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

Never A Yellow Bird, Always A Blue Bird: Ethnodrama Of A Latina Learner’S Educational Experiences In 1950 - 60s South Texas, Norman Gillen, Kakali Bhattacharya

The Qualitative Report

This article is a response to calls for more first - person accounts from researchers using narrative formats to interpret data. The authors examine the practice of ethnodrama as a means of exploring and analyzing the experiences of a Latina public - school student in a small South Texas coastal town during the 1950s and 1960s as she attempted to negotiate multiple ethnic spaces while resisting traditional behavioral expectations representative of that period. Through coding and synthesizing the participant’s responses, the researchers established theme s on which to base the composition of three dramatic scenes for purposes of data representation. …

Baby Steps: A Book Review Of Dorothy Valcarcel Craig’S Action Research Essentials, Mahdi Qasqas

The Qualitative Report

Action Research Essentials by Dorothy Valcarcel Craig (2009) is an excellent resource for the emerging researcher; especially doctoral students in their first year of studies. Craig is successful in providing the reader with the essentials of action research while also addressing common challenges; one baby step at a time. In this review I will first explain the process of selecting and conducting the first reading of the book followed by identifying the author’s objectives and intent. Then, I present a brief description of each chapter and note how their content relates to struggling research students' common challenges of the . …

Interrupting Life History: The Evolution Of Relationship Within Research, Ronald E. Hackett

The Qualitative Report

In this paper the author explores how relationships are defined within the context of constructing a life history. The life history of Benjamin, a homeless young man transitioning to adulthood, is used to illustrate how difficult it is to define the parameters of the research environment. During an “ethically important moment” in the research process, the author had to critically analyze his obligation to his participant based upon the relational titles exchanged. As chaos in Benjamin’s life increased, a choice needed to be made about the researcher’s involvement in his life. Should the researcher provide support or simply document events? …

The Characteristics Of Women Seeking Funding From The Dc Abortion Fund, Karin Elizabeth Bleeg

GW Research Days 2013

Objectives: To determine whether the population DCAF serves, based on current research, are those most in need of its financial services. Describe the population that DCAF is supports by age, race and ethnicity, poverty, educational attainment, union status, contraceptive method used, referral source, and number of prior pregnancies.

Methods: An adapted version of The Guttmacher Institute's National Patient Survey will be used to collect data from women who contact DCAF for financial assistance for their abortion (n=150). The data will be collected for one month and then analyzed in SPSS.

Results: Between January and March 2013 approximately 400 women contacted …

The Impact Of Home Visitor Relationship Quality On Parenting And Child Outcomes: Does Maternal Age Matter?, Elizabeth A. Colsey

Senior Honors Theses

Early Head Start (EHS) is an early intervention program that seeks to mitigate the effects of risk for those families with young children. Consistent with attachment theory, the home visiting component of EHS targets parent-child relationships in order to combat negative child outcomes. Research indicates that children of adolescent mothers are susceptible to poor outcomes both in childhood and adulthood. The current study utilized EHS data from 1198 parent-child dyads to assess the indirect relationship of home visitor quality on child aggression through parent quality, as moderated by maternal age. Findings indicated that home visitor quality may have a greater …

Social Media And The Transformation Of The Humanitarian Narrative: A Comparative Analysis Of Humanitarian Discourse In Libya 2011 And Bosnia 1994, Ellen Noble

Political Science Honors Projects

Within humanitarian discourse, there is a prevailing narrative: the powerful liberal heroes are saving the helpless, weak victims. However, the beginning of the 21^st century marks the expansion of the digital revolution throughout lesser-developed states. Growing access to the Internet has enabled aid recipients to communicate with the outside world, giving them an unprecedented opportunity to reshape discourses surrounding humanitarianism. Through a comparative discourse analysis of Libyan Tweets, 1994 newspaper reports on Bosnia, and 2011 newspaper reports on Libya, this paper analyzes whether aid recipient discourse can resist the dominant humanitarian narrative and if that resistance can influence dominant …

Tasers And Community Controversy: Investigating Training Officer Perceptions Of Public Concern Over Conducted Energy Weapons, Joseph De Angelis, Brian Wolf

The Qualitative Report

Over the last several decades, “Tasers,” “stun guns” and other conducted energy devices (CEDs) have become a widely adopted, though publicly controversial, form of police restraint technology. While there is a growing body of research on the physiological effects of these types of weapons, less attention has been devoted to the social effects of this technology. This paper draws on in - depth interviews with a stratified random sample of police training officers from two states (n=27) to explore the effect that community controversy over the use of CEDs has had on police organizational practices. In particular, we explore how …

Queering Methodologies: Challenging Scientific Constraint In The Appreciation Of Queer And Trans Subjects, Joshua M. Ferguson

