Course for international guest/part time students

Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences

Organization

TÁTK Minority Studies Department

Code

EKIP14.1

Title

Research Methods I

Usual semester

Autumn

ECTS

5

Language

en

Learning outcomes

The main goal of the seminar is to introduce research planning and conducting to the students. Moreover, the course will give an insight and practice in data analysis and interpretation of results in ethnic and minority studies. 'Research methods I' will focus on research planning and data collection methods, while 'Research methods II' will focus on statistical analysis with SPSS and the research in practice. Successfully finishing 'Research methods I' students will be able to formulate a proper research question and hypothesis based on a problem in the field of minorities define the target group of research based on the research question operationalize their research question choose the proper sampling and data collection method for conducting research considering time, available funds, reliability, and validity consider the ethical and data management background of a research consider main difficulties of and international research

Course content

1st week: Introduction. Why we need research methodology? What types of data can we rely on? 2nd week: Overview of the empirical research procedure. Practice: collect papers and identify research question, hypothesis, main concepts, target group, research method and main results! 3rd week: Gathering background information, formulating research question and hypothesis, defining target group. (HW1: formulate your own research question and define target group!) 4th week: Conceptualization: defining our concepts Operationalization: formulating questionnaire, writing interview guide. (HW2: formulate your own partial questionnaire or interview guide) 5th week: Different methods, different pros and cons: qualitative vs quantitative research. Interviewing, focus group research, survey research, participant observation 6th week: Deliberative polling 7th week: Why do we need samples? Sampling: random sampling, stratified sampling, multistage sampling, overrepresentation, adaptive cluster sampling 8th week: Alternative sampling methods: respondent driven sampling, time-space sampling, capture-recapture. (HW3: find proper sampling method for your own research) 9th week: Data collection technics: PAPI, CAPI, CATI, CAWI. What are they? 10th week: International research: languages, different cultures, different customs… Examples: Roma Survey 2020 (FRA), European working condition survey (Eurofound) 11th week: Data management and ethical issues (HW4: consider the ethical and data background of your research) 12th week: Consultation, remarks and Test ATTENTION! Given that we had to upload the current course description by August 31st, and at the same time, the order of the academic year will be decided on September 1st at the earliest, the topic may change beyond content issues. The change may affect the possible merging of classes, the method of assessment and the time of assessment, as well as other unforeseen details.

Assessment method

40% of the students' assessments based on homework assignments there will be 4 Homeworks during the semester (please note the deadlines on the Coospace!) (10 points each) Homework solutions are accepted individually or by groups of two students. In the latter case, both students upload the same file to the Coospace the filename must include the last names of both students the first line of the document should indicate that this is a joint homework assignment. collected homework points will be credited to both authors. the total points for homework will be 40 points. 36% of the evaluation depends on the activity during the seminars (3 points per seminar, 36 points in total) 24% of the evaluation depends on a multiple-choice test that will be written during the last seminar (24 points) Each part (Homework, seminar activity, test) should be above 50% for completing the course! Marks shall be based on the following percentages: 1 (fail): 0-49 % 2 (pass): 50-59 % 3 (satisfactory): 60-74 % 4 (good): 75-84 % 5 (excellent): 85-100 % In case of fail (performance below 50%), the mark will be registered, and an exam based on the learning material of the ful semester will be written in the first weeks of the exam period. Attendance at the class is mandatory. Evaluation cannot be given in case of 5 or more absences. In the latter case, an exam cannot be written in the exam period!

Bibliography

Németh, Renáta ; Simon, Dávid: Social Statistics. Budapest, Magyarország : Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem (2011) (available on coospce) Balogh, Anikó ; Simon, Dávid: The Research of Rare and Elusive Populations. Budapest, Magyarország : ELTE (2011) (available on coospce) Babbie, E. R. (2020). The practice of social research. Cengage learning.

Programmes of the course