Face-to-face , first term, 22,5 hours of theory and 15 hours of exercises.

First term
Monday from 11:00 to 13:00 at 43 Botanique 3

The course is taught in French, but students should be able to read texts in English and to find their way through bibliographical databases in English.

By the end of the course, the student should:
• be able to raise a number of epistemological questions about the research approach in social sciences;
• have a good knowledge of the first steps of research in social sciences and be aware of the pitfalls they hold;
• be able to build a research problem around a question that he is interested in, based on a scientific literature magazine and with the help of exploratory interviews.

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The course addresses the epistemological presuppositions, as well as the first steps of a research approach in social sciences: the beginning of a research, the exploratory stage, the construction of a problem, operationalisation of concepts, the development of observation measures, the main methods of collecting and analyzing data (this last part will mainly be developed in the second half of the year in “Approach and methods of research in social sciences II”.

The presentation of the research approach and methods in social sciences is supplemented with illustrations drawn from actual research practice and is presented by the teacher himself or, occasionally, by visiting researchers. As the course focuses on the acquisition of know-how and research «habitus», a significant time is devoted to an individual monitoring and support for each student, of their research work, during and outside the course (see below).

The final assessment is based on group work (2 - 3 students), which consists of the formulation and development of a research problem starting from a question chosen by the student. Thus, there is no actual examination for the “Approach and methods of research in social sciences I” course.
However, the course material will be added to the material studied in the second part of this course (Approach and methods of research in social sciences II), and an overall examination will take place at the end of this second part. The completion of the course work is subject to individual monitoring that allows students to regularly assess their progress and if necessary correct their approach.

Quivy R., Van Campenhoudt L., Manuel de recherche en sciences sociales, Paris, Dunod, 2011 (4th ed). In addition to the handbook, other references will be given throughout the sessions.

In addition to the manual that serves as reference to the course, an overview of the course as well as some texts will be made available to the students. Useful resources will also be available via the web page (http://cours.usaintlouis.be)