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

Online Interviewing: It’S Not As Simple As Point And Click, Robin Cooper

The Qualitative Report

In Online Interviewing, Nalita James and Hugh Busher offer a thoughtful discussion of epistemological, methodological, and ethical considerations related to qualitative research in the online environment. They describe several forms of online interviews, as well as benefits and challenges associated with this form of research. The authors include practical tips for online researchers and examples from studies that employed online research methods.

Decoding Coding Via The Coding Manual For Qualitative Researchers By Johnny Saldaña, Robin Cooper

The Qualitative Report

The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers by Johnny Saldaña is a valuable resource for novice and experienced qualitative researchers alike, offering a clear, comprehensive explanation of codes and coding methods and the role they play in qualitative research. This explanation includes a discussion of writing analytic memos and a detailed list of First Cycle and Second Cycle coding methods. The book also includes useful appendices with samples of data and exercises for readers to practice coding.

Soup To Nuts In Doing Qualitative Research: A Comprehensive Guide By David Silverman And Amir Marvasti, Diana Riviera

The Qualitative Report

Doing Qualitative Research: A Comprehensive Guide by David Silverman and Amir Marvasti is a masterpiece for any graduate student looking for guidance in research and dissertation process. The authors provide extensive information on the entire research and dissertation procedure as well as offer tips to conquer the qualifying exam and the rewards and challenges to publishing post dissertation.

Quantum Of Solitude: Lonelines As Experienced By Pastors' Wives, Jama Davis, Frederick Milacci

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This phenomenological study investigated the individual experiences of eight pastors’ wives with the phenomenon, loneliness. Data was collected using informal, conversational, taped and transcribed interviews. Descriptions of the experiences of loneliness and the general factors contributing to loneliness were identified by the participants. The experiences and general contributing factors were compared and contrasted. The findings of this study suggest three factors which most significantly impact pastors’ wives and loneliness. Suggestions for future research involving pastors’ wives and pastors are provided.

A Means-End Approach To Understanding Adventure Race Participation, Brandii Brinkley

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

This multiple purpose qualitative research initiative sought to (a) provide research on the relationship between attributes and values associated with adventure race participation, (b) discover motivations for adventure racing, (c) provide support for prior means-end research, and (d) research a new, emerging recreational activity. An adventure race was held on the campus of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. After the conclusion of the race, race participants were asked to complete a self-administered survey which offered attributes and values which potentially serve as motivations for adventure race participation. Means-end theory provided the framework for how the data obtained in the …

Entering Into A "Community" Of Experience And Meaning: A Review Of Interviewing For Education And Social Science Research: The Gateway Approach By Carolyn Lunsford Mears, Robin Cooper

The Qualitative Report

In Interviewing for Education and Social Science Research: The Gateway Approach, Carolyn Lunsford Mears outlines an approach to in-depth interviewing in qualitative research that draws upon educational criticism, oral history, and poetic display. Mears describes this narrator centered approach as including the development of an insider’s perspective and the use of excerpted narratives. She also provides useful guides and examples in the appendices to the book, making the text especially helpful to the novice qualitative researcher

Insider Experiences Of The Qualitative Report’S Reviewing Process, Pamela Felder, Tom Strong, Jennifer Ronald

The Qualitative Report

We (Pamela, Tom, and Jenn) wanted to give you our insiders’ experiences of the manuscript submission and reviewing process at The Qualitative Report (TQR). Respectively, we are a researcher-author, an instructor-reviewer, and a student-reviewer who were involved in the reviewing process that resulted in the publication of Pamela’s TQR article: On Doctoral Student Development: Exploring Faculty Mentoring in the Shaping of African American Doctoral Student Success (Felder, in press). In this brief article, we will adopt a somewhat conversational approach to relating our individual and collective experiences. How we came to work together, what that work entailed, and our experiences …

Seeing The Forest Through The Trees: A Review Of Gibson And Brown’S Working With Qualitative Data, Jacquelyn Browne

The Qualitative Report

In their 2008 book, Working with Qualitative Data, Gibson and Brown introduce their readers to the notion that qualitative data analysis is more of an on-going process integral to the overall qualitative research process than a set of techniques or tools. In making this assertion, the authors help their audience connect analysis with theory, design, and final qualitative research report

The Perceptions Of Student Teachers About The Effects Of Class Size With Regard To Effective Teaching Process, Melek Çakmak

