Social Statistics Commons^™

Introduction: Qualitative Analysis: Quantifying Quality And Qualifying Quantity, António Moreira, António Pedro Costa

The Qualitative Report

As part of a partnership between The Qualitative Report (TQR) and Comissão Organizadora/Comité Organizador do CIAIQ2015 e do 6ºSIMEDUC (http://www.ciaiq.org), António Moreira and António Pedro Costa had edited a selection of papers from the conference to create a special issue for TQR.

Gathering Information Based On Focus Groups: Consumer’S Involvement In The Use Of Vending Machines, Telma Santos Fernandes, Ângela Silva, Raquel Reis, Celina Leão

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of the present study is to describe the use of two focus groups to identify and refine a set of questionnaire items. They were also used to provide descriptions of lived experiences and to realize the importance, or not, of the use of Vending Machines in the university context. Vending Machines consumer students from different areas of knowledge participated on a voluntary basis (economics and management areas define the fist group, and engineering and marketing the second group). Based on the data collection and analysis it was possible to identify the attributes of vending machines that are important …

Performing A Thematic Analysis: An Exploratory Study About Managers’ Perceptions On Gender Equality, Carlos Costa, Zélia Breda, Isabel Pinho, Fiona Bakas, Marília Durão

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this paper is to present results from an exploratory study that aims to investigate why gender role alterations in leadership positions is slow. The tourism managers’ perceptions of gender equality, within the workplace, were obtained resorting to focus groups. We chose thematic analysis to identify themes and patterns. This thematic analysis enables a methodological systematization of data. Data were coded using webQDA, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software that speeds up the team process of analysis. The systematization of information helped overcome the difficulties to synthesize the various interpretations; thus it was possible to generate more ideas …

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

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 …

Walking On Eggshells: The Lived Experience Of Partners Of Veterans With Ptsd, Tiffany A. Beks

The Qualitative Report

This phenomenological study examined the descriptions of lived experience among female partners of veteran men with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) via internet discussion forums. Personal, self-initiated written accounts of 30 partners were analyzed with respect to meaning, challenges, coping responses, and role in veterans’ healing and rehabilitation. Following data analysis, five descriptive themes emerged: all-consuming effect of the illness, walking on eggshells, ambiguous loss, alone, and facing PTSD as a unit. The central meaning of these themes describes the widespread priority of the veterans’ illness, and the resulting isolation, grief, and apprehension experienced by intimate partners as they assume …

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

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 …

The Practice Of Survey Research Theory And Applications: A Review, Jeff Nelson

The Qualitative Report

The Practice of Survey Research: Theory and Applications is a practical text written for the beginning researcher at either the graduate or undergraduate level. This text not only includes the foundation of key concepts and theories of survey research, but is also a practical framework for the researcher. It bridges the gap between the survey tool and quantitative analysis.

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

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 …

Data Driven: An Autoethnographic Short Story, Peter Joseph Gloviczki

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, I use an autoethnographic short story (Jago, 2005, 2011) to examine data-driven life in media culture (Kellner, 1995) and the emergence of a quantified self (Wolf, 2010).

The Influence Of Situated And Experiential Music Education In Teacher-Practitioner Formation: An Autoethnography, Leon R. De Bruin

The Qualitative Report

This study explores how my musical background, teaching and performance skills, understandings, and knowledge acquired from both formal and informal influence has shaped myself as musician, teacher and researcher. The study reveals various learning cultures and social networks that frame my multiple professional identities that have themselves developed from my understandings of being a performer, an educator and researcher. This study explores three aspects to my being: personal identity, professional identity and my perception of the impact this has on my students through my teaching and performing. An autoethnographical method is used to investigate my background that is initially formed …

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, …

The Corporate Social Responsibility In Lidl’S Communication Campaigns In Croatia And The Uk, Martina Topic, Ralph Tench

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of the paper was to investigate whether Lidl uses CSR communication in their Advertising and Communication Campaigns in two different business contexts, and if so, how. The paper built upon existing analyses of CSR Communication by analysing Lidl’s websites in both countries, and went step forward and analysed TV adverts of the company in both countries as well. The analysis discovered importance of the social context in using CSR to promote business, as well as a different communication management strategy where Lidl does not communicate with UK public as extensively as with the Croatian public due to different …

Crafting An Effective Brand Oriented Strategic Framework For Growth-Aspiring Small Businesses: A Conceptual Study, Christian Nedu Osakwe

The Qualitative Report

The main objective of this study was to theorize and conceptualize a model that could be used by scholars and practitioners in understanding the contingent roles that certain organizational drivers and/or resources play in shaping the brand orientation strategy of small businesses, especially growth-aspiring small businesses in emerging economies. To this end, this paper explicates the critical roles that decision-making rationality, entrepreneurial capability, enterprise core values, market orientation, Internet technology orientation, and learning climate might play as processual antecedents to brand orientation strategy in the small businesses setting. Furthermore, the author highlights the moderating effects of the twin foci of …

