Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons^™

If You Knew The End Of The Story, Would You Still Want To Hear It?: The Importance Of Narrative Time For Mental Health Care, Vicki Saunders, Juanita Sherwood, Kim Usher

The Qualitative Report

The origins of this paper lie in our experiences of having heard too many stories with the same outcome or ending in the field of inquiry and practice described as “Aboriginal Mental Health.” This paper was written in an attempt to make sense of these experiences. It does so by focussing on another type of outcome or story ending in mental health care/research contexts more widely known as [Recovery]. Not to be confused with the term recovery as it is used in addiction studies, the concept of [Recovery] currently underpinning mental health care policies and reform is at once a …

Situating Vulnerability In Research: Implications For Researcher Transformation And Methodological Innovation, Joyce A. Arditti

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, I broaden definitions pertaining to vulnerable participants and elaborate on issues in conducting research with justice-involved individuals and their families. I explore how special human subjects protections may inadvertently silence participants and further marginalize them, along with the social inequality that characterizes “at risk” research populations. Finally, I discuss how vulnerability can invite researcher transformation and methodological innovation and highlight the value of researcher reflexivity, community based participatory research and mixed methods approaches.

Understanding The Marriage Of Technology And Phenomenological Research: From Design To Analysis, Dustin De Felice, Valerie J. Janesick

The Qualitative Report

Phenomenologists seek to discover the universal essence of their participants’ lived experiences through a reiterative analysis process. While phenomenologists (in transcendental and empirical approaches) often follow very traditional practices in conducting research, there are a number of alternatives available that can aid in the overall research process. From virtual interviews to transcription software, many of these tools provide varying benefits and they are especially useful for smaller scale phenomenological research studies (from 1 to 20 participants). In this article, the authors discuss a number of technology choices including virtual interview practices, transcription procedures, researcher reflective portfolios and qualitative analysis techniques …

Conducting Qualitative Research On Parental Incarceration: Personal Reflections On Challenges And Contributions, Beth A. Easterling, Elizabeth I. Johnson

The Qualitative Report

Methodological challenges of conducting research with protected populations using qualitative methods are abundant. Inmates and children are two vulnerable populations, requiring rigorous processes and permissions to gain access to individuals in these populations. Qualitative research requires intimate interactions and discussions of sensitive topics, posing challenges related to extracting information and creating emotional responses from researcher and participant. Drawing on interviews with incarcerated mothers and children with incarcerated parents, we discuss challenges and benefits of qualitative methodology for research on parental incarceration and offer suggestions for overcoming barriers to access, data collection, and publication.

Sram898 — Special Topics: Survey Informatics, Unl — Fall 2015 Course Syllabus, Adam Eck

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Technology is rapidly changing the way survey researchers collect, manage, and analyze data measuring public opinion. Cutting-edge methods, tools, and data types offer greater insights into both the survey process, as well as the implications of the substantive responses provided by respondents. In this course, we will explore the role of technology throughout data collection, data management, and data analysis within survey research. We will also explore the increasing need for interdisciplinary teams within research to draw from the strengths of different disciplines (e.g., survey research and methodology, computer science and engineering, cognitive psychology, sociology, statistics, etc.) to properly answer …

Indigenous Knowledge And Maple Syrup: A Case Study Of The Effects Of Colonization In Ontario, Hayley Moody

Social Justice and Community Engagement

For many Indigenous communities throughout the province of Ontario on Turtle Island, maple syrup (MS) practices are culturally and spiritually significant; however, since the arrival of European settlers, these MS practices have substantially declined. This research utilizes the decline of maple syrup practices and related Indigenous Knowledge (IK) as a case study to exemplify the damaging impacts colonialism has had on the culture of Indigenous peoples living within Ontario. Over a period of two months, I spoke with seven Indigenous individuals throughout Ontario about their experiences and opinions regarding the relationship between colonialism and MS practices. Accordingly, colonialism has impacted …

Translating The News: A Grounded Theory Of Care Initiation Byindividuals Living With Hiv, Joseph Perazzo, Donna Martsolf, Tracy Pritchard, Rebecca Tehan

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this research study was to develop a theoretical framework to explain the psychosocial process of care initiation in individuals living with HIV, and to identify the critical junctures that influence individuals living with HIV in their decision to initiate HIV care. Grounded theory method was used to identify the psychosocial process of care initiation by individuals living with HIV. Thirty individuals living with HIV (28 men, 2 women) shared their stories about initiating HIV care. Participants described a process in which they progressed through five distinct stages following diagnosis: a) receiving the news, b) interpreting the news, …

Pathways Into Political Party Membership:Case Studies Of Hong Kong Youth, Hoi-Yu Ng

