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Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons™

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2003

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Articles 1 - 30 of 51

Full-Text Articles in Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies

Power Games Between The Researcher And The Participant In The Social Inquiry, Ana Bravo-Moreno Dec 2003

Power Games Between The Researcher And The Participant In The Social Inquiry, Ana Bravo-Moreno

The Qualitative Report

This article will deal with the different power relationships that are in play during the interview process in ethnographic research. It explores how interviewees are agents in the creation of their own positions during the interview process and how they shift positions in interaction with the researcher and with the questions posed to them.

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Real Middle School Teachers, Rhoda C. Sommers Dec 2003

Real Middle School Teachers, Rhoda C. Sommers

The Qualitative Report

Effective middle school teachers are more than the sum total of their educational beliefs and practices. They are whole persons whose lives reflect receptivity to growth, treasured relationships, and the intertwining of their personal and professional lives. This article uses the children’s classic, The Velveteen Rabbit, as a metaphor to describe effective middle school teachers.

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Joint Stories And Layered Tales: Support, Contradiction And Me Aning Construction In Focus Group Research, Agnieszka Kosny Dec 2003

Joint Stories And Layered Tales: Support, Contradiction And Me Aning Construction In Focus Group Research, Agnieszka Kosny

The Qualitative Report

This paper uses focus group data about women’s work experiences gathered in five Canadian east coast communities to examine some of the strengths and weakness associated with focus group research. I explore the case made against the use of focus group methods and the basis for some of the critiques aimed at focus group research. By examining the evolving discussions between focus group members, it is possible to understand some of the benefits of group-talk, including the creation of a unique opportunity for interaction, joint meaning creation and contradiction.

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Meta-Inquiry: An Approach To Interview Success, Nancy M. Carlson, Mark Mccaslin Dec 2003

Meta-Inquiry: An Approach To Interview Success, Nancy M. Carlson, Mark Mccaslin

The Qualitative Report

Developing an effective interview strategy presents unique challenges for the novice and master researcher for if the questions one asks are not crucial, then differences in responses are not crucial either (Creswell, 1998, p. 335). To focus qualitative research in the human ecology of the study, our strategy uses an initial interview protocol and preanalysis process, called meta-inquiry, prior to developing our formal interview protocol. Meta-inquiry of initial interview data, obtained in dialogue with key informants in the researched culture, provides us with an inductive tool to assess, modify, enhance, and focus the formal interview protocol. Thus, preparing for the …

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Autoethnographic Verse: Nickys Boy: A Life In Two Worlds, Ronald J. Ricci Dec 2003

Autoethnographic Verse: Nickys Boy: A Life In Two Worlds, Ronald J. Ricci

The Qualitative Report

This autoethnographic verse is about my childhood experience of two distinct and ethnically representative family cultures. Poetry and qualitative research share in their goals of providing meaning, density, aestheticism, and reflexivity They are also evocative I selected verse as a means to express my experience, and to invite the readers reflections on this experience for themselves and others.

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Memories In Context Via Cyber Reminiscing: The Case Of Marilyn Monroe, Kelvin Eng Yong Low Dec 2003

Memories In Context Via Cyber Reminiscing: The Case Of Marilyn Monroe, Kelvin Eng Yong Low

The Qualitative Report

This paper attempts to extend the various existing lieux de memoire available hitherto in the perpetuation and (re)construction of social memory by looking at the cyber landscape. Marilyn Monroe as an icon of American popular culture and thus of popular memory in this context, is explored, by looking at various select websites designed in commemoration of her stardom. Within this investigation, I also invoke the link between the production of social memory, with frames of remembrance and collective memory that therefore indicates memory as indubitably, a social phenomenon. The value of cyber reminiscing is also addressed briefly, by exploring how …

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Understanding Reliability And Validity In Qualitative Research, Nahid Golafshani Dec 2003

Understanding Reliability And Validity In Qualitative Research, Nahid Golafshani

The Qualitative Report

The use of reliability and validity are common in quantitative research and now it is reconsidered in the qualitative research paradigm. Since reliability and validity are rooted in positivist perspective then they should be redefined for their use in a naturalistic approach. Like reliability and validity as used in quantitative research are providing springboard to examine what these two terms mean in the qualitative research paradigm, triangulation as used in quantitative research to test the reliability and validity can also illuminate some ways to test or maximize the validity and reliability of a qualitative study. Therefore, reliability, validity and triangulation, …

