Teaching qualitative research in comparative social policy

The use of qualitative methods is growing in social policy research, and the contributions of qualitative research for policy studies have increasingly been recognised. Despite these trends, quantitative studies continue to account for a higher proportion of policy research. Although the existing literature is concerned primarily with how to conduct qualitative research, some scholars have examined pedagogical approaches to teaching qualitative research. Literature on teaching qualitative research in comparative social policy is uncommon, however. Likewise, whilst international organisations have been actively producing and publishing data on welfare institutions in various countries, that data has largely been generated through quantitative methods, providing statistical evidence. International comparative data based on qualitative research is harder to find, although some qualitative data are available from the UK Data Services. Against this backdrop, this chapter highlights the main contributions of qualitative methods in policy research, and key issues and challenges relating to teaching qualitative research in comparative social policy.