The Qualitative Report

The main purpose of this study was to determine student teachers' perceptions concerning the effects of class size with regard to the teaching process. A total of 41 fourth-year student teachers participated in the study. A questionnaire including open-ended items was used for data collection. The study revealed that there is a direct relationship between class size and motivation, teaching method used, classroom management, and assessment according to student teachers' views. Although carried with a small sample size, this study is expected to establish a firm basis for the future studies to contribute to teacher training programs, which enhance student …

We Have The Videoconference Equipment Installed, Now What?, Janine Lim, Shirley Freed

The Qualitative Report

As K-12 schools acquire equipment for videoconferencing, they often experience limited usage of the equipment. The purpose of this study was to identify specific concerns of educators currently involved in videoconferencing. The primary data for the study was 400 discussion posts from 34 educators in an online class about videoconferencing. Data were analyzed using a basic iterative hermeneutic approach. The findings fell into two major categories: teacher concerns and administrative support. Teachers' concerns were related to professional development and curriculum expectations, and administrative support issues included the placement of the equipment, scheduling, and budgeting. Successful implementation of videoconferencing requires the …

Setting Up Targeted Research Interviews: A Primer For Students And New Interviewers, Darren Noy

The Qualitative Report

This article analyzes key strategic considerations for setting up targeted research interviews, including human subjects and Institutional Review Board requirements, approaching respondents, the medium of contact, using technology, cultural conceptions of time and commitment, using networks, wading through bureaucracies, and watching for warning signs. By making these considerations explicit and conscious, we can better specify how to gain interviews for our research and how to ethically approach this task. This analysis will be most useful as a pedagogical explanation for students and for scholars newly approaching interviewing.

Visualizing Qualitative Information, Debra J. Sloane

The Qualitative Report

The abundance of qualitative data in today's society and the need to easily scrutinize, digest, and share this information calls for effective visualization and analysis tools. Yet, no existing qualitative tools have the analytic power, visual effectiveness, and universality of familiar quantitative instruments like bar charts, scatter-plots, and pie charts. Amid a discussion of the need for more powerful qualitative analysis and visualization tools, this article presents a device that takes us toward better representations of qualitative results.

Drama: A Comparative Analysis Of Individual Narratives, Susanna Belle Spaulding, James Banning, Clifford P. Harbour, Timothy Gray Davies

The Qualitative Report

In a narrative inquiry, five educators who taught college in prison share stories about working in this non-traditional learning environment that is often dangerous and frustrating. From the tension between the prison's emphasis on social control and the educators' concern for democratic classrooms, three broad themes emerged: working in borderlands, negotiating power relations, and making personal transformations. Large intact segments from transcripts of participant interviews form a dramatic text that illuminates how a selected group of educators made meaning of their experience teaching college courses to incarcerated students. A comparative analysis presented in a one act play brings together the …

"Dr. Right": Elderly Women In Pursuit Of Negotiated Health Care And Mutual Decision Making, Kevin Evans, Suzanne Robertson

The Qualitative Report

This study explores a group of elderly women who were searching for physicians that were interested in providing negotiated health care options with particular interest in mutual decision making. The grounded theory approach was used to explore the health care interactions between the physicians and the elderly women (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Qualitative interviews were conducted with eleven women, 75 years and older. The categorical working title of "Looking for Dr. Right" helped to focus our discovery of the reasons for these women's search for a new physician. Grounded in the data, a proposed hypothesis was developed regarding the need …

An Asian Indian Student's Identity: Living In Two Worlds, Kavita Mittapalli

The Qualitative Report

Using narrative inquiry, I tell the story of an Asian Indian student attending a large mid-Atlantic university who approached me in the summer of 2002 for my master's thesis interview. She was an Indian by birth who was adopted by White parents when she was an infant. She had not been to India since. Her story provided me with rich insights into her life including her childhood, identity formation, relationships with her adoptive parents and siblings, and social interactions outside home while attending school. I came to understand issues of meaning-making of her life and sub-culture through her story. I …

Why We Teach: Autobiographies Of Traditionally And Alternatively Certified Pre-Service Social Studies Teachers, Susan Santoli

