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The Qualitative Report

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2016

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Articles 31 - 58 of 58

Full-Text Articles in Education

(Im)Possible Identity: Autoethnographic (Re)Presentations, Seungho Moon, Christopher Strople Jul 2016

(Im)Possible Identity: Autoethnographic (Re)Presentations, Seungho Moon, Christopher Strople

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, we examine experience, identity, and their intersections. Working from an autoethnographic positionality, we investigate the insufficiencies of language and the limitations of any given researcher with an intent to address multiple realities and their respective interpretations of meaning. Autoethnographic narratives with the use of visual, written, and multimedia representations further acknowledge the dilemmas of qualitative researchers when they cannot fully describe subjectivities in research. What is deemed to be valid research is often indicative of a theoretical framework that aggressively seeks to invalidate other perspectives and ways of knowing. Thus, we create research spaces by employing counter-narratives …


Hello Bordello: Transformative Learning Through Contesting The Master Narrative Of The Cathouse, Micki Voelkel, Shelli Henehan Jul 2016

Hello Bordello: Transformative Learning Through Contesting The Master Narrative Of The Cathouse, Micki Voelkel, Shelli Henehan

The Qualitative Report

Miss Laura’s Social Club is a restored Victorian brothel that serves as the visitors’ center for Fort Smith, Arkansas. Miss Laura’s reflects the values and power structures of the community in which it exists reinforcing the dominance of privileged white males. This qualitative study analyzed the results of three previous studies about Miss Laura’s—a case study, a social science portraiture study, and an embedded thematic analysis. The primary research question was What is the master narrative of Miss Laura’s Social Club? The original case study consisted of semi-structured interviews with three docents and 16 visitors to the site, four site …


Positional Challenges And Advantages Of A Phd Student Researching The Phd, Chang Da Wan Jul 2016

Positional Challenges And Advantages Of A Phd Student Researching The Phd, Chang Da Wan

The Qualitative Report

It is fairly uncommon for a PhD student to conduct a study that looks at PhD education, and this paper discusses the challenges and advantages of my experience as a PhD student in conducting a PhD research about the PhD. This PhD research project was not an action research or self-reflective of my own educational journey. In this paper, I identify the challenges concerning my position as both a PhD student and a researcher exploring the educational processes of the PhD, and illustrate the ways I adopted to overcome these challenges. I also point out that having addressed these challenges; …


Our Academic Sandbox: Scholarly Identities Shaped Through Play, Tantrums, Building Castles, And Rebuffing Backyard Bullies, Denise Mcdonald, Cheryl Craig, Carrie Markello, Michele Kahn Jun 2016

Our Academic Sandbox: Scholarly Identities Shaped Through Play, Tantrums, Building Castles, And Rebuffing Backyard Bullies, Denise Mcdonald, Cheryl Craig, Carrie Markello, Michele Kahn

The Qualitative Report

This paper presents four teacher educators’ stories that explore their scholarly identity development through an Academic Sandbox metaphor where Play, Tantrums, Building Castles, and Rebuffing Backyard Bullies, serve as creative constructs for describing their experiences of triumphs and challenges in academia. The authors share how a professional learning community (Faculty Academy) functioned as the safe space for “participatory sense-making” (See De Jaegher & Di Paolo, 2007) where situated agency emerged and became strengthened through the telling of the teachers’ stories (Archer, 2003; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Kligyte, 2011; McGann, 2014; McLean, Pasupathi, & Pals, 2007). Stories representative of each metaphorical …


Using Graphic Elicitation To Explore Community College Transfer Student Identity, Development, And Engagement, Sheri K. Rodriguez, Monica Reid Kerrigan Jun 2016

Using Graphic Elicitation To Explore Community College Transfer Student Identity, Development, And Engagement, Sheri K. Rodriguez, Monica Reid Kerrigan

The Qualitative Report

The focus of this paper is to illustrate the use of graphic elicitation, in the form of a relational map, to explore community college transfer student (CCTS) identity, development, and engagement at four-year institutions. Using graphic elicitation illuminated aspects of CCTSs that they may not have been able to otherwise verbalize, and was used in combination with interview questions designed to capture participants' development and engagement, investigating how they made meaning of their institutional experiences. A constructivist grounded theory approach was applied, given the lack of available literature pertaining to CCTSs in these areas. This paper draws upon and contributes …


The Construct Definition Of An English Language Teachers’ Content Knowledge, Reza Khani, Anna Hajizadeh May 2016

The Construct Definition Of An English Language Teachers’ Content Knowledge, Reza Khani, Anna Hajizadeh