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Indicators Of Resiliency Among Urban Elementary School Students At-Risk, John L. Rausch, Cheryl R. Lovett, Christopher O. Walker Dec 2003

Indicators Of Resiliency Among Urban Elementary School Students At-Risk, John L. Rausch, Cheryl R. Lovett, Christopher O. Walker

The Qualitative Report

This study was designed to investigate the phenomenon of resiliency among urban elementary school students in an at-risk environment. In contrast with previous studies narrowly focused upon the identification of risk factors, this study utilized a phenomenological qualitative approach to investigate indicators of resiliency from both individual and contextual perspectives. The narrative descriptions of 25 elementary school students in an at-risk environment were analyzed. The results indicated that the participants had strong individual and contextual resiliency indicators through the fifth grade despite being educated in a school district with almost a 60% drop-out rate before high school graduation.

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Practice Approaches And The Ethnography Of Communication: Investigating For The Possibility Of A Mutually Beneficial Relationship, Keith Berry Dec 2003

Practice Approaches And The Ethnography Of Communication: Investigating For The Possibility Of A Mutually Beneficial Relationship, Keith Berry

The Qualitative Report

In this essay, I explore the areas of accord and discord between two efficacious modes of research: practice approaches and the Ethnography of Communication (EOC). As an interpersonal and intercultural scholar, I carefully analyze these approaches in order to find innovative ways to describe the diversity that I see in modern social interaction. Working against paradigms that suggest using either one approach or another, I engage this project hoping (expecting?) to find and/both alternatives for communication study. I argue that, in spite of their differences, practice and EOC traditions co-exist in a mutually beneficial relationship for the study of communication …

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The Impact Of Devolution On Organizational Effectiveness: An Exploratory Case Study Of Faith-Based Child Care, Javier Stanziola, Tania Schmitz Dec 2003

The Impact Of Devolution On Organizational Effectiveness: An Exploratory Case Study Of Faith-Based Child Care, Javier Stanziola, Tania Schmitz

The Qualitative Report

Although the foundations of President Bush’s faith-based initiative could be traced back at least to Colonial times, the re-packaging of this idea has raised concerns about the role of the federal government in the affairs of faith based organizations, the professionalization of social services, rent seeking, and the crowding out of private funding. This paper aims to examine the local implications of decentralizing the provision of social services in Lee County, Florida. More specifically, we will identify how devolution has affected the organizational effectiveness of faith-based organizations in the day care sector. For this paper, organizational effectiveness was defined in …

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A Critical Reconstruction Of Care-In-Action, Barbara Korth Sep 2003

A Critical Reconstruction Of Care-In-Action, Barbara Korth

The Qualitative Report

This paper uses the findings of a critical ethnography studying the interactions of adult colleagues (Korth, 1998) to propose a critical approach to care theory and research. The argument proceeds from Jaggar's (1995) critique of the scholarship on care. Her criticism voices concerns regarding the lack of attention to the justificatory potential of care research/theory and the over-dependence on particularities. This paper provides one set of responses capable of addressing these concerns and of reformulating the concerns into a more complex conceptualization of care. The resulting analysis implies a theory of care as a pragmatic-communicative construct, one that is more …

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The Five-Question Method For Framing A Qualitative Research Study, Mark L. Mccaslin, Karen Wilson Scott Sep 2003

The Five-Question Method For Framing A Qualitative Research Study, Mark L. Mccaslin, Karen Wilson Scott

The Qualitative Report

The Five-Question Method is an approach to framing Qualitative Research, focusing on the methodologies of five of the major traditions in qualitative research: biography, ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, and case study. Asking Five Questions, novice researchers select a methodology appropriate to the desired perspective on the selected topic. The Method facilitates identifying and writing a Problem Statement. Through taking a future perspective, the researcher discovers the importance and direction of the study and composes a Purpose Statement. The process develops an overarching research question integrating the purpose and the research problem. The role of the researcher and management of assumptions …

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Marriage & Family Therapy Students Learning Qualitative Research: Frameworks Identified Through Participatory-Observation, Dawn Marie Pratt, Megan Leigh Dolbin-Macnab Sep 2003

Marriage & Family Therapy Students Learning Qualitative Research: Frameworks Identified Through Participatory-Observation, Dawn Marie Pratt, Megan Leigh Dolbin-Macnab