The Qualitative Report

This study describes the analysis of the social studies autobiographies of 46 students compiled over a 15 month period. Two major questions were addressed: (1) what motivational patterns are revealed in these autobiographies and (2) what differences and similarities exist in the autobiographies of students seeking alternative and traditional certification. Both groups noted the influence of family and other significant adults, and the influence of social studies teachers, both K-12 and postsecondary, in their decisions to pursue social studies teaching careers. There were more similarities than differences between the two groups. The autobiographies echoed influences that are found in the …

The Proliferation Of Theoretical Paradigms Quandary: How One Novice Researcher Used Eclecticism As A Solution, David W. Stinson

The Qualitative Report

When a doctoral student plans to conduct qualitative education research, the aspect of the dissertation that often becomes problematic is determining which theoretical paradigm(s) might frame the study. In this article, the author discusses how he resolved the quandary through eclecticism. The author begins by describing briefly the purpose of his dissertation study, providing a justification for eclecticism in the selection of theories. He follows with a description of the three theories-poststructural theory, critical race theory, and critical theory-that framed his study and discusses briefly the methodology employed. The author concludes with a discussion of likely objections of his study …

Shifting Priorities: Reflections On Teaching Qualitative Research Methods, Keonya C. Booker

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this paper is to describe pedagogical approaches to qualitative methodology by an instructor of educational psychology at a large research university. The essay begins with an overview of how my graduate training influenced my orientation to empirical study. Next, I will focus on the obstacles encountered when instructing graduate students who are currently practicing school teachers, counselors, and administrators. Specifically, I will detail how I approach teaching qualitative research methods, ways I deal with resistance from students, and methods for introducing apprehensive learners to the ways of interpretist design. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of how …

Approaches To Qualitative Research: Theory And Its Practical Application (A Guide For Dissertation Students), John Hogan, Paddy Dolan, Paul Donnelly

Books/Book Chapters

Qualitative research is a multifaceted approach that investigates culture, society and behaviour through an analysis and synthesis of people’s words and actions. Qualitative methods produce compelling knowledge of how and why people behave as they do, whether in organisational, family, personal, or other social roles.

The primary objective of this book is to introduce students to the concepts underlying qualitative research and how this kind of research can be conducted in a practical manner. To this end, it discusses various approaches to qualitative research and provides examples of these approaches being carried out in practice. In doing so, the book …

How I Learned To Design And Conduct Semi-Structured Interviews: An Ongoing And Continuous Journey, Silvia E. Rabionet

The Qualitative Report

Qualitative interviewing is a flexible and powerful tool to capture the voices and the ways people make meaning of their experience Learning to conduct semi-structure interviews requires the following six stages: (a) selecting the type of interview; (b) establishing ethical guidelines, (c) crafting the interview protocol; (d) conducting and recording the interview; (e) crafting the interview protocol; and (f) reporting the findings. A researcher’s personal journey in crafting an interview protocol to interview HIV researchers is summarized. She highlights that training and experience are crucial and identifies some readings that can help in the process.

How I Learned To Conduct Focus Groups, Maribel Del Rio-Roberts

The Qualitative Report

The use of focus groups may provide researchers with important insights into research questions via participant discussion and interaction. As a human services practitioner and researcher, I became interested in learning how to conduct focus groups in order to apply these steps to my research and gain valuable insights about the human experience that the focus group interaction aims to bring to light. In this review, I will highlight the steps that I took to learn to conduct focus group research and through my experience I hope that readers gain familiarity and clarity into this unique qualitative research approach.

Multiple Perspectives On Mixing Methods: A Review Of Bergman’S Advances In Mixed Methods Research: Theory And Applications, Nisaratana Sangasubana

The Qualitative Report

More books on mixed methods research have been published recently. One notable contribution to this growing body of work is Bergman’s 2008 Advances in Mixed Methods Research: Theories and Applications. This edited work features contributions by different researchers and addresses a myriad of issues ranging from the need to re-conceptualize the paradigmatic differences between qualitative and quantitative approaches to methodological issues and challenges. This book should prove useful to researchers and graduate students interested in mixed methods designs.

