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

Trends And Inconsistencies In Immigration And Refugee Board Case Decisions, Julianna Beaudoin

Western Migration Conference Series

The last fifteen years have included dramatic policy changes to the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB). These changes are reflected through IRB year-end statistics/graphs and an anthropologically focused discussion that illustrates the need for reform to correct current inconsistencies in the IRB decision-making process.

Culture, Language And Gendered Violence In Southern Nevada, Kelly Campbell-Kiser, Kathleen J. Bergquist

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

Nevada is increasingly becoming culturally ethnically and linguistically diverse with approximately 25.1% of Nevadans estimated in 2006 to 2008 by the U.S. Census Bureau to be non-white, 27.3% speaking a language other than English at home, (compared to 19.6% nationally), ad 24.9% of Hispanic or Latino origin (compared to 15.1% nationally)

Service providers nationally struggle with providing culturally and linguistically relevant services to meet the needs of shifting demographics. Southern Nevada similarly struggles with decreasing resources and increasing needs in all sectors, to include service provisions for women who are at-risk of gendered violence. Linguistic and cultural barriers have been …

Risk Auto Theft: Predicting Spatial Distributions Of Crime Events, Tana J. Gurule, Tamara D. Madensen

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

Police typically rely on retrospective hotspot maps to informe prevention strategies aimed at reducing future crime. The current study reviews environmental crime theories that help to identify casual factors associated with rish of auto theft. Map layers are created from data that operationalize these risk factors. These layers are combined using spatial analysis techniques to produce a "risk density" map. Analysis of crime data are used to determing wheter our "risk density" map better predicts subsequetnt theft events than a traditional retrospective hotspot map.

Relationship Between Perceived And Actual Quality Of Data Checking, Hunter Speich, Sophia Karas, Dan Erosa, Kelly Grob, Kimberly A. Barchard

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Data quality is critical to reaching correct research conclusions. Researchers attempt to ensure that they have accurate data by checking the data after it has been entered. Previous research has demonstrated that some methods of data checking are better than others, but not all researchers use the best methods. Perhaps researchers continue to use less optimal data checking methods because they mistakenly believe that they are highly accurate. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived data quality and actual data quality. A total of 29 participants completed this study. Participants checked that letters and numbers …

Process Evaluation Of The Chicago Juvenile Intervention And Support Center, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

Researchers investigated the operations of a pre-court diversion program that provides services and supports to station adjusted youth offenders after contacting the Chicago Police Department but before they have been formally arrested and referred to the Cook County Juvenile Probation Department. The purpose of the study was to determine the suitability of the program for evaluation and to work with staff to enact any procedural modifications that may be needed to facilitate future evaluation activities.

Chastising And Romanticising Heavy Metal Subculture: Challenging The Dichotomy With Figurational Sociology, Gary Sinclair

Conference papers

This research posits that heavy metal music is part of what Elias (2009) refers to as a ‘civilising process’. He argues that as society becomes increasingly integrated we are faced with an increasing web of interdependencies and relationships where a growing intricacy is needed in order to manage ones emotions. Elias and Dunning (2008a) argue that a result of increasing restraints and the routinisation of social relationships sport and leisure has attained a greater importance in society allowing for the generation and release of mimetic emotion. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews of heavy metal fans in Dublin, Ireland it …

The Emergence Of Latin America: A Break With History?, Mauricio Cardenas

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

The idea is to discuss recent economic and social trends in Latin America, many of which defy the conventional wisdom in the U.S. about the region. At the same time, the region is divided between two ideological camps, so progress will not be uniform between countries. Understanding the origins and implications of the ideological divide is crucial.

