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

The Fifty-Year Ethnographer: A Review Of Harry Wolcott's Ethnography Lessons: A Primer, Denise Mifsud

The Qualitative Report

“Harry Wolcott uses fifty years of experience to take the reader inside the process of constructing an ethnographic study, offering a wealth of lessons from one of the masters of the genre”. This is indeed a concise description by the publisher. The text is constructed around the author’s five major studies. Wolcott thus gives a unique contribution to the field of ethnography as he presents some critical components of ethnography in his desire to share with us readers the results of his career-long search for the essence of ethnography. The book is divided into eight chapters. I give a critical …

Impact Of The “Nirbhaya” Rape Case: Isolated Phenomenon Or Social Change?, Tina P. Lapsia

Honors Scholar Theses

In December 2012, a twenty-three year old college student, who was given the pseudonym “Nirbhaya” (“fearless”), was fatally gang-raped on a private bus in Delhi, India, galvanizing the country to swiftly adopt new legislative measures and catapulting the issue of violence against women in India into the international spotlight. Although assault and rape cases have made India infamous for its high volume of crimes against women, the reaction to this particular incident was much different from before. This paper investigates whether the governmental and societal responses represent social change, as indicated by changing attitudes towards violence against women in India. …

Imagining The Unimaginable: Torture And The Criminal Law, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This article examines the use of torture by the U.S. government in the context of the late 20th-century preventive turn in criminal justice. Challenging the assumption that the use of “enhanced interrogation tactics” in the war on terror was an exceptional deviation from accepted norms, this article suggests that this deviation began decades before the terror attacks, in the context of conventional criminal procedure. I point to the use of the “ticking time bomb hypothetical,” and its connection to criminal procedure’s “kidnapping hypothetical.” Using case law and criminal procedure textbooks I trace the employment of that narrative over several decades, …

O Brother, Where Art Thou? Understanding Culturally-Produced Limitations On Gay Male Community Formation In South Central Appalachia, Michael Brandon Brewer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines limitations presented to gay men living in south central Appalachia that are produced by Appalachian culture itself, in regard to community formation. This qualitative study intersects existing scholarship on rural sexualities, gay communities and Appalachian culture in order to gain insight into the complexities that effect men in the region. The data is synthesized through a contextual dialectics framework in order to position both the Appalachian culture in its entirety, and gay men residing in the region, as agentic actors that are simultaneously informed by and produce tensions between the two. This study explores ways in which …

Data Mapping On Ageing In Low- And Middle-Income Countries In Asia And The Pacific, Bussarawan Puk Teerawichitchainan, John Knodel

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Population ageing is an increasingly important demographic, social, and economic issue for researchers and policy makers throughout developing Asia prompting a need for data to monitor change and formulate evidence-based policies. There have been increasing endeavors in the Asia-Pacific region to collect information specifically related to older persons through representative surveys. These surveys are either broadly comprehensive or focus on particularly important domains, especially health. However, there is no systematic accounting of what the datasets address; to what extent different sources overlap or complement one another; how comparable they; and what data gaps remain. In addition, other data sources not …

From “My Block” To “Born On The Rez”: A Linguistic Analysis Of Lyrics By 2pac, Frank Waln, Litefoot, Nataanii Means, And Night Shield, Teresa Y. Neely, Sarah Kostelecky, Jorge Ricardo Lopez-Mcknight, Monica Etsitty Dorame

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The lack of consistent wide-spread media coverage of recent events in North America involving violence against Native Americans and African Americans in the U.S., missing and murdered indigenous women, led the authors to a thoughtful discussion about the similar and parallel issues shared by our people. Although the deaths of Michael Brown (August 9, 2014, Ferguson, MO), Eric Garner (July 17, 2014, NY), and Sandra Bland (July 13, 2015, TX) were nationally covered news events; the deaths of Misty Upham, Blackfeet (October 5, 2014, WA); Native American activist Rexdale Henry, Choctaw (July 14, 2015, MS), and Christina Tahhahwah, Comanche (November …

Through The Looking Glass Space To New Ways Of Knowing: A Personal Research Narrative, Gabrielle Brand

