Teaching qualitative research methods in political science: does one size fits all?

Abstract

Despite the relevance of qualitative methods in political science, the process of teaching qualitative research has received relatively little attention in the literature. What is it like to teach qualitative research in political science? This paper focuses on the teaching of qualitative research by exploring examples from Brazil. The country is home to some of the largest higher education providers of political science in Latin America; however, the teaching of appropriate research methods is still incomplete. This paper identifies challenges to qualitative methods education in the country and its evolution. It provides lessons about the teaching of qualitative methods that can be relevant to educators in less institutionalized political science departments, to non-English speaking learners, and to Global South scholars.