"I Can See You": An Autoethnography Of My Teacher-Student Self, Erika França De Souza Vasconcelos

The Qualitative Report

This article is an autoethnographic investigation of my second-nature teacher-student self. What has made me into the teacher I am? What makes me the teacher I am? In order to address these questions, I draw upon my memories of my own teachers and students. As I portray my teaching-learning experiences as textual "snapshots," I find that my most cherished memories come from when my teachers acknowledged my presence and listened to me, and when I have been in dialogue with my own students. My autoethnographic journey ends up linking the personal to pedagogical theory centering attention to relationships between teachers …

Utilizing A New Graphical Elicitation Technique To Collect Emotional Narratives Describing Disease Trajectories, Marianne K. Thygesen, Birthe D. Pedersen, Jakob Kragstrup, Lis Wagner, Ole Mogensen

The Qualitative Report

Elicitation techniques in connection with semi-structured interviews are scantily used, but reported to be beneficial to research. We developed and tested a new visual technique to be utilized in the latter part of semi-structured interviews. It has proved to be feasible and beneficial to use, and it could possibly be used by others. This way of extending the interviews generates more data in a visual form, as well as in a verbal form, by supporting the participants in remembering nearly forgotten parts of their experiences and in expressing emotions associated with those significant experiences. As a contribution to qualitative research, …

Successfully Writing And Defending The Dissertation Proposal: A Review Of Designing Qualitative Research, Diana Riviera

The Qualitative Report

Designing Qualitative Research (5th ed.) by Catherine Marshall and Gretchen B. Rossman (2011) is, in my opinion, a book of compiled elements central to the design and defense of the qualitative research proposal. The authors provide invaluable examples through the use of vignettes. Overall, the book is an easy read that is essentially divided into two parts: research design and proposal defense. As a whole, this book is a useful tool for anyone taking on a qualitative research study for the first time.

Welcome (Back) To The Old World: A Review Of Peter Swanborn's Case Study Research: What, Why And How?, Maja Miskovic

The Qualitative Report

Case Study Research, a book by Peter Swanborn, a former chair of methodology at the Universities of Utrecht and Amsterdam, joins the collection of scholarly sources available to students, researchers and practitioners interested in doing case studies. The author situates the book within a general methodological framework, useful for graduate courses with a strong emphasis on quantitative research, mainly organizational science, information management, marketing, health sciences, and psychology. The book offers precise advice regarding the case study design, steps to be followed in conducting it, and a secure epistemological-methodological space in which appropriate strategies lead to solutions/answers.

Sometimes I Am Afraid: An Autoethnography Of Resistance And Compliance, Paige Averett, Danielle Soper

The Qualitative Report

Utilizing a feminist autoethnographic stance and method, this article is based upon the dialogues produced by a student completing an assignment for a social work instructor. Various tensions are explored, including the role of autoethnography in both qualitative and feminist research and the role of fear in a woman's life. A critique of the role of culture in the experience of fear as well as the student's use of autoethnography to resist and accept fear is explored. The uses of autoethnography for social workers are also discussed.

The Conflicts Between Grounded Theory Requirements And Institutional Requirements For Scientific Research, Jason Luckerhoff, François Guillemette

The Qualitative Report

The authors examined the conflicts between grounded theory (GT) requirements and institutional requirements for scientific research such as they were experienced by researchers and students. The overview of how GT was originally conceived served as background to the analysis of the problems GT users often faced when they submitted research projects to academic or granting committees. Three especially contentious aspects that arose from the data were discussed: the circularity of the general research method, the suspension of references to theoretical frameworks, and theoretical sampling. Participants to this study have explored some possibilities to overcome those conflicts.

Reflection On The Methodological Aspects Of A Critical Ethnographic Approach Used To Inform Change For Adolescents With Disabilities, Sonia Gulati, Margo Paterson, Jennifer Medves, Rebecca Luce-Kapler

The Qualitative Report

Debate remains about how to effectively obtain information from adolescents with disabilities in marginalized areas and how to apply this knowledge to shape rehabilitation activities. This study explored how to empower adolescents in the urban slums of North India to assume greater control over their rehabilitation within the context of a local community-based rehabilitation program. Participants included 21 adolescents with and 11 adolescents without disability (aged 12 to 18 years), and 10 community-based rehabilitation workers. A critical ethnographic approach was adopted. Fieldwork was conducted from January to May 2005 and October 2006 to March 2007. This paper focuses on the …

How To Conduct Ethnographic Research, Nisaratana Sangasubana

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of conducting ethnographic research. Methodology definition and key characteristics are given. The stages of the research process are described including preparation, data gathering and recording, and analysis. Important issues such as reliability and validity are also discussed.

