Short Courses in Advanced Research Methods: Challenges and Opportunities for Teaching and Learning

The concern to ensure an appropriately prepared and skilled research workforce in the UK has led to considerable investment in training provision in advanced research skills. Recent research attention within the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods has also turned to the teaching and learning of advanced methods, with the intention of enhancing the pedagogical culture surrounding advanced research methods and short course provision. This paper draws on a year-long study comprising an adapted expert panel method (interviews with methods specialists with emergent themes followed up in focus group interviews with experienced and specialist methods teachers and in an online forum with doctoral and early career methods learners), combined with detailed observation and video recording of short course teaching/training events used to stimulate focus group dialogue. In this paper the dataset from the study is used to explore the (sometimes) distinctive pedagogical challenges faced by methods teachers and learners with the aim of stimulating further dialogue as well as providing practical guidance. The challenges are discussed, largely in the participants’ own terms, alongside various ways in which they are being addressed by those involved.