The Qualitative Report

Qualitative studies require a queer perspective to challenge stagnant forms of scientific discourse. This paper argues for a deconstruction of hegemonic qualitative practices in order to appreciate and listen to queer and trans subjects when employing qualitative research and methodologies. I focus on qualitative methods from an audiovisual perspective to suggest that there is scientific constraint in the way researchers still approach qualitative methodologies. I propose some foundations for thinking about queer qualitative methods that employs queer theory in relation to a self - reflexive creative perspective towards ethics, research and representation. Moreover, I critically analyze the HBO trans documentary, …

Exploring The Methodology Of Getting Lost With Patti Lather, Sarah Fotheringham

The Qualitative Report

In this article I review the book Getting Lost: Feminist Efforts towards a Double(d) science (Lather, 2007) from the perspective of a feminist social worker. Lather, using herself and her previous research with women as example, explores feminist methodological issues of loss of authority and loss of innocence as a means towards the creation of new forms of knowledge. This complex book, while extraordinarily difficult, provides the reader with a rare opportunity of getting lost – in the literal sense - in the postmodern poise while simultaneously opening the reader up to new ways of knowing. For feminists and social …

There Are No "Innocent Victims": The Influence Of Just World Beliefs And Prior Victimization On Rape Myth Acceptance, Rebecca Lynne Vonderhaar

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Approximately 209,000 women report being raped every year. Of those 209,000 rapes, only 19,491 arrests were made (U.S. Department of Justice 2011). Furthermore, reports estimate that one out of every three women will be raped at some point in her life (Amir, 1971). The prominence of rape in the United States, as well as the disparity between documented rapes to the police and victim reports of rape, is problematic for researchers in fully understanding the breadth of the problem. Considering that rape occurs at such an overwhelmingly high rate and frequently goes unreported, it is important to understand the attitudes …

Substance Abuse And Insecure Attachment Styles: A Relational Study, Yasmin Borhani

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

The attachment styles an individual forms while they are growing up can impact the type of relationships they form as adults. Research has shown insecure attachment styles can be correlated to substance abuse, emotional distress, and interpersonal problems. More specifically, this study focuses on the correlation between insecure attachment styles and substance abuse. Nineteen participants (nine male, ten female) between the ages of 18 to 32 were selected. Participants were given a 20-question survey that measured substance abuse and attachment styles. A t-test was conducted to compare the differences between participants who abuse substances and participants who do not abuse …

An Innovative Way To Present Qualitative Work: A Review Of Life After Leaving: The Remains Of Spousal Abuse, Mo Xue

The Qualitative Report

Life after Leaving is an innovative, creative, and amazing autoethnographic work in which Tamas explores how women struggle to make sense of loss, get recovery, and experience the loving, longing, fear, uncertainties, trust, hope, and frustration after leaving spousal abuse in the form of a performative and arts - based dramatic story. In this paper I review this book mainly from two aspects: data trustworthiness and data analysis. For qualitative researchers and our doctoral students in education or social studies, the success of this book would encourage all of us to bravely use various and more advanced approach to present …

Hand - I Coordination: Interpreting Student Writings And Drawings As Expressions Of Identity, Inda Schaenen

The Qualitative Report

In schools where curricular constraints and testing pressures narrow the ways in which students can take up identities as writers, longterm enrichment programs offer opportunities for the meaningful design of compositions. This paper, which presents the work of four elementary student participants in a writing workshop, shows how qualitative inquiry -- in particular critical multimodal analysis -- can enable a teacher researcher to see, interpret, and explain what might be going on in the writings and drawings of students, and how these illuminations help establish and expand the identities of students as writers. I focus especially on the work of …

Recruiting Ethnically Diverse Participants Into Qualitative Health Research: Lessons Learned, Hagar Renert, Shelly Russell-Mayhew, Nancy Arthur

The Qualitative Report

The inclusion of ethnically diverse populations in health research is crucial for addressing ethnic disparities in health status and care. Despite this need, non - dominant ethnic groups continue to be under - represented in health studies. The reasons may be at least partly du e to the difficulties inherent in recruiting such groups for research. In this article, we attempt to assist researchers , who are seeking to conduct inclusive qualitative health research , by sharing some of the lessons we learned in the process of recruiting ethnically diverse immigrant women for a qualitative study on the experience of …

Case Study O F Three Rural Texas Superintendents As Equity Oriented Change Agents, Gerri Marie Maxwell, Leslie Ann Locke, James Joseph Scheurich

