WCQR2026 | Training Day
As part of the online program, WCQR2026 will include a dedicated Training Day on 2 February 2026 (Central European Time, UTC+01:00).
Aimed at providing participants with practical, hands-on learning experiences, this day will feature short courses focused on qualitative research methods.
Led by a panel of experienced facilitators, this event offers an excellent opportunity to deepen methodological skills, explore innovative approaches, and engage in interactive sessions designed to enhance participants’ research practices.
Please note:
Attendance at the Training Day is not included in the WCQR2026 conference registration and requires separate enrollment. The registration fee includes participation in one short course in the morning session and one short course in the afternoon session. Participants will select their preferred short courses during registration, subject to availability.
As places are limited, early registration is strongly recommended. See the program below and follow the link at the bottom of the page to register.
Short Courses
Anna Kimberley
Haaga-Helia UAS (FI); TU Dublin (IE)
Schedule:
9:00 am to 12:00 pm
2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
See the full program
It’s All About Me: Autoethnography
Overall, a short course on autoethnography aims to empower researchers to articulate their lived experiences while drawing critical connections to broader societal issues, enhancing both personal understanding and academic scholarship.
- Interactive lecture: Introduction to Autoethnography.
- Philosophical underpinnings, primary scholars and literature.
- Activity: Autoethnography as a reflexive practice in qualitative research or a method on its own, writing a personal narrative.
Participants will gain knowledge of the main concepts of Autoethnography and will have an opportunity to apply the knowledge in a practical, hands-on exercise.
- Introduction to Autoethnography: The course will begin with an overview of autoethnography, including its definition, key principles, and its place within qualitative research. Participants will learn how it interweaves personal stories with broader cultural contexts.
- Philosophical foundations: Participants will explore the theoretical underpinnings of autoethnography, including its connections to ethnography, narrative inquiry, and postmodernism. Discussions will include the importance of subjectivity and reflexivity in research.
- Writing personal narratives and data collection: A key focus will be on the craft of writing personal narratives. Participants will be guided on how to articulate their experiences in a way that is both engaging and informative, emphasizing the need to connect personal stories to larger cultural issues. The course will cover various methods for collecting data, such as journals, reflective writing, and interviews, helping participants gather rich and meaningful material for their narratives.
- Analysis and Interpretation: Participants will learn techniques for analyzing their narratives, identifying themes, and situating their experiences within wider cultural and social contexts, as well as existing literature.
- Feedback and Peer Review: Finally, opportunities for sharing work and receiving feedback from peers will be a part of the short course, fostering a collaborative environment for growth and improvement in autoethnographic practice.
Upon successful completion of the course, participants:
- will gain familiarity and understanding of the selected interpretative methodological approaches.
- will gain knowledge of primary research literature within contexts related to a selected methodological approach.
- will apply the knowledge in own research.
- will apply and further develop ideas and concepts within own specific research context.
- will develop their academic writing skills.
Elaine Keane
University of Galway (IE)
Schedule:
9:00 am to 12:00 pm
See the full program
An Introduction to Constructivist Grounded Theory
This short course introduces Kathy Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory (CGT), with a particular focus on social justice-oriented research. Grounded theory (GT) methods consist of flexible guidelines to fit particular research problems, not to apply mechanically. With these guidelines, you expedite and systematize data collection and analysis. CGT and social justice issues serve mutually complementary purposes. GT methods can assist social justice researchers in making their work more analytic, precise, and compelling. A social justice focus can help grounded theorists to move their methods into macro analyses.
In this short course, following an exploration of the history and development of GT, we examine GT basic guidelines and major strategies, including initial line-by-line and focused coding, the use of gerunds, memoing, diagramming, theoretical sampling, and categorising. Throughout the session, there is an emphasis on CGT’s epistemological foundation and resultant adaptations to the research process, including regarding the literature review, researcher positionality/ies, and participant involvement.
The short course will include a number of hands-on exercises to exemplify, and give participants an opportunity to practice, the strategies being discussed. For the coding exercise, you may bring and use some of your own qualitative data, or if you do not have data yet, some will be supplied. Clear guidelines and support are provided to participants with regard to all aspects of CGT.