The Qualitative Report

This article describes how writing personal research narratives during my doctoral research journey challenged my role as a health professional and my personal beliefs and values in fundamental ways. In qualitative narrative inquiry, the reflexive account of the research experience is a key element in conducting ethical, rigorous, and meaningful forms of qualitative research. However, as a novice researcher, I was unprepared for the unlearning journey I experienced during the research process. This uncomfortable experience cut to the core of my identity by dismantling unexamined belief and value systems that lay dormant and hidden from my everyday consciousness as a …

Factors Affecting Employee Engagement In India: A Study On Offshoring Of Financial Services, Manish Gupta, Shirshendu Ganguli, Abhilash Ponnam

The Qualitative Report

The objective of this study is to explore factors that affect employee engagement in financial offshore organizations in India. Sixty employees involved in offshoring financial services were interviewed. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data collected in the study. Three main themes were identified: (1) implicit benefits, (2) organizational culture and (3) organizational policies. The findings of this study are important due to their practical implications. First, the factors will encourage employers to make more employee friendly policies, and second, by resolving the employee issues raised in this paper, it is anticipated that the employers will be able to enhance …

A Constructivist Study Of Graduate Assistants' Healthcare Experiences In A Research University, Uttam Gaulee, Brenda Lee, Douglas Whitaker, Natalie Khoury Ridgewell, Mirka Koro-Ljungberg, Dayna M. Watson, Colleen Butcher

The Qualitative Report

This constructivist study explores 16 graduate assistants’ (GAs) healthcare experiences and uses grounded theory to create a model of graduate assistants’ experiences with university-provided healthcare in a large research university. The model is composed of four broad components: (a) systems; (b) access, care and coverage; (c) knowledge, quality and cost; and (d) self. Graduate assistants’ needs and expectations constantly negotiate various systems in the model. Expanding upon the limited research regarding graduate student healthcare, this study provides implications for higher education administrators and policy makers. Based on our study findings we argue that it is not sufficient for university administrations …

Metacognition And Self-Scaffolding In Mmorpgs: Case Study Of An Adolescent Male Gamer, Ruba Monem

The Qualitative Report

The genre of massively multiplayer online role-playing games has become increasingly popular with adolescent males. While researchers have studied the social aspect of online role-playing games, there is little known about the metacognitive and self-scaffolding processes that players engage in as they navigate these digital immersive environments. This case study focuses on the experience of an adolescent male gamer as he develops his knowledge, selfawareness and virtual identity.

Inconvenient Women, Audra Skukauskaite

The Qualitative Report

The poem developed from collective stories of women who have shared their experiences, challenges, and actions of being scholars, professors, graduate students, business owners, and/or parents, among a multitude of other roles that often inconvenienced those who had particular views of what women are supposed to be and do.

A Pattern-Generating Tool For Use In Semi-Structured Interviews, Greg Paine

The Qualitative Report

This paper, the first in a pair, describes the development and use of a research tool designed to not only derive the “usual” research patterns from analysis and synthesis of data, but also to extend that research outcome into useful lessons and instructions for others to act on in the non-research world. Research is essentially about finding and explaining patterns to help us understand phenomena and to measure similarities and differences. Pattern also has other useful attributes – as tools, templates, and instructive advices – that tend not to be given as much attention in research. The tool discussed in …

Contextual Factors Surrounding Extradyadic High-Risk Sexual Decision-Making In Men: A Case-Oriented Perspective, Katherine M. Hertlein, Claudia Villasante

The Qualitative Report

Many models have been developed to explain the decision-making process of high-risk sexual behavior (HRSB). Juhasz and Sonnenshein-Schneider (1980) proposed a model for sexual decision-making with three distinct factors (socialization influences, factors germane to the situation, and cognitive factors). While this model makes sense from a theoretical standpoint, it has not been empirically validated and they have focused exclusively on adolescent sexual decision-making processes. The purpose of this study was to identify the key points in decision-making toward engagement in extradyadic high-risk sexual behavior. Using qualitative interviews in a case-oriented study, key components surrounding the context, decision-making, and management processes …

The Lived Experiences Of Mexican-Heritage Mothers Caring For Overweight Preschool Children, Susan Mcdonald

