Generic Skills in Social Sciences

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Tony Glendinning

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

The other three courses of the proposed School of Social Science Training Programme: Methodology, Theory and Ethics; Approaches to Analysis, Seminar

Notes

Overview

The course will begin with an induction meeting for new postgraduate research students, including an introduction to the University, its facilities and staff, whom to contact for assistance, etc. Subsequent sessions will cover: computer resources in the University and how to use them, including information on word-processing facilities, email and internet access; library resources and how to use them, references and citations; bibliographic sources and methods; maintaining a personal research bibliography; creating and searching archives; procedures for the evaluation of research; refereeing and reviewing; writing skills; how to get one's work published; dissemination and public understanding; conferences and conference presentation; media awareness

Structure

One two-hour session per week

Assessment

Written Course Assignment (100%)

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr Alexander King

Pre-requisites

N/A

Notes

Overview

This course is for postgraduate students conducting long-term qualitative research as a foundation for their research programme. It consists of fortnightly seminars of 2 hours, covering topics such as informed consent, fair compensation to informants, anticipating unintended consequences, working in politiclaly repressive states, playing the role of public intellectual at home, discussions of discipline-specific principles or codes. Assessment will be through production of several short essays engaging in relevant discussions and suitable for posting to public forae and online groups.

Structure

6 two-hour seminars during the half-session.

Assessment

Continuous assessment (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Tony Glendinning

Pre-requisites

This course is available only to students at level 5 (Pg5) or above

Overview

This course will introduce students to a range of analytic techniques, in a relatively practical ‘hands-on’ way, using secondary qualitative and quantitative data sources taken from research council funded projects on-going in the School of Social Science. Techniques include computer-based methods for the coding and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, and the associated use of the two software packages QSR NVivo and PASW (SPSS for Windows). All students undertaking the course are required to conduct and report on a quantitative data analysis of an appropriate large-scale social survey dataset that includes multivariate analysis using control variables.

Structure

2 hour lecture/seminar/workshop per week.

Assessment

One research report of an analysis of a secondary data source (100%)

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Tony Glendinning

Pre-requisites

This course is available only to students at level 5 (Pg5) or above

Overview

The course comprises a series of presentations by social science postgraduate research students, along with interdisciplinary discussions of the presentations, providing students with an opportunity to explain their research to a wider audience of peers in other areas of social science. The focus of the presentations is particularly on issues of methodology in students’ accounts of their own research.

Structure

2 hour seminar per week.

Assessment

A 2,000 word written paper on the student’s research area submitted one week in advance of a 30 minute seminar presentation and discussion of the paper. Assessments of the paper and presentation itself are made by the course convener and the student’s supervisor/s.)