Activist Social Research (2017/2018)[SEM1]

Semester one: 18^th September—21^st December

Meet the team

Course Organiser/Tutor

Callum McGregor

callum.mcgregor@ed.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)131 651 4163

Social media: @MScSocJustice

 Profile:

http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/callum-mcgregor(e3366e4e-f0ba-481c-93b4-1e8af0251862)/publications.html

Tutor

Deborah Fry

debi.fry@ed.ac.uk    

Tel: +44 (0)131 651 4796

 Profile: http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/deborah-fry(3946cab3-ac25-4e76-b59f-9dc1ee51dfbc).html

Course administrator

Angela Hunter

angela.hunter@ed.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)131 651 1196

Course Description

Activist social research combines political commitments to addressing social problems with rigorous research about those problems. This course aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills to plan, design and execute a programme of activist research for real world application and for the dissertation or applied research project elements of the MSc in Social Justice and Community Action.

The first block of the course introduces students to the ethical and practical challenges of doing high quality research for social change. Engaging with these ethical and practical challenges entails a reflexive engagement with the politics of knowledge production itself. The second block of the course will introduce students to different approaches methods of data collection and analysis, considered from an explicitly activist perspective.

 
Learning outcomes

On completion of this course, the student will be able to:

1. Demonstrate an awareness of the key epistemological and ethical issues in activist social research;

2. Understand issues of positionality and reflexivity;

3. Identify appropriate research questions informed by appropriate methodological approaches and relevant literature;

4. Engage with a range of data collection methods and demonstrate skills in the critical and democratic analysis of data (both quantitative and qualitative);

5. Effectively plan a programme of research

Pedagogical approach

Each week will involve undertaking required reading, as well as engaging with a short pre-recorded input. This might be in the form of a lecture or podcast conversation with (an) activist researcher(s). The course will feature three discussion seminars (addressing epistemology, ethics and methods) and students will be required to sign-up to one of two time options (see below) in order to participate in online discussion on Skype.  This will provide an opportunity to engage in in-depth critical dialogue with your peers, and each seminar will be facilitated by an assigned tutor. These discussions align with the expectation that students will write three blog entries corresponding with these themes. This will give students the opportunity to progressively work towards writing a research proposal, gaining feedback from tutors and peers throughout the course.

Please note that attendance in the discussion forum is mandatory. Please make sure your Skype is updated prior to the first session.