Qualitative Research Methods Training Course

Duration 10 days 19 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends M&E Officers, MEAL Managers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-ME-070

Before you join: Participants should understand basic monitoring and evaluation concepts, including indicators, data collection and programme objectives.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Development and humanitarian programmes often need to explain why results occurred, how people experienced services, and which barriers were not visible in monitoring data. Surveys, indicators and administrative records can show patterns, but they rarely explain decision-making, power relations, trust, exclusion, coping strategies or unintended effects. Poorly planned qualitative work can produce anecdotal findings, expose participants to risk, or generate evidence that decision-makers cannot use.

This course equips participants to plan, conduct, analyse and report qualitative research for monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning. It covers research questions, qualitative sampling, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, observation, participatory methods, document review, coding, thematic analysis and interpretation. Participants learn to develop defensible findings by linking evidence to an evaluation framework, assessing credibility, managing researcher bias, applying informed consent, and integrating qualitative findings with quantitative evidence.

Instructor-led sessions combine short technical briefings with realistic cases from humanitarian response, social protection, health, education and livelihoods programmes. Participants work progressively on a qualitative study relevant to their own setting, including a research protocol, sampling plan, data-collection tools, codebook, analysis matrix and reporting outline. They leave with a reviewed qualitative research package that can be adapted for an evaluation, needs assessment, post-distribution monitoring exercise, accountability review or learning study.

The course is intended for monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning staff; programme managers; researchers; technical advisers; assessment teams; and consultants who already work with development or humanitarian evidence and need stronger qualitative research capability.

What you will be able to do

  • Formulate qualitative research questions linked to programme theories and evaluation criteria
  • Develop a qualitative research protocol with sampling, ethics and data-management procedures
  • Design interview guides, focus group guides and observation checklists
  • Select purposive sampling strategies appropriate to evaluation questions and stakeholder groups
  • Conduct ethical key informant interviews and focus group discussions
  • Code qualitative data using a structured codebook and thematic framework
  • Interpret findings through triangulation, negative-case analysis and evidence matrices
  • Produce a credible qualitative research report with actionable findings and recommendations

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Design qualitative studies that answer management and evaluation questions
  • Facilitate interviews without leading respondents or weakening informed consent
  • Analyse narrative evidence systematically rather than relying on memorable quotations
  • Defend qualitative findings during donor, management and evaluation review meetings
  • Build a reusable portfolio of research tools for future assignments

For your organisation

  • Improves the quality and credibility of beneficiary and stakeholder evidence
  • Reduces weak sampling, poorly documented interviews and unsupported conclusions
  • Produces findings that explain programme performance behind quantitative indicators
  • Strengthens safeguarding and ethical controls during community-facing data collection
  • Creates reusable protocols, tools and analysis templates for assessment teams

Course modules

19 modules over 10 days

Participants can distinguish qualitative research purposes and frame their contribution to monitoring and evaluation.

  • Qualitative inquiry for explanation, experience, process and unintended effects
  • Differences between monitoring, evaluation, assessment and qualitative research
  • Research paradigms: constructivist, realist, interpretivist and pragmatic approaches
  • When qualitative evidence adds value beyond indicator reporting
  • Common qualitative designs used in development and humanitarian programmes
  • Evidence claims matched to descriptive, explanatory and exploratory questions

Participants can translate programme theories and decision needs into focused qualitative research questions.

  • Theory of change assumptions converted into qualitative lines of inquiry
  • OECD DAC criteria translated into answerable qualitative research questions
  • Process evaluation questions examining implementation fidelity and adaptation
  • Questions for participant experience, access, inclusion and perceived change
  • Scope boundaries set through population, geography, timeframe and decision use
  • Research question hierarchy linking primary questions and subquestions

Participants can select and justify an appropriate qualitative design for a defined study purpose.

  • Case study design for bounded programmes, sites or implementation models
  • Phenomenological inquiry examining lived experience of services or displacement
  • Rapid qualitative inquiry for time-constrained humanitarian decision-making
  • Ethnographic observation for social norms, practices and service interactions
  • Most Significant Change for participant-defined outcomes and learning
  • Design rationale aligned with questions, resources, risks and intended use

Participants can prepare a purposive sampling plan that addresses diversity, relevance and feasibility.

  • Purposive sampling matched to stakeholder groups and information needs
  • Maximum variation sampling across gender, age, disability and location
  • Criterion sampling for participants with defined programme experiences
  • Snowball sampling controls for gatekeeper bias and social networks
  • Sample size guided by information power and thematic saturation
  • Sampling matrices documenting inclusion, exclusion and recruitment pathways

Participants can apply ethical safeguards throughout a qualitative research process.