The Qualitative Report

This article explores and conceptualizes the individual mobilization processes into political party membership of a sample of young people in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous and semi-democratic region under Chinese sovereignty where political parties are relatively underdeveloped. Based on life history interviews with 23 young party members, I found that the mobilization of young people into party membership comprises three different steps. I also found that not all young party members went through the same order of steps. In total, three orders of steps are identified, which create three different paths into party membership. Lastly, this article found that each mobilization …

Applying The Pedagogy Of The Oppressed: A Review Of Creatingtogether: Participatory, Community-Based, And Collaborative Artspractices And Scholarship Across Canada, Bruce Lilyea

The Qualitative Report

Creating Together: Participatory, Community-Based, and Collaborative Arts Practices and Scholarship across Canada offers a series of real-life practical examples where the concepts of the book title are effectively applied and an impact is made in a range of places across Canada and with a range of marginalized groups. By using a comparative approach, this review links the material presented in Creating Together: Participatory, Community-based, and Collaborative Arts Practices and Scholarship across Canada to the concepts presented in Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The examples in Creating Together offer pragmatic applications of Freire’s concepts and provide a series of pragmatic illustration …

Cross-Sectional Assessment Of Safety Culture Perceptions And Safety Behavior In Collegiate Aviation Programs In The United States, Daniel Kwasi Adjekum, Julius Keller, Micah Walala, John P. Young, Cody Christensen, Randal J. Demik, Gary J. Northam Ph.D.

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

A cross-sectional quasi- mixed-method approach was used to determine the relationships between safety culture perceptions and safety reporting behavior among flight students with and without certified flight instructor (CFI) ratings. Respondents (n=259) were recruited from five collegiate aviation programs in the US and took part in the study. Survey Items adopted from the Collegiate Aviation Perception of Safety Culture Assessment Survey (CAPSCAS) were validated using factor analysis analyzed for reliability before use in the study. Researchers sought to find out if the safety reporting behavior (reporting frequency) of respondents could be predicted from their safety culture perceptions. Pearson’s …

Senior Companion Program Volunteers: Exploring Experiences, Transformative Rituals, And Recruitment/Retention Issues, Jason S. Ulsperger, Jericho Mcelroy, Haley Robertson, Kristen Ulsperger

The Qualitative Report

Senior Companion Programs (SCPs) help the homebound elderly. They operate through local Area Agencies on Aging, but any nonprofit institution can apply for funding and operate a SCP. Program volunteers are 55 and older. They visit qualified elderly clients, which includes people who do not have the ability to fully care for themselves. Volunteers provide social interaction to clients, but they also provide a minimal level of services, such as grocery shopping, light housekeeping, and respite for caregivers. Examining the experiences of volunteers in these programs can help us better understand why actively engaging with others is important as we …

Qualitative Researcher Reflexivity: A Follow-Up Study With Female Sexual Assault Survivors, Stephanie Hoover, Susan L. Morrow

The Qualitative Report

Motivated by researcher reflexivity, the author sought to learn from participants about the sensitive, ethical issues of the qualitative research process. The current study followed up with eight women who had previously participated in an interview-based study about sexual assault disclosure. Multiple sources of qualitative data were triangulated, including interviews, follow-up interviews, interviews from the original study, and participant checks. Phenomenological analysis yielded five themes: (a) Meaning of Participation, (b) Trust in the Researcher, (c) Connection with the Other Participants, (d) Changing Comfort, and (e) Recommendations to Increase Participants’ Comfort. Based on these results, recommendations are provided for researchers conducting …

Two Ethnographic Researchers Embark On A Narrative Journey, Randa Abbas, Deborah Court

The Qualitative Report

In this article two ethnographic researchers present a life story that emerged, almost against their will, as one of 120 in-depth interviews with Israeli Druze. The ethnographic study was designed to provide understanding of Israeli Druze society today through the discovery of thematic patterns. One interviewee, however, simply refused to follow the loosely structured interview format and told her story. Hana's story about the importance of her father in her professional success, and about her struggles to abide by the tenets of her religion, shed new light on the ethnographic data and taught these two researchers some new methodological sensibilities.

