The online research seminar/webinar "Religious Practices, Education and Digitalization: Research Methods" was held on April 29, 2021, at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. The seminar, which was attended by teachers, young scholars and doctoral students of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, was held within the framework of the research activities of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, as well as the research project “Religious Institutions and Practice in Kazakhstan in the Context of Digitalization and Changing Social Space at a Times of COVID Pandemiсs” that has been implementing at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of al-Farabi Kazakh National University (the project funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, ГФ МОН РК 2020-2021, ИРН AP08956706, project leader Dr. Laura Yerekesheva).
The seminar theme was focused on how to choose and use research methods and make an analysis of the results obtained using the case of the ongoing research on religious practices and education during the pandemic.
In her presentation Dr. Laura Yerekesheva, in particular, discussed the following research methods - a group interview in focus groups, an in-depth interview, an expert survey.
Using the project topic as an example, the seminar participants had the opportunity to learn:
• what are focus groups, by what criteria they are created, the number of their participants;
• why expert surveys are needed; the pros and cons of the language factor in expert surveys;
• what in-depth interviews can give and how to conduct them;
• how to analyze and apply the results obtained.
During the research seminar, some of the project outcomes obtained as a result of using the above research methods, were also presented. Dr. Laura Yerekesheva and Dr. Saltanat Jakubayeva spoke about the results of an online expert survey among Kazakhstani and foreign experts, using infographics in their presentations. The seminar aroused great interest from the audience, the video recording of the seminar is subsequently planned to be posted on the online platform being created as part of the implementation of this project.