The Qualitative Report

Mexican-heritage children are at greater risk to become overweight or obese than children of other ethnic or racial groups. Despite this, there is limited information in the literature about how the mothers care for their preschoolers after they are classified as overweight or obese. The objective of this study was to gain insight into the lived experiences of Mexican-heritage mothers caring for overweight or obese preschool children to enhance nurses’ ability to effectively care for these children. A qualitative, hermeneutic design was selected for this study guided by the phenomenological approach of Max van Manen. Saturation was achieved after interviewing …

Research, When You Know What You’Re Doing: A Review Of Essentials Of Qualitative Inquiry, Daniel C. Allen

The Qualitative Report

Maria J. Mayan’s publication of Essentials of Qualitative Inquiry (2009) provides a broad introduction to the scope and process of conducting qualitative research. The author used many of the same concepts in his dissertation and continues to conduct qualitative inquiry, often times using Mayan’s book as a useful resource in structuring his research. The book outlined qualitative philosophies, methodologies, and data analysis procedures used in qualitative research.

Using Visual Vignettes: My Learning To Date, Tricia L. Morrison

The Qualitative Report

Cancer survivors report a gap in work integration advice from healthcare professionals. This occurs despite physicians routinely providing comment upon survivors’ work abilities to insurers and employers. In order to understand the phenomena of survivors’ work integration from physicians’ perspectives, a vignette methodology was used. Vignettes were chosen as a means to explore physicians’ perspectives in a non-confrontational and sensitive manner. Vignettes, composed of photographs and narratives reflective of survivors’ lived experiences of work integration were presented to 10 physicians during individual interviews. In this manuscript, I outline my experience using vignettes, the learning I have achieved, and the modifications …

Opening The Ears That Science Closed: Transforming Qualitative Data Using Oral Coding, James A. Bernauer

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this article is to describe an alternative method for transcribing and transforming (analyzing and interpreting) oral data collected from interviews. Rather than record and then immediately transcribe data, the “oral coding” approach relies on a Three-Phase Approach. Phase One involves extended and reflective listening to the original interview data. This extended time with data in its original oral form enables researchers to construct both propositional and tacit knowledge in relation to the phenomenon being investigated. Intensive encounters with the original data are continued during the Second Phase of analysis and interpretation by re-recording on another device those …

Positive Psychology’S Character Strengths In Addiction-Spirituality Research: A Qualitative Systematic Literature Review, Sahaya G. Selvam

The Qualitative Report

There is an increasing interest in the scientific study of the association between spirituality and recovery from addiction. While most of these studies have provided evidence for a possible relationship, others have explored the underlying mechanisms and meditators in the relationship. However, generally, many studies and reviews have not approached the issue within a specific theoretical framework of mainstream psychology. In an attempt to fill this gap, the review being reported here undertook a Qualitative Systematic Literature Review (QSLR) of addiction-spirituality literature. QSLR is an orderly manner of searching for academic literature, selecting relevant literature following a set of inclusion/exclusion …

Water Poverty In Disadvantaged Communities In California, Alyssa J. Galik

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

California, the eighth largest economy in the world, has nearly one million residents that lack daily access to clean drinking water, yet it recently became the first state in the US to declare water a human right through the passage of 2013 Assembly Bill 685. The majority of water quality violations take place in the rural San Joaquin Valley in unincorporated, low-income communities, which have difficulties accessing clean, drinking water due to issues including quality, affordability, and physical availability. The role of community participation in improving water poverty has been studied extensively in developing countries but its impact is infrequently …

Affect And Online Privacy Concerns, David Charles Castano

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of affect on privacy concerns and privacy behaviors. A considerable amount of research in the information systems field argues that privacy concerns, usually conceptualized as an evaluation of privacy risks, influence privacy behaviors. However, recent theoretical work shows that affect, a pre-cognitive evaluation, has a significant effect on preferences and choices in risky situations. Affect is contrasted with cognitive issues in privacy decision making and the role of affective versus cognitive-consequentialist factors is reviewed in privacy context.

A causal model was developed to address how affect influences privacy concerns and …