  • Informed consent procedures for interviews, recordings and voluntary participation
  • Assent and guardian consent requirements for research involving children
  • Confidentiality protections in small communities and identifiable case narratives
  • Referral protocols for distress, disclosure, protection and safeguarding concerns
  • Power analysis covering researchers, gatekeepers, participants and interpreters
  • Data minimisation principles for sensitive personal and protection information

Participants can produce a practical protocol governing qualitative fieldwork and quality controls.

  • Research protocol sections: purpose, methods, ethics, roles and timeline
  • Fieldwork plans sequencing recruitment, data collection, debriefs and review
  • Enumerator and facilitator roles separated to reduce response bias
  • Translation and interpretation procedures preserving participant meaning accurately
  • Risk registers covering access, security, consent and data protection
  • Quality assurance checkpoints before, during and after fieldwork

Participants can design and conduct key informant interviews that produce relevant, credible evidence.

  • Key informant selection based on role, experience and perspective
  • Semi-structured interview guides organised around research questions
  • Open-ended probes that elicit examples, mechanisms and contrasting views
  • Neutral questioning techniques that reduce leading and social desirability bias
  • Interview sequencing from contextual questions to sensitive subject matter
  • Closing interviews with summary checks, referrals and consent confirmation

Participants can plan and facilitate focus group discussions suitable for defined participant groups.

  • Focus group suitability assessed against sensitivity, hierarchy and participant safety
  • Group composition based on shared experience and manageable power differences
  • Discussion guides structured with opening, transition, key and closing questions
  • Facilitation techniques for quieter voices, disagreement and dominant participants
  • Participatory ranking and prioritisation methods within group discussions
  • Documentation procedures capturing consensus, dissent, context and nonverbal responses

Participants can gather contextual evidence through structured observation and document review.

  • Structured observation protocols for service delivery, meetings and community interactions
  • Field notes separating observation, interpretation, reflection and follow-up questions
  • Non-participant and participant observation roles, boundaries and ethical implications
  • Document review matrices for proposals, reports, records and policy documents
  • Content analysis of programme documentation against evaluation questions
  • Observational evidence triangulated with interviews and administrative records

Participants can select participatory methods that support inclusive analysis with communities.

  • Community mapping to identify services, access barriers and local resources
  • Seasonal calendars examining livelihood cycles, risks and service demand
  • Timeline methods documenting programme events, shocks and perceived changes
  • Problem tree analysis separating causes, effects and stakeholder perspectives
  • Pairwise ranking for locally defined priorities and service preferences
  • Facilitation safeguards preventing elite capture and exclusion within participatory groups

Participants can assess and strengthen the credibility, dependability and transparency of qualitative evidence.

  • Credibility strengthened through prolonged engagement, probing and member checking
  • Dependability supported by documented procedures and an audit trail
  • Confirmability addressed through reflexive notes and analytic decision records
  • Transferability supported by thick description of context and participants
  • Negative-case analysis testing emerging explanations against contradictory evidence
  • Reflexivity statements identifying researcher assumptions, position and influence

Participants can organise transcripts, notes and metadata for secure, traceable analysis.

  • Transcription standards preserving relevant pauses, emphasis and local terminology
  • Translation review procedures checking meaning, idiom and technical language
  • De-identification methods removing names, locations and indirect identifiers
  • File naming conventions linking records to sampling and consent documentation
  • Data management plans defining access, storage, retention and disposal
  • Transcript familiarisation through repeated reading and analytic memo writing

Participants can apply systematic coding to organise qualitative data for analysis.

  • Deductive codes derived from research questions and conceptual frameworks
  • Inductive codes developed from recurring participant language and experiences
  • Codebook fields covering definitions, inclusion rules and exclusion rules
  • Descriptive coding applied to actors, events, settings and programme components
  • In vivo coding preserving participant terms with analytical significance
  • Inter-coder discussion resolving inconsistent interpretation of code definitions

Participants can develop themes and analytical matrices from coded qualitative evidence.

  • Thematic analysis moves from codes to patterned meanings and explanations
  • Framework analysis matrices compare cases, groups, sites and time periods
  • Theme development distinguishes categories, patterns, mechanisms and outcomes
  • Analytic memos record emerging claims, uncertainties and supporting evidence
  • Matrix displays connect participant groups with themes and illustrative extracts
  • Theme refinement tests coherence, distinctiveness and relevance to questions

Participants can interpret qualitative findings without overstating causality or generalisability.

  • Contribution analysis examines plausible links between intervention and observed change
  • Process tracing tests causal mechanisms through predicted evidence patterns
  • Rival explanations identified before finalising causal interpretations
  • Participant attribution distinguished from independently supported contribution claims
  • Contextual factors analysed as enablers, constraints and alternative causes
  • Inference statements calibrated to evidence strength and study limitations

Participants can integrate qualitative and quantitative evidence into coherent findings.

