Sociology Commons^™

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Parental Experiences And The Role Of Family Counselors, Patrick J. Morrissette

The Qualitative Report

This paper discusses the experiences of foster/adoptive parents who raise children diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the instrumental role family counselors can play regarding child management issues, intimate relationships, larger system collaboration, and research. For the actual study, six parents participated in individual, in-depth tape-recorded interviews. Each interview was transcribed, thematically analyzed, and revealed seven predominant themes including (a) constant vigil, (b) effects on marriages, (c) child management, (d) parental issues, (e) interactions with professional community, (f) emancipation concerns, and (g) medical implications. The ways in which family counselors can intervene are reviewed and include the role of clinician, …

The Multi-Site Study: An Innovative Research Methodology, Josée Audet, Gérald D'Amboise

The Qualitative Report

The Multi-Site Study is a qualitative research approach that we designed to gain an in-depth knowledge of an organizational phenomenon that had barely been researched: strategic scanning. It combines several approaches to case study research, borrowing from the positivist tradition, the interpretative approach and the qualitative research corpus. It involves the observation and analysis of several sites using namely cross-case comparisons and explanation building techniques to analyze data. The following report primarily explains the thought process that led to the research decision, a description of the process itself is then presented, followed by an illustration and discussion of the results …

Using Case Study Methodology In Nursing Research, Donna M. Zucker

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate a research method that may contribute a unique and valuable method of eliciting phenomena of interest to nursing. Case study method can be used as a creative alternative to traditional approaches to description, emphasizing the patient's perspective as central to the process. This manuscript will define case study method, and discuss various case study designs. Approaches and tactics from a variety of disciplines, and theoretical or philosophical perspectives are discussed with an emphasis on method and analysis. The bulk of the manuscript outlines the stages used in a case study of men …

Broadly Speaking - March, 2001, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

Community Practice: A Training Ground For Social Work Students, Mylo G. Jennings

The Qualitative Report

Providing services to communities while providing education and training for social work practice in communities is at the core of this paper. These activities are discussed and reviewed in the context of social work in communities. Social work field placements (internships) in communities can provide positive learning experiences for students and excellent services to communities. The Winslow Project, a two-year community-focused placement for two group of first year master of social work (M.S.W.) Students is described and the results of this project are discussed. In order to fulfill a commitment to the community concept, students need a well-defined concept of …

Telling Transitions At The Table: Re-Served Seats Of Higher Learning?, Dorothy Lander

The Qualitative Report

This paper traces the transitions of first year students and other adults of the university as they partake in an intergenerational shared inquiry at a common table. My transformative research invites students, faculty, and staff to attend to (eat) and transform (digest) the moral and political encounters in successive becomings from their speaking positions at a common table. This dialogical partaking of words disrupts the market discourse of student as consumer and re-stories the university as a service organization where all organizational actors are consuming and being consumed. Eating together and telling transitions dissolve boundaries between service and knowledge, between …

Elementary Teachers' Commitment Declines: Antecedents, Processes, And Outcomes, Christine Joffres, Margaret Haughey

The Qualitative Report

This qualitative study examines the organizational, social, and personal factors that may influence elementary teachers' declining commitments. Our findings suggest that when the teachers under study felt unsuccessful, that is, when they experienced low feelings of efficacy and low feelings of community, teachers' commitments' shifted or declined. However, the impact of negative teaching experiences on commitments is far from uniform. Rather the teachers' commitments declined as a function of the teachers' understandings of their perceived failures.

Using A Story-Building Approach To Research Comprehensive Community Initiatives, Lori Messinger

The Qualitative Report

This article is the story of the author's experiences as a researcher-storyteller. She delineates the process used to "build a story" of the planning and development of a rural comprehensive community initiative. In a critically reflective look at this approach to community research, the author describes how she selected the research topic, defined the purposes of the research, selected the methods used in data collection and analysis, and approached the construction process of building the story through literary elements such as plot, scene, and voice. The strengths and pitfalls of this approach and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Our New Children: The Surrogate Role Of Companion Animals In Women's Lives, Wendy G. Turner

The Qualitative Report

As the rate of pet ownership increases, companion animals are fulfilling a variety of roles in the lives of their humans. This article provides insight on the role that companion animals play in the lives of women. The women in this study showed stronger attachments to those animals that either preceded the birth of their children, or followed the children leaving home. This finding has potential implications for services provided to women by various helping professions.

