Teaching
Ewen Speed has been teaching qualitative research to medical sociology students at the University of Essex for the past 3 years using real data from the UK Data Service. However, instead of presenting data collections in the classroom, Speed introduces students to the UK Data Service and how to search for data instead. This is done with an eye towards them using UK Data Service-held data in their final assessment, an ambitious 3,000 word paper comparing the original analysis of the chosen dataset with a new analysis of their own. He says this fits in well with the class’ philosophy that focuses less on specific methodology and techniques and more on the analytical frameworks and the theories that underpin them.
Speed thinks that the UK Data Service data is excellent for the Masters level where students do not have the time, and in many cases the funding and approval, to collect primary data on their own. Speed argues that having data that is rooted in the real world, with the accompanying problems arising from the imperfect collection of data, is important for students to truly grasp the analytical concepts being taught in the course. This is why he finds UK Data Service datasets so valuable.
Though secondary analysis is not the main theme of the course, it ends up being a key portion of the final assessment as students do a rudimentary secondary analysis on their chosen data collection. Speed also says that a number of his students have returned to the UK Data Service to choose data for their dissertations. Mirroring the experience of other teachers who have introduced students to UK Data Service data collections, he says students were amazed at the amount of data both open and available. “[They think,] ‘the data is there, it’d be foolish not to use it’”. Speed has also supervised students who go outside the qualitative or medical framework after seeing what the UK Data Service covers in other areas.
Speed believes the student choice is what sets this approach apart. Students that choose data on their own feel more connected to the data and can work in an area they are personally interested in. This in many ways more closely mirrors the research work many of them will go on to do when analysing previously unused data from a wide variety of sources. Speed notes that the UK Data Service offers the best of both worlds in this regard, offering real data with challenging imperfections but also being well documented and relatively easy for a newcomer to use. “I think it’s an excellent resource in terms of being a destination for students to get their hands-on real, well-organised, data,” he says.
Speed will continue teaching this class in the coming academic year.
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