  • Method triangulation compares interviews, observations, documents and survey results
  • Source triangulation examines agreement across participant groups and locations
  • Convergence coding identifies confirmation, complementarity, dissonance and silence
  • Joint displays integrate qualitative themes with quantitative indicator patterns
  • Discrepant evidence investigated rather than omitted from reporting
  • Mixed-methods conclusions explain what happened, why and for whom

Participants can write usable qualitative findings that show evidence, limitations and implications.

  • Finding statements present claims before evidence and interpretation
  • Quotations selected for relevance, anonymity and illustrative value
  • Evidence tables distinguish participant views, observations and document sources
  • Limitations sections address sampling, access, bias and transferability
  • Recommendations linked to findings, feasibility, responsibility and timeframe
  • SRQR reporting elements applied to qualitative research documentation

Participants can adapt qualitative evidence for management, community and donor audiences.

  • Audience analysis identifies decisions, concerns and evidence requirements
  • Management briefings prioritise findings requiring immediate programme action
  • Community feedback sessions communicate findings in accessible, safe formats
  • Learning products distinguish operational lessons from formal evaluation conclusions
  • Data visualisation choices support qualitative matrices, timelines and participant journeys
  • Action tracking assigns owners, deadlines and evidence of response

Participants can build, review and present a complete qualitative research package for a defined programme question.

  • Research questions linked explicitly to programme theory and intended decisions
  • Protocol integrates design, sampling, ethics, methods and fieldwork controls
  • Interview or discussion guide aligned with each research question
  • Codebook and analysis matrix demonstrate traceable thematic analysis
  • Findings outline distinguishes evidence, interpretation, limitations and recommendations
  • Peer review tests feasibility, ethics, credibility and intended use

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Qualitative research protocol template
  2. Purposive sampling matrix
  3. Interview and focus group guide set
  4. Informed consent and safeguarding checklist
  5. Qualitative codebook and analysis matrix
  6. Qualitative findings report outline

Who should attend

  • M&E Officers — need credible qualitative evidence alongside routine monitoring data
  • MEAL Managers — oversee assessments, evaluations and accountability evidence
  • Programme Managers — need beneficiary perspectives to improve programme decisions
  • Evaluation Consultants — require repeatable qualitative design and analysis methods
  • Humanitarian Assessment Staff — collect evidence under operational and ethical constraints
  • Technical Advisers — need to interpret qualitative findings for adaptive management

Skills and tools covered

Qualitative study designInterview facilitationPurposive samplingThematic analysisResearch ethicsEvidence triangulation

Tools and standards

OECD DAC evaluation criteria, SRQR, Framework analysis, Contribution analysis

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings, worked examples, case material and guided application to development and humanitarian research questions. Participants review sample transcripts, identify sampling risks, refine interview questions, practise coding and test interpretations against conflicting evidence. Group work examines ethical dilemmas, power dynamics and operational constraints in field research. A progressive course assignment allows each participant to build a qualitative study package from design through reporting. Facilitator feedback is provided at key review points, including the final capstone presentation.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic monitoring and evaluation concepts, including indicators, data collection and programme objectives. Experience supporting surveys, assessments, programme monitoring, evaluations or community engagement is useful. Participants should be comfortable reading project documents and discussing evidence in small groups. Prior qualitative research experience is not required, and neither statistical analysis nor specialist software expertise is assumed. The course introduces manual coding methods before discussing computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software. Participants who bring a current programme question or planned study will gain the most directly usable output.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should understand basic monitoring and evaluation concepts and have some exposure to programme data, assessments or stakeholder engagement. Previous qualitative research, statistics and qualitative analysis software experience are not required.

Participants should bring a laptop and, where possible, a current programme question, theory of change, assessment plan or evaluation terms of reference. Course materials and sample qualitative datasets are provided.

It is designed for M&E, MEAL, programme, assessment and evaluation professionals working in development and humanitarian settings. It is particularly useful for staff who commission, collect, review or use qualitative evidence.

This course focuses on generating and analysing narrative, observational and participatory evidence. It does not teach statistical testing, survey sampling calculations or questionnaire-based impact measurement, although it covers integrating qualitative findings with quantitative results.

Participants develop a research package that can be adapted for a needs assessment, evaluation, post-distribution monitoring study, accountability review or learning inquiry. The templates support repeat use by internal teams and consultants.

The first part develops study design, ethics, sampling and data-collection methods. The later sessions focus on coding, analysis, interpretation, reporting and a capstone research package; each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 with about 6.5 contact hours.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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