The Qualitative Report

In this study, we used participant-observation to achieve grounded theory as we constructed a model outlining how marriage and family therapy graduate students learn qualitative research methods. We identified three major learning frameworks: Pragmatism, Ethics/Morality, and Identity of the Researcher. We also found that certain learning modalities are most congruent for students holding these major frameworks. “Critical learning incidences” appeared to cause a shift or r e -balancing of students ’ frameworks as they learn qualitative research. Application of these findings may help guide instructors who are teaching students with little previous exposure qualitative methodology. Recommendations for future research are …

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Self-Monitoring And Consumer Behavior, Sue-Ellen Kjeldal Sep 2003

Self-Monitoring And Consumer Behavior, Sue-Ellen Kjeldal

The Qualitative Report

In the present research, the relationship between the psychological construct of self-monitoring (Snyder, 1974) and consumer behavior is investigated. The word association study undertaken for the present paper was deliberately unstructured. This type of methodology provides respondents with a context free environment in which contents of fruit and vegetable knowledge structures can be elicited. This is the first such study that examines self-monitoring in a free-recall situation, and the results are instructive in providing more information on the specific nature of self-monitoring effects. Furthermore, the results of this study demonstrate a relationship between two sub-disciplines of psychology, namely self-monitoring (Snyder, …

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Qualitative Migration Research: Some New Reflections Six Years Later, Theodoros Iosifides Sep 2003

Qualitative Migration Research: Some New Reflections Six Years Later, Theodoros Iosifides

The Qualitative Report

The main purpose of this article is a brief presentation of the most crucial stages of a research process concerning migration of foreign workers in Greece. The research (within my doctoral studies at Sussex University, Brighton, UK) was undertaken for a period of almost nine months (1995-1996) in Athens, Greece. In this article I present some important dimensions of the multiple methods used (semi-structured interviews with informational questionnaires, in-depth interviews and participant observation) to obtain information and data, mainly on the employment and housing conditions and situations of immigrants in the city, and take the opportunity to critically reflect on …

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Disparate Academic Environments: An Emergent Framework Of Socialization, Michael D. Thompson Sep 2003

Disparate Academic Environments: An Emergent Framework Of Socialization, Michael D. Thompson

The Qualitative Report

Twenty-four graduate associate and/or full professors from four disparate academic environments were interviewed on the salient attributes they emphasize and reinforce to their graduate students in socializing them to the professional norms of their respective academic discipline. Qualitative research methodology was utilized to assess and understand the socialization mechanisms and processes of graduate students within disparate academic environments. The results of the study have produced a new theoretical framework for understanding the differential patterns of student learning and development as a result of student’s collegiate experience.

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Lives In Transition: Stories Of Three Foreign Elementary Students From India, Beloo Mehra Sep 2003

Lives In Transition: Stories Of Three Foreign Elementary Students From India, Beloo Mehra

The Qualitative Report

This qualitative study tells the stories of three Asian Indian children dealing with the initial phases of adjustment and acculturation at a multicultural elementary school in USA. Constructed using data collected through classroom observations and in-depth interviews with children, parents, and school personnel, these stories reveal important linkages between families and schools, and their respective roles in foreign-born children’s acculturation into the host culture. The pressures to maintain Indian identity, language, food habits, and traditions are all important aspects of these children’s experiences. The school context shapes their educational experiences and adjustment. This study also touches upon some important policy …

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Homophobia: An Autoethnographic Story, Shamla Mclaurin Sep 2003

Homophobia: An Autoethnographic Story, Shamla Mclaurin

The Qualitative Report

This article is an autoethnographic account of one person’s struggle with homophobia. It chronicles the experiences and internal battle of the author as she struggles to understand and be accepting of homosexuality. The author identifies and discusses messages received, in early childhood and adulthood, as it relates to homosexuality and gender. These messages encompass religious ideology, as well as family and community beliefs toward gay/lesbian individuals.

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Shifting Paradigms And Mapping The Process: Graduate Students Respond To Qualitative Research, Marcia Reisetter, Melinda Yexley, Deborah Bonds, Holly Nickels, William Mchenry Sep 2003

Shifting Paradigms And Mapping The Process: Graduate Students Respond To Qualitative Research, Marcia Reisetter, Melinda Yexley, Deborah Bonds, Holly Nickels, William Mchenry

The Qualitative Report

We describe the experiences and responses of a group of graduate students as they first encountered an in-depth study of qualitative research methods. Four themes emerged as having important contributions: the nature of previous research experiences, personal style and learning preferences, epistemological and philosophical commitments, and assessment of professional viability.

