Carl DeSantis Building, Nova Southeastern University
Thursday, January 14
Pre Conference Workshops
Room: Knight Auditorium
Daniel Turner
Introducing Qualitative Analysis Software with Quirkos
If you are using Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) software for the first time, or have been put off by the complexity of other packages, this interactive workshop will show you step-by-step how to use Quirkos to analysis qualitative text data. Designed with a focus on ease of use, and live visualizations of data, Quirkos lets new users quickly code, manage and explore text data.
This session assumes no previous knowledge of QDA software or qualitative analysis, and will begin by introducing common analytical approaches. The main part of the session will be a workshop on using Quirkos, which participants can either follow along with their own laptops, or just watch on the screen. Example data and a trial copy of the software will be provided, and those that want more depth can also attend the following session on advanced features.
Daniel Turner
Quirkos for Experienced Qualitative Researchers
This workshop will introduce Quirkos for those familiar with qualitative text analysis and other software packages. Quirkos is designed to keep researchers close to the data with a unique visual interface, showing coding and thematic connections as they emerge. The simple learning curve facilitates unique methodological approaches in engaging non-expert researchers in participatory analysis, and a pilot study in this area will be discussed. The session will outline more advanced operations in Quirkos, including thematic cluster diagrams, keyboard shortcuts and building complex queries, and exporting data to a range of other software.
Opening Plenary
Room: Knight Auditorium
Ron Chenail
Is the Future of Qualitative Research Already Here?
Many future-minded qualitative researchers have long pondered what qualitative inquiry and qualitative inquirers may be like in the next few decades ahead. Some of these prognosticators are doom and gloom, while others are more optimistic for the future days. In this talk I take a slightly different approach suggesting what things that may be surprising to some of us in the future are already in existence today just slightly hidden in the margins or peripheries of present-day practice. I will shed some light on these emerging exceptions which someday soon might become the norm for most of us.
Session A
Room: 1048
Tirzah Shelton
marcela polanco
Sarai Mancias
Suicidality in the Air Force: Exploring What Helps From the Experiences of Those Who Know
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the 10th leading cause of death among Americans. The annual report of the U.S. Armed Forces Medical Examiner System (ARMES) (2013) reported 259 suicides among Active Component Service Members and Selective Reserve as of June 2014. Suicidality has been widely researched within the military mental health field and most available research seems too had been developed from a quantitative perspective. This presentation will discuss a qualitative research study completed with the United States Air Force detailing the experiences of active duty members who struggled with suicidality to better understand what helped moved them away from a state of suicidality.
Zulfukar Ozdogan
The Debriefing Debates On Health For/By Critial Discourse Analysis
The aim of this presentation is to offer theoretical and methodological possibilities to discourse analysis in the field of nursing, particularly in debriefing sessions at the simulation laboratory. This technology is relatively new but common method to educate students, practitioners, nurses and doctors in the field of health education. Related instructional and pedagogical visuals and texts enable residuals to learn and develop their own ability of applying their knowledge on the produced scenarios. Such strategies has framed new challenges for researchers, educators, and professionals to understand the meaning of acts, actors and discourses during the evidence-based learning practices. This presentation is based on the attempts to figure out the interpretive repertoires for the discourses on the communicative practices during debriefing sessions. Data of this study was collected at a Simulation lab of a mid-western university. The possible structures, parameters and repertoires emerged from the debriefing debates might lead us to frame the discourse analysis as one of the possible methodologies to understand the data emerged from a new evidence-based learning environment. Even though there are a few qualitative methodologies used to explain the debriefing debates at Simulation lab, the discourse analysis as a method could be more effectively used to frame and understand the effects of evidence-based learning and self-reflectivity as a medium for constructing the meanings and justifications for acts around which there would be critical debates on its methodology. Thus, it is important to re-theorize and re-methodize the discourse analysis as a method to analyze the debriefing debates in nursing education from a critical perspective.
Nakia Walker
African American Parents Acceptance of Their Child’s Emotional Disability: A Qualitative Study
This exploratory study seeks to examine African American parents’ experiences in regards to accepting their child’s emotional disability and how they have adapted in their current lifestyle. This study will take place in Broward County, Florida and the participants will include African American parents whose child was diagnosed with an emotional disability after the age of 5. Semi structured interviews will be utilized for data collection.
Roberta Gentry
A Qualitative Analysis of Discussions in an Electronic Mentoring Site for Beginning Special Education Teachers
This descriptive study provides information about the participants in a new e-mentoring program for special educators. A pilot project study was conducted involving 52 special education teachers, mentors, facilitators, and one university faculty member. This study sought to determine whether private paired discussions between a beginning special education teacher and a mentor in a computer-mediated environment is an effective avenue for co-construction of knowledge among teachers. Results indicate that special education mentors and mentees conversed about substantive issues during the pilot program. Goals of the mentoring program included meeting the immediate needs of beginning special educators while also improving content and pedagogical knowledge through reflection and collaboration. Through qualitative discourse analysis, this study revealed that mentees’ immediate needs were met through acquiring resources, strategies, and ideas to enhance instruction and teach students with disabilities. .
Room: 1052
Patrick Dunn
Use of Grounded Theory in Medical Research
While medical research is dominated by quantitative, hypothesis driven methods, qualitative research can be used to investigate complex phenomena that are difficult to measure providing a deeper understanding, leading to better approaches, strategies, instrumentation, hypotheses, and outcomes. These complex phenomena include the development of health literacy skills, adherence to medical and lifestyle treatments, and efforts to reduce hospital readmissions. In this study a grounded theory approach was used to gain perspectives and a greater insight into the process of learning, the building of knowledge and the development of self-management skills in patients diagnosed with a chronic health condition. The research questions addressed how knowledge and skills were acquired, the role of digital tools, and how the strategies used by healthcare professionals matched the learning preferences and needs of the patients. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on healthcare professionals and patients. A total of 566 segments were coded, leading to 4 themes and a theoretical explanation of how self-management skills were developed. Emergent themes included the importance of social support and digital tools, the need for more personalization and relevance, and the self-directed nature of the patients. Linking of these themes led to the development of the health literacy instructional model, which is a 3-step approach, including an emotional support, behavioral approach, and instructional strategy. Social support was the common element in all 3 phases and was perceived to be key to developing self-management skills. Recommendations are to consider social support in the development of self-management instructional strategies.
Roberta Gentry
Using a Simulated Learning Environment to Teach Preservice Special Educators Behavior Management
This presentation will outline a mixed methods study conducted to examine candidate’s perceptions of the use of computerized simulation as an effective tool to learn classroom management and discipline. The development, implementation, and assessment of the simulation as well as candidate data on the feasibility of the approach in comparison to other methods of learning classroom management will be presented. Results of a pre and post-survey data and focus group meetings will also be shared. The researcher conducted a study into the use of a simulated classroom as a potential teaching tool to assist pre-service teachers to deal with a diverse range of classroom behaviors and abilities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the virtual classroom, from the perspective of the participating pre-service teachers, in terms of preparing them for dealing with a diverse range of student behaviors. Thus, the research question examined was: Can a computer-simulated classroom provide an authentic environment for the learning of strategic decision-making in regard to classroom management for teacher candidates? Participants will learn about the use of computer simulation in teacher preparation programs to teach behavior management. Additionally, they will hear the results of a mixed methods study examining the use of computer simulations to teach behavior management.
Janet Richards
Christiana Succar
Shetay Ashford
Elaine Cerrato Fisher
Narrative Inquiry with a Transdisciplinary Twist: Possibilities and Quandaries
There is a shifting landscape for knowledge generation in contemporary societies that suggests a future for combining qualitative research with dimensions of transdisciplinary inquiry. Transdisciplinary inquiries integrate and synthesize content, theory, and methodology from diverse areas of study that will answer designated research questions framed according “to life-world problems rather than disciplines” (Kueffller, Hirsh-Hadorn, Brummer, et al., 2007, p. 22). Scholars from relevant multiple fields engage equitably in transdisciplinary research and also with knowledgeable practitioners and stakeholders (Hirsh-Haddorn, Pohl, Wiesman, et al., 2008). For example, a sociologist interested in discerning the effects of poverty on impoverished community members might combine qualitative research with transdisciplinary tenets. She would not engage in a study by herself. Rather, she would invite community residents (i.e., stakeholders) as well as scholars and practitioners in germane disciplines to share their insights and help shape the research agenda.
In this narrative inquiry, I documented my doctoral students’ and my thinking as we journeyed together through a Qualitative Transdisciplinary Research class in which we attempted to solve the social justice dilemma of economic disparities between rich and poor in the United States. I believe knowledge is socially constructed. Therefore, student collaboration, and sharing of students’ reflective stances were integral to the course. Data were my students’ e-mail reflections to me, transcriptions of class discussions, and my journal notes. I analyzed the data through the lens of Transformative Learning Theory (Mezirow, 2009) to document students’ meaning-making processes. The inquiry illuminated students’ preliminary apprehensions about the course, limited knowledge of transdisciplinarity, and vague understanding of the principles of social justice. As the semester progressed, they developed a “big picture” overview of multifaceted issues related to transdisciplinarity and social justice. However, despite embracing strong altruistic desires to serve others through social action, they continued to experience transitional liminality (dissonance related to moving to solid acceptance of new frames of reference).
Cliff Haynes
Using Qualitative Methods to Create New Metaphors for Women Engineering Students
The current literature on female undergraduates in engineering uses metaphors like the leaky pipeline (Blickenstaff, 2005; Lucena, 2000) and chilly climate (Hall & Sandler, 1982) to describe the experiences from a negative viewpoint or a deficit model, but the findings of the present study describe the experience in a positive viewpoint or an advantage model. While the deficit model looks at students as underprepared or at-risk and develops programs and initiatives to fix these shortcomings, the advantage model looks at the “knowledges, histories, and experiences students bring with them” in order to design “more effective and responsive programming” (Castro, 2012, p. 6). Using data from 13 semi-structured individual interviews of women involved in an engineering living-learning program, I employed a modified version of Systematic Metaphorical Analysis to create five interpretive metaphors: LLP as a Starting Point, LLP as a Neighborhood, Engineering Classes as Challenges, Different as Normal, and Female Engineers as a Support System. These advantage-based metaphors can be seen as the first step in creating a new metaphor to describe recruitment and retention programs in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) (Lucena, 2000). While the findings of the current research do not provide an overarching metaphor like the pipeline, the findings should be seen as a step in the right direction. This and future qualitative studies can produce findings that will help institutions develop strategies and support services to enhance the experiences of engineering women.
Room: 1053
Jessica Gullion
Fiction as Method of Inquiry
In this paper, I specifically explore the use of social fiction as qualitative research method, both as a means of knowing and as a form of representation. Through fiction, we can draw on the totality of our understanding of a research subject and present our findings in a format accessible to generalized audiences. I present my own social fiction novel, October Birds, to demonstrate how to use this technique.
Dorett Funcke
From Field To Theory and Back – The Biographical (re-) Construction of an Unconventional Family Through a Multi-Variant Range of Data
By use of the case-related reconstructive method, I will show how various types of data can be integrated in the research process. The topic of interest is an unconventional family, whereby unconventional means the absence of the biological parents. Instead of the conventional family structure, the parental role is fulfilled by a homosexual female couple, who realised their wish for children with the help of a sperm donation. The central method of data collection is the family-historical interview as a core component of the ethnografical access to the field. Apart from that, other methods of data collection were used to ensure that every case is incorporated in the analysis from various angles. This approach is based on the following principle: case reconstructions are not fulfilled in their entirety if only the transcripted interviews of the family history are considered. The set of data also consists of observational data (e.g. the constitution of interactions within the context of welcoming gestures, the seating arrangements, door bell nameplates), but also family indicative documents such as family photographs. Furthermore, data is obtained concerning the family of origin and the life course. This data is collected in a genogram, which is sort of a genealogical tree displaying the family in a generational context. This approach enables the investigation of the „biography as a life context of the milieu“ (Richard Grathoff). The aim is to explain biographical constructs, which are limitedly accessible to the own reflection, as an act of negotiation with the family of origin. However, case-reconstructions serve as a basis for theory development. The aim is to overcome the description of an isolated case. I will also discuss in my lecture the interpretation of the results in the context of theory development.
sam smiley
Zines as Method: DIY in Qualitative Research
The zine (pronounced “zeen”) is a hand made, self distributed booklet creation, which In the words of maker Alex Wrekk, is made by “a diverse spectrum of people throughout the world from all ages and walks of life.” (Stolen Sharpie Revolution). Patricia Leavy has stressed the importance of “methodological write-ups” in the use of the arts in qualitative research (Keynote, TQR 2015) and in that spirit, I will present a few case studies of “zines as method” sampled from my ongoing research on invasive species and weeds. Zine templates will be provided at this session as well as zine resources for teaching and learning.
