Iniciação à investigação qualitativa: Perceção e apreciação de alunos de Psicologia

Abstract

Given the growing interest and the relevance of qualitative research in the field of Psychology, it is important to promote training opportunities for students in this modality of scientific research. Qualitative research proves to be an important factor in promoting social justice. Educational psychologists seem receptive to this research approach. The main objective of this work is to know how a group of students perceives qualitative research and a curricular unit of research methods, centered on qualitative methodology, after its completion. The study has a qualitative and exploratory nature. Participants were a group of 11 students (10 women and one man), enrolled in a 2nd cycle course, in Educational Psychology, at a Portuguese Public University, in the academic year 2019/2020. Informed consent and voluntary participation were ensured. Data collection was carried out through the production of individual narratives, following guiding topics. The texts were subjected to content analysis, carried out by two coders, following a deductive and an inductive logic. The data obtained reveal students' knowledge about the qualitative research organized in the categories: Paradigms/Worldview, Purpose of the Research, Dimension of the Phenomenon and Ontological, Methodological, Epistemological and Axiological Assumptions. Related to the course unit, perceptions associated with the categories Motivational Aspects, Teaching-learning Process and Learning Transfer were highlighted. The attendance of the curricular unit seems to have contributed to the deepening of the students' knowledge about qualitative research, demystifying beliefs, experimenting, and valuing this new investigative approach. They also suggest that qualitative research training should occur earlier in their academic trajectory at undergraduate level.