“Hi, Madam, I have a small question.” Teaching QM online: Guide to a successful cross-cultural master-course

Anne Ryen

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.5.3.04

Authors

Anne Ryen University of Adger, Norway

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.5.3.04

Keywords:

Teaching qualitative methods, Online teaching, Cross-cultural methodology, Neo-colonial methodology, Africa

Abstract

A few years ago Centre of Development Studies at my Faculty, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, started an online Master’s Programme in Development Management. The programme was implemented by a network of universities from the North (University of Agder/UiA) and the South (Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana) recruiting students from across the world. The evaluation is very positive characterising it as a big success. I will now look into one particular element of this study, teaching the qualitative methodology (QM) courses with a special focus on the South context. Each course QM included has been sectioned into modules based on a variety of students` activities including student-student and student-tutor/teacher interaction, plus a number of hand-ins across topics and formats. Evaluation of the students` performance is based on both online group activity and written material submitted either into the individual or the group portfolio. My focus is twofold. First, how did we teach qualitative methodology and how did that work? Second, what about the contemporary focus on neo-colonial methodology and our QM courses? In a wider perspective the study is part of foreign aid where higher education is a means to transfer competence to the South. As such this study works to enable and to empower people rather than being trapped in the old accusation of sustaining dependency (Asad 1973, Ryen 2000 and 2007a). This study then is embedded in a wider North-South debate and a highly relevant illustration of the potentials, success and hazards, inherit in teaching QM.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Anne Ryen, University of Adger, Norway

Anne Ryen is Associate Professor of Sociology at Agder University, Norway, Former president of the Research Network Qualitative Methods in the European Sociological Association and member of the Scientific Committee of RC33 Logic and Methodology in the International Sociological Association. She has been doing research in East-Africa for more than 15 years, and her focus is at fringe benefits in private business, ethnic economy and welfare. Her many publications include "Cross-cultural Interviewing" in Handbook of Interview Research (edited by J. F. Gubrium and J. A. Holstein 2002), "Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research" in Qualitative Research Practice (edited by C. Seale et al 2004), "Ethnography: Constitutive Practice and Research Ethics" in Handbook of Social Science Research Ethics (edited by D. M. Mertens and P. Ginsberg 2008). Among others her books include The Qualitative Interview (2002) and How can fringe benefits become remuneration? (2005. In Norwegian with K. Knudsen).

References

Alatas, Syed Hussein (2004) “The Captive Mind and Creative Development”. Pp 83-98 in Indigeneity and Universality in Social Science. A South-Asian Response. edited by P. N. Mukherji & C. Sengupta. New Dehli: Sage.
Google Scholar

Asad, Talal (1973) Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter. NY: Humanities.
Google Scholar

Astin, Alexander W. (1993) What Matters in College? San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Google Scholar

Bjørke, Sven Åke (2004) The impact of globalisation processes on e-learning with a focus on Africa. Arendal, Norway.
Google Scholar

Bjørke, Sven Åke (2006) Global Online education – does it work? Building partnerships to educate the world: The UNU/GJU strategy. Arendal, Norway.
Google Scholar

Bosalek, Vivienne and Matthews, Lear (2009) “E-learning: A cross-institutional forum for sharing socio-cultural influences on personal and professional identity”. International Social Work 52:235. Retrieved February, 2009 http://isw.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/52/2/235
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0020872808099733

Carpenter, Vicki M. and Colleen McMurchy-Pilkington (2008) “Cross-cultural researching: Mori and Pkeh in Te Whakapakari”. Pp 179-196 in Qualitative Research 2008 8.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794107087480

Cicourel, Aron V (1964) Method and Measurement in sociology. New York: Free Press.
Google Scholar

Crook, Charles (2002) “Learning as cultural practice”. Pp 120-140 in Handbook on information technologies for education and training edited by H.H. Adelsberger, H.H. Hollis and J.M. Pawlowski. Berlin: Springer.
Google Scholar

Denzin, Norman K. and Lincoln, Yvonna S. (1996) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Google Scholar

Denzin, Norman K.; Lincoln, Yvonna S. and Tuhiwai Smith, Linda (2008) Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies. Sage Publications.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483385686

Deiro, Judith A. (2005) Teachers Do Make a Difference. The Teacher’s Guide to Connecting With Students. Thousands Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press, Sage.
Google Scholar

Edwards, Richard and Usher, Robin (2000) Globalization and pedagogy. Space, place and identity. London: Routledge/Falmer.
Google Scholar

Fine, Michelle (1996) “Working the Hyphens: Reinventing Self and Other in Qualitative Research”. Pp.70-82 in Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln. Thousand Islands: Sage.
Google Scholar