Monika Reuter
Qualitative Research and Creativity
This paper investigates traditional as well as new qualitative research approaches which could be used to investigate the abstract concept of creativity. A comparison of advantages and disadvantages of longitudinal research, and recommendations for triangulating various methodologies is included in this discussion.
Room: 2101/2102
Anna Sanina
Studying Visual Political Irony: The Case of Russia
This paper analyzes a visual dimension of a computer-mediated political discourse in Russia. It demonstrates contextual features of a visual political irony based on a study of Internet communities and social networks, including LiveJournal, Facebook, Vkontakte, and some personal weblogs by caricature painters. The study includes material that was published over the last four years in the Internet (from January 2011 until December 2014, n = 1783). We also conducted 56 online interview with creators and distributors of the visual ironical content to understand better their intentions and interpretations of the pictures.
The results of the study show that in modern Russia, official political discourse is routinely confronted by challenges from Internet-based means of communication. Novel forms of political dialog have become widespread in new media, especially in terms of dialog initiated by “ordinary” people, who use irony and visual images to express their dissatisfaction with politicians’ activities. People ironically represent human and symbolic objects, situations and actions that destroy the moral and political principles of the citizens and both the rational and sensual expressions of love for the Motherland.
However, not all events are a matter of irony. Among the reviewed cases, these exceptions are political protests 2011-2013 and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis of 2014. These events remain “a reason to be serious” because they are perceived as the turning points in the development of the Russian state, as well as a private matter and personal pain.
Maria Lucia Muro
The Transitional Object in Adolescence
Transitional Object in adolescence, the present study is the result of a investigation process during the studies in a Master of Theoretical Studies in Psychoanalysys. This work seeks to investigate the possible presence of the Transitional Object in adolescence.We aimed to investigate the characteristics of the adolescents that have these objects, as well as the experiences and characteristics of the Transitional Object. The concept of the Transitional Object proposed by Winnicott was used, since other specific definitions for this phenomenon in later stages after childhood were not found.
The discussion also focused in the pertinence of the concept of Transitional Objects beyond childhood and the significance that this would imply. We performed a qualitative study with a thematic analysis of the reports provided by the 7 adolescent participants. The interviews focused on the characteristics, history, function and meaning of the Transitional Object, as well as the characteristics of their owners.
We found that adolescents that have a Transitional Object seem to present characteristics that indicate certain degree of vulnerability and a lower degree of well-being. The results of this study are similar to those found in other previous investigations. We consider that it could be convenient to differentiate the persistence of this phenomenon beyond childhood, proposing as an alternative: Transitional Object Chronification.
Albertina Pretto
Good Teachers for Good Researchers
In the area of social research, it is not uncommon to come across qualitative interviews (transcribed or recorded) that present conduction strategies which seem to be in contrast to that is recommended and indicated by a greater part of literature on this subject. In order to understand the reason why this occurs, I want to present the results of a research carried out among Italian sociologists who use qualitative interviews for their research. My research aimed to identify by which criteria qualitative interviews are conducted by researchers and in what ways the relationship with the narrator is regarded. I tried to establish a connection between the conduction strategies used by researchers, their training and their attitudes towards the narrators.
I found three different conducting styles, and divided my interviewees into three categories, that I have named as follows: second choice qualitative interviewers, qualitative-quantitative interviewers and authentic qualitative interviewers. Only one of these categories presents a real positive attitude towards the interviewees. The problem is: all these researchers also teach qualitative methods at university or train new interviewers for their research. So, what kind of future researchers are they training?
If we want to have good researchers tomorrow, we have to be good teachers right now.
Elda Kanzki-Veloso
Jennifer Reeves
Lynne Schrum
Teaching Qualitative Research Online: Using Technology to Leverage Student Engagement
Teaching research in higher education involves getting students to think critically, synthesize literature, evaluate ideas, identify and analyze issues, solve problems, and be organized. The instructional skills, learning objectives, and leaning styles that ought to be present in a traditional face-to face classroom are also crucial for achieving mastery in an online environment (McFarlane, 2014). Technological tools allow professors and students to streamline the learning process. However, technology is changing at a rapid pace making learning new skills and keeping up with digital natives a formidable task. This presentation showcases the most effective ways to become a 21st century research professor using mobile resources, cutting-edge apps, ubiquitous social media resources, and effective learning strategies. This presentation will focus on innovative ways of teaching these skills in an online qualitative research course.
Room: 3049
Shermaine Barrett
Qualitative Research within the Context of a Technical University: Perspectives of Members of Faculty
This study seeks to investigate the perspectives of members of Faculty employed at a Technical University on the place of qualitative research within that context. The study gains importance amidst conversations about the apparent dissonance between the methodological paradigm of qualitative research that is more relativistic and subjective and the philosophical and operational paradigm of technical universities that is more objective. The research is qualitative in nature and will gather the data needed through interviews and focus groups. Focus groups will be used to explore the thoughts of faculty members on the place of qualitative research within the context of a technical University and to gain an understanding on how this research approach can be and has been used within the context. Interviews will then be used to gain deeper insights into participants thinking and to understand the individual perspectives of Faculty members who have been engaging in qualitative research. Data will be analyzed using thematic analysis.
Rikki Mangrum
New Windows on Patient Experience in Health Care: Blogs, Vlogs, Facebook, and More
New emphasis on patient-centered care has done much to increase qualitative inquiry in healthcare research. As healthcare providers are held accountable for patient satisfaction, they need to understand how patients experience and perceive their care, and why. But, research is often restricted to traditional modes of qualitative inquiry—focus groups or interviews—because these are familiar. Privacy regulations may also pre-emptively stop researchers from considering observational data collection. Data analysis, too, often consists of only a few techniques—coding, thematic analysis—deemed the “most rigorous.” These traditional methods may also produce results that are less concrete and biased by researchers’ goals and objectives. For example, doctors may be told that they need to “interact respectfully” and “partner with patients,” without much to tell them what that entails.
Meanwhile, patients are creating their own rich repository of information about their experiences though blogs, vlogs, photo archives, or public social media. For example, videos like this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyGRFiSv2bI”) open a new window into the patient’s world. Not only do patients record and comment on their actual care, permitting new insights into what really happens in a hospital, but they choose what data to collect and how, reflecting what is naturally important to them. Because patients collect and publicly release this information, this window is also not obscured by privacy laws like HIPAA.
I will explore the value of these novel resources can bring to healthcare researchers and suggest ways in which they could be used to supplement traditional qualitative modalities.
Mary Clisbee
Celeste Sadler
Self-Determination: A Case Study of the Needs, Preferences, Goals, and Feelings of Secondary Students with Significant Disabilities in Their Transition to Adulthood
This applied dissertation was designed to give a voice to students with severe disabilities so that their needs, preferences, goals, and feelings could be expressed. There are fewer opportunities to practice self-determination for students with more serious disabilities and studies about these students rarely include the perspectives of the students, themselves. This qualitative case study explored how these students view transition to adulthood. This presentation will discuss the methodological issues that were encountered and provide a reflection of the many challenges related to interviewing students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities.
Fozia Malik
Shaan Shahabuddin
Occupational Health Stress in the Service Sector
The basic purpose of the current study was to explore the occupational health stress reasons, consequences, and job outcomes in the service sector as well as to suggest stress management techniques to overcome stress. This research used a mixed qualitative research methodology, which included a collective case study method as well as a narrative inquiry method. Respondents (both males and females) were selected from two of the most important service sectors — the banking industry where working hours are long, and the education sector where working hours are comparatively short. A total of eight case studies were taken through focus group discussions in which respondents were requested to write a one-page report about their work experiences, problems faced at their workplace, whether they were facing any stressful challenge and threat, and how their health was affecting them due to stressful situations at the workplace. The data was reported from the words of respondents as it was written on their response forms. From the list of responses, the following themes emerged and were derived in Figure 1: stressors (reasons), consequences (change in physical, psychological, and behavioral response), and outcomes (job outcomes). Stress management techniques were suggested from an organizational and individual point of view.
Session B
Room: 1048
Ramon Ferreiro
Nydia Cummings
Scientific Creativity: MeProB
Frederick Leong and James T Austin in their 2006 publication of The psychology research handbook: A guide for graduate students and research assistants discuss the role of scientific creativity in regards to the creation of a research topic and the formulation of a problem. Furthermore, they posit that the scientific creative process is less taxing if the researcher approaches using searching strategies in the following domains: personal interests, environmental, work and life, experiences and the use of electronic sources. We employed the searching strategies highlighted in the literature to build a digitized scientific architectural platform called MeProB. MeProB in an interactive software that through a series of probes, in successive approximations, enables doctoral students to identify a dissertation topic and a research problem. The architectural logic of MeProB prompts students to think about their professional experiences and/or interests and to identify areas of concern that potentially could be research topics. Once the student identifies the most pressing concerns they are prompted to find evidence and/or literature that will document the problem and to use the compiled evidence to justify the merits of a study. The MeProB methodology employs an algorithm that combines the evidence from practice and the scholarly literature to yield a research problem. This paper will present information about scientific creativity, a discussion of the MeProB interactive software and the experiences of doctoral students who have used MeProB.
Anna Shustack
A Qualitative Case Study on Professionals’ Prevention and Intervention Strategies for Gendered Interpersonal Adolescent Violence Among Adolescents in Haiti
This dissertation is a collective case study that developed an understanding about the knowledge professionals and community agency personnel in Haiti have about gendered adolescent interpersonal violence (GAIV). The study also explored the strategies and interventions utilized by professionals who work with adolescents, in response to GAIV. The researcher gathered data about the participating professionals’ knowledge of GAIV, their interventions and approaches with adolescents, and the ways in which Haitian culture shaped the ways in which they intervened. Five professionals, including a physician, a nurse, a social worker, a former school vice principal and a teacher were interviewed over Skype and completed three electronic, reflective journals.
This presentation will discuss methodological issues associated with international research and reflect on the researchers experiences conducting Skype interviews and using electronic journals.
Susan McDonald
The Lived Experiences of Mexican-Heritage Mothers Caring for Overweight Preschool Children
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 12 mothers of Mexican heritage. Seven themes and 11 subthemes emerged from the data. Maternal caring practices were influenced by their Mexican heritage, emotional burdens, and perceptions of child’s weight status, disconnectedness and connectedness with family and health care professionals, and being resourceful. To protect their children from the untoward consequences of overweight, the mothers linked past family history and practices with present needs. Cultural influences, social support, past experiences, available resources, and emotional status all play integral roles in a mother’s ability to partner with nurses in developing a holistic effective plan to care for overweight children.
Augustus Henry
Haitians’ Explanations of Culturally Relevant Education in College Classrooms
This qualitative study explores how Haitian students who started college within five years of arriving in the United States experience culturally relevant education at institutions of higher learning. The study examines the manner in which they explain such encounters in classrooms settings: professors’ belief about students and how instructors respond to the attributes that define these learners. The study’s setting is a Historically Black University (HBCU) in Florida. Thus, it informs pedagogical approaches for diverse populations in college, faculty developmental or training in culturally responsive instruction and measures of academic equity for the demographic represented in the study. Ten semi-structure interviews are conducted as the data collection means – a constant comparative approach is used for data analysis, and member checks to ensure trustworthiness.
Room: 1052
Laura Monsalvatge
Exploring How Experienced Preschool Teachers Construct their Professional Identity
With the growing importance of early childhood education, the role of the preschool teacher is rapidly changing. Preschool teachers have traditionally been thought of as caretakers of the young and have been compensated at a rate far less than elementary school teachers. To that end, the early childhood profession has historically had few educational and professional requirements. The combination of lower value attributed by society commensurate with preschool teachers’ lower salaries may influence how preschool teachers construct their professional identity. Through a postmodern framework, the dominant discourses that define preschool teachers’ professional identity will be explored. A narrative inquiry methodology will allow the preschool teachers to tell their stories about their role in preschool education and how they define themselves as preschool teachers.
Anita Prabhakar
International Students’ Identity Construction through Discourse.