Corporate Ethnographers: Master Puzzlers, What They Do, And Their Value To The Business Sector, Alice Obenchain-Leeson

The Qualitative Report

Melissa Cefkin's book Ethnography and the Corporate Encounter is the fifth volume in a six-volume series on studies in public and applied anthropology by Berghahn Publishing. Cefkin unearths the world of corporate ethnography by explaining how the field evolved from the larger field of anthropology. Through collecting a variety of corporate ethnography studies conducted at Intel, Microsoft, and others, Cefkin brings to life the work of corporate ethnographers as master puzzlers as she attempts to answer the questions: What are corporate ethnographers and under what conditions do they work? What value does ethnography bring to the understanding of complex business …

Clear And Engaging: A Review Of Sidnell's Conversation Analysis: An Introduction, Oksana Parylo

The Qualitative Report

Conversation Analysis: An Introduction by Jack Sidnell is a concise and clear primer to describing, analyzing, and understanding human talk. Combining theoretical descriptions and analysis of transcribed conversations, Sidnell (2010) explains the elements of conversational organization: turn-taking, action and understanding, preference, sequence, repair, turn construction, stories, and openings and closings. In addition, Sidnell opens the discussion about the role of topic and context in conversation analysis. Conversation Analysis: An Introduction is a good guide to conducting conversation analysis. This book is appropriate for those who are not familiar with conversation analysis and want to get a better understanding of this …

A Reflexive Pragmatist Reading Of Alvesson's Interpreting Interviews, Brian T. Gearity

The Qualitative Report

Remember those interviews you collected for that qualitative research study? How did you address issues of interviewee power, impression management and rationality? Was it "trustworthy"? Really? In Interpreting Interviews, Mats Alvesson summarizes the current state of thought on interviews as a tool for qualitative data collection and challenges this framework as simplistic and failing to account for its complexities as a social act. Alvesson argues for a critical consciousness and pragmatic approach to interviews. This review blurs genres from autoethnography and more traditional approaches while taking Alvesson's approach, reflexive pragmatism, to its logical consequences. As a whole, Interpreting Interviews is …

Reflexivity And The Sociology Of Science And Technology: The Invention Of "Eryc" The Antibiotic, Fran Collyer

The Qualitative Report

Until recently, the social-technical process of invention has fallen between sociological investigation of the genesis of a new idea (an ideational phenomenon) and the production of a new technology (a material phenomenon). The advent of post-modernism and post-structuralism offered new avenues for theorising invention, accounting for, on the one hand, its material nature, and, on the other, its ideational nature, through the notion of socio-technical ensembles: phenomena constructed through the co-producing, mutually constitutive action of actants (both human and otherwise). This paper argues that despite its potential, theorising within the sociology of science and technology is hampered by insufficient attention …

Growing…But Constrained: An Exploration Of Teachers' And Researchers' Interactions With Culture And Diversity Through Personal Narratives, Kimetta R. Hairston, Martha J. Strickland

The Qualitative Report

Educators from all realms of education who engage in in-depth conversations and reflections about personal experiences and perspectives related to diversity are significantly important to the cultural understandings in Education. This paper is a narrative analysis of how teachers who were enrolled in a Master's Program from two university campuses of the same predominantly White university participated in an in-depth look at their diverse cultural experiences through reflection and dialogue. Two researchers, one African American female utilizing the Critical Race Theory perspective the other Caucasian female using Socio-constructivism, interacted with one another and the teachers' narratives through several personal experiences …