The Qualitative Report

Regardless of the increasing emphasis on the importance of language teachers’ content knowledge, there is a lack of consensus regarding its constituents. To this end, a panel of experts and non-experts were requested to express their opinions regarding the constructs of content knowledge (CK) in the format of an open-ended written questionnaire. The findings indicate that teachers’ CK includes eleven categories: teaching skills, structures, method and approaches, curriculum, language acquisition theories, classroom context, language testing theories, learner related knowledge, ELT research methods, and teacher related knowledge. The findings can help training educated teachers to be familiar with various aspects of …


Arab English Language Teaching Candidates Climbing The Ielts Mountain: A Qualitatively Driven Hermeneutic Phenomenology Study, Ali Al-Issa, Ali H. Al-Bulushi, Rima Al-Zadjali May 2016

Arab English Language Teaching Candidates Climbing The Ielts Mountain: A Qualitatively Driven Hermeneutic Phenomenology Study, Ali Al-Issa, Ali H. Al-Bulushi, Rima Al-Zadjali

The Qualitative Report

As a high-stakes international language proficiency benchmark, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) requires different and special Language Learning Strategies (LLS), which pose numerous challenges to its takers. Some Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) majoring in English Language Teaching (ELT), have therefore, failed to achieve an overall score of Band 6 on the IELTS as a language proficiency requirement and a condition mandated by the Ministry of Education for selecting English language teachers among. This qualitatively driven hermeneutic phenomenology study, hence, discusses this issue from an ideological perspective. The study triangulates data from semi-structured interviews made with six fourth-year ELT …


Consciousness-Raising Or Unintentionally Oppressive?, Meagan Call-Cummings, Sylvia Martinez May 2016

Consciousness-Raising Or Unintentionally Oppressive?, Meagan Call-Cummings, Sylvia Martinez

The Qualitative Report

Photovoice is typically used in community and participatory research to allow people to document and interpret their everyday lived experiences. However, often photovoice is used as a research method without deep reflection on its underlying goals and epistemological commitments to critically empower its participants and spark reflective dialogue within a community. This article showcases selections from a photovoice exhibit and its accompanying survey of exhibit attendees to explore possible negative unintended consequences of this action-oriented approach to research if researchers are not appropriately reflexive in how photovoice is used. Drawing on a long-term participatory action research (PAR) project with a …


Preparing For Interview Research: The Interview Protocol Refinement Framework, Milagros Castillo-Montoya May 2016

Preparing For Interview Research: The Interview Protocol Refinement Framework, Milagros Castillo-Montoya

The Qualitative Report

This article presents the interview protocol refinement (IPR) framework comprised of a four-phase process for systematically developing and refining an interview protocol. The four-phase process includes: (1) ensuring interview questions align with research questions, (2) constructing an inquiry-based conversation, (3) receiving feedback on interview protocols, and (4) piloting the interview protocol. The IRP method can support efforts to strengthen the reliability of interview protocols used for qualitative research and thereby contribute to improving the quality of data obtained from research interviews.


Beyond Theoretical Sensitivity: The Benefits Of Cultural Intuition Within Qualitative Research And Freirean Generative Themes: Four Unique Perspectives, Janet Rocha, Lluliana Alonso, Michaela J. López Mares-Tamayo, Elexia Reyes Mcgovern Apr 2016

Beyond Theoretical Sensitivity: The Benefits Of Cultural Intuition Within Qualitative Research And Freirean Generative Themes: Four Unique Perspectives, Janet Rocha, Lluliana Alonso, Michaela J. López Mares-Tamayo, Elexia Reyes Mcgovern

The Qualitative Report

To address the benefits of cultural intuition on qualitative inquiry, we highlight four qualitative studies and examine how we, as Chicana scholars, embrace the role cultural intuition plays in our individual studies. In this article, we illustrate how cultural intuition informs our use of Freirean generative themes within our methodological approach. For an in-depth illustration, we each highlight one of the four tenets of cultural intuition and explain how that tenet advises our methodological tools - such as family photographs as archive, student-generated photographs, teacher-generated artifacts, and community archival sources - to create Freirean generative themes with our participants and …


Fostering Transformative Learning In An Online Esl Professional Development Program For K-12 Teachers, Karin Sprow Forte, David Blouin Apr 2016

Fostering Transformative Learning In An Online Esl Professional Development Program For K-12 Teachers, Karin Sprow Forte, David Blouin