Universities in the United States offer educational opportunities to many international students from around the world. Some of these international students come from nonnative English speaking countries and struggle with their language skills. Research studies show that language hinders international students’ ability to communicate. These international students are at risk as they feel disconnected from society, excluded, and less empowered. International students are subjected to unequal power and Discourse relationships. This disconnect misrepresents their identity as they struggle to create and construct who they are through language and Discourse. Based on the work of Foucault, Gee, Norton and Wodak, this study aimed at understanding identity construction of international students through Discourse. This study used a phenomenological qualitative paradigm approach to understand the lived experiences of identity construction. The participants of this study were international graduate students who are speakers of non-standard English as defined by Kachru (2006). The findings of this study indicated that after the international students came to study in the U.S., they developed a new Discourse of being non-participatory, disengaged and silent. The participants also related that languaging did impede their identity construction. They also shared experiences of being marginalized and stereotyped. After a period of their study, the international students developed a new Discourse of confidence and empowerment and retrogressed into yet another Discourse of doubt and uncertainty as they were trying to establish their careers. The researcher recommends ongoing professional development for faculty teaching these students to foment alteration of beliefs about international students.
Cristen Wathen
David Kleist
Internationalization of Counselor Education: Lived Experiences of US Counselors-in-Training
In response to globalization in the counseling profession and the incorporation of international immersion courses in counselor education programs, the purpose of this study is to understand the lived experience of counselors-in-training participating internationally in a study abroad course. The research question was: What is the experience of a counselor-in-training who has participated in a study abroad trip as a part of their training program? Utilizing van Manen’s phenomenological methodology (1990), the researcher explored the experiences of four counselors-in-training participating in an international study abroad course. Overall emergent themes included experiencing new contexts, emotions, and new learning with an emphasis on “experiencing.” These themes highlighted implications for counselor educators in international curriculum development and course planning as well as informing counselors-in-training on potential impacts of international immersion courses.
Racine Brown
Playing Well with Others: The Rise of Transdisciplinary Qualitative Research
As with health and healthcare related research generally, qualitative research in healthcare settings is also going to be increasingly transdisciplinary in nature. The term transdisciplinary has particular significance in this case because, rather than merely throwing a mélange of disciplinary practitioners at a problem, a transdisciplinary approach involves a concerted effort to blend the epistemological strengths of different disciplines in a more holistic approach to complex problems in a wide array of areas, e.g., healthcare. At the Center for Innovation for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (CINDRR) at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, Florida, transdisciplinary qualitative research teams are already addressing issues such as traumatic brain injury (TBI) and community reintegration through community agricultural initiatives. Qualitative projects have a strong ethnographic component and are being conducted by well integrated teams comprised of professionals in nursing research, health promotion, applied anthropology, TBI rehabilitation, and therapeutic horticulture, among others. While transdisciplinary research is at the cutting edge of qualitative research today, I expect that transdisciplinary teams will become the standard within the next few decades for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is growing awareness that multiple disciplines have a valuable perspective on particular phenomena and that no discipline is without its deficits. The second reason is that communication technology continues to reduce the impact of geographic distance as a barrier to collaboration; this trend further enables transdisciplinary team building. Transdisciplinary approaches will markedly increase the comprehensiveness and granularity of qualitative research projects.
Room: 1053
Janet Richards
Christiana Succar
Shetay Ashford
Elaine Cerrato Fisher
Fostering Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Students’ Reflections about Teaching Emergent Literacy: Offering Choices of Aesthetic Reflexive Modalities
For the research to be arts-based the chosen art has to be an integral and informative part of the process, producing knowledge otherwise inaccessible. (Suominen, 2003, p. 34)
Objectives: explain why and how I turned to the arts to foster MAT students’ abilities to reflect about their literacy tutoring experiences with primary school children from multicultural backgrounds; share an arts-based study I conducted to explore in what ways creating arts representations of choice might stimulate the MAT students’ motivation and abilities to thoughtfully consider their pedagogy; describe in what ways the MAT students’ choices of reflective artistic representations connected to their willingness to explore reflective modes and also to their talents, aptitudes, and multiple intelligences; and share examples of the MAT students’ arts-based reflections.
Theoretical Framework: Arts-based research in education that posits there are multiple realities and ways of doing and understanding (Butler-Kisber & Poldmer, 2010); and, scholars’ views on teachers’ reflexive dispositions that indicate beginning teachers usually need interventions to carefully consider their knowledge constructions (Richert & Bove, 2010).
Mary Baldasaro
Nancy Maldonado
Beate Baltes
Teaching Cultural Awareness through Storytelling
Stories contain the wisdom of the world, teaching cultural values. Story builds community, celebrates cultural diversity, and preserves cultural identity. Where truth is suppressed, story is an instrument of epiphany; story builds literacy skills and develops metaphorical understanding. A storytelling center in Ontario, Canada had been a cultural institution for 23 years and developed the art and craft of storytelling in the members. When the center faced permanent closure, members were devastated. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore member perceptions of story, storytelling, and leadership using interviews and focus groups. Findings indicated that story strengthens both content retention and language acquisition. These findings led to the development of a project focused on story-centered lessons for teachers to provide knowledge about Canada’s abysmal record for treatment of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) peoples, and its cultural amnesia working to maintain the very negative status quo for these groups. FNMI populations are highly overrepresented in prisons and highly underrepresented in universities. The goal of the project, the Blanket Exercise, is to work toward creating a receptive attitude and engaging the compassion of non-FNMI teachers and students by presenting one critical aspect of the history that somehow never made its way into history books. Story will be used to convey teachings that would traditionally have been told as story (authentic) with a view to better retention of information as a base for learning FNMI history, and contributing to a larger initiative of healing.
Olatunji Obikunle
Roger Mayer
Kenneth Gossett
Barriers to Telemedicine Implementation by Physicians: A Qualitative Approach
Patients in rural areas do not have adequate healthcare facilities for illnesses and injuries not serious enough for emergency care, but telemedicine could have a positive impact both economically and medically to control rapidly rising healthcare costs, which is a significant percentage of the gross national product. The purpose of this case study was to explore the barriers physicians encountered in telemedicine implementation. Four physicians took part in face-to-face interviews in a clinical setting in Ohio to explore strategies used in implementing telemedicine. The results of these interviews coupled with observations and document reviews were analyzed. Complex adaptive systems theory was used to conceptualize the existing association between individual behavioral patterns and the social system in which the patterns take place. Significant themes showed (a) how physicians utilize the technology and (b) how the application allows physicians to build relationships with patients. The characterization strategies aimed to mitigate barriers encountered in adopting telemedicine technology in rural markets was consistent with the study findings and the literature review. The results of this research study might show positive social change including economic and health benefits to rural inhabitants by reducing the distance barrier to physician’s offices and increasing timely and effective patient diagnosis in the selected location.
Nydia Cummings
Ramon Ferreiro
Silvia Orta
Converging the Infinite Limits of Qualitative and Quantitative Research: Inter and Intra Rater Reliability Metrics as Measures of Evidence Strength in Systematic Reviews of the Literature
Despite the call from highly reputable research organizations for evidence-based educational research, the use of a rater agreement procedure to determine the strength of the literature screening procedures employed in a systematic review of the literature has yet to be considered by educational researchers. The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has led the effort to critically assess the scientific literature for the purpose of reporting to stakeholders the effectiveness of educational interventions. Similar to the work conducted by the Cochrane and Campbell Collaboration, the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), a subdivision of the IES, is responsible for conducting and reporting systematic reviews of the literature through the use of a protocol published in the What Works Clearinghouse Procedures and Standards Handbook Version 3.0. (2014). The handbook calls for reporting statistical significance, effect sizes, and an improvement index. However, there is no indication of the level of agreement, the reliability of the literature screening procedures, and the review of the eligible studies against the WWC standards. To measure the consistency of the appraisal steps in a systematic review of the literature, this paper proposes the use of measures of inter-rater reliability and inter-rater agreement. Specifically, we explore the conceptual differences between inter-rater reliability and inter-rater agreement metrics, compare the use of several statistical procedures for calculating these metrics and provide examples on how to use these measures as indicators of the strength of the evidence presented in a systematic review of the literature.
Room: 2101/2102
Kristin Bodiford
Rocio Chaveste
Paloma Torres Dávila
María Luisa “Papusa” Molina
Edgardo Morales
Dialogue on Relational Research
This is the first workshop of a two-part series focusing on research from a relational and constructionist perspective.
A focus on research as relational highlights the generative capacities of research, through a commitment to contributing to different futures and maximizing collective innovation. This lens assumes that the processes that generate knowledge are founded upon collaboration. It also stresses the importance of participants contributing with their abilities, knowledge, interests, experiences, and stories in order to co-create new findings and practices that enrich the daily lives of people. This stance alters the researcher-as-expert position and turns all participants into collaborators that share their experience, operating as co-designers and co-participants.
Topic One (60-90 minutes): How can relational research generate new possibilities in the lives of people, organizations, and communities and contribute to world transformation?
This workshop will enable a space so that participants may share ideas, experiences, and transformational possibilities in research, when used as an instrument for people, organizations, and communities to construct and re-construct social practices and knowledge.
Thursday Closing Plenary
Room: Knight Auditorium
Ken Gergen
Qualitative Inquiry: From What Is to What Could Be
Research is traditionally viewed as a means of reporting on or reflecting “what is the case,” and most qualitative inquiry sustains this tradition. However, from a constructionist standpoint, research does not mirror the world so much as provide an interpretation from a given, value based, standpoint. Rather than masking the prescriptive implications through misleading description, I will inquire into the potential of placing our value investments in the forefront of our concerns. How can research be used to actively create desired futures? Included in this inquiry are concerns not only with the current academic context, but with Western metaphysical assumptions.
Friday, January 15th
Opening Plenary
Room: Knight Auditorium
Johnny Saldaña
The Science Fiction of Qualitative Inquiries
In this keynote address, Johnny Saldaña draws parallels between popular science fiction films and qualitative inquiry in the past, present, and possible future.
Session C
Room: 3030
Valerie Janesick
Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry: Zen Principles for the Qualitative Researcher
Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry using Zen principles allows for a new way of understanding the world. It carries with it the responsibility of dedication to anti-oppressive practices.
Zen also offers us a way to view the world completely aside from our own Western culture. By bringing sensibilities from Eastern culture, we may open up new ways of thinking, and writing. It calls to mind Albert Einstein’s well know statement, “No problem can ever be solved at the level of awareness at which it was created.” By using Zen as a metaphor think of the potential here.
In this workshop, members will learn about three basic Zen principles: Non- self, impermanence and nirvana as applied to qualitative research practices.
Other frames which help to capture the spirit and meaning of Zen include koan practice and sutra lessons. First, koans, or riddles, offer a way to use metaphor throughout daily life. Likewise qualitative researchers use metaphor on a regular basis. Since koans always teach a lesson certainly there is resonance here with qualitative work. Comparably, sutras are short sayings that refer to a lesson in life.
In this workshop, members will become acquainted with and write about examples in their respective fields that resonate with Zen principles and practice.
Room: 3031
Yulia Watters
Darren Adamson
Deborah Bell
Qualitative Inquiry in a Distance-Based Environment: Thoughts and Tips
How the structure of a qualitative interview is modified if a qualitative inquiry is conducted in a distance-based environment? How the medium of the qualitative inquiry would change the inquiry itself? What are similarities and differences of a face-to-face interview conducted in person or through such software as Skype or Webex? In this presentation researchers address how the distance-based connection could change the nature of the qualitative inquiry itself. Using an ongoing qualitative study exploring efficiency and retention in online environments as an example, presenters will involve the attendees in an interactive discussion about possibilities and limitations of a case study conducted in a distance-based University setting. Presenters will discuss the topics of the online-based IRB process, distance-based data collection, and distance-based researchers’ collaboration. At the end of the session, attendees will acquire a better knowledge of how technology can transform the process of the qualitative inquiry; gain a better understanding of the unique aspects of an online-based qualitative study; and develop a better awareness of existing distance-based tools that can enhance the deign and promote the completion of an online-based qualitative project.
Audra Skukauskaite
Melissa Gonzales
Anne Hooge
Patricia Noske
Denise K. Ramon
Encountering Confusion: Facing Frame Clashes In Learning Qualitative Research
In this panel we demonstrate ways in which confusion in learning qualitative research positioned us to learn new ways of thinking. The confusions became frame clashes (Agar, 1994) that challenged our identities and our roles as professionals and students, necessitating a willingness to actively engage in becoming scholars (Watts, 2009). The panelists will present their specific frame clashes, the timing of the frame clash within the context of the class, and the ways in which they turned the frame clash into opportunities for learning. Using data from reflective journals, class assignments, and after-class research project, the panelists will make visible their journeys toward deeper understandings of qualitative research and of themselves as scholars. Presentations of the three frame clashes will provide the basis for discussing challenges and opportunities in learning qualitative research through in-class and research-project dialogues. Using a found poem as a synthesis of our learning, we will invite the audience to engage in a dialogue about their own confusions and learnings of qualitative research.