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Montserrat Place And Monsrat Neaga: An Example Of Impressionistic Autoethnography, Johnathan Skinner Sep 2003

Montserrat Place And Monsrat Neaga: An Example Of Impressionistic Autoethnography, Johnathan Skinner

The Qualitative Report

This is an impressionistic tale from the field. It is a composite of fieldwork days, the dramatic recall of ethnographic work on Montserrat, a British Dependent Territory in the Eastern Caribbean. At the tail-end of my fieldwork research period, I was evacuated from the island as a volcano erupted, eventually destroying almost all of where this piece is set - where the ethnography was practiced. Though this is not salvage ethnography, there is thus an element of reconstruction to this piece, of paradise regained. On Montserrat, neaga is a term with derogatory connotations, but it is also an inclusive term …

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Taking On The Unknown: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis Of Unknown Relationship Homicides, Wendy C. Regoeczi, Terance D. Miethe Aug 2003

Taking On The Unknown: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis Of Unknown Relationship Homicides, Wendy C. Regoeczi, Terance D. Miethe

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications

Aside from noting the dramatic rise in their numbers, homicides with unknown victim/offender relationships have attracted little research attention. This study uses Qualitative Comparative Analysis and data from the Supplementary Homicide Reports for 1976 through 1998 to examine the nature of unknown relationship homicides and changes in their structure over time. The findings indicate that a large number of unknown relationship cases are contained within a few prevalent homicide situations while also occurring in a diverse array of less common situations. The situational context of unknown homicides exhibits considerable change over time, shifting from the killing of older White males …

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A Socio-Historical Analysis Of The Benton Harbor, Michigan Desegregation Case Between 1967 And 1981, Tiffany Anne Loftus Butzbaugh Aug 2003

A Socio-Historical Analysis Of The Benton Harbor, Michigan Desegregation Case Between 1967 And 1981, Tiffany Anne Loftus Butzbaugh

Dissertations

This study focuses on the socio-history of the Benton Harbor Area School District's ("BHASD") desegregation froth 1967 when Berry v School District of TheCity of Benton Harbor , C.A. 9 W.D. Mich. (1967) ("Berry ") was filed until 1981, when the court-ordered busing took effect. The purpose is to write a socio-historical analysis of BHASC Board of Education (BHASC Board) decisions regarding racial balance and imbalance in BHASC schools. Specifically, I study theBHASD Board, the administration, and the community concerning the following socio-historically relevant decisions: (1) the transfer of students from theSodus attendance district in the BHASD to the …

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Qualitative Research - Airy Fairy Or Fundamental?, Adri Labuschagne Jun 2003

Qualitative Research - Airy Fairy Or Fundamental?, Adri Labuschagne

The Qualitative Report

For many scientists used to doing quantitative studies the whole concept of qualitative research is unclear, almost foreign, or 'airy fairy' - not ' real' research. Clinical scientists sometimes find it difficult to accept this research method where the generation of hypotheses often replaces the testing thereof, explanation replaces measurement, and understanding replaces generalisability. Since qualitative research is becoming a prominent tool in medical research, it will be worthwhile to have a closer look at what it is and how it works.

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Converting Evidence Into Data: The Use Of Law Enforcement Archives As Unobtrusive Measurement, David Canter, Laurence J. Alison Jun 2003

Converting Evidence Into Data: The Use Of Law Enforcement Archives As Unobtrusive Measurement, David Canter, Laurence J. Alison

The Qualitative Report

The newly emerging area of Investigative Psychology provides a behavioural science basis for crime detection by examining investigative processes and criminal behaviour. It draws upon a range of material collected by law enforcement agencies that is not widely utilized in the social sciences. This may be regarded as a form of non-reactive, unobtrusive data that has many of the advantages originally promoted by Webb, Campbell, Schwartz and Sechrest (1966) and more recently explored by Lee (2000). The value of such data, derived from police sources, has been demonstrated in a variety of Investigative Psychology studies. However, law enforcement material is …