The Qualitative Report

This qualitative study examines evidence of transformative learning surrounding sociocultural issues in the K-12 classroom of in-service teachers, while participating in an online English as a Second Language (ESL) professional development program. Using inductive data analysis, precursors and catalysts to transformative learning were identified to understand the ways in which 24 purposefully sampled participants experienced learning. Areas explored included ways in which the candidates participated in critical reflection of their own perspectives, ways in which this process affected their meaning making of their experiences, potential for action in changing their practice as ESL educators, and transformative learning features present throughout …


The Erasmus Teaching Staff Mobility: The Perspectives And Experiences Of Turkish Elt Academics, Enisa Mede, Filiz Tuzun Apr 2016

The Erasmus Teaching Staff Mobility: The Perspectives And Experiences Of Turkish Elt Academics, Enisa Mede, Filiz Tuzun

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perspectives and experiences of the Turkish ELT academics about joining ERASMUS Teaching Staff Mobility Program. Under the light of former studies and literature, this study attempts to investigate the preferences of the ELT academics for participating in the ERASMUS Teaching Staff Mobility, to examine the contribution of the enrollment in this program to their professional development and home institution, and finally, to learn about the problems they faced during the mobility period(s). Purposive sample method was used to select seventeen Turkish ELT academics to participate in this study. The data were …


Whose Reality? A Meta-Analysis Of Qualitative Research In International And Comparative Education, Romina B. Da Costa, Stephanie M. Hall, Anne Spear Apr 2016

Whose Reality? A Meta-Analysis Of Qualitative Research In International And Comparative Education, Romina B. Da Costa, Stephanie M. Hall, Anne Spear

The Qualitative Report

This meta-analysis seeks to critically examine the qualitative research being published in influential journals in the field of international and comparative education in order to determine whether qualitative research has remained true to the constructivist paradigm and its theoretical and philosophical underpinnings. Decades after the heated paradigmatic debates within the field of education in the 1980’s, we seek to examine whether predictions that the constructivist paradigm would be pushed out by the call for post-positivist, quantifiable, data-driven research have come to fruition. Based on a review of all qualitative research published in the past three volumes of five influential journals …


The Impact Of Cultural Values On Chinese Students In American Higher Education:, Min Wang Apr 2016

The Impact Of Cultural Values On Chinese Students In American Higher Education:, Min Wang

The Qualitative Report

Chinese students who pursue their higher education in America benefit from the high quality of education in this country, which includes a richness and diversity of subjects, facility of research resources, and high academic standards. At the same time, they are under pressure, which results from culture shock and includes fear of failing, the language barrier, lack of class participation, homesickness, and isolation from their host culture, resulting in mental problems such as depression, frustration, and students dropping out. This study reveals the negative influence of Chinese cultural values on these students in American higher education by making use of …


A Qualitative Research On Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety, Selami Aydin Apr 2016

A Qualitative Research On Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety, Selami Aydin

The Qualitative Report

While research mainly focuses on identification of anxiety, its causes and effects on the learning process and the ways to allay anxiety among foreign language learners, foreign language teaching anxiety has remained a research area that has not attracted much attention. Therefore, in the context of teaching anxiety among pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL), the current study aims to investigate the sources of foreign language teaching anxiety (FLTA). The sample group in the study consisted of 60 pre-service teachers. A background questionnaire, interviews, reflections and essay papers were used to collect qualitative data. The results indicated …


Diving Into Autoethnographic Narrative Inquiry: Uncovering Hidden Tensions Below The Surface, Brooke B. Eisenbach Mar 2016

Diving Into Autoethnographic Narrative Inquiry: Uncovering Hidden Tensions Below The Surface, Brooke B. Eisenbach

The Qualitative Report

As a graduate student, I was awakened to the world of autoethnographic narrative inquiry. It was a world I was eager to traverse as I completed my doctoral coursework, and engaged in my final dissertation research. Yet, I was unaware of my naiveté at inviting others to share in my lived experience. As I engaged in an autoethnographic narrative inquiry of my first year as an online teacher, I found myself entangled in a world of hidden tensions I never expected to uncover. In this article, I share the personal tensions that surfaced as I entered into the world of …


The Nature Of Teacher Learning In Collaborative Data Teams, Robert Michaud Mar 2016

The Nature Of Teacher Learning In Collaborative Data Teams, Robert Michaud

The Qualitative Report

As data teams have grown in popularity in recent years, they have been increasingly looked to by educational researchers because of the tantalizing prospect of combining teachers’ on the job professional development with increased and effective data use to drive instruction. Data teams have been increasingly implemented within schools by educational leaders attempting to take advantage of what teachers learn from each other in the context of a data team. Many conceptual models of data team function have been proposed, but few empirical studies have examined how teachers learn from collaborating with each other in a data team. This paper …


Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis From A Realist Perspective, Hyeseung Jeong, Juliana Othman Mar 2016

Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis From A Realist Perspective, Hyeseung Jeong, Juliana Othman

The Qualitative Report

The article presents how a study that investigated the acquisition of second language academic literacy skills practised the qualitative methodology, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), from a realist perspective. We share the rationale behind the methodological decisions made in the study, which is followed by a detailed description of the methodological practice. In addition, the evaluation of the study against the realist criteria is reported, and some implications of using IPA based on realism for educational research are discussed. Overall, we suggest that IPA practice from a realist perspective helps go beyond postmodernism paradigms that seems to exert considerable influence on …


Conceptual Understanding: A Concept Analysis, Susan Mills Mar 2016

Conceptual Understanding: A Concept Analysis, Susan Mills

The Qualitative Report

The term conceptual understanding was analyzed to determine how educators can help students attain understanding in a concept based curriculum. The investigator sought to establish what salient dimensions and conditions supported conceptual understanding. A dimensional analysis of the term conceptual understanding was employed through a review of the literature in mathematics, science, psychology, and nursing education. The salient dimensions of conceptual understanding were identified as: factual and procedural knowledge, connections, transfer, and metacognition. The supporting properties included: meaningful learning activities, memorization, and misconceptions. The results substantiate conceptual understanding as a process. When this process is utilized by nurse educators, students …


The Ontology Of Scholar-Administrators: Empirical Inferences From Five Senior Administrators Who Published, Aaron Coe, Ravi Chinta Mar 2016

The Ontology Of Scholar-Administrators: Empirical Inferences From Five Senior Administrators Who Published, Aaron Coe, Ravi Chinta

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this study was to fill a gap in existing literature on scholar-administrators and understand the lived experience of scholar-administrators who published. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach to extract themes from detailed case studies of five senior academic administrators who have published, the researchers’ empirical inferences from the five detailed case histories reveal the challenges and rewards of producing scholarship as a scholar-administrator. Their findings show that the administrators were more connected to the people within and outside the university, their own field of practice, and with the university. The impact of scholarship on scholar-administrators goes beyond publications. …


Word-Slam Stories As Venues For Stimulating Learning And Developing Agency With Urban High School Students, Elite Ben-Yosef, Limor Pinhasi-Vittorio Mar 2016

Word-Slam Stories As Venues For Stimulating Learning And Developing Agency With Urban High School Students, Elite Ben-Yosef, Limor Pinhasi-Vittorio

The Qualitative Report

Word-slam was used with our high school urban students as instrument and method to elicit engagement with learning and develop agency through personal storytelling. The word-slam text (as it appears on YouTube and in hard-copy format as well) was chosen due to its being a personal story and an alternative, artistic and critical form of text that our students could relate to directly as the format and content were relevant to their lives and experiences. By using the text as a mentor text and studying the author’s craft together, students were able to write, rewrite and develop their own word-slam …


I Can’T Say I Wasn’T Anticipating It, But I Didn’T See It Coming In This Magnitude: A Qualitative Fieldwork Experience In The North West Region Of Cameroon, Beryl Bamu, Elisabeth De Schauwer, Geert Van Hove Feb 2016

I Can’T Say I Wasn’T Anticipating It, But I Didn’T See It Coming In This Magnitude: A Qualitative Fieldwork Experience In The North West Region Of Cameroon, Beryl Bamu, Elisabeth De Schauwer, Geert Van Hove

The Qualitative Report

This article draws explicitly on the fieldwork challenging experiences of an ongoing PhD study which seeks to explore the role of the community in the inclusion of people with disabilities in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. It is apparent that every qualitative researcher undertaking fieldwork anticipate being confronted with challenges and difficulties in the process. Nevertheless, in spite of the anticipation of these challenges and complexity that exist in the field, as well as prior preparation, fieldwork can still be a very intense and challenging experience. This is because many unanticipated encounters arise during fieldwork, which the researchers did not …


Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions Of Students With Learning Disabilities: Using Mixed Methods To Examine Effectiveness Of Special Education Coursework, Renée A. Greenfield, Megan Mackey, Gretchen Nelson Feb 2016

Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions Of Students With Learning Disabilities: Using Mixed Methods To Examine Effectiveness Of Special Education Coursework, Renée A. Greenfield, Megan Mackey, Gretchen Nelson

The Qualitative Report

As the number of K-12 students with learning disabilities educated in general education classrooms grow, it is essential to examine the preparation and perceptions of pre-service teachers (N=15) who will educate students with learning disabilities. Within the context of an undergraduate learning disabilities method course, this study examined how pre-service teachers perceived students with learning disabilities as well as the effectiveness of particular course experiences, including fieldwork with students with learning disabilities, video vignettes, lesson planning, assigned reading, and center-based instruction, in shifting perceptions. Using a convergent, mixed method design, teacher educators at a university in the northeast used surveys, …