Room: 3033
Wade Petree
Lacey Moffatt
Ashlee Martinez
Online Participants: Theoretical and Ethical Issues
Appreciative Inquiry and Participatory Action Research require interaction with a researcher and participants. New technologies increase focus group and individual interviews accessibility. The theoretical and ethical issues arising in moving to a 2D world are discussed.
Sheryl Chatfield
Robin Cooper
Onur Yuksel
Jesse Treakle
Kate Smith
Qualitative Meta-Studies: Maximizing the Impact of Qualitative Inquiry
Increasing reach, accessibility, and perceived value of reported findings enhances the future of qualitative research. Qualitative meta studies offer one potential path that leads to greater understanding, appreciation, and utilization of qualitative findings. Additionally, the processes of extraction and integration of findings required to produce meta studies might improve the ability of both novice and more experienced qualitative researchers to critically assess qualitative research reports. In this panel discussion, we will consider the process of conducting and presenting qualitative meta studies as visualized by multiple authors, and provide opportunities for participants to practice identification and extraction of findings from published research. Our content areas of particular focus include health promotion, mediation, and cross-cultural dialogue. We will also describe the potential roles of meta studies in research education from the viewpoint of both students and instructors, and conclude this panel discussion by considering both the advantages and risks of compressing and quantitizing qualitative data.
Room: 3034
Laurie Charles
marcela polanco
John Cavazos
Karen Chattum
Yajaira De La Espada
Ashley Frech
Margaret Hernandez
Alyssa Arredondo
Emiley Delgado
Catalina Perdomo
Daisy Ceja
Stretching Exercises in Intersectionality : Using Qualitative Methods to Enhance Family Therapy Training
Familiarization with systems on a variety of levels and across a diversity of cultures is a hallmark of family therapy training. Yet implementing this type of training requires critical thinking, creativity and innovation. Borrowing from TQR 2015 Plenary Speaker Valerie Janesick’s work on Stretching Exercises for Qualitative Researchers and practices of ethnography and reflexivity, we discuss our experiences as instructors and students using qualitative skills in a Family Therapy graduate course designed to enhance understanding about the power differentials embedded within intersectionality on our professional lives. Fieldwork exercises were used to promote examination of the dynamics of oppression and marginalization in dimensions of diversity including class, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, language and nationality, with special emphasis upon how these shape family process and the therapeutic process. Students from the course will share their experience of fieldwork assignments used to understand lived experience when impacted by marginalizing and oppressive patterns.
Room: 3035
Carter Winkle
Workshopping the Ethnodrama: The Bite of the Teacher’s Pet
In this performance-workshop session, a work-in-progress ethnodrama (Saldaña, 2011) is interactively performed and discussed with session attendees. “The Bite of the Teacher’s Pet” concerns the formative retrospective experiences of a former English language teacher who engaged his adult second-language learners in composition topics related to his own marginalized identity as a gay man, resulting in unintended and painful encounters within and around the discursive faultlines (Menard-Warwick, 2009) of gender, sex, and sexual orientation. Data for the inquiry included field notes, instructor and student discussion-board entries, and student-produced argumentative essays.
Session D
Room: 3030
James Bernauer
Dolana Mogadime
Marilyn Lichtman
The Disconnect Between Research, Teaching, and Learning:Authentic Research to the Rescue!
An admonition that we offer to students is that one of the first things they should do when reading an empirical study is to identify the nature of the evidence that is used to support conclusions. The reason for this advice is that implications for practice are often suggested based on findings that, while “statistically significant”, may be based on evidence that does not get at the heart of the matter. This situation is especially true in educational research where the term “evidence based” research is often a pseudonym for “test scores”. While we are not averse to tests per se, what we are averse to is propagating educational practices based on a narrow view of what comprises quality teaching and learning. The purpose of this discussion/article is to explore the relationship between research and practice from both a philosophical and learning theory perspective and to suggest a more valid way to conduct educational research based on these two considerations. We refer to this new educational research approach as “authentic research” which draws both from a more inclusive view of learning and grounding in the naturalistic research paradigm.
Martha Snyder
Laurie Dringus
What if a Robot Could Help Me Care for My Parents? Using Photo Elicitation with Pre-users of Remote Monitoring Technologies
As life expectancy increases so does the elderly population. Many older adults elect to maintain their independence into their eighties and beyond by staying in their homes instead of moving to a senior community, assisted living facility, or skilled nursing facility. Oftentimes, adult family members, also know as informal caregivers, play an integral role in helping their loved ones age in place. Remote monitoring technologies (RMTs) such as trip and fall monitoring, medication reminders, and teleoperated robots designed to support the health, well-being, and independence of our aging population are also on the rise.
The purpose of this presentation is to describe how photo elicitation will be used during semi-structured interviews with informal caregivers to guide a discussion about their needs and attitudes about RMTs and how they can be used to monitor their elderly care recipients. Photo elicitation is a visual technique that is used to evoke thoughts, feelings, imagination, and “what ifs.” Issues pertaining to the proposed study and method, image selection, and use of images during the interview will be discussed.
Serife Sevis
Multi-Tier and Multi-Cycle Modeling Research: A Praxis
Models-and-Modeling Perspective (MMP) is a problem solving approach suggesting several cycles of 1) describing the problematic situation, 2) expressing the anticipated solution methods, 3) testing these methods, and 4) revising or refining based on the feedback gained from the testing process (Lesh & Doerr, 2003; Lesh & Lehrer, 2003). Multi-tier design research of MMP was often used to investigate teacher knowledge (Koellner-Clark & Lesh, 2003) and recommended as a useful research methodology on mathematical problem solving (English, Lesh, & Fennewald, 2008). Each tier of the design research includes different group of individuals’ (i.e. students, teachers, and researchers) developing models through a series of modeling cycles in which the ideas are expressed, tested, and revised (Chamberlin, 2004). In this study, I will present a multi-tier and multi-cycle modeling research which was originated from the praxis of a MMP-based research involving two tiers; namely, Tier 1: Pre-service mathematics teachers and Tier 2: Researchers. I will particularly address the following research question: “What are methodological principles of the multi-tier and multi-cycle modeling research for its generalizability as a research methodology?” Briefly, the multi-tier and multi-cycle modeling research follows a cyclic research path in which data collection process reshapes research questions and revised research questions suggest a revised data collection process. Similarly, data analysis involves several cycles of expressing, testing and revising the interpretations of the data, and reflexivity and transparency during this process. I believe that it is important to have a methodological discussion on the multi-tier and multi-cycle modeling research for its accountability in the research community.
Tamarah Moss
Andrew Muriuki
Sithokozile Maposa
Denise Kpebo
Rural Female Children and Youth Informing Policy and Practice: Life Stories of Unmet Need in Côte D’ivoire
Child labor is a complex phenomenon. Despite the 2012 National Action Plan against Trafficking, Exploitation and Child Labor, Côte d’Ivoire, the policy environment continues to lack in terms of compulsory education and enforcement (U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2012). The migration of rural female children and adolescents for work as domestic help in Africa, remains under documented and poorly understood. This paper is based on a purposive mixed method study, in Côte d’Ivoire. Emphasis will be placed on qualitative analysis of the life stories of girls and young women. While the study participants were initially engaged and connected with families to continue their education, their pathway in domestic work and the implications to their lives in Abidijan, are highlighted. The initial findings support structural and systematic risks, relational risks, and personal risks, associated with child labor (Liborio & Ungar, 2010). Thematic analysis of interviews with young women who migrated to Abidijian will be highlighted. The implications to health and social service providers, policy development, advocacy, reproductive and sexual health and protection of childrens’ rights in terms of intersectionality with gender and culture will be discussed.
Room: 3031
Raymond Marbury
Roger Mayer
Wen-Wen Chien
Succession Planning at Federal Agencies
Succession planning guides management in the development of a career path for employees interested in management, solidifies plans for personnel training and developing, allows for management reorganization, and enhances the planning system for human resources. A succession planning focus leads to an increased chance of internal succession and a reduced chance of forced succession. Agencies that do not have a plan risk losing the organization’s collective knowledge and culture. In the first phase of our research we surveyed federal managers and found that only about 34% of the participants believed that their Federal agency had succession plans while 54% were unaware of such plans in their agencies. We also found that most managers believed that lower-level employees should begin leadership training early to prepare for projected retirements. Using a phenomenological approach in the second phase of our ongoing research we interviewed retired and active Federal managers from several executive agencies. Based upon the analysis of interview narratives we identified specific barriers affecting a robust succession planning strategy including: (a) a lack of planning prior an individual’s retirement, (b) the inability to identify key employees, (c) the amount of time required to replace positions, and (d) the unwillingness of staff to take on management roles. Future areas where our research will be extended include State, Local, and international government agencies.
Kathy Roulston
Kathleen Demarrais
Trena Paulus
The Future of Qualitative Inquiry: Qualitative Pedagogy at a Distance
While online offerings of methodology courses are increasing, little research has yet focused on the instructor and student experience of teaching and learning qualitative methods at a distance. Starting in fall 2014, students at the University of Georgia have had the option to take courses in our graduate certificate program in Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies completely online. In this presentation we will 1) describe this transition; 2) share lessons learned from program design and implementation; 3) discuss results from the first year of data collection on student and instructor experiences; 4) listen to experiences of audience members who may be undergoing similar transitions.
Our research questions include:
What are students’ responses to use of fully online modes for delivery of core content in the IQS program?
What challenges and affordances do students encounter in learning about qualitative research methods online?
What challenges and affordances do instructors encounter in using online modes of delivery?
How might online modes of delivery be used to effectively deliver content?
Our longitudinal qualitative study includes an in-depth analysis of six courses over the first two years of program development and implementation. Data includes asynchronous online discussions, synchronous online meetings, instructor-generated materials, learning management system analytics, student evaluations and interviews. The focus of our data analysis has been to examine and describe students’ actions and responses to classroom activities and the instructor’s actions and responses to classroom events. We will propose implications for others involved in transitioning to online teaching and learning.
Cynthia Langtiw
Tiffany Keller
Michelle Cutler
Bringing the Academy to Life: Qualitative Innovations in Conference Programming
Qualitative research has the ability to bring academia to life. This presentation will depict the development and outcome of innovative qualitative programming at a diversity conference that served to deepen the attendees’ connection to the conference theme.
On February 13, 2015, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology hosted the Cultural Impact Conference. The conference theme was The Socio-ecology of Immigration: The Role of Psychology. Given the many issues surrounding immigration in 2014, it was a timely topic. However, there were some participants who might have felt removed from the topic if they themselves did not relate to issues of immigration. The conference committee initially planned a series of traditional academic presentations but became inspired to incorporate something more innovative and personally touching to attendees to help grow excitement and engagement with the theme.
One of the current presenters (Dr. Cynthia Lubin Langtiw) had(s) been working on The Migration Project, a research project exploring the role of migration in the formation of community. The conference co-chairs (Drs. Tiffany Keller and Michelle Cutler) approached Cynthia to explore how the conference could be made more relevant and applicable for the participants. The result was a variety of interactive qualitative opportunities for conference participants to share and contextualize their own migration stories. Activities included a migration map, a migration story recording booth, a migration art/written instillation, paired sharing of migration stories and sweets around the world. Conference attendees experienced a multifaceted interface that brought the conference theme of immigration to life.
Julie Dell-Jones
Digital Storytelling and Reflexivity in Critical Multicultural Pre-Service Teacher Education
In this presentation, I discuss how an autoethnographic multimodal narrative activity, in the form of a Digital Storytelling (DS) project, can provide insight into infusing critical pedagogy into pre-service teacher (PST) education for language teachers. The in-progress dissertation study explores how PSTs perceive and demonstrate reflexive practices, a first step in understanding critical multiculturalism, through the process of creating, editing, and sharing their digital stories about (inter)cultural experiences. Reflexivity is especially important in teacher education for English as a second language since language ideologies and multicultural awareness can either enhance or inhibit an understanding of critical pedagogy (Gay, 2000). Through a focus on four purposefully selected PSTs, I describe the development and collaborative interactions that culminate into individual student-created 3-4 minute digital stories. To understand both the digital storytelling process and the product, I use data from in-depth interviewing, observations, and student narratives and reflections, including visual data and arts-infused digital stories. Narrative inquiry is used to create a case study that combines multiple perspectives and multiple modes of communication and contributes to the long tradition of teacher narratives and case studies in pedagogical studies. Additionally, as the instructor-researcher, I use a postcritical perspective to understand my own role in the process and combine my own narrative with those of my student-participants.