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Leap-Ing Toward Accountability? Ideology, Practice, And The Voices Of Louisiana Educators, Jim Horn Jun 2003

Leap-Ing Toward Accountability? Ideology, Practice, And The Voices Of Louisiana Educators, Jim Horn

The Qualitative Report

Louisiana educators at an urban K-5 school participated in a two-year study to share their experiences related to the implementation of a state high-stakes testing program (LEAP 21) that is used to make promotion decisions in grades 4 and 8. Observations, document analysis, and interviews were used to study the development of attitudes, perceptions, and practices related to the use of and consequences emanating from this testing practice. It was found that the state test has far-reaching effects on teaching, curriculum, school climate, students, parents, and school administration. The ideology of testing as a positive reform idea and the practice …

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Beginning On-Line Delphi Ethnographic Research: The Bolder Method, Jeffrey K. Edwards Jun 2003

Beginning On-Line Delphi Ethnographic Research: The Bolder Method, Jeffrey K. Edwards

The Qualitative Report

The use of the Internet to gather data, produce and report research has changed the face of the fields of education and research. This paper will present a method for combining electronic on-line media and Delphi methodology to begin the process of ethnographic research with participant inclusion, informed consent, data gathering by discourse facilitation, and preparation for coding. The use of a reflecting team by the research group provides impetus for second round responses by participants. Methods, format, a case study and an evaluation of the process will be presented.

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Dare I Embark On A Field Study? Toward An Understanding Of Field Studies, Yan Xiao, Paul Milgram Jun 2003

Dare I Embark On A Field Study? Toward An Understanding Of Field Studies, Yan Xiao, Paul Milgram

The Qualitative Report

Field studies have frequently been advocated as a means for understanding cognitive activities in naturalistic settings. However, there are several fundamental obstacles that one has to overcome to conduct a field study. This paper discusses two of these obstacles in the context of studying problem solving in complex environments: defining goals of a field study and justifying methods used in data analysis. Based on our experience from a recently finished field study, we outline a framework for understanding the nature of field studies and suggest a specific approach to data analysis. We argue that the goal of field studies should …

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The Researcher As Autobiographer: Analysing Data Written About Oneself, Colleen Tenni, Anne Smith, Carlene Boucher Jun 2003

The Researcher As Autobiographer: Analysing Data Written About Oneself, Colleen Tenni, Anne Smith, Carlene Boucher

The Qualitative Report

This paper explores some of the issues that arise when one is dealing with data that has been produced by the researcher about their own experience. In particular, we are interested in exploring the ways that researchers can go about analyzing autobiographical data. Many researchers produce data that is autobiographical. Ethnographers produce field notes. Action Researchers often write about their own practice. Phenomenologists, sociologists and historians may write narratives that are autobiographical. There is a growing trend for researchers working in a range of settings to view themselves simultaneously being both a subject (or the subject) and a researcher. Data …

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Challenging Methodological Traditions: Research By Email, Donna Mcauliffe Jun 2003

Challenging Methodological Traditions: Research By Email, Donna Mcauliffe

The Qualitative Report

Engaging human service practitioners as partners in research about sensitive areas of front-line work can be difficult for a range of reasons. Time constraints, geographic limitations, trust in the research relationship, issues of privacy, and fear of professional judgment are only some of the barriers that researchers need to overcome in order to assist workers to become involved in a reflective process about areas of practice. This article outlines the development of a new method of qualitative data collection designed to aid the reflective process and assist practitioners to engage in an ongoing dialogue about complex ethical dilemmas they had …

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Bridge Over Troubled Waters: End-Of-Life (Eol) Decisions, A Qualitative Case Study, Kate Callahan, Nancy Maldonado, Joan Efinger Jun 2003

Bridge Over Troubled Waters: End-Of-Life (Eol) Decisions, A Qualitative Case Study, Kate Callahan, Nancy Maldonado, Joan Efinger

The Qualitative Report

This case study investigated the psychological and emotional experiences of nine health care professionals who attended a Five Wishes seminar, designed to acquaint participants with thinking holistically about death. All the self-selected participants had experienced the death of a loved one and indicated they were able to discuss death issues. Data collection included interviews, observations, physical artifacts, and the Five Wishes documents. Content analysis was the central technique used to identify themes. Findings indicated participants attended the EOL seminar to share information with their colleagues and patients; the information also interested them personally. However, facing death and making EOL care …

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