Teaching Using the Timescapes Archive
The Timescapes Archive is available without charge for teaching purposes.
To facilitate this, the Archive has a dedicated teaching dataset. This is comprised of most of the data from the original seven empirical studies under the original ESRC Timescapes: Changing Lives and Times study. The dataset was collated, cleaned and prepared by Weller, S., Davidson, E., Edwards, R. and Jamieson, L. (2019) Big Qual Analysis: Teaching Dataset. Timescapes Archive https://doi.org/10.23635/14. This was funded by a three-year grant from the Economic and Social Research Council National Centre for Research Methods (Grant ID: ES/L008351/1), and redeposited into the Archive.
Using the teaching resources of the Timescapes Archive provides an invaluable opportunity for students to engage with real world research, understand what qualitative data look like, and learn a range of methods for working with them.
Teaching using the Archive does not need to be restricted to pedagogical purposes, but can facilitate new research and findings by the students such as in this example from the University of Southampton:
Teaching can involve a brief series of sessions, or a complete module. A possible model for course design can be found here:
Using the Timescapes Archive Teaching Dataset
The data in the Teaching Dataset must be treated in an ethical manner and ways which comply with General Data Protection Legislation as well as University of Leeds data security and governance requirements. Resources for thinking about the ethical re-use of data can be found in out knowledge bank.
You will find ‘How To’ guides for using and navigating the Teaching Dataset here:
You might also want to explore teaching exemplars on our Partner websites, such as those on the UKDA Service
Finally, SAGE Methods have kindly donated a chapter by Maureen Haaker on Qualitative Secondary Analysis and Teaching for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis, free of charge.
Information for Course Leaders
Teaching using the Timescapes Archive involves registration by the course leader for access to the datasets. Registration needs to occur several weeks before the start of teaching. This will allow time for all the registration documentation to be completed, as well as preparation of accounts and passwords for the students.
The course leader will also be sent Terms and Conditions for using the Timescapes Archive. These set out the controls on sharing data or passwords with third parties, the confidentiality safeguards that are in place to protect data on individuals and groups, and how to cite the data in publications.
There are several steps in preparation for registration and these are as follows:
- As part of the registration process, the course leader will receive an administration pack, including registration documents and the Terms and Conditions for using the Archive.
- The course leader will be expected to familiarise themselves with these documents in preparation for presenting them to their students.
- Before students are given access to the Teaching Dataset, the course leader will be required to present the Timescapes Archive User Terms and Conditions and discuss any questions asked by students.
- The course leader will be responsible for ensuring each student prints, signs and dates the sign-up sheet that will be provided to verify that they have received, read and understood the Archive’s Terms and Conditions.
- Signed registration forms will be returned to the Research Data Leeds team, responsible for managing the Archive, and the course leader and students will be guided through the process of accessing their account and individual password details.
- Access for students to the Timescapes Archive will be time restricted within the specified start and end dates of their course.
If you have any queries or comments on this, please do contact us, we would be delighted to hear from you.