Room: 3033
Amy Orange
Increasing the Quality of Doctoral Students’ Methods Journals in a Qualitative Research Class: An Experiment
Over the last few years teaching qualitative research, I have wondered why my doctoral students’ methods journals tend to be rather low-quality. I provide them with examples of methods journals, we read about the various ways they can be used, and we periodically discuss how and why they should use them throughout the semester. This semester, to assist students with their methods journals, I created a series of prompts to guide their journal entries, despite my misgivings about making it too structured.
Using content analysis, I compared these with former students’ methods journals to determine if the prompts assisted students in increasing the quality of their journals. I looked for deeper reflection on their research processes, an increased number of entries, and more discussion about their role in the data collection and analysis process.
Overall, the quality of students’ journals increased. In past years, students focused mainly used their journals as a way to track what data they needed to collect; they tended to be glorified to-do lists, with a few exceptions. This semester, students engaged in a higher degree of reflection on the research process and their roles in data collection and analysis. Not all students followed the prompts exactly as written, but I emphasized that they the prompts were intended to serve as guides, not absolutes. Students also felt that having weekly prompts helped them know what to write about and helped keep them on track for their research projects.
Uttam Gaulee
Virtual Data Collection Experiment: Don’t Put Me on the Spot!
Virtual data collection might provide more anonymity, while at the same time allowing an affordance to see what other participant(s) in the group think. This presentation describes a data collection experiment that was conducted to see if the participants on a focus group or similar social setting could express themselves more freely when their responses and communication process was mediated by technology. Using the software from the “pollseverywhere.com,” I embedded the polls onto PowerPoint slides, sharing real time responses with focus group participants as they twitted or texted their responses to the questions displayed. In this session I will share my findings from this experiment but I will also repeat the experiment. Furthermore, I propose that virtual experiments might also influence the way in which data is being seen and constructed. One might argue that life, virtual connections, and various types of social interactions is manifesting itself as data.
Uttam Gaulee
Natalie Ridgewell
Dayna Watson
Mirka Koro-Ljungberg
“It’s Not About the Destination but the Journey”: Complexities of Long Term Research Collaboration
This paper discusses some complexities of long term research collaboration that began among a group of 20 graduate students and their qualitative research instructor. We share our research and writing processes and the ways in which we (the final seven students and the instructor) kept the collaboration productive and moving along despite various theoretical, methodological, and logistical obstacles and challenges. More specifically, we focus on challenges associated with epistemological differences, different methodological understandings, and diverse interpretations of data alongside with other common issues such as scheduling, timing, and authorial responsibilities. Additionally, we discuss the team dynamics, care, how to connect with other team members at personal and emotional levels while sustaining successful publication initiatives in the amidst the entangled processes of researching, writing, and living as various life-changing events. We conclude with some suggestions for student groups interested in presenting and publishing together.
Andrea Lypka
Creating Research Space for Invisible Communities: Using Visual Methodology and Discourse Analysis to Uncover Adult Immigrant Identity and Agency
This study explores the ways in which adult immigrants with limited literacy skills acquire English and use visual methods to embody some of the challenges of a migrant life, including constituting their identities in the target language community while learning literacy and maintaining their first languages. On a methodological level, I discuss how arts-based educational research and visual methodologies, such as photovoice and photo elicitation interviews in combination with microanalysis approaches, such as positioning analysis (Davies & Harré, 1990) can help uncover the lived experiences of adult immigrants whose SLA process is poorly understood and not widely studied. Participants in a community-based English class took photographs of their literacy and L2 practices and engaged in interviews and class discussions about their challenges that prevent them from learning English. Findings reveal that deficient views on immigrant learners and self-ascribed and other-ascribed identities hinder their access to linguistic capital. Learner-created multimodal narratives transcend linguistic boundaries and create opportunities for identity reconstruction and meaning making, revealing the transformative potential of arts-mediated learning. The knowledge this process generated is discussed in terms of its potential to question traditional SLA theories that privilege alphabetic literacy, suggesting that adult immigrants’ learning can be reframed around the concepts of multimodality and translanguaging. Compared to other qualitative research methods, multilevel analysis of visuals and texts offers a more insightful, nuanced, and equitable approach for language educators and researchers to explore adult learners’ layered narratives of agency, identity, SLA and include these learners’ voices in research and classroom.
Room: 3034
Antonio Gutierrez
C. Amelia Davis
Moving Qualitative Research into the Quantitative World of Metacognition
Until now, literature related to metacognition and calibration, how well learners monitor their own comprehension, has tended to focus almost exclusively on quantitative metrics, leaving learners’ perspectives out of the interpretation. In an attempt to demonstrate that learners experience the calibration process differently than a quantitative metric might have us believe, we will explore findings from a recent qualitative study regarding how proficient versus poor calibrators experience the process of calibration. We discuss our research in light of metacognition in general and comprehension monitoring in particular, and highlight implications of our findings for education.
Valerie Scott
Narrative Inquiry of Young Adults with Autism: College and Career Ready
This study investigates the lived experiences of college/university students or recent graduates with a verified diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) uncomplicated by an intellectual disability. While these students present with excellent academic scholarship, they face complex symptomology such as difficulty with social skills, narrowed interests, and lack of self-awareness that may affect their ability to successfully complete college and transition into the workforce (Mynatt, Gibbons, & Hughes, 2014). These students have unique needs that require nonacademic social and emotional supports to deal with significant deficits in these areas (Barnhill, 2014). Through semi-structured interviews in the participants’ natural environment, the researcher investigated the cultural and social patterns of this group through the lens of individual experiences. This narrative analysis seeks to develop an understanding of how a diagnosis of high functioning ASD impacts the college/university experience and the transition from college to career as told by the student and their immediate family members. Insights generated from this investigation may serve as a catalyst for personal and social change in an effort to promote social justice for these individuals as they seek inclusive participation in our democratic society and global economy.
Dorcas Cox
Study of Experiencing a Sense of Community at St. Agnes Soup Kitchen
This qualitative study reports on how volunteers experience a sense of community at the St. Agnes Soup Kitchen and identifies communities of practices as social structures through which roles and shared identity are developed and reinforced (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). Members apply communal knowledge in the context of a case scenario that presents a crisis situation in the soup kitchen. Through story-telling, and conversation, multiple world views and diverse perspectives are sought, challenged and reshaped; knowledge serves as a conduit, breathing life throughout the community.
Community norms, rules and their impact on member identity are additional factors contributing to a sense of community. This is demonstrated in terms of how members welcome new comers to the community and view key symbolic ritualistic components of group identification. Members of the soup kitchen community of practice are also members of multiple groups in which they play overlapping roles in the context of dynamic relationships that support the community framework. The soup kitchen’s supervisor and active core group of experts support the community. Role expectations must work in concert with member’s social identity.
Suggestions for future research directions are explored giving further insight into achieving common ground, accountability and a sense of identity in complex and overlapping relationships.
Room: 3035
Fleur Wiorkowski
A Heuristic Study of the Experiences of Students with ASDs in Higher Education
This inquiry was conducted to describe the experience of individuals with autism spectrum disorders who have experienced the higher education system. All participants have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder and experienced some aspect of the higher education system. Data was collected using primarily face to face interviews. The data was then analyzed using the heuristic methodology of Dr. Clark Moustakas (1990). Ultimately, many patterns and themes emerged from this analysis, culminating in a creative synthesis which sums up the experience. The themes showed the highs and lows of being a college student coupled with the experience of having a developmental disorder as an adult. The final creative synthesis focuses on the life altering changes that occur during the course of the higher education experience for students with autism spectrum disorders.
Beatrice Boufoy-Bastick
Enhancing the Power of Qualitative Methodologies for the Future of Social Science Research: Culturometric Uncovering
So that we are all on the same page, as to what we mean by qualitative research, this presentation first clears the ground by plainly recognising the fundamental identifying difference between qualitative and quantitative research. It then introduces the new elegant and deep research thinking of Culturometrics. Simply, through only three tenets Culturometrics derives powerful new methods of inquiry for developing innovative explanations across the vast range of social research. These are the growing family of Culturometric methods that are combined in different ways for specific research purposes. This presentation outlines ‘Culturometric Uncovering’ – for the specific purpose of uncovering and reporting the qualitative meaning of social constructs in ways that inform their dynamics of change.
marcela polanco
Tirzah Shelton
Qualitative Researchers as Betweeners: Transcending The Insider/Outsider Dichotomy in Search of Spaces of Equality
A growing concern on the design of culturally grounded qualitative research studies seems to be featured in recent literature more prominently. The significant contributions of decolonizing methodologies, critical, indigenous, feminist and queer research have raised importance to the visibility of the social locations of researchers and participants that informs the study. The presenters will share their experiences collaborating as a qualitative research trainee—a white woman from Wisconsin—and instructor, a woman of color from Colombia—in designing a culturally grounded dissertation about the identity of international Middle Eastern students, training in the helping professions in the U.S. Their experiences involve discussions on transcending the insider/outsider dichotomy in search for intersecting spaces of a shared humanity as betweener (Diversi & Moreira, 2008) co-researchers.
Karren Wilson Scott
Karen Streagle
The Alternate Assessment Based on Alternate Achievement Standards Eligibility Decision-Making Process
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 in in-depth interviews. The findings resulted in the Influences on the Process of AA-AAS Eligibility Decisions (IPAED) Model describing a three-phased eligibility decision-making process. Implications suggest the need for training for all IEP team members, with a particular focus on parent education and involvement.
Session E
Room: 3030
David Thornton
Shared Experiences and Discovery on the Science Teaching Journey: a Voyage of Discovery for Two Science Teachers
In this paper I examined how two “highly qualified” novice secondary science teachers came to their chosen profession, and how they perceived teaching science during this time of induction. My data includes interviews, observations, and artifact collection, which I analyzed using portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffmann Davis, 1999). In addition, I used my experience as teacher/researcher from “within” the school district. The portraits presented illustrate the experiences and motivations of their entry into teaching public school science. Their experiences, challenges, and individual approaches are metaphorically compared with Lewis and Clark’s “Voyage of Discovery.” As the teachers set out “blazing a trail” directed toward promises for the future, they become a Meriwether Lewis accompanied by a William Clark and seeking assistance from a Sacagawea. I found that during the novice teacher’s voyages, they demonstrated love for students and education combined with a desire to “give back.” They also expressed a love for science content, namely biology, as they revealed fulfilment in pursuit of teaching biology. Although both teachers felt their affinity for biology drove them into teaching, they saw teaching life skills a more important aspect of their job than teaching content. This shared emphasis on relative importance existed in an environment of mandated subject assessments. Questions raised by this study include what will happen on their journey as they respond to concerns regarding over-assessment of students and teachers, and how their voyages compare with traditionally certified teachers.
Elizabeth Wetzler
Leah Wickersham-Fish
Linnea Rademaker
Jennifer O’Connor Duffy
Using Collaborative Autoethnography (CAE) to Reflect On and Examine Doctoral Mentoring
Collaborative autoethnography (CAE) “focuses on self-interrogation, but does so collectively and cooperatively within a team of researchers” (Chang et al., 2013, p. 21). CAE allows multiple authors to participate in collective and cross-analytic questioning, in order to both encourage multi-vocality in reflection and collaborative process in self-analysis. Through this process we were able to each examine our practice of “teaching through feedback,” explore our relationships with our students, and find the nuances of relationship dissatisfaction. We then brought those examples to the group. We shared our thoughts and reflections on these examples. In each group session, as we listened to each other share our cases, we questioned and empathized with similar situations and feelings. We also expressed where our experiences differed, or suggested alternative reflections on the meaning of the experience. All of us are dissertation chairs who mentor doctoral students who use a variety of research designs and methods in their dissertations. Often we, as chairs, have more expertise with certain methodologies than with others. In this presentation, we chose to explore the use of a new methodology—CAE—to achieve two purposes. First, we discuss how we used the method to reflect on and understand our mentoring with respect to relationship deterioration; and, second, we set out to learn some of the important nuances of the method in order to mentor students who might want to explore and implement CAE. We provide implications for those who teach research methods in doctoral programs.
