Course objectives:
- knowledge of major theories, history and terminology (technical terms, definitions and standard words)
- training in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies
- experience in research design, data collection, analysis and reporting of results
- organizing data in a suitable format for analysis
- experience with computer software facilitating analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data

Course structure (lecture+workshop):

Week 1 (5/10/2023): Epistemology and Philosophy of the Social Sciences: rationalism, positivism, skepticism; paradigms: subjectivity vs. objectivity; realism, relativism, social constructivism; Selection of appropriate research methods by identifying its strengths and limitations, the research problem identification (lecturer: V. Nečas)

Week 2 (12/10/2023): Language of research – type of research, research question, hypothesis, variables, relationship, causal explanation (V. Necas)

Week 3 (19/10/2023): Quantitative vs. qualitative research: an overview of use, differences, advantages, and limitations (L. Vochocova)

Week 4 (26/10/2023): Review of published literature associated with the problem area, formulation of research questions, hypotheses central to the problem selected (V. Necas)

Week 5 (2/11/2022): Qualitative approach I: Data gathering techniques (focus groups, interviews) (L. Vochocova)

Week 6 (9/11/2022): Qualitative approach II: Data analysis techniques - qualitative coding, grounded theory - introduction (L. Vochocova)

Week 7 (16/11/2022): Quantitative approach I: Content analysis: Data selection and gathering (variables, code-book, data input, sampling) (V. Necas)

Week 8 (23/11/2022): Quantitative approach II: Survey (questionnaire design): Data selection and gathering, sampling (V. Necas)

Week 9 (30/11/2023): Qualitative approach III: Grounded theory - categorization, axial coding, paradigmatic model (L. Vochocová)

Week 10 (7/12/2023): Qualitative approach IV: Semiotic analysis - an introduction (L. Vochocová)

Week 11 (14/12/2023): Research software and tools: online surveys, transcription, text mining, SPSS, STATA, Atlas.ti, NVivo (V. Necas)

Week 12 (21/12/2023): Data interpretation, contextualization, building theory, hermeneutics (L. Vochocova)

Week 13 (4/1/2024): Student presentations (optional), lecturers' feedback