Flick, Uwe (2004) An Introduction to Qualitative Research. 2nd.edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar

Glenn, H.S. (1996) “Developing Capable Young People: The leader’s guide”. Pp. 159 in Developing Capable Young People. Fair Oaks, CA: Sunrise Books, Tapes, and Video.
Google Scholar

Gordon, Lewis. R. (2008) An Introduction to Africana Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511800726

Gubrium, Jaber F. and Holstein, James F. (2002) Handbook of The Qualitative Interview. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Google Scholar

Holstein, James A. and Gubrium, Jaber F. (2008) Handbook of Constructionist Research. NY: The Guilford Press.
Google Scholar

Hurley, James M. (1999) “Collaborative Inquiry at a Distance: Using the Internet in Geography Education”. Pp. 128-140 in Journal of Geography, Vol.98, Issue 3 May.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00221349908978871

Hyerle, David (2009) Visual Tools for Transforming Information into Knowledge. CA: Corwin Press, Sage.
Google Scholar

Knowles, A.J. (2002) “E-Learning in Social Work Education: Emerging Pedagogical and Policy Issues”. Pp. 1-17 in Currents: New Scholarship in the Human Services 1(1)
Google Scholar

McLoughlin, C. and J. Luca (2000) Cognitive engagement and higher order thinking through computer conferencing: We know why but do we know how? Teaching and Learning Forum. Retrieved September , 2004 http://lsn.curtin.edu.au/tlf2000/mcloghlin.html
Google Scholar

Mertens, Donna, M. and Ginsberg, Pauline (2008) “Deep in Ethical Waters: Transformative Perspectives for Qualitative Social Work Research“. Pp. 484-503 in Qualitative Social Work, Vol.7(4).
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325008097142

Mertens, Donna, M. and Ginsberg, Pauline, editors (2009) Handbook of Social Research Ethics. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483348971

Mukherji & C. Sengupta, editors (2004) Indigeneity and Universality in Social Science. A South-Asian Response. New Dehli: Sage.
Google Scholar

Reissman, Catherine Kohler (2005) “Exporting ethics: A narrative about narrative research in South India”. Pp 473-490 in Health. An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine Vol.9(4).
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459305056414

Ryen, Anne (2000) “Colonial methodology? Methodological challenges to cross-cultural projects collecting data by structured interview”. Pp. 220-235 in Research and Inequality edited by C. Truman, D. M. Mertens and B. Humphries. London: University College London (UCL) Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003071679-17

Ryen, Anne (2002) “Cross-cultural Interviewing”. Pp.335-353 in Handbook of Interview Research edited by Gubrium, Jaber F. and Holstein, James A. .Thousand Oaks, US: Sage
Google Scholar

Ryen, Anne (2007a) “Exporting Ethics: The West and the Rest?”. Pp. 201-218 in Religion in Late Modernity edited by Leer-Salvesen, Paul & Furseth, Inger. Trondheim: Tapir.
Google Scholar

Ryen, Anne (2007b) “Do Western research ethics work in Africa? A discussion about not taking ‘the taken-the-granted’ for granted”. Pp. 31-45 in Mosenodi,Vol.15, No.1& 2. University of Botswana/
Google Scholar

Ryen, Anne (2008a) “Wading the field with my key informant: Exploring field relations”. Qualitative Sociology Review Vol.IV, Issue 3. Retrieved December 2008 http://qualitativesociologyreview.org/ENG/archive_eng.php
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.4.3.06

Ryen, Anne (2008b) “Trust in Cross-Cultural Research. The Puzzle of Epistemology, Research Ethics and Context”. Pp. 448-465 in Qualitative Social Work, Vol.7(4).
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325008097140

Salmon, Gilly (2003) E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online. 2nd.edition. London and New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
Google Scholar

Sánches-Casal, S. and Macdonald, C.L. (2002) “Introduction: Feminst Reflections on the Pedagogical Relevance of Identity”. Pp 31-68 in Twenty-First-Century Feminst Classrooms, Pedagogies of Identity and Difference edited by A. Mcdonald and S. Sánches-Casal . New York and Basingstroke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230107250_1

Sardar, Ziauddin (2006) How do you know? Introduced and edited by Ethan Masood. London: Pluto Press.
Google Scholar

Seale, Clive et al. (2004) Qualitative Research Practice. London: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608191

Silverman, David (1998) Harvey Sacks. Social Sciences & Conversational Analysis. Oxford: Polity Press.
Google Scholar

Smith, Linda Tuhiwai (2005) Decolonizing Methodologies. Research and Indigenous Peoples. London: Zed Books Ltd.
Google Scholar