Catherine Valencia
Virtual to Real: A Grounded Theory of Intimacy on Second Life
Intimacy, an essential component of social interactions and emotional well-being, not to mention marriage and committed relationships, is evolving. Part of this evolution is in light of technological advances. Over the last decades, due to the exponential growth of virtual interaction, the creation of intimate relationships is taking place in virtual worlds such as Second Life. Using social construction, family systems theory, and the theory of embodied presence as theoretical frameworks, this qualitative dissertation seeks to investigate real life implications for individuals who are married on Second Life and experience virtual intimacy. The overarching research question for this grounded theory study is: What are the real life implications of the virtual experience of intimacy for individuals who are partnered on Second Life?
Christina Alexander
Student Veterans’ Experiences in Negotiating Student Services in Higher Education: A Phenomenological Inquiry
As more veterans enter higher education institutions utilizing the educational benefits of the GI Bill, this study provided qualitative data through face-to-face interviews to determine “best practices” for successful educational outcomes for this population (O’Herrin, 2011). With the prolonged military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, the federal government expanded the GI Bill benefits more than any other time since its inception in 1944 with the passage of the Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 (O’Herrin). The rationale for this study is to fill a gap in the knowledge base regarding the experiences of veterans who are entering higher education and how well, if at all, they navigate veteran student services available to them on campus. The intended audience for this study is higher education faculty, staff, administrators, and any associated stakeholders interested in research to determine how to craft “best practices” to improve outcomes for student veterans in higher education. Any results of the study can be used to enhance knowledge of student veteran subgroup and to contribute to the improvement of services and access to services.
Room: 3031
Johnny Saldaña
Writing and Publishing Books in Qualitative Inquiry
A textbook author of ten titles in qualitative inquiry and a reviewer of book prospectuses for publishers offers recommendations to unpublished authors for preparing and submitting their work. The session addresses the following: 1) generating an idea and outline for a book; 2) seeking potential publishers and forums; 3) writing a book prospectus/proposal; and 4) manuscript development. The presenter will offer some insider information about author-publisher and author-editor relationships, best and worst practices of prospectus submissions, and productive writing habits and practices.
Ruth Ban
Lilia DiBello
Veronica Gesser
Higher Order Thinking in Graduate Studies: An Exploratory Study
University professors, especially at the graduate level, frequently ask themselves why their students are not capable of applying higher order thinking (HOT) skills to the problems they are assigned as part of their coursework. Many professors struggle to incentivize their students to use higher order thinking or scientific thinking (Vygotsky, 1978), but few problematize their pedagogy as the source of their students’ lack of HOT skills. Oftentimes, graduate students look for specific content to be memorized for the test or best practices that can be applied as remedies for their classroom practices and resist exercises and activities that they cannot specifically see as content that will contribute to their final goal. This study seeks to understand how graduate faculty members view their students’ higher order thinking skills. It also explores the faculty members’ description of pedagogical practices and techniques that will lead to the development of higher order thinking in their graduate students. In addition, the perspective of the student will be considered. Using a qualitative approach this exploratory study seeks to examine how graduate students and faculty describe/view/understand the relationship between pedagogical practices and the development of higher order thinking skills in graduate students.
Abolasade Afolabi
Roger Mayer
Wen-Wen Chien
Fabian Baapogmah
Exploring Strategies to Improve Profitability of Preventive Prenatal Care Services in Central Nigeria
Preventive care in Nigeria accounts for just 1% of total government health expenditures. In practice, healthcare managers providing services to pregnant women in the Federal Capital Territory undermine the business profitability of prenatal preventive care. The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to explore business strategies that can make preventive prenatal care services profitable. The profitability of preventive care might generate more services to pregnant women in the territory. Data collected included documentation reviews and face-to-face interviews with 12 healthcare managers from 2 private healthcare clinics that provide preventive healthcare services to pregnant women. Using qualitative data analysis software, 5 major themes emerged as ethical business initiatives that may overcome the economic constraints affecting prenatal preventive program including: (a) affordability, (b) accessibility, (c) skilled manpower, (d) infrastructure, and (e) awareness and follow-up.
Room: 3033
Steven Terrell
Developing a Qualitative Dissertation Proposal: Guidelines and Examples
Despite having the academic ability to finish their degree, fewer than half of the students matriculating into a Ph.D. program ultimately graduate. This has been ascribed to three major causes – varying personal reasons, financial problems and academic issues. In particular, many students have difficulty in writing a proposal for their dissertation. Guided by his newly released text, Writing Your Dissertation Proposal: Guidelines and Examples, Dr. Steve Terrell leads workshop attendees as they learn to identify a meaningful problem area, write research questions that will guide the investigation of the problem, write a focused review of the literature and identify an effective methodology best suited to guide their efforts. Once the methodology is well-defined and operationalized, students will be well on their way to data collection, analysis and the writing of their final dissertation report.
Terry Keller
Adam Hodge
Ireland in Pictures: Intercultural Competence among Undergraduate College Students
The purpose of this paper is to look at the ways undergraduate students view an international experience by using pictures. Various forms of photography can be used for data collection and for organizing, interpreting, and validating qualitative inquiry (Szto, Furman, & Langer, 2005). As a qualitative research method for the social sciences narrative inquiry has a long tradition because of its power to elicit voice. Narrative analysis values the signs, the symbols, and the expression of feelings in language, validating how the narrator constructs meaning. Narrative inquiry is especially useful when exploring issues of social change, causality, and social identity (Elliott, 2005). The project was conducted in rural Western Ireland with 14 undergraduate students led by a social work faculty member and a history faculty member. Our research question was: What is the personal impact of study abroad participation in Ireland? Students were given the following directions to complete the project: (In your narrative photo project, Please insert a photo that you feel represents Irish Culture and speaks to you personally, Talk about the photo (ex. Where was it taken? What day?, etc), Is/Are there an underlying meaning(s) that you feel truly represents Irish Culture?.) The richness and depth of these narratives shows how powerful an international experience can be on a young student.
Trena Paulus
Kristi Jackson
The Future of Qualitative Data Analysis Software: Moving Beyond “Outsider” Critiques toward a Thoughtful Research Agenda
Critics of qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) go back as early as Coffey, Holbrook and Atkinson (1996), who warned against the tendency toward methodological homogeneity in the use of QDAS, particularly regarding an association between QDAS and grounded theory. Although this critique was refuted by Fielding and Lee (1996), and software capabilities have changed considerably since then, many scholars still cite this expository critique, or argue against QDAS with similarly alarmist allegations. For example, St. Pierre (in press), asserts that using software is merely “unthinkable in interpretive social science”. As QDAS educators, we regularly encounter misconceptions about QDAS not only in the literature but also from our students and colleagues. Some of these core critiques include beliefs that the software 1) “distances” the researcher from their data; 2) drives the method by supporting one kind of analysis or requiring the researcher to code/quantify the data in superficial/mechanistic ways; 3) is not useful for small data-sets; and/or 4) is overly complex.
We acknowledge that the relationship between qualitative research and technology is not neutral and has been under-theorized; however, the recurring criticisms of QDAS have too often come from an “outsider” rather than “insider” perspective. In this presentation we will provide a historical overview of the core critiques of QDAS that appear in the literature, identify logical fallacies and propose more relevant critiques from our insider perspectives. We include an outline for a QDAS research agenda that could move the conversation in a more productive direction.
Room: 3034
Kristin Bodiford
Rocio Chaveste
Paloma Torres Dávila
María Luisa “Papusa” Molina
Edgardo Morales
Explorations in Relational Research
This is the second workshop of a two-part series focusing on research from a relational and constructionist perspective.
A focus on research as relational highlights the generative capacities of research, through a commitment to contributing to different futures and maximizing collective innovation. This lens assumes that the processes that generate knowledge are founded upon collaboration. It also stresses the importance of participants contributing with their abilities, knowledge, interests, experiences, and stories in order to co-create new findings and practices that enrich the daily lives of people. This stance alters the researcher-as-expert position and turns all participants into collaborators that share their experience, operating as co-designers and co-participants.
Workshop Part Two – Peer Consultations (2 hours)
Topic: Exploring our research projects and ideas from the lens of relational research. Exploring research methodologies from the lens of relational research.
This workshop will offer an opportunity to work in consulting teams, learning about each others’ research and ideas and exploring how this proposed lens of relational research might be integrated into and strengthen their endeavors. We will also explore and play with different methodological implications from a relational research perspective.
TQR @ Night
Room: Sales Institute 3000
Charles Vanover
Cynthia Langtiw
George Belliveau
Carter Winkle
Tracie Rogers
Vonzell Agosto
Andrew Babson
Graham Lea
Janice Valdez
Nola Accili
Martha Trelease
Omar Salaam
Trustworthiness and Rigor in Ethnodramatic Performance
A major issue that confronts ethnodrama as a means of research dissemination (Saldaña, 2011; Beck, Belliveau, Lea, Wage, & 2011) is theorizing the audience’s response to the data. What happens on stage is not what happens in real life, but theatre may communicate more richly than other forms of report.
The symposium looks back to core theory in ethnographic methods (Clifford & Marcus, 1986) to look forward to new methods of conveying qualitative research. We discuss two questions
How might one appraise the trustworthiness and rigor of ethnodrama in relationship to the events the performance evokes?
How might one understand the meanings shaped by ethnodrama in relationship to common academic communication practices, such as Powerpoint lectures and journal articles?
During the first half of the session, we perform an excerpt from a revised version of a peer reviewed ethnodrama that evokes a teacher’s effort to teach a difficult and complex subject: the middle passage. The original script was constructed from verbatim transcriptions of the teacher’s interviews using inquiry theatre methods (Vanover, inpress). The original playtext interspliced the teacher’s verbatim stories with excerpts from a novel on the middle passage she taught during the unit. The current script replaces the novel with historical texts; the revised ethnodrama will be performed by a nonprofit theatre company in 2016.
The proposed TQRC session will act as an open, peer review process. Panelists and audience members will discuss how the ethnodrama evokes the teacher’s stories of teaching events she imperfectly understood and communicated.
Saturday, January 16th
Room: Sales Institute 3000
The Qualitative Report Editors and Authors
“Writing Qualitative Research the TQR Way”
The Qualitative Report editors and authors will share their guidance on best practices when reporting qualitative research reports. The editors will discuss the review tools they have developed over the last 26 years including the TQR Reviewing Rubric and their Ready Review Comments. They will also discuss ways authors can enhance reporting of artistic and critical styles of qualitative inquiry. Authors will also share what they have learned from the TQR editorial process and share their tips for successful qualitative research writing.
Session F
Room: 3030
Tony Bastick
Culturometric Uncovering of Anger Control in Trinidadian Prisons
Culturometric Uncovering is a combination of culturometric methods for the specific purpose of uncovering and reporting the qualitative meaning of social constructs in ways that inform their dynamics of change – see Beatrice Boufoy-Bastick this conference. This presentation walks you through the culturometric uncovering of ‘Instant Anger Control’ which was the intended outcome of a three-year Anger Management project run in conjunction with the country’s Prison Rehabilitation Services and delivered to prisoners and officers in the prisons of Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean. We first set the background of the programme against the rise of violent crime in the country and outline the multi-site control/intervention design, our therapeutic treatment sessions and their outcome measures. We then show the design of the Culturometric Instant Anger Control (CM-I-AC) measure – a celebrity questionnaire for assessing the strength of ones identity as an Instant Anger Controller. We overview the training of Clinical Researchers to administer the questionnaire in the prisons, its use in identifying two groups of respondents for post-treatment contrast interviewing – those with the strongest identities as Anger Controllers and those with the weakest identities as Anger Controllers. We overview the Clinical Researcher training in the specific techniques of contrast interviewing and present the Ideal Polar Type qualitative reporting summarising analytical results of prisoners’ emic meanings of ‘Anger Control’
The main purpose of the presentation is to give a practical example of culturometrically uncovering the meaning of a social construct so that participants can decide its usefulness for their own social construct research. (250 words)
Delia Leal
The Lived Experience of Spouses as Informal Caregivers for Patients with Severe Sleep Apnea
Background: Spouses are increasingly being asked to perform complex tasks similar to those carried out by paid health care providers, often at great cost to their own well-being and great benefit to their relatives and society as a whole. The public health significance of caregiving has spawned extensive literature in this area, much of it focused on dementia, Alzheimer’s, or cancer caregiving, but there is limited literature of caregiving related to sleep disorders such as severe sleep apnea.
Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study using the phenomenology was to explore the lived experience of spouses as informal caregiver for patients with severe sleep apnea (OSAS).
Philosophical Underpinning: This qualitative study was based on Hermeneutic Phenomenology.
Methods: A purposive sample of 14 participants, all of whom were spouses of patients with severe sleep apnea, was selected to explore the overarching question: What is the lived experience of spouses as informal caregiver of severe sleep apnea patients? Data collection occurred from semi-structured interviews that were tape-recorded, transcribed for verification, and member checked. Data analysis included describing, interpreting, and textual writing as guided by van Manen.
