,  Sage.
  • Mays N, Pope C. Assessing quality in qualitative research. BMJ 2000;320:50-2.
  • Morgan DL, Focus Groups As Qualitative Research, Portland State University
  • Patton, M.Q. Chapter 7: Qualitative Interviewing. In Qualitative research and Evaluation Methods. Third Edition. Sage Publications, Inc. 2002
  • Richards HM., Schwartz, LJ., 2002, “Ethics of qualitative research: Are there special issues for health services research”, Family Practice, 19/2 :135-39
  • Spencer, Ritchie and O'Connor “Analysis: Practices, Principles and Processes” in Ritchie and Lewis (ed) Qualitative research practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers

Additional references

  • Billig, M., “Methodology and Scholarship in Understanding Ideological Explanation” in Clive Seale (ed.) Social Research Methods – A Reader, Routledge India, 2008, pp. 13-19
  • Clifford, J., Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, University of California Press, 1986.
  • Driessen H., and Jansen, W., "The Hard Work of Small Talk in Ethnographic Fieldwork," Journal of Anthropological Research 69, no. 2 (Summer 2013): 249-263. https://doi.org/10.3998/jar.0521004.0069.205
  • Emerson, RM., Fretz RI., and Shaw LL., Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes (Introduction)
  • England, KVL., (1994) Getting Personal: Reflexivity, Positionality, and Feminist Research, The Professional Geographer, 46:1, 80-89, DOI: 10.1111/j.0033-0124.1994.00080.x
  • Geertz, C., Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture
  • Goffman, E.,: The presentation of self in everyday life (Selected extracts – Co-presence and Metaphors for social interaction)
  • Mills, C.W., (1959) “On intellectual Craftmanship”, in Clive Seale (ed.) Social Research Methods – A Reader, Routledge India, 2008, pp. 19-25
  • Morrison, T., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ0mMjII22I (Interview)
  • Morse JM. Insight, inference, evidence, and verification: Creating a legitimate discipline. Int J Qual Methods 2006;5: 1-7.
  • Nakkeeran, N., Zodpey, SP “Qualitative research in applied situations: Strategies to ensure rigor and validity”. Indian Journal of Public Health 2012;56:4-11
  • Rubin, Herbert J., Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data, Thousand Oaks, 1995.
  • Srivastava, Vinay Kumar (Ed.), Methodology and Field Work, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004
  • Tapan, M., (ed.) Anthropological Journey: Reflections on Fieldwork, Orient Blackswan, 1998
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