A Reflexive Eye On A Collaborative Action Research Project In School, Kitt Lyngsnes

The Qualitative Report

This article presents a reflexive analysis of a collaborative action research project based on the “Nordic tradition” of action research. In this project I, in the role of researcher, worked with a team of four teachers in a Norwegian primary/lower secondary school to develop teaching practice focused on students’ learning. I have retrospectively analysed data from my research diary, meetings and interviews. The article describes how the collaboration and the relationship between the teacher team and the researcher developed, and how this process contributed to the teachers’ professional development. The results shed light on the complexity of teacher- researcher- relationships, …

Look Up In The Sky: Latent Content Analysis Of The Real Life Superhero Community, Daniel White, Marianna Szabo, Niko Tiliopoulos, Paul Rhodes, Michael Spurrier, Scott Griffiths

The Qualitative Report

The Real Life Superhero (RLSH) subculture is a growing global community of individuals who adopt the superhero motif and are motivated by prosocial goals. Although the community has been the focus of documentaries, news articles and numerous internet forums, little academic research has been conducted on the composition of this subculture. Through the use of an online survey, socio-demographic information about this community was collected. This data was compiled and analysed via qualitative means to develop not only an overarching review of the composition of the subculture but also how members perceived themselves and other members. Membership and identity within …

Patterns Of Similarity Of Corporate Frauds, Joshua Onome Imoniana, Fernando Dal-Ri Murcia

The Qualitative Report

The current study examined the patterns of the similarity of corporate frauds. It used written scenarios of the frauds experienced from workplace. Participants were 10 graduate MBA students in a controllership program of the Presbyterian Mackenzie University, located in São Paulo, Brazil, during the period of December 2013. In our study, they described the recent types of fraud they witnessed. A premise supports the similarity of frauds in regard to misappropriation of asset following the flaws in internal control and the authorising schemes. Our study concludes for the scenarios holding for similarity in misappropriation of assets plus monetary theft and …

The Role Of Service-Learning And Mentoring In The Early Career Development Of A Research Methodologist, Cheryl H. Keen, Heather Pease

The Qualitative Report

Anxiety about statistics may impede new scholars from developing quantitative research skills and from sharing those skills in service-learning, internship, and work settings. Using an interpretive case study design with a convenience sample of one emerging student leader in a collaborative university-community service-learning research project, we explored the question “How did the career path of a quantitatively skilled researcher develop?” Data collected over a 3-and-a-half-year period included 7 semi-structured interviews with the student during her master’s and doctoral program and interviews with 3 mentors, 2 peers, and 2 community partners, as well as observations and documents. A constant comparison analysis …

Lived Experiences Of A Hong Kong Physical Education Teacher: Ethnographical And Phenomenological Approaches, Raymond Kim Wai Sum, Teng-Yao Shi

The Qualitative Report

This study employed ethnographical and phenomenological methods to explore the lived experiences and career of a Hong Kong secondary school physical education (PE) teacher (Wharton) in order to embody his versatile roles through phenomenological description of a lived body itself and the lived world. The central research question is “How does a male secondary school PE teacher manage his work life and the embodiment of his professional roles?” Data collection techniques were in-depth interviewing, participant observation and field notes, participant’s reflection documentation and visual elicitation. Concepts of “play to learn,” “professional development” and “political empowerment” were used to examine Wharton’s …

Trusting Telework In The Federal Government, Courtney Brown, Pearl R. Smith Phd, Nancy Arduengo, Martha Taylor

The Qualitative Report

Despite an Executive Office mandate to permit federal workers to telework, federal managers still deny employees this benefit. Several factors have been attributed to their aversion, including lack of trust. Findings from a hermeneutic phenomenological study exploring the lived experiences and perceptions of 12 federal government managers who prohibit their employees from teleworking (Brown, 2013) was analyzed to identify themes related to trust. Of the eight themes Brown identified, five focused on lack of trust. This paper discusses those five trust-related themes and recommends success factors for enabling leaders’ trust of telework are discussed.