Results: Themes of similar categories were identified using interpretive methods. The analysis revealed themes that clustered into six groups, which served to organize the themes in a meaningful way around various aspects of the participants’ experiences. The emerging themes were Unknowing, Monitoring, Learning, Depriving, Overwhelming, and Escaping
Deborah Lamont
Understanding Travel Choices and Behavior through Ethnography
Ethnography involves the study of people in naturally occurring settings by methods of enquiry which capture their social meanings and activities. The researcher attempts to participate in the phenomena being studied and share the emotional experiences of the research subjects, thereby learning to understand the reasoning behind their attitudes and behaviour. Ethnography is proving to be an important development in contemporary transport research, with the degree of interest growing steadily in recent years. This is particularly the case involving locations that are themselves on-the-move (such as buses and trains) as opposed to locations which travellers pass through (i.e. stops and stations). ‘Travel ethnography’ allows the researcher to more easily conduct research within the former context, simulating in various ways the many and interdependent forms of intermittent movement of people, images, information and objects. This paper examines the travel choices and behaviour of people with dyslexia, a specific learning difficulty which mainly affectsthe development of literacy and language-related skills. The findings undoubtedly advance the understanding of travel ethnography and the usefulness of this school of thought, given that it restores the emotional content of human lived experiences. Through ethnography (using participant observation as the primary research method), the researcher has been able to capture and convey the richness that people with dyslexia attribute to travel and transport, and connect with the informational and emotional setting within which this group finds themselves.
Room: 3031
Matilda Mettälä
A Case Study Illustrating the Importance of Educating the Whole Person by Using the Arts as a Supplementary Training Tool in Workplace Learning
From a humanistic, learner-centered view this practical case study involving Tetra Pak, a world leadingfood processing and packaging solution company,explores the role of emotion in learning and the arts as a supplementary training tool by describing and interpreting their new employee orientation trainings based on the facilitator’s accounts. This case will illustrate the added value the arts contribute as well as the need to include the whole person-concept in workplace learning. This case does not suggest an exact design with specifications of how this kind of training should be conducted, but rather this specific study will offer additional knowledge by exemplifying how emotional and aesthetical elements can be applied in a learning context.
Kris Long
Play: Children’s Perspective
The purpose of this case study is to explore and discover how children ages six to ten experience play. This case study will articulate student insights on play. Play is perhaps the one arena where children create their own plan when given the opportunity. Free play, or recess, has been a daily pleasure on school playgrounds for many years. The daily ritual of free play is dwindling in schools for children as young as four and five, as high stakes testing takes central focus. Play deprivation, according to Frost (2009), has contributed to many health problems, including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Play is important for children to develop academically, as well as socially, emotionally and physically. Play, for young children, is the way in which they prepare for life. Play skills that children assimilated in the past by observing and mirroring their older friends, are now unequivocally taught, or demonstrated for children (Leong and Bodrova, 2012). Data collection for this study will consist of a semi-structured, audio/videotaped interviews with children from ages six to ten.
Micki Voelkel
Shelli Henehan
Hello Bordello: Modern Southern Women Contesting the Master Narrative of the Cathouse
Miss Laura’s Social Club is a restored Victorian brothel that serves as the official visitors’ center for Fort Smith, Arkansas. Fort Smith relies on its rich history as an Old West town to attract tourists. The researchers originally embarked on a case study of informal adult learning at Miss Laura’s—a unique cultural institution. As themes were identified in the data analysis, both researchers experienced strong negative reactions to the master narrative of prostitution in the Old West that emerged. Through writing about the study, the researchers explored the hegemonic master narrative that emerged and examined their own feminist perspectives on those themes; the study of the Victorian bordello has evolved into reflective self-portrait of the researchers as modern Southern women and feminists.
Themes that emerged from the study included the presentation of the madames as strong, empowered feminist figures, the positioning of the prostitutes as Cinderella figures who were transformed into respectable marriages with former clients, and the tension between Fort Smith’s conservative religious community standards and the housing of the city visitors’ center in a restored brothel. The researchers, using their lenses of community, personal experience, and feminism, contested the narrative told through Miss Laura’s exhibits and docents as representative only of the patriarchal, upper class, white experience. The researchers discussed the methodological choices and challenges involved in adapting the case study to a more explicitly critical approach.
Room: 3033
Samantha Marina Lemus
The Weight Loss Journey of Bariatric Patients in Committed Relationships: A Narrative Inquiry
This qualitative study using a narrative inquiry approach explores the experiences of 3 female bariatric patients in their relationships with their partners and how those relationships impacted their weight loss journey. The researcher re-stories each participant’s journey and illuminates the common themes across the participant stories that relate to their committed relationships and weight loss journey.
Daisyane Barreto
Kathy Roulston
Digital Game-Playing: Considering Methodological Approaches and Ethical Issues for Future Research
In the past, traditional, non-digital games were limited by the physical space of play. Players would need to be physically together to play a game. With technological innovation, gameplay contexts have shifted from physical places to virtual environments. This mobility and apparent flexibility of games has provided an easy access to play; being everywhere, with anyone, and at any time. Indeed, the use of this technology for play among children and adolescents is elevated, with 91% of boys and 93% of girls now playing games online (M2 Research, 2010). As games become digital and play involves the use of sophisticated electronic devices to interact in a game space, it is important to investigate how children are using (Wood & Willoughby, 2008) and interpreting these technologies.
This proposal provides a review of research studies conducted in online gaming environments for children. It also examines innovative practices and issues occurred during a case study research with elementary school children playing in a popular commercial online gaming environment marketed for all ages. To gather data for this research, 10 sessions of one hour long of game playing were held. Data collected from these visits include interviews, observations and computer screen video recordings. Interaction analysis approach (Jordan & Henderson, 1995) was implemented to examine the children interaction with the online environment. The overall purpose of this proposal is to determine appropriate methodologies for future studies and analyze ethical issues that should be taken into account when conducting research in online gaming environments
Amy Orange
Kathy Dupree
Studying Social Networking in Higher Education
Social networking has been extensively researched in business and social sciences (Albertini, 2009; Balkundi & Kilduff, 2006; Borgatti, Mehra, Brass, & Labianca, 2009; Clutterbuck, 2012; Fong-Batkin, 2011; Granovetter, 1973, 1982), but it has yet to be widely studied in public higher education administration. This grounded theory study explored: 1) how to approach the study of social networking in higher education; 2) the barriers to researching social networking in higher education; 3) the creation of an instrument for the study of social networking and; 4) how administrators and staff in higher education view and use social networking. Qualitative data were collected from 25 participants via interviews and a focus group. The data were analyzed by utilizing open and selective coding in NVivo. Analysis of the data provided two notable findings to guide future research on social networking in higher education: the development of a questionnaire and the creation of a conceptual framework. Participants also expressed concern about privacy issues of their social network members and we offer suggestions on ways to address those concerns.
Room: 3034
Judith Monestime
Roger Mayer
Wen-Wen Chien
ICD-10-CM Implementation Strategies: An Application of the Technology Acceptance Model
The United States is one of the last countries to transition to the 10th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) coding system. The move from the 35-year-old system, ICD-9, to ICD-10, represents a milestone in the transformation of the 21st century healthcare industry. All covered healthcare entities are mandated to use the ICD-10 system by October 1, 2015, to justify medical necessity, an essential component in determining whether a service is payable or not. Yet, more than 70% of healthcare organizations identified concerns related to education efforts, including lack of best practices for the ICD-10 transition. Lack of preparation for the implementation of ICD-10 undermines the clinical, technological, operational, and financial processes of healthcare organizations. This study was an exploration of implementation strategies used to overcome barriers to transition to ICD-10. The research question was used to learn how to mitigate barriers to transition to the new coding system. A qualitative single case study was conducted, grounded by the conceptual framework of the technology acceptance model. Data were gathered from the review of documents, observations, and semistructured interviews from 9 participants of a public healthcare organization in Florida. Collected data were coded to identify themes. Key themes that emerged from the study included (a) in-depth ICD-10 training, (b) the prevalence ICD-10 cheat sheets, (c) lack of system readiness, and (d) perception of usefulness of job performance. The results of the study may contribute to social change by identifying successful implementation strategies to mitigate operational disruptions that will allow providers to capture more detailed health information about the severity of patients’ conditions.
Peter Williams
J. Keith Arnold
“I Don’t Know, But We Will Figure it Out”: Learning Together as Advisor/Advisee
Harrison and Grant (2015) suggest that the master-apprentice model of research pedagogy should be less hierarchical. We present one case of a collaborative model and the challenges involved. Advising an adult doctoral candidate of similar age over a distance is complex. Keith, the doctoral candidate, was learning qualitative research by doing it. For Peter, the doctoral faculty advisor, the multiple case study was a challenging emergent design: a dozen interviews, some site visits, and records review. The needed skill development aspects of interviewing, for example, meant that we developed a sort of coaching relationship. Drawing from experience, Peter tried to establish a relationship of trust not based upon knowing all the answers but on authenticity. The emergent nature required that we pause and reflect regularly on what we were seeing and what Keith should do next. Facing this process as co-learners allowed us to have frank discussions engaging expertise (and lack thereof), accepting challenges, learning together, and planning the next steps together. We experienced a tension between wanting to know definitive next steps and recognizing the complexity of the emerging situation which sometimes resulted in no clear right choice for a next step. We dove in to see what would happen and then met to debrief and reflect. While the project is ongoing at the time of this submission, the reflections of both advisor and advisee may be informative to others interested in a less hierarchical approach to the research advising relationship.
Elyse Hambacher
Disrupting Preservice Understandings about Teaching and Learning for Social Justice
This session offers insights into one teacher educator’s efforts in scaffolding critical consciousness to develop critical social justice literacy with her preservice teachers in their first education course. The presentation highlights their sense making of critical teaching and their commitment to praxis. Helping preservice teachers to become critically conscious is crucial if we hope to work with children in equitable ways.
Room: 3035
Chitra Victor
Judith Treschuck
Ina Marie Peoples
Mary Lewis
Interpretivist Paradigm: Essential for Nursing Research
Background: Single embedded case study design is proposed to acquire an in-depth descriptive explanation regarding the role of faith-based recovery program in the substance use disorders recovery process for women recovering from substance use disorder and addiction. The field of nursing education and practice is integrated with abstract concepts such as spirituality, faith, hope, holistic healing, body, mind, and spirit. The abstractness of such nursing concepts can lead to many assumptions and interpretations.
Method: The interpretivist paradigm is the most appropriate for this case study research because it focusses on subjectivity by exploring the views, experiences, perceptions, and meanings of participants in relation to the reality of the faith-based recovery process, which relies on context. The interpretivist approach allows the researcher to explore how faith is understood and implemented in the reality of day-to-day recovery from addiction and why questions about whether faith-based recovery process are occurring or not. The interpretivist paradigm in nursing research helps the nurse researcher to explore the process, meaning, and qualities of a faith-based recovery process from substance addiction that is not subject to measurement or experiment. The interpretivist approach of case study draws a conclusion of individuals, units, or cases within specific contexts and involves description and exploration (Yin, 2013).
Conclusion: The definition clarity of many nursing concepts such as faith, spirituality, caring, hope, and holistic healing can be achieved through the lenses of interpretivist approach to discover meaning. Nursing science is founded on theories. Interpretivist approach of a case study design in nursing concepts such as faith, hope, caring, will generalize theories and expand theoretical propositions.
Jeanette Santos
Martha Guerra
Sylvia Rapini
Exploring the Spanish Team Experience: A Qualitative Study of Bilingual Therapists’ Training Experiences
Spanish-dominant Hispanics are among those who have been traditionally underserved by mental health service providers. The choice of language used during psychotherapy may impact both emotional expressions (Altarriba & Santiago-Rivera, 1994) and the recall and interpretation of events (Marian & Neisser, 2000). Language goes beyond the sounds and letters of the speech. The authors, all doctoral students who share Spanish as a mother language, come from a multiethnic background and were trained to provide counseling in Spanish through the certificate Psychological Services for Spanish Speaking Populations at Our Lady of the Lake University at San Antonio, TX. The certificate requires that the therapists in training provide psychological and counseling services in Spanish to members of the community at the Community Counseling Service (CCS). Our experience as members of the bilingual team prompted our curiosity to explore the meaning of other practicum students’ and effectiveness of the training they receive in the Spanish team at the CCS. This research explores central themes including Spanish language proficiency, cultural competency and application, general professional competency, and overall student’s satisfaction. The investigators will use narrative and thematic analysis along with descriptive statistics to understand the experiences of either masters or doctoral students in Spanish teams. In this symposium, we will share the results of this study, challenges encountered, feedback for the Spanish team at the CCS, and possibilities for further investigations or programs training bilingual Spanish/English therapists.