Self-Reflection, Politics, Art, And Qualitative Research: A Review Of Denzin And Lincoln’S Third Edition Of Collecting And Interpreting Qualitative Materials, Silvia E. Rabionet

The Qualitative Report

The third edition of Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials, edited by Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, illustrates the varied perspectives of twenty five experienced qualitative researchers focusing on collecting, analyzing, and interpreting empirical materials. New topics are introduced in this third edition capturing the dynamic nature and emerging trends in the field such as arts-based approaches. It is a great reference book and a resource of unlimited possibilities. It provides a window for further inquiry for beginners, intermediate and experienced qualitative researchers. Many of the chapters read as powerful essays provoking self-reflection, political involvement, activism, and alternate ways …

Life History Or How Ethics Can Turn Into A Research Methodology: A Review Of Ardra L. Cole And J. Gary Knowles' Lives In Context, Maria Papantoniou-Frangouli

The Qualitative Report

Life history research described in the book, Lives in Context by Ardra L. Cole and J. Gary Knowles, constitutes an exercise of scholarship and at the same time of sensitivity towards "the other." The book represents a thorough account of a methodology that integrates the "ethical" as its leading dimension. The book consists of two parts. In the first part of the book the authors develop their approach to life history research. The second part includes articles of other researchers, who have put into practice similar perspectives.

Heat, Sweat, And Results: The Fruits Of Passion In Qualitative Research - A Review Of Salsa Dancing Into The Social Sciences By Kristin Luker, Sally St. George

The Qualitative Report

In Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences: Research in an Age of Infoglut, Kristin Luker examines the metaphor of salsa dancing in learning and conducting qualitative research and explores its utility and uniqueness. She emphasizes the need for social scientists to look for greater connections in their work and to trust their instincts more. By increasing their passion Dr. Luker suggests researchers will be able to conduct studies that are more rigorous and more robustly presented.

Telling Tales: A Review Of C. K. Riessman’S Narrative Methods For The Human Sciences, Shelley Victor

The Qualitative Report

In the second iteration of her book on Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences, Riessman presents a clear, concise description of four methods of narrative analysis: thematic, structural, dialogic/performance, and visual. Each section is replete with narrative examples of interviews, conversations, archival and written documents, photographs, and drawings. Riessman uses selections from published narratives to exemplify the process of narrative analysis. This book is applicable and appropriate for a variety of professions in the social sciences.

Qualitative Research Is Consonant With The Espoused Values Of Occupational Therapy: A Review Of Qualitative Research In Occupational Therapy, Kathleen M. Denault

The Qualitative Report

In her 2001 edited text, Qualitative Research in Occupational Therapy: Strategies and Experiences, Joanne Valiant Cook presents an approachable and informative introduction to qualitative research for occupational therapists. As the discipline of occupational therapy continues to develop its own base of knowledge, the need for research methods which capture the complexity of occupation has become evident. Through considering the similarity between the founding principles of occupational therapy and the world-view of qualitative research, Cook presents a theoretically-oriented research guide specific to the domain of concern of occupational therapy. Examples of qualitative studies and reflections of occupational therapy researchers will be …

An Exercise In Rigor: A Review Of Robert K. Yin’S Case Study Research Design And Methods, Crystal Daughtery

The Qualitative Report

In his fourth edition of Case Study Research Design and Methods, Robert K. Yin continues to encourage the formation of better case study research. The text provides a technical yet practical guide to aid the committed researcher. It is an effort to promote rigor and to encourage the recognition of the limitations and awareness of the strengths of case study research. Throughout the text, Yin forthrightly addressed criticisms of the method and provided a solid defense of case study research and its breadth as a research method. An unexpected bonus of the text is found in the cross reference table …

Making Phenomenological Inquiry Accessible: A Review Of Jonathan A. Smith, Paul Flowers, And Michael Larkin’S Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis: Theory, Method, And Research, Ronald J. Chenail

The Qualitative Report

Jonathan A. Smith, Paul Flowers, and Michael Larkin’s Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis: Theory, Method, and Research is an accessible account of an emergent qualitative psychology methodology which has great potential for studying a variety of psychological areas as well as being applied to studies outside of the behavioral sciences. The authors avoid the complexity found in some texts on phenomenological inquiry and present a simple plan for conducting this style of research.

Whetting Beginning Qualitative Researchers’ Appetites: A Review Of Green And Thorogood’S Qualitative Methods For Health Research, Ronald J. Chenail

The Qualitative Report

Selecting texts for introductory qualitative research courses can be a challenge given the depth, breadth, and variety of contemporary qualitative inquiry. The new edition of Green and Thorogood’s Qualitative Methods for Health Research presents a great choice for professors teaching courses across the health care spectrum due to its authors’ ability to give students a diverse buffet designed to whet appetites and increase hunger for more qualitative research nourishment.