Teaching a Qualitative Research Seminar on Sensitive Issues

Abstract

The present article describes several methodological questions with which I have had to contend over the past four years regarding teaching a qualitative research seminar. The topic of the seminar is ‘Intimate Violence against Women’, and the students come from very diverse backgrounds (Arabs, Druze, Jews, young and mature students, and new immigrants from Ethiopia and Russia). The present article addresses two principal subjects: (1) The epistemological resistance, which discusses the basic difficulties my students, especially the younger ones, express in accepting qualitative epistemology; and, (2) various questions regarding my own difficulties in deciding what are the recommended limits of reflexivity at each stage of research. The question of reflexivity relates to the fact that the seminar’s subject matter is a ‘sensitive issue’ (Renzetti and Lee, 1993). The present article draws on examples and verbatim quotes from my students, presented with my own questions and reflections.