Walker Karraa
Mark McCaslin
Published: A Grounded Theory of Successful Publication for Mid-Career Scholars
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 in 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 16 midcareer scholars participated in one, 60-90 minute semi-structured interviews. 278 pages of transcript were coded open, axial and selective sequence using constant comparison. Analysis revealed that midcareer scholars who self-identify as lifelong learners with an intrinsic sense of responsibility to advancing scholarship engaged in problem solving strategies that facilitated successful peer-reviewed publication.
Session G
Room: 3030
James Lane
International Codes of Ethics for K-12 Educators: A Hermeneutic Analysis
Recent global trends in K-12 education include foci on student learning and assessment, teacher accountability and preparation, and the treatment of marginalized groups. Increasingly, professional practices of educators worldwide are being guided by articulated codes of ethics, published by education agencies of at least 20 countries (UNESCO, 2006). The recentModel Code of Ethics for American Educators published by the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC, 2015) reflects awareness of and concern for contemporary ethical issues and provides an opportunity to review codes of other countries for similar themes. This study in progress examines the published educator codes of ethics of countries in which English is the predominant language, e.g., the U.S., India, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland.
This discussion applies the methodology of hermeneutics, which undertakes “a dialogue with the text” to reveal a “deeper and richer meaning in light of an overarching pattern of interpretation (lvesson & Skoldberg, 2009, pp. 100-101). It considers the educator codes of ethics of these countries through the hermeneutic lens of Madison’s nine “methodological principles” (1988, pp. 29-30): Coherence, Comprehensiveness, Penetration, Thoroughness, Appropriateness, Contextuality, Agreement, Suggestiveness, and Potential. The hope is that revealing overarching patterns and themes reflected at these broadest philosophical levels will heighten awareness of these concepts for those who shape policy and develop ethical guidelines affecting k-12 education.
Bruce Lilyea
Alice Obenchain-Leeson
Ethical Issues in Appraising Qualitative Research: Identifying a Gap in the Research Process
The future of qualitative research will likely include an expansion of the edges of the research space through the enlarging and adding of methods and methodology as well as identifying and filling of gaps in the research process. When the element of ethics in research is considered, the existing literature offers a significant volume of material covering the ethical issues in research design, research methodology, data collection, data analysis, and presentation of findings. Unfortunately the current discourse on ethics in research ends with the submission of the manuscript and a massive void exists beyond that point in the research process. This presentation seeks to identify this gap, discuss the need for a framework, and create space for a discussion of ethics in appraising qualitative research. With a focus on ethics of care to all of the stakeholders in the realm of research, a wide range of questions will be offered and feedback will be solicited from session participants as this nascent conversation is formalized and this aspect of qualitative research is shored up as quality and rigor are strengthened throughout the entire research process. Including the benefits and challenges of blind reviews to open reviews, the place for the ethic of care in the appraisal process, the consideration of ethics as a constraint or a direction in evaluation, and the impact of a relational ethic in journal feedback, a gap in the research appraisal is a challenge waiting to be met as we move into the future of qualitative inquiry.
Barrett Mincey
Nancy Maldonado
Candace Lacey
A Phenomenological Study of Juvenile Residential Program Graduates
This qualitative study explored stories of successful graduates of residential programs regarding their experiences while in treatment. Data were collected from nine young adult participants who had satisfied their court-ordered sanctions in various residential facilities and who had successfully completed their aftercare supervisions. Audio taped interviews were analyzed for themes. Shared stories indicated the impact of counselors, negative and positive aspects of programs, and peer relationships. These stories are important for other juveniles at-risk for delinquency, directors of treatment programs, teachers, and correctional leaders and may explain why some youth succeed and others fail while in treatment.
Neill Korobov
A Discursive Approach to the Playful and Gendered Use of Insults and Criticisms in Romantic Couple’s Everyday Banter
The present study focuses on the gendered and playful ways that insults and criticisms are formulated by young adult romantic couples in their natural interactional contexts. A discourse analytic approach was used to examine how twenty young adult romantic couples (ages 19-26) use gender to playfully pursue insults and criticisms in their natural ecological contexts. This study has a two-fold motivation. First, there is a dearth of micro-analytic qualitative research detailing the ways that insults and criticisms are mobilized in romantic couple’s natural conversations. Second, research suggests that conflicts among contemporary young adults (‘millennials’) may often be sociable in nature, and thus may not pose the kind of adversarial face-threats for young adult intimates in the ways that would be traditionally expected. Discursive analyses demonstrate three conspicuous patterns. First, that the vast majority of the insults and criticisms are gendered. Second, that nearly all of the excerpts involve the creative use of various forms of irony, laughter, rekeyings, abrupt non-sequiturs, and topic shifts to allow the gendered insults/criticisms to appear playful. And finally, the analyses show how these gendered and playful insults/criticisms are consequential as preliminaries for affiliation. The central implication is that in contexts where there is a press for relationality (e.g., romantic relationships), insults and criticisms may sometimes function as a kind of playful repartee, and instead of orienting to them as threatening, intimates may treat them as methods to create alignment and affiliation through an implicit, but shared transgression of socio-relational norms.
Room: 3031
Barbara Wilson
Education for All: Hearing Minority Parent Voice about Public Education in India
This research article explores minority parents’ unique hopes, challenges and fears concerning public education in India. Global efforts to provide Education for All have fallen short of achieving educational equity. Lack of educational equity persists due to a variety of conditions, including the failure to take into account local peculiarities. To inform programming of one local school project, the perspectives of minority parents were collected during a focus group held in Aurangabad, India in 2013. Focus group comments were coded and analyzed to identify significant themes. These findings identified factors explaining why minority students are not successful attending public schools or participating in national exams in India. Results and recommendations from this focus group are shared to promote dialogue among school leaders, government organizations and parents to better understand the local public school context and implement practices and policies to reach international education targets and make progress towards Education for All.
Susan Vitale
A Case Study of Family Functioning with Prader-Willi Syndrome: A Rare Genetic Cause of Childhood Obesity
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how families function when they have a child with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS).
Background: PWS is a rare genetic disorder without a cure. Neonates have hypotonia, and poor sucking ability. They may be misunderstood as failure-to-thrive. An unusual change occurs when the child is a few years older. Insatiable hunger (hyperphagia) and maladaptive behaviors develop with the potential for excessive weight gain. There may be dysmorphic facial features and developmental delays. A survey of literature reveals limited research family experiences.
Methods: A qualitative design of case study methodology, provided a clear focus on an in-depth understanding of specific family action. Interviews were conducted with parents (N= 20). Data were collected and analyzed simultaneously using constant comparative method. Themes and commonalties were identified.
Results: Creative coping with stressful family life issues were revealed. Recommendations were provided concerning family preservation while focusing on the child with PWS. Common adjustments included recognition of inevitable sacrifice and changes in expectations. Remaining an intact family guided a day-by-day approach. Dedicating themselves to the child and “doing whatever it takes” guided their actions so as to help the child reach the highest potential.
Conclusions: Findings from this research will help inform nursing and health care providers and lead to family anticipatory guidance.
Ujjaini Das
The Future of Teaching Qualitative Research Methods
The advancements in qualitative research methods are largely incorporated in graduate level qualitative research courses in the United States. However, such developments in the field do not seem to be included in the qualitative research curriculum in developing countries such as India. There exists a disconnect between the ways in which qualitative research is conducted and taught at institutions of higher education in the United States and that in India. This paper emphasizes the need for further dissemination of both qualitative methods scholarship and pedagogy and examines what aspects of this tradition have/have not been included in the curriculum of major academic institutions in India and how can connections be drawn between qualitative research, practice, and teaching done in the US to that pursued in India.
Rachael Trinkowsky
Laurie Dringus
Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to Assess the Accessibility Awareness and Practices of Faculty in Online Learning Environments
The goal of this interpretative phenomenological analysis was to describe how online faculty gain knowledge regarding accessibility, to explore the lived experiences of online faculty who have worked with students who have disabilities, and to gain a better understanding of how faculty experience the process of accessibility implementation. The following research questions guided this study: How do faculty in OLEs experience encounters regarding accessibility for students who have print related disabilities? How do faculty in OLEs experience the journey of developing the skills needed to provide accessibility for students with print related disabilities? What aspects of accessibility and Universal Design do faculty members practice in OLEs and what meaning do they ascribe to the lived experience of providing these accommodations? Eight super-ordinate themes emerged, including: Accessibility and usability awareness; interactions and relationships between faculty, students, various departments, and outside organizations relating to SWDs and accessibility; different perspectives and experiences of faculty who teach courses within programs that have an emphasis on accessibility, AT, or working with people with disabilities; faculty experiences and perspectives of working with SWDs and providing accessible materials in OLEs; faculty training and experience with accessibility and people with disabilities; faculty autonomy within OLEs as it relates to creating accessible content; accommodations and accessibility features used in OLEs; as well as LMS accessibility and usability. The results of this study led to several implications regarding training and support for faculty, students, and other staff within online programs, best practices for implementing accessibility, and recommendations for future studies.
Ali Al-Issa
Making a Case for New Directions in English Language Teaching Research at an Omani University: A Critical Qualitative Content Analysis Report
Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) has been the sole English Language Teaching (ELT) research enterprise in the Sultanate of Oman through the Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Curriculum and Methods of Teaching English degree program it launched in the early 1990s. Eighty-two theses have been completed so far about topics pertinent to ELT in the Sultanate of Oman. However, a review of those theses has shown that the discussion of these topics lacks a critical dimension that can advance Omani ELT at the micro and macro levels. This critical qualitative study, therefore, sets out to make a case for new directions in ELT research at the M.Ed. in ELT program at SQU. The discussion should lead to better understanding of the multiple ELT problems in the Sultanate of Oman and have implications for other similar contexts.
Room: 3033
Liliam Dominguez
The Identity of the Artist/Art Professor in Higher Education and its Effect on Teaching Practices: An Exploratory Case Study
The identities of the artist and the art professor are apparently diametrically opposed due to the domains of knowledge to which they belong. It has been a hegemonic, universal belief that teaching implies a function of the transmission of knowledge that is quasi-scientific and rational, and therefore it must exist in the “well-structured” domain, whereas the nature of art as a means of visual communication contributes to the “ill-structured” domain of knowledge. Thus, when making the shift from creating art to teaching art, artists might feel as if they are switching paradigms. This study investigates the pedagogical knowledge of artists as art professors and the implication on identity issues as they strive to be both. This qualitative study uses an exploratory, case study approach. Five higher education art professors in the South East Florida region were interviewed to determine how pedagogical content knowledge is developed from the point of view of artist/professor of art.
Charmaine Beckford
Applying the Transtheoretical Model of Change to Ergonomic Intervention
This applied dissertation identified a more effective method of preventing workplace injuries for the employees in a large, private not-for-profit university, in southern Florida. The study lasted over the course of two months, allowing employees’ ample time for effective participation in a structured study design and interviewing the employee participants.
The study evaluated the effects of the transtheoretical model of change (TTM) on ergonomic intervention. The model established the relationship of individual decision making self-efficacy and characterized (a) the relationship between tailoring interventions to match a person’s readiness (stage of change) and ergonomic intervention; (b) the TTM in symptoms occurrence; and (c) personal choices including those that extended to the workplace causing work related injuries.
Data analysis included memoing, responses to a 47-question questionnaire, and transcription of interviews. This study obtained data from 11 questionnaires as a pre-and post-measurement tool. In addition, analysis of interview instruments, specifically a total of 12- interview sessions over a period of two months, including a decisional balance exercise. The decisional balance construct measured how individuals thought through the pros and cons of both changing and not making a change. The decisional balance exercise identified patterns that were useful to understand how the pros and cons related to the stages of change.
Findings of the study indicated that the employer should use behavior change as a primary model of preventing injuries in line with ergonomic intervention efforts.
Jason Ulsperger
Senior Companion Program Volunteers: Exploring Experiences, Transformative Rituals, and Recruitment/Retention Issues
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 age. It can also help us establish a knowledge base that aids in our understanding of how to recruit and retain senior volunteers. This article uses data gathered from phenomenologically based, qualitative in-depth interviews of 10 SCP volunteers. Focusing on volunteer experiences, it uses structural