‘Issue-Based Research’ and ‘Process Methodology’: reflections on a postgraduate Master’s programme in qualitative methods

This article describes the conceptual foundation of a Master’s programme in qualitative methods aimed at training professional qualitative researchers in the field of social and marketing psychology. Two principles underpin the Master’s project: anchorage to research questions generated by the real social context as the driver of the entire development of the research project (i.e., ‘issue-based research’); and the adoption of what is called ‘process methodology’ as the methodological interconnection between the features of the social field (i.e., the context of the research) and of the research field (i.e., the study’s scope). In practice, process methodology requires the learning of three sets of competences (content, contextual and flow) related to qualitative research. Those competences are devoted to the implementation and management of applied qualitative research able to produce situated knowledge and to enhance the transferability and usability of that knowledge. The article gives details of both the didactic structure of the programme as well as the teaching devices adopted.