Linking Research and Teaching: A study of graduate student engagement

Abstract

This exploratory study focuses on ways to approach the complex, intangible dynamic at work in the learning of graduate students in qualitative research courses. Important issues in graduate student research development are investigated and also demonstrated through applications of non-traditional methodologies. The professor/researcher argues that educators need to connect live performances of research to their pedagogy and to share the discoveries made by students in concert with themselves. Pedagogical issues in the teaching of research methodology, which this article addresses, have yet to become a major focus of scholarship. This study responds by linking teaching, through the development of methodologies and understandings in a qualitative course, to the field of research. The workshop format was used as a context for experimenting with community development as a form of collaborative self-directed learning. Preliminary findings indicate that student research development is enhanced through group activities that support multiple approaches to qualitative analysis.