Customized Style: Course offers flexibility. (Photo by Andrea Morales)
class act
MMC 6936 Qualitative and Critical Approaches
to Research (graduate level)
Associate Prof. Lisa Duke-Cornell
Taking ownership
of research
What does your class teach that students can’t learn in other courses?
Most of the research courses that students take here are quantitatively oriented: They learn how to analyze numerical data. In my course, they learn how to collect data that are qualitative in nature. They do interviews, they observe behavior, and they interpret data using their life experience and knowledge.
What do you aim to accomplish?
We learn about how people can use research to make the world a better place. I know that sounds a little bit cliché, but that is what the critical aspect of the course is. It’s about multiple truths, the way different people see the world, the way social hierarchies are organized to empower some people and discourage others, and how research might work to give the people who have been marginalized in society a better perspective. It’s about knowing your bias, admitting it and trying to present the facts as faithfully as you can, all the while saying, “I’m a human instrument, I come to this research from a certain social perspective, and I’m going to tell you what that perspective is so that you can then read my research with a critical eye.”
This is important because even as a quantitative researcher, you pick and choose the way you present your facts, the questions you ask, and the topics that you address, but you don’t really admit those biases. With qualitative research, you talk about your social situation, your race, your age and your economic class, and how all of these things come into play whenever you interpret the world.
How do you structure the course?
In the beginning, I ask students about their research interests, and I try to gear the subsequent readings to their interests so that they aren’t learning generalities, but methods and topics that may help them in their theses or dissertations. There is also a lot of discussion. I try to bring interesting topics into the classroom that can generate and spur thought about the research that students want to do, how they want to see their careers unfold, and how they can get invested in research that they really care about. I see this class as not only a way to teach them about qualitative methods, but also as a way of having people get invested in their research careers.
What is your teaching style?
I always get high marks for enthusiasm and I think it’s because I really care about what I teach and I like to involve my students. I like to have a lot of feedback, but most of all, I like controversy. I like it when people disagree with one another because I think we can all learn from different perspectives. Therefore, I try to create an environment where people feel like their perspective is appreciated, even if it’s the lone voice that is coming from that point of view.
How has this course changed over the years?
I had a professor once who said you really don’t know a topic until you teach it for a while, and I think that over the years, I have become much more comfortable communicating what the basics are in a way that is more accessible. Some of the topics can get pretty dense and hard to understand, but I think that because I’ve taught this course so many times, I’m able to take the more difficult topics and make them, if not easy to understand, at least more understandable.
In an ideal world, you would take several courses on the topics that we’re trying to cover in this class; you could take one course or more on critical theory alone. Instead, we try to touch on all of the topics in one semester, which means that you have to do it fairly succinctly, get to the point, and give the students the tools they need to conduct research when they get out of the class. You have to cover a lot in a little time, and I think that over the years, I’ve gotten better at giving out the information in a way that works for the students.
Does this course require a great deal of reading?
Yes, all graduate courses require a great deal of reading. The good news, though, is that the reading in this class is interesting and is usually socially relevant and topical. There are also great stories in qualitative research. You read different people’s perspectives, and they’re telling stories in the first person. The reading can move you as well as inform you.