Broadly Speaking - January, 2001, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

Sex Role Identity And Relationship Factors As Correlates Of Abusive Behavior In Lesbian Relationships, Grace A. Telesco

CAHSS Faculty Theses and Dissertations

The recognition of partner abuse between lesbian intimates has gained attention in the literature only within the last few decades. The current research indicates that physical and psychological abuse is occurring between lesbian partners at about the same rate as their heterosexual counterparts. The theoretical explanations for lesbian partner abuse share similarities with the heterosexual paradigm. However, significant differences in gender make-up and the patriarchal issues of power and control do not fit within the lesbian framework and the unique issues of attachment in lesbian relationships and the issue of homophobia are cause for another perspective.

This study shifts the …

Broadly Speaking - October, 2000, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

Case Study Of Classroom Practice: A Quiet Form Of Research, Janice Showler

The Qualitative Report

This paper documents the use of ethnographic research methods as a heuristic for inquiry and teaching. More specifically, it focuses on reflection as situated at the heart of teacher-research, including research conducted by prospective English language arts teachers. In a retrospective analysis of her student's case studies in literacy at an urban site, a teacher researcher explores whether and how her students come to "know their knowledge." She explores students' construction of knowledge and theories of practice, how these develop over time and what impact they may have on teaching and learning. These constructions inform not only her students' practice …

Multilayered Representation In Research, Kathryn Delawter, Adrienne Sosin, Julie Mabey

The Qualitative Report

This paper describes a multi-layered qualitative action research study presented at the Twelfth Annual Conference on Ethnographic and Qualitative Research. "The Aesthetics of Ethnography: A Moving Triangle," was an interactive installation that demonstrated the aesthetics of ethnography for education. Participants were invited to share their own constructions of meaning when engaged in activities related to multicultural calendar artifacts. The research methodology of this study is collective reflection, developed by the researchers in the process of interpreting teacher education student's multicultural calendar artifacts as texts. The article highlights one of the multicultural calendar artifacts displayed in the installation, through hyperlinks to …

Editorial Introduction, Christina Cruz, Melissa Freeman, Rebecca Rogers

The Qualitative Report

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Creative Voice In An Academic Context, Laura Brearley

The Qualitative Report

Who we are changes what we write about and how we write. Simply stated, if the academy is to change, if our views of reality are to be more inclusive, then we need to take a broader view of authorial voices… Tierney and Lincoln, 1997 This paper challenges the traditional paradigm of densely referenced text and the use of a passive, 'neutral' researcher's voice. It draws on current doctoral research that is using creative modes of data representation to examine managers' experiences of transition in organisational life. Within this research, ten managers from an educational institution are being tracked through …

Imposters In The Sacred Grove: Working Class Women In The Academe, Melanie L. Long, Gaye Ranck Jenkins, Susan Bracken

The Qualitative Report

The authors of this paper take a critical approach within ethnographic narrative to explore issues of power, class and agency in their experiences as working class women in the academe. After first revealing their working class roots through personal narratives, they employ Clance's Impostor Phenomenon to explore and discuss their experiences as working-class women within the Scared Grove of the academe. Results seem to indicate a dichotomy between their working class values and the expectations of university academics. Results also reveal that men faculty are their current allies, indicating that, for these three working class women in the academe, class …

Why Urban Parents Resist Involvement In Their Children’S Elementary Education, Peter Mcdermott, Julia J. Rothenburg

The Qualitative Report

We examined the perceptions of teachers and parents about family involvement in urban schools. The study generated from several others that we have been conducting about teaching in high poverty, urban schools. Using focus groups, our purpose was to learn how we could better prepare teachers for urban schools. The data revealed that teachers are frustrated with a lack of parental involvement in literacy activities at home and at school. Parents, however, expressed distrust toward the local elementary school because they felt the faculty has been biased against African American and Latino children and their families. Consequently, the parents said …

Broadly Speaking - May, 2000, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

The Unanticipated In Qualitative Inquiry, Sally St.George, Dan Wulff

The Qualitative Report

This article tells the story of some unanticipated (and highly beneficial) events and learnings that developed from a student's efforts to ethnographically study her own therapeutic work.