The Qualitative Report

For this qualitative case study (Patton, 2003 ), we used narrative inquiry (Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, & Allen, 1993) and sought to analyze extended interviews and field notes based on inter actions with three rural superintendents working in high - needs, public PK - 12 school districts in Texas. We collected data with regard to these superintendents’ perceptions of themselves as social justice/equity oriented change agents based on the Equity Oriented Change Agent or EOCA framework developed by Skrla, McKenzie, and Scheurich (2009). Our goal with this study was to glean greater insight into the work of these rural school leaders …

Picturing Leisure: Using Photovoice To Understand The Experience Of Leisure And Dementia, Rebecca Genoe, Sherry Dupuis

The Qualitative Report

Interviews and participant observation are commonly used to explore the experience of dementia, yet may not adequately capture perspectives of persons with dementia as communication changes. We used photovoice (i.e., using cameras in qualitative research) along with interviews and participant observation to explore meanings of leisure for persons with dementia. We discuss our photovoice process and the challenges we encountered, including ethical concerns, difficulty using the equipment, forgetting the context of photos, and questioning self. Despite challenges, photovoice aided in cuing memory, planning for the interview, sharing stories, and capturing meaning. We recommend further exploration of photovoice with this population.

When Pandora’S Box Is Opened: A Qualitative Study Of The Intended And Unintended Impacts Of Wyoming’S New Standardized Tests On Local Educators’ Everyday Practices, Jeasik Cho, Brian Ebhard

The Qualitative Report

In the context of a newly adopted statewide assessment system, PAWS (Proficiency Assessment for Wyoming Students), this paper describes intended instructional changes and unintended outcomes in classrooms and schools as a result of an assessment policy involving an innovative online portion of the test. An elementary school was selected and prolonged qualitative fieldwork with in - depth and focus group interviews were conducted for 1½ years. A constant comparative data analysis and interpretation from grounded theory methodology led to the following themes: adaptive implementation policy, teachers’ dilemmas, instructional change, and school culture change. While observing an elusive role for teachers …

Interviewing Key Informants: Strategic Planning For A Global Public Health Management Program, Karen E. Kun, Anisa Kassim, Elizabeth Howze, Goldie Macdonald

The Qualitative Report

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Sustainable Management Development Program (SMDP) partners with low - and middle - resource countries to develop management capacity so that effective global public health programs can be implemented and better health outcomes can be achieved. The program’s impact however, was variable. Hence, there was a need to both engage in a strategic planning process and collect useful data to inform the process. We therefore designed a qualitative evaluation and findings that emerged concerning o ur program’s contribution to individual career advancement and professional growth; the need for institutional support and a champion to …

Subjectivity Not Statement And Not Apa!, Dana Cihelkova

The Qualitative Report

I inspect in a brief theoretical - philosophical essay the roots of subjectivity and suggest many possible directions for examining the phenomenon of subjectivity so that multiple different meanings can be revealed. For instance, a researcher can explore her or his own subjectivity or he/she can attempt to define subjectivity per se or the researcher can uncover subjectivity or merely learn about subjectivity. I propose that subjectivity is an inner essence of flux and ask if it is even possible to fully capture a researcher’s subjectivity. Another proposition is to view subjectivity as an inner essence of each and every …

Guidance On Performing Focused Ethnographies With An Emphasis On Healthcare Research, Gina M.A Higginbottom, Jennifer J. Pillay, Nana Y. Boadu

The Qualitative Report

Focused ethnographies can have meaningful and useful application in primary care, community, or hospital healthcare practice, and are often used to determine ways to improve care and care processes. They can be pragmatic and efficient ways to capture data on a specific topic of importance to individual clinicians or clinical specialties. While many examples of focused ethnographies are available in the literature, there is a limited availability of guidance documents for conducting this research. This paper defines focused ethnographies, locates them within the ethnographic genre, justifies their use in healthcare research, and outlines the methodological processes including those related to …

Kinetic Art And Transcendental Phenomenological Analysis, Martha M. Snyder

The Qualitative Report

Transcendental phenomenological analysis (TPA) is a form of qualitative research analysis that engages the researcher in the process of observation, interpretation, reflexivity, and imagination. It is a form science and art. This digital narrative is a story of how I studied TPA through the lens of kinetic art and more specifically, the art of making mobiles. In this video, I present a blend of narrative and photography to share how I made my first mobile and deepened my knowledge and appreciation of TPA

Interviewing Key Informants: Strategic Planning For A Global Public Health Management Program, Karen E. Kun, Anisa Kassim, Elizabeth Howze, Goldie Macdonald

The Qualitative Report

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Sustainable Management Development Program (SMDP) partners with low - and middle - resource countries to develop management capacity so that effective global public health programs can be implemented and better health outcomes can be achieved. The program’s impact however, was variable. Hence, there was a need to both engage in a strategic planning process and collect useful data to inform the process. We therefore designed a qualitative evaluation and findings that emerged concerning o ur program’s contribution to individual career advancement and professional growth; the need for institutional support and a champion to …

Is The Decline In Juvenile Incarceration Due To Reform Or Falling Crime Rates?, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

FBI crime data show a decline in juvenile incarceration while placement patterns have not changed since 1995. The per capita youth incarceration in 2010 was more than 40 percent lower than in 1995. This databit shows the rate of juvenile crime since 1995, how incarceration trends mirror arrests and referrals, and juvenile placement patterns.

