Postgraduate Course: Advanced Research Design (PGSP12003)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 12 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course introduces you as a research student to live challenges involved in designing social research projects and gives you space to examine a range of specific challenges in conducting and designing research. This course invites you to critically reflect on and develop your research through collaborative dialogue with staff and students. |
| Course description |
Through lectures and workshops this course provides a range of critical prompts that research students need to consider when developing their own research design. These include: consideration of the epistemological and ontological foundations of social research, aligning research philosophy, research questions and methods, positionality, objectivity and bias, research ethics and research impact. This course supports research students to become independent researchers.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: 35 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Reflective essay (100%, 3,500 words)
|
| Feedback |
Formative assessment and feedback will be offered through structured activities in the workshops for this course designed to support the final assessment. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Have analytical, detailed and involved understanding of issues common to social research projects.
- Apply a critically reflexive approach to research design.
- Develop original responses to research problems.
- Demonstrate consideration for research impact and knowledge exchange within research design.
- Make considered assessments of competing ontologies and epistemologies.
|
Reading List
Norman W. H. Blaikie, & Jan Priest. (2017). Social research: Paradigms in action. Polity Press.
Bagele Chilisa. (2020). Indigenous research methodologies (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Martyn Hammersley. (2000). Taking sides in social research: Essays on partisanship and bias. Routledge.
Richard Swedberg. (2012). Theorizing in sociology and social science: Turning to the context of discovery. Theory and Society, 41(1), 1¿40.
|
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Identifying problems and finding solutions
Creating theoretically informed conversations about real world problems
Creative and critical thinking through understanding how research design shapes social research.
Effective communication skills through discussion, debate and small-group work. |
| Keywords | Social science,Research design |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Carin Runciman
Tel:
Email: Carin.Runciman@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Maria Brichs
Tel: (0131 6)51 3205
Email: mbrichs@ed.ac.uk |
|
|
University Homepage