Relationship Between Decision-Making And Professional Experiences Of A Pakistani Female Head Teacher In Initial Years Of Headship, Sumaira T. Khan

The Qualitative Report

This study investigated how a head teacher’s decisions were informed by her prior professional experiences in coping with the challenges in the initial years of headship in Government Secondary School in Pakistan. It is a qualitative case study of a newly promoted female head teacher with twenty-nine years of teaching experience, posted in the same school. Multiple data collection tools (interviews, observations, document analysis and field notes) were used to collect data about the inquiry. The study found that decision-making processes and professional experiences were co-related in teaching and learning, managing the staff, efficient and effective placement of the staff, …

The Whiteness Of Silence: A Critical Autoethnographic Tale Of A Strategic Rhetoric, Jennifer E. Potter

The Qualitative Report

Nakayama and Krizeck’s essay, “A Strategic Rhetoric of Whiteness” offers an understanding of Whiteness as cultural praxis operating beyond the narrow understanding of mere skin color. While scholars have added valuable contributions to the study of Whiteness, the discussion of the “strategic rhetoric” still lacks examples of embodiment. This essay seeks to demonstrate the deployment of Whiteness by describing a specific moment in which I was complicit in the deployment of Whiteness using the strategy of silence. This essay enumerates the machinations of Whiteness hidden in a seemingly mundane performance and contributes to an ongoing conversation about problematizing Whiteness.

Catching The “Tail/Tale” Of Teaching Qualitative Inquiry To Novice Researchers, Thalia M. Mulvihill, Raji Swaminatha, Lucy C. Bailey

The Qualitative Report

This article responds to the call for deeper examination of qualitative inquiry teaching practices by presenting representative examples from the pedagogies of three teacher-educators who have taught Qualitative Research Methods courses for the past 15 years. We focus in particular on the pedagogical complexities of teaching data analysis, which is a topic that remains under-theorized and under-represented in contemporary scholarship on qualitative methodologies. Using a critical friends framework, we analyze and synthesize our pedagogical responses to key dilemmas we have encountered in our respective contexts, all state universities, to introducing qualitative inquiry to novice researchers who often enter the analytic …

Are We There Yet? Data Saturation In Qualitative Research, Patricia I. Fusch, Lawrence R. Ness

The Qualitative Report

Failure to reach data saturation has an impact on the quality of the research conducted and hampers content validity. The aim of a study should include what determines when data saturation is achieved, for a small study will reach saturation more rapidly than a larger study. Data saturation is reached when there is enough information to replicate the study when the ability to obtain additional new information has been attained, and when further coding is no longer feasible. The following article critiques two qualitative studies for data saturation: Wolcott (2004) and Landau and Drori (2008). Failure to reach data saturation …

“Being In Balance”: Self-Management Experiences Among Young Women With Type 1 Diabetes, Sanja Visekruna, Dana S. Edge, Lisa Keeping-Burke

The Qualitative Report

Women possess characteristics and experiences unique and different from men. Biological processes such as puberty, menstruation, motherhood and menopause may present challenges to self-management for individuals living with type 1 (T1) diabetes mellitus. In this study, descriptive phenomenology was used to uncover the self-management experiences of nine women aged 22- 30 years living with T1 diabetes. Data collection and analysis occurred simultaneously and followed the methodical structure of van Manen (1997). Study findings revealed five themes: 1) elusiveness of control; 2) dualism of technology; 3) forecasting and maintaining routines; 4) dealing with the “ups and downs”; and, 5) interfacing with …

Voices From Within: Student Teachers’ Experiences In English Academic Writing Socialization At One Indonesian Teacher Training Program, Amirul Mukminin, Raden Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Jaya Fadloan Ashari

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of Indonesian student teachers in English academic writing socialization at one public university teacher-training program in Jambi, Indonesia. The theoretical framework of cultural capital was used to guide the study. The data were collected through demographic profiles and semi-structured in- depth interviews with student teachers. The constant comparative method guided the data analysis. Five salient themes that emerged in this research were (1) no writing cultural backgrounds, (1) needing long-lasting exposure and internalization, (3) lack of academic writing socialization, (4) lack of institutional supports, and (5) lack of lecturers’ …

Inference Of Cultural Transmission Modes Based On Incomplete Information, Bryan Wilder, Anne Kandler

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

In this paper we explore the theoretical limits of the inference of cultural transmission modes based on sparse population-level data. We approach this problem by investigating whether different transmission modes produce different temporal dynamics of cultural change. In particular we explore whether the distributions of the average time a variant stays the most common variant in the population, denoted by t_max, conditioned on the considered transmission modes are sufficiently different to allow for inference of underlying transmission modes. We assume time series data detailing the frequencies of different variants of a cultural trait in a population at different …

Good Governance In Basic Education In Egypt: Paradoxical Or Self Explanatory?, Yasmin Khodary

Political Science

Despite the numerous initiatives suggested and implemented to reform education in Egypt, very little was achieved in terms of improving education quality and, consequently, boosting development and democratic transition processes in Egypt. This paper argued that basic education in Egypt suffered variant degrees of weaknesses in applying good governance dimensions, including participation, accountability, responsiveness, fighting corruption, effectiveness and transparency, which ultimately affected negatively the overall performance of the basic education sector in Egypt. Building on the results of an assessment to governance in basic education in Egypt, the paper evaluated the degree to which basic education service providers in Egypt …

