Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods | CSO 302

Qualitative Research Methods is a third-year course in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at the University of Nairobi. The course, taught under code CSO 302, underscores the contribution of qualitative methods to knowledge-generation, scientific and policy-based problem-solving, and deeper understanding of the social forces operating in 21st century society. A course on methods is by definition a methodology course. However, the two concepts mean different (though related) things -- and the difference is worth our while to know. 

READ: On the Difference Between Method and Methodology.

We can trace the origins of qualitative methods back to the deep, millennia-long past of human existence -- the ontological/ existential/proto-naturalistic past -- which preceded even the first stage in Auguste Comte's Law of Three Stages; that is, the "theological stage." Similarly, of course, we can trace the very roots of the natural (and social) sciences as we have come to know them back to that same past.

There is clearly a determination in the course to distinguish between methods of data collection and methods of data analysis, and to go for detail. And even though (a) similar methods often appear under a variety names; and, (b) similar names are or seem to be used, on occasion, interchangeably for both data collection and data analysis, you are challenged to spot the random disguises (under a), and to both extricate 'analysis' from 'collection' and articulate the paired differences (under b). 

All this puts a high premium on conceptual clarity and empirical example. Designing an efficient taxonomy of methods, which should proceed from such clarity and example(s), remains an ever-present challenge, which you are challenged to overcome any imaginative way you can, without 'brutally' violating Bateson's classification principles embodied in his theory of logical types. [Find excerpts of the book's 2000 edition here]

The past Examination Papers availed via the link shown below reflect the subject-matter of Qualitative Research Methods as taught under course code CSO 302. They are, indeed, intended to highlight the strengths, and even weaknesses, of that subject-matter; and to show how its various components can be interrogated by learners and facilitators, along the winding road to value-adding expertise.

CLICK HERE: CSO 302 ~ Final  Examination Papers, 26 April 2014 to 2 December 2017

Read (about the Value and Utility of): Past Papers 
[Note that reading and making sense of any set of Past Papers is essentially a qualitative undertaking]

Reminder: To access earlier CSO 302 Final Examination Papers (covering the period 21 December 2004 to 11 January 2014), click here 




NOTE: An earlier version of this Introduction was published under a somewhat different title on January 17, 2018