ME-521 Field course and master thesis seminar (Autumn 2020)
- ECTS Credits:
- 10
- Responsible department:
- Faculty of Social Sciences
- Course Leader:
- Vito Laterza
- Lecture Semester:
- Autumn
- Teaching language:
- English
- Duration:
- ½ year
Table of contents
The course is connected to the following study programs
Teaching language
Recommended previous knowledge
Learning outcomes
- develop and plan a research design for a master’s thesis
- conduct a literature review
- conduct a research ethics self-assessment
- comply to current national and international standards in personal data protection for academic research
- create a cogent, coherent and defendable thesis proposal
- conduct fieldwork and data collection
Contents
The aim of this course is to make a bridge between the ME-413-1 Research methods and the master’s thesis (UT-505-1). Through the field course, students will be introduced to:
- how to relate to and act in the field and how to exercise practical fieldwork methods
- how to report from the fieldwork and how to reflect on the fieldwork experience
This experience of doing practical fieldwork and the knowledge from the methods course will then be brought into the elaboration of a project description for the master’s thesis.
The field course will be an integrated part of a four-week face-to-face session in a developing country. The second part of the course takes place as net-based coursework. Students who for particular reasons cannot participate in the organised group based face-to-face session and its practical exercises and field work must deliver an equivalent work. A written, graded replacement assignment is set by the course instructor.
The thesis seminar part includes a literature review, individual assignments, and group discussions. The course will help the students develop a defendable proposal for their master’s thesis. The main aim is to prepare the students for practical research work, including the writing of the thesis.