Focus Groups In Ethnography Of Communication: Expanding Topics Of Inquiry Beyond Participant Observation, Elizabeth A. Suter

The Qualitative Report

Historically, ethnography of communication has viewed participant observation as the central and necessary methodological point of departure for any ethnographic endeavor. However, as this article illustrates, this becomes problematic when particular topics of inquiry do not provide ample opportunities for observation. After struggles to participant observe conversations on women's marital naming practices, I was able to research this topic and produce participant observation-like understandings after I incorporated focus groups into my methods. Based upon these experiences and study, this article urges ethnography of communication scholars to step outside their traditional methodological practices, when necessary, and integrate the focus group method …

Reconstructing The World Of The Anorectic Outpatient: Procedures For Enhancing Trustworthiness And Credibility, Steven R. Thomsen, J. Kelley Mccoy, Marleen Williams

The Qualitative Report

Conducting in-depth interviews with clinical populations often poses a number of problems for qualitative researchers. Because of the skewed perception of themselves and the world around them, and because of their propensity to distort and deny the pathology of their illness, anorexic women are an example of one such group that can create possible problems for researchers, particularly those concerned with the trustworthiness and credibility of their analysis. How should qualitative researchers approach this population? How can a credible reconstruction of reality be produced? This paper explores and discusses the procedures utilized by the authors during an 18-month project in …

Feminist Content Analysis And Representative Characters, Patricia Leavy

The Qualitative Report

This paper details textual, visual and audio-visual content analysis from both a general and feminist perspective. It provides a backstage look at how I took an abstract idea of analyzing the larger socio-cultural-political American 1990s/2000 context through a representative fictional character, Ally McBeal, and created a manageable project outline for how to achieve my research goals using content analysis in multiple way

The Devil In The Detail: An Account Of Self-Harm, Bogusia Temple, Jennifer Harris

The Qualitative Report

In this article we discuss self-harm data from an A & E (Emergency Room) Department in an English hospital. In order to be able to examine the relationship between data collection, analysis and findings we focus on the processes we used as researchers in constructing the dataset. Doing this, we argue, is as important as just analysing findings since this process in part constructs the findings. Moreover, how people's actions are defined may impact on the way they are treated.

Critical Examinations Of The Known And The Unknown In Social Science: Where Do We Go From Here?, Cynthia Wallat, Carolyn L. Piazza

The Qualitative Report

If the use of social science assumptions and beliefs is what helped set fields of professional practice on the quest for recognition in the academy, what does the recent outpouring of publications on the limits of science reveal about sociocultural research prospects at the dawn of the 21st century? The last few years alone have witnessed the publication of special journal issues on the "scientific wars" of the nineties, year long professional association debates on "the known and unknown," and new books and online data sources proclaiming "the end of social science." Cumulatively, research and commentary on the limits of …

Constructivist Instructional Design: Creating A Multimedia Package For Teaching Critical Qualitative Research, Brandie Colón, Kay Ann Taylor, Jerry Willis

The Qualitative Report

Instructors for quantitative research courses often find that there are many different types of support material for those courses. That is not the case with qualitative courses. Very little support material is available for qualitative research courses. In this paper we describe the creation of one multimedia package that focuses on one type of qualitative research - critical ethnographic techniques. The package was created to help graduate students learn to use five critical ethnographic techniques: meaning fields, validity reconstruction, role analysis, power analysis, and horizon analysis. We used a constructivist instructional design model, R2D2, to guide our development work. It …

Getting In Trouble: The Meaning Of School For "Problem" Students, Darryl A. Pifer

The Qualitative Report

Three students attending an alternative school were selected because they had been labeled by their previous school and teachers as "problem students." A series of interviews was completed with each individual with the purpose of exploring the meaning of school for each. Each participant indicated an acceptance of the notion that education is important, but each also felt negatively about school. Good and bad things about school were discussed as well as good and bad experiences. The participants also discussed how they perceived the actions and expectations of others. The unfairness they each experienced in school was discussed as well …

How To Write Qualitative Research? -- A Book Review, Yuliang Liu

The Qualitative Report

No abstract provided.

Broadly Speaking - April, 2000, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

Creativity Within Qualitative Research On Families: New Ideas For Old Methods, Sharon A. Deacon

The Qualitative Report

Qualitative researchers are continually searching for research methods that engage their participants in the data collection process. When researching living, dynamic systems such as families, researchers need to find methods that can encapsulate the multi-dimensionality of the human experience. The purpose of this paper is to acquaint researchers with some creative and active methods they can use to not only involve their participants in the research process, but also to more fully learn about and experience the perceptions, feelings, and life events of their participants. The methods discussed include sculpting, photography and videography, art and drawing, role playing, writing exercises, …