Published: A Grounded Theory Of Successful Publication For Midcareer Scholars, Walker Karraa, Mark Mccaslin

The Qualitative Report

How do some scholars publish successfully while others perish from professional pressure? Literature has demonstrated the challenges of professional advancement through scholarship, yet has yet to explore how scholars manage these challenges successfully. The problem to be addressed in this grounded study was the lack of knowledge regarding the nature of success in peer-reviewed publication for midcareer scholars. Midcareer was defined as (a) employed professors with 5-15 years of doctoral level teaching experience, (b) having mentored at least one doctoral student to completion, and (c) successfully published in a peer-reviewed journal within the last academic year. A purposive sample of …

Demystifying The Mystery Of Second Career Teachers’ Motivation To Teach, Yvonne Hunter-Johnson

The Qualitative Report

Within the field of education, there has been much discussion regarding what prompts the career change of second career teachers. This study examines motivational factors that influence second career teachers’ decision to teach and how their previous careers influence their teaching experience. The theoretical framework that acts as foundational platform is the Expectancy Theory. The study utilized a qualitative approach. Data was collected using focus groups and analyzed utilizing open coding consistent with Corbin and Strauss (2010). The results of the study revealed that most participants were intrinsically motivated to transition to the teaching profession.

The Writing Exercise: An Autoethnographic Short Story, Peter Joseph Gloviczki

The Qualitative Report

This paper is an autoethnography about writing as a form of communication in the age of new media.

Transportation And Sanitation Drivers Of Land Use/Land Cover Change: Loss Of The Jamaica Bay Wetlands, Margaret Joy Cytryn

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an analysis (1830-2014) of the historical events of land use/land cover change in the Jamaica Bay estuary, identification of the agents of change, and a perspective on the potential drivers of transportation and sanitation in land use/land cover change.

Straight Lives: The Balance Between Human Dignity, Public Safety, And Desistance From Crime, Lila Kazemian

Publications and Research

This report looks at how the academic and practitioner worlds must collaborate to develop an effective, desistance-promoting approach to criminal justice. Interventions need to be desistance-focused and tailored to individual circumstances rather than standardized programming. Interventions should shift away from an emphasis on risk and criminogenic needs and help individuals overcome obstacles to desistance.

Giving A Voice To The Powerless: Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation As A Tool For Inclusive Development Through Microfinance, Evan T. Burke

Capstone Collection

The greatest experts on the situation of the marginalized peoples of the world are the marginalized communities themselves. This paper explores how participatory monitoring & evaluation can be a powerful tool for giving voices to marginalized communities, ensuring that the voices of beneficiaries and local stakeholders are heard and inform sustainable project design. It analyzes a participatory monitoring and evaluation methodology implemented for women’s credit cooperatives in Gujarat, India by the Human Development & Research Centre, and examines lessons to be learned to design evaluations facilitating inclusive development.

Strategies for the monitoring and evaluation of microfinance have evolved along with …

The Alternate Assessment Based On Alternate Achievement Standards Eligibility Decision-Making Process, Karren Streagle, Karen Wilson Scott

The Qualitative Report

Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), students with significant intellectual disabilities (ID) are allowed to take alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) in lieu of the standardized assessments taken by their peers, however evidence suggests that IEP teams inconsistently and sometimes inaccurately apply established participation criteria in finding students eligible to participate in AA-AAS. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to describe the decision-making process used by Individual Education Program (IEP) teams to identify students eligible to participate in AA-AAS. Thirteen case managers of students taking the Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP) from central Virginia participated …

Teachers’ Perceptions And Conceptualizations Of Low Educational Achievers: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Of Disengagement For Future Neets, Gabriella Agrusti, Francesca Corradi

The Qualitative Report

The NEETs phenomenon in Italy is not a recent one, but it increased dramatically after the Global Financial Crisis. As in France many different factors influence it, but the prevailing two are the skills mismatch and the youth generations’ discouragement. Whereas in France the role of the school is crucial into tackling NEETs, in Italy the initiatives are mainly carried out by local authorities and small and medium enterprises. Therefore, more research is needed that sheds lights on teachers’ role in dealing with low educational achievers. This exploratory study investigates teachers’ perceptions and conceptualizations of low educational achievers in upper …

Call To Resistance: A Review Of Denzin And Giardina’Squalitative Inquiry: Past, Present, & Future, Paul Rhodes

The Qualitative Report

This book is a compendium of papers presented at the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry from 2005 to the present. It serves as a call to arms for critical researchers, to engage deeply with theory and praxis, directing their efforts against our conservative neo-liberal culture. The book is suitable for academics and students alike and will not disappoint in its capacity to perturb and challenge.