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Learning outcomes

GENERAL EDUCATIVE AIM
The course “Methodology of the qualitative research” is aimed at presenting and making health-care practitioners learn the necessary knowledge and competences to be aware of what is a research and to be able to project and conduct a qualitative research.

SPECIFIC EDUCATIONAL AIMS
Knowledge and comprehension skills
At the end of the course the students should be able to:
• Know the essence of the epistemology of the qualitative research in health-care contexts;
• Know the specificity of the qualitative research in its paradigmatic, epistemological, philosophical and methodological aspects.
Knowledge and applied comprehension skills
At the end of the course the students should be able to:
• Project experiences of qualitative research contextualized in health care contexts;
Independent judgement (Autonomous assessments)
At the end of the course the students should have learned:
• The capacity to analyze qualitative research experiences in health care contexts, to identify its constitutive elements, strong points and criticalities in an improving perspective;
• The awareness of the ethical valence of a research action, i.e. assuming the responsibility of their epistemic choices.
Communicative skills
At the end of the course the students should be able to:
• Use a correct and specific language to describe an qualitative research;
• Communicate to the colleagues a specific choice for an qualitative research project and dialogue constructively about it;
• Communicate in social and public contexts the importance and quality of his/her own choices related to the approach of qualitative research;
• Document and present his/her inquiries, both in scientific and non-scientific contexts.

Learning skills
At the end of the course the students should be able to:
• Analyze the different modalities of qualitative research in order to come across the requirements of the different contexts;
• Collect the required sources to develop efficient qualitative research projects.

Program

The course intends to argue that a practitioner, who doesn't live his/her own profession as a mere executive or technician role, should characterize his/her actions with the capacity to deeply read reality in order to propose changes. In other words the course will present the idea that research is a fundamental dimension for health care professions, since it is considered to be a style and a method able to offer a profound vision of the context and of the real needs of the people living and acting in it (patients, health care practitioners, relatives), and also of the entire environment or institution.
Different approaches to qualitative research will be presented, together with their related epistemological frameworks, philosophies, methods and instruments. In particular we will study in depth the approach characterized by the capacity:
• to enter people’s experience (phenomenological approach),
• to read the meanings that everybody elaborates personally (hermeneutical approach),
• to be within the web of real relationships and settings (ecological and naturalistic approach),
• to transform and improve the system in which he/she works (transformative research).

The course, alternating frontal lectures and laboratorial exercises, will deal with these arguments:
• theories of research in health care;
• qualitative methods;
• ecological paradigm, naturalistic epistemology and phenomenological-hermeneutical method;
• practices of research: instruments for data collection, interpretation, sharing and transformation.

PRE-REQUISITES
Students will be requested to have the following pre-requisite:
• a bascial knowledge of paradigms and methods of the research in health care contexts.

DIDACTIC METHODS
During the course the students will be involved in laboratorial activities, so that they will be allowed to practice planning qualitative research experiences. This will allow them to face, in a direct or simulated way, all the epistemological, planning and ethical aspects of the qualitative research.
Also case studies (taken from the professional context) will be presented to students. Moreover, students will be required to work in team in order to simulate the planning of a qualitative research.

TEXTBOOK:
The Italian textbook is also published in an English version:
• Mortari, L., & Saiani, L. (Eds). Gestures and thoughts of caring. New York-Boston: McGraw-Hill Education, 2014, pp. 200.
Futher references:
• Silverman, D. (2013). Doing qualitative research. A practical handbook. 4th Edition. London (UK): SAGE Publications.
• Mortari, L. (2007). The ethic of delicacy in phenomenological research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being, 2007, 3(1), pp. 3-17.

Examination Methods

Oral exam. The discussion will test the personal study of the textbook and the student’s comprehension of the topics. Moreover the student will be asked to elaborate a personal research hypothesis, as a demonstration of his/her own personal reflection and project ability.
Students should prove that they:
• Have understood the relevant elements characterizing the qualitative research;
• Are able to present the specificity of qualitative research, with precision and clarity;
• Are able to critically analyze case studies and experiences.
Tests will be evaluated taking into consideration the correctness of contents, the capacity to communicate in an efficient way and the quality of written composition. Every question will be scored with points, whose total sum will compose the grade expressed in thirtieths.