Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research

All students are required to meet the general university admission requirements.

Students currently admitted to a doctoral degree program should contact Dr. Jia Liang or edleadership@ksu.edu prior to completing the Graduate School application.

Learning new proficiencies in qualitative methods can provide the tools to enhance research skills as well as lead to a range of employment opportunities within:

• government agencies
• universities
• consulting firms
• research industries
• marketing firms
• nonprofit organizations

Required (9 credits)

• EDLEA 838 - Qualitative Research in Education (3 credits)
• EDLEA 938 - Advanced Data Analysis in Qualitative Methods (3 credits)
• EDLEA 948 - Data Representation and Writing in Qualitative Research (3 credits)

Electives (6-9 credits)

• EDCI 760 - Action Research in Education (3 credits)
• EDCI 920 - Narrative Inquiry in Education (3 credits)
• EDLEA 828 - Scholarly Orientation to Graduate Studies (3 credits)^
• EDLEA 848 - Understanding Theoretical Frameworks (3 credits or equivalent)
• EDLEA 929 - Narrative and Arts-Based Inquiry in Qualitative Research (3 credits or equivalent)
• EDLEA 958 - Case Study in Qualitative Research (3 credits)
• EDLEA 968 - Discourse Analysis (3 credits)
• EDLEA 978 - Qualitative Data Management and Analysis Using NVivo (3 credits)
• EDLEA 988 - Differentiated Research (3 credits)
• HDFS 809 - Qualitative Research Methods in Human Development and Family Science (3 credits or equivalent)*
• HDFS 808 - Topics in Applied Family Science (1 credit or equivalent)*
• THTRE 862 - Workshop in Playwriting (3 credits)
• THTRE 880 - Project in Ethnodrama (3 credits)*

*Course is not available online at K-State
^ Can only be used if you choose to write a research interest paper that explores a research interest via qualitative inquiry.

Applied Project (0-3 credits)
The applied project could constitute a completion of a dissertation using qualitative methods. If you wish to use your completed dissertation using qualitative methods you could use a maximum of 3 credit hours to complete this requirement. Certificates will be granted only after the completion of a dissertation.

If you wish to submit a publishable paper to a refereed journal based on an empirical study, you could use 3 credit hours earned from EDLEA 988 - Differentiated Research.

Other ways of submitting a publishable paper to a refereed journal could include, but are not limited to, preparing the manuscript as a result of specific coursework, preparing the manuscript as an independent study with a faculty member or preparing the manuscript outside of coursework through your own initiative.