The session will utilise CGT readings and resources from Kathy Charmaz, Robert Thornberg, Adele Clarke, and myself, and will draw on the scholarship of Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss.
This short course will be of interest to those doing full CGT studies but also to those who may be interested in learning about and potentially using some of the powerful GT strategies (such as coding) in studies with a different overall methodological approach.
Judita Kasperiuniene
Vytautas Magnus University (LT)
Schedule:
9:00 am to 12:00 pm
See the full program
Mixed-methods & AI for Methodological Literature Reviews
More information soon
Grzegorz Bryda
Jagiellonian University (PL)
Schedule:
9:00 am to 12:00 pm
2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
See the full program
AI as a Co-Researcher in Qualitative Data Analysis
This short course offers an original methodology for qualitative data analysis that incorporates natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI). The methodology, developed by the researcher, combines traditional sociological approaches with advanced digital tools, creating new opportunities for social research, particularly in the context of narrative analysis and thematic analysis.
This short course provides insight into the researcher’s program, advancing the paradigm of digital qualitative sociology and offering a new approach to the relationship between the researcher, data, and analytical tools in qualitative research in the digital age.
The short course introduces techniques for leveraging GenAI to support algorithmic data extraction methods, enhancing the researcher’s ability to identify theoretically rich segments of empirical material. A key aspect of this process is the iterative relationship between the researcher’s emergent conceptualization and the algorithmic identification of patterns in the data.
It also covers AI-assisted coding methods, especially lexical-semantic and generative coding, as well as the process of identifying descriptive and interpretative codes in thematic analysis.
Participants will learn how to design digital research prompts that incorporate inductive, deductive, and abductive logic within the research process.
Moreover, the short course presents methods for algorithmic support in transitioning from codes to conceptual categories and from codes to themes in thematic analysis. The digital qualitative sociology approach treats GenAI systems as tools that assist in abductive reasoning, where algorithmic pattern identification inspires the researcher to formulate theoretical explanations.
Cheryl N. Poth
University of Alberta (CA)
Schedule:
2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
See the full program
Designing Qualitatively-Oriented Mixed Methods Research
How can mixed methods designs be leveraged to prioritize qualitative perspectives in their integration with quantitative research approaches? This short course sheds light on the nine key integration decisions researchers make in qualitatively-oriented mixed methods designs and how to incorporate evidence of qualitatively prioritized integration in your work.
The short course will include a number of examples to illustrate content and strategies discussed, hands-on exercises to give participants an opportunity to apply their understandings to their own ideas, and to benefit from others’ sharing and asking questions.
The session will utilise QOMMR readings and resources from Sharlene Hesse-Biber, Peggy Shannon-Baker, others as well as myself
This short course will be of interest to those already doing or planning to design qualitatively-oriented mixed methods research. It can also be taken by curious qualitative researcher to explore the potential of mixed methods while retaining many aspects of their qualitatively-oriented research practice.
- Introduction to Qualitatively-oriented Mixed Methods Research: The course will begin with an overview and orientation to integration as a key feature of mixed methods research and the unique niche of qualitatively-oriented mixed methods research (QOMMR). Participants will learn about the key defining characteristics of QOMMR.
- Key Design Decisions in Qualitatively-oriented Mixed Methods Research: Participants will explore the key design decisions that contribute to a cohesive QOMMR design, including role of theory, sampling strategies, and data procedures. Discussions will include a focus on prioritizing qualitative integration.
- Navigating Design Procedures in Qualitatively-oriented Mixed Methods Research: A key focus will be on how researchers and their research settings influence how QOMMR designs unfold. Participants will engage in creating design diagrams to help them think through their ideas. To extent possible, we will embed opportunities for sharing work and receiving feedback from peers will be a part of the short course.
- Integrations and Representations of Study Outcomes: Participants will explore some data and analytic options for QOMMR integration and how joint displays can support the generation and representation of study outcomes.
- Quality and Reporting: Finally, opportunities for discussions of what guides good reporting of QOMMR will complement discussions of quality criteria of mixed methods research.
Qualitatively-orientated mixed methods research requires specialized integration skills to realize the prioritized integration of qualitative and quantitative research. This course will engage participants in discussions of perceived (and real) integration challenges when designing, conducting, and reporting QOMMR.