Member Checking Process With Adolescent Students: Not Just Reading A Transcript, Amber Simpson, Cassie F. Quigley Feb 2016

Member Checking Process With Adolescent Students: Not Just Reading A Transcript, Amber Simpson, Cassie F. Quigley

The Qualitative Report

This paper explores the way in which educational researchers created a member checking process with adolescent students during a study to uncover and understand female and male’s dynamic mathematics identity in single-sex and coeducational mathematics classes within a public coeducational middle school in the United States. The authors developed a member checking process that included I-poems and Word Trees, which provided the youth with opportunities for self-reflection, enhancement of findings, examination of the students’ learning, and as a way to shift some of the power from the researcher to the participants. This paper serves as an example for other researchers …


Youths' Perspectives On The Reasons Underlying School Truancy And Opportunities To Improve School Attendance, Lauren Nichol Gase, Amelia Defosset, Raymond Perry, Tony Kuo Feb 2016

Youths' Perspectives On The Reasons Underlying School Truancy And Opportunities To Improve School Attendance, Lauren Nichol Gase, Amelia Defosset, Raymond Perry, Tony Kuo

The Qualitative Report

School truancy is common in the United States; however, youths’ perspectives on the underlying reasons for and the best ways to curtail this phenomenon are lacking. This project sought to better understand what factors contribute to youths’ decisions to skip classes or ditch full days of school over time and to solicit youths’ recommendations on how to reduce truancy and improve system functioning. We used a community partnered qualitative descriptive approach to conduct in-depth interviews with 39 youths with a history of truancy from South and East Los Angeles. Youths’ experiences and recommendations illustrate the multiple factors that influence school …


Womanism And Snowball Sampling: Engaging Marginalized Populations In Holistic Research, Xeturah M. Woodley, Megan Lockard Feb 2016

Womanism And Snowball Sampling: Engaging Marginalized Populations In Holistic Research, Xeturah M. Woodley, Megan Lockard

The Qualitative Report

Womanist and feminist qualitative researchers continue to identify research methods and techniques that harness the power of social networking and personal connections while engaging with marginalized populations. Many have found that the use of snowball sampling allows increased access to individuals and groups that may otherwise remain inaccessible. The purpose of this article is to discuss the use of snowball sampling techniques within womanist and feminist research. The authors offer critical reflections of the use of this sampling technique as a tool that allows researchers access to “hidden” and marginalized populations. An example of the use of snowball sampling in …


Identifying Pertinent Elements Of Critical Thinking And Mathematical Thinking Used In Civil Engineering Practice In Relation To Engineering Education, Sharifah Osman, Mohd Salleh Bin Abu, Shahrin Bin Mohammad, Mahani Binti Mokhtar Feb 2016

Identifying Pertinent Elements Of Critical Thinking And Mathematical Thinking Used In Civil Engineering Practice In Relation To Engineering Education, Sharifah Osman, Mohd Salleh Bin Abu, Shahrin Bin Mohammad, Mahani Binti Mokhtar

The Qualitative Report

Engaging critical thinking and mathematical thinking in solving engineering problems is a way of approaching the engineering criteria of Engineering Accreditation Council, Board of Engineers Malaysia. Thus, it is timely and crucial to inculcate the critical thinking and mathematical thinking into the current engineering education. Unfortunately, information about these two modes of thinking in real-world engineering practice is found lacking in the literature. Therefore, this paper focuses on explaining an analytic process in identifying pertinent elements of critical thinking and mathematical thinking used in real-world civil engineering practice. The analytic process, namely open coding is a part of coding process …


Reflexively Conducting Research With Ethnically Diverse Children With Disabilities, Amanda Ajodhia-Andrews Feb 2016

Reflexively Conducting Research With Ethnically Diverse Children With Disabilities, Amanda Ajodhia-Andrews

The Qualitative Report

This reflexive paper explores the process of engaging ethnically diverse children with disabilities within participatory and narrative research concerning their school life via a multi-method qualitative approach. It contemplates the use of participatory research methods, involving children with disabilities as co-researchers, establishing relaxed research environments, and maintaining qualitative rigour while supporting children’s voice and agency. This paper addresses possibilities of qualitative research to access and amplify voices and differing social experiences of children with disabilities, whilst underscoring their capacity and right to contribute to research regarding their lives. The author advocates re-envisioning ways to conduct ethical research with children with …