Qualitative Research For Social Marketing: One Organization’S Journey To Improved Consumer Insight, Kim Longfield, Reid Moorsmith, Katia Peterson, Isolda Fortin, James Ayers, Oana Lupu

The Qualitative Report

Population Services International (PSI) is an international NGO working to improve outcomes in developing countries through behavior change communications and the social marketing of health products and services. Consumer insight is central to PSI's social marketing strategy because it informs which messages to promote and which products and services to offer to make the concept of healthy behavior change attractive to consumers. Qualitative research provides rich insight by exploring consumers' values, feelings, thoughts, intentions, barriers, motivators, culture, and social norms that affect their behaviors and use of products and services. In this paper, we describe how PSI's qualitative research program …

Are Stem Syllabi Gendered? A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis, Laura Parson

The Qualitative Report

This study explored the gendered nature of STEM higher education institution through a feminist critical discourse analysis of STEM course syllabi from a Midwest research university. I explored STEM syllabi to understand how linguistic features such as stance and interdiscursivity are used in the syllabus and how language and discourses used in the syllabus replicate the masculine nature of STEM education. Findings suggest that the discourses identified in the syllabi reinforce traditional STEM academic roles, and that power and gender in the STEM syllabi are revealed through exploration of the themes of knowledge, learning, and the teaching and learning environment …

Anonymity As A Double-Edge Sword: Reflecting On The Implications Of Online Qualitative Research In Studying Sensitive Topics, Karen L. Bouchard

The Qualitative Report

In this article, I reflect on the potentials of using online qualitative data collection methods to elicit narratives from adolescent participants who have experienced victimization within their friendships. Specifically, this article examines the impact of anonymity on participants’ self-disclosure, while also considering the potential limitations of online qualitative research, namely, building rapport amongst participants and the researcher, participant authenticity, and participant safety. It is the hope that other novice researchers will benefit from these methodological and ethical reflections of using online qualitative data collection methods for research on sensitive topics.

One More Step In Childhood Research Discovery. A Review Of Doing Mental Health Research With Children And Adolescents. A Guide To Qualitative Methods, Olga Savinskaya

The Qualitative Report

In “Doing mental health research with children and adolescents. A Guide to qualitative Methods” (2014), Michell O’Really and Nicola Parker present a highly practical guide to conduct qualitative research with children what extremely easy to follow. The authors show a research process step-by-step with special attention to communicative, ethical and legal issues. The guide is provided by overview of the theories, the importance of research for evidence construction, and most popular qualitative data collection and analysis techniques. In the last chapter, authors discover the successful practice of knowledge dissemination.

Lessons Learned: Feasibility Of A Discussion Prompting Tool To Increase Fertility Risk Discussion Among Adolescent Oncology Families, Devin Murphy, Caprice A. Knapp, Kelly K. Sawczyn, Susan T. Vadaparampil Ph.D, Alice Rhoton-Vlasak, Gwendolyn P. Quinn

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility of distributing a prompting tool (stress egg) in order to increase discussions about fertility risk and preservation (FP) among female adolescent oncology patients, parents, and healthcare providers (HCP). 200 eggs were distributed to four pediatric oncology centers. Qualitative interviews were completed with healthcare staff (N=7) after 6 months of distribution to newly diagnosed female oncology patients ages 12-18. Interviews showed that the main barriers to distribution of the prompt were: forgetting to distribute the eggs; uncertainty about the significance of fertility; and uncertainty about fertility issues in general for female …

Factors Influencing Online Buying Behavior Of College Students: A Qualitative Analysis, Vilasini Jadhav, Monica Khanna

The Qualitative Report

Online retailing in India has shown tremendous growth in the recent years. However as compared to the other countries leading in online retailing, India is still in its initial stage of development. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors influencing the online buying behavior of the college students. Convenience sampling method was used to select the sample of 25 college students and qualitative content analysis was used for analyzing the textual content of the depth interview data. The main influencing factors for online shopping were identified as availability, low price, promotions, comparison, convenience, customer service, perceived ease …

Applying Constant Comparative Method With Multiple Investigators And Inter-Coder Reliability, Joel D. Olson, Chad Mcallister, Lynn D. Grinnell, Kimberly Gehrke Walters, Frank Appunn

The Qualitative Report

Building on practice, action research, and theory, the purpose of this paper is to present a 10-step method for applying the Constant Comparative Method (CCM) of grounded theory when multiple researchers perform data analysis and meaning making. CCM is a core qualitative analysis approach for grounded theory research. Literature suggests approaches for increasing the credibility of CCM using multiple researchers and inter-coder reliability (ICR), but documentation of methods for collaboration on CCM data analysis is sparse. The context for developing the10-step CCM approach was a qualitative study conducted to understand the impact of webcams on a virtual team. To develop …

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #1: Regional, City, And Neighborhood Quality Of Life, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

[Introductory paragraph]

The Old Dominion University Social Science Research Center is proud to release the first part of the 2016 Life in Hampton Roads (LIHR) Survey Report. LIHR has been conducted by the Social Science Research Center with support from the Old Dominion University Office of Research and the College of Arts and Letters since 2010 and is now in its seventh year. Release #1 focuses on regional quality of life indicators. Data from prior years is also provided when available to show comparisons in responses over time. Responses were weighted by city population, race, age, gender, and phone usage …