The Perceived Effect Of Hiv/Aids On Other Identities, Lisa M. Baumgartner, Eric Niemi

The Qualitative Report

The onset of a chronic disease influences other roles or identities. For example, an HIV or AIDS diagnosis can affect a person’s work identity (Bedell, 1997). In this article, we explored how living with HIV/AIDS shapes other identities. Thirty - six individuals living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) participated in semi - structured interviews. Participants’ work, sexuality / intimacy, spirituality, advocate, self - esteem, addict/recovering addict and parent identities changed after being diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. In general, respondents’ advocate and recovering addict identities emerged and gained salience after being diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. Further research on how HIV/AIDS affects …

Teachers Of Color Creating And Recreating Identities In Suburban Schools, Vera J. Lee

The Qualitative Report

In this qualitative study, I explored the socialization experiences of eight teachers in two suburban high schools, and how they described their in - school identities. The findings from the study revealed how the participants constructed their identities differently for reasons that included wanting to deflect particular stereotypic images of their cultural/ethnic group or mitigating their own discomfort in revealing more private aspects of their core identities. The study offers implications for teacher education programs and the critical role that they play in preparing preservice teachers of color to work in suburban school settings, and in exposing all teacher candidates …

Teacher - Student Relationships In Court - Mandated Adult Education: A Phenomenological Study, Ron Mottern

The Qualitative Report

While there is a considerable body of literature on adult correctional education, this literature almost exclusively deals with teachers and students working within incarceration settings, where students are in jail or prison. There is a lack of research on the experiences of teachers working with students who are a part of the correctional system but are placed within the community , i.e., community corrections. In this study the author examines the experiences of teachers working with court - mandated, community corrections students in GED/ABE programs. Seven adult education teachers share their experiences in this phenomenological study. The findings of the …

Effects Of Group Work On English Communicative Competence Of Chinese International Graduates In United States Institutions Of Higher Education, Mo Xue

The Qualitative Report

This qualitative study investigated 14 Chinese international graduate students’ lived experiences with group work and the effect s of group work on their English communicative competence. The interview results showed that these participants’ attitudes towards group work went through changes from initial inadaptation or dislike to later adaptation or acceptance, and the time for their adjustment ranged from half a year to one year. The results also revealed that group work greatly improved their English communicative competence in terms of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence. Suggestions for educational researchers, international students, and Chinese EFL instructors were provided.

Community - Based Participatory Research With Hispanic/Latino Leaders And Members, Mary Grace Amendola

The Qualitative Report

Hispanic/Latinos (H/L) are being studied for healthcare disparities research utilizing community - based participatory research (CBPR). CBPR’s active participation of community members and researchers suggests improvement in community health. Yet there are no known studies that inductively investigated the lived experience of H/L community leaders and members with CBPR using interpretive phenomenology. Data were obtained from observations, field notes, biographical interviews, individual interviews and focus groups. The findings supported that community members wanted to collaborate with researchers utilizing the C BPR approach so that culturally sensitive interventions can be created to encourage health - seeking behaviors in their community

Two Cultures Collide: Bridging The Generation Gap In A Non - Traditional Mentorship, Lisa R. Merriweather, Alberta J. Morgan

The Qualitative Report

Cross - cultural mentoring relationships between younger mentors and older mentees are increasing in frequency across all levels of post - secondary education. Generational cultural differences can result in conflict and misunderstanding and therefore should be considered in non - traditional inter - generational mentoring relationships. Through auto - ethnographic inquiry, we, a younger faculty member and older graduate student, explored our mentoring relationship. We identified communication, respect, and ambiguous roles as issues that significantly impacted our mentorship. The manifestation of power was also highlighted in the study. K

A Qualitative Study Of Women’S Decisions Not To Have A Hysterectomy, Erin Fredericks

The Qualitative Report

In focusing on individual and physician demographics and system characteristics that lead to hysterectomy rate variations, researchers overlook the impact of culturally mediated meanings women assign to their bodies, hysterectomy, and other treatments. In this study I sought to provide a fuller description of this decision - making process by examining the role of meaning making in women’s decision not to have a hysterectomy. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, nine women diagnosed with menstrual disorders in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada each took part in a semi - structured interview. Factors deemed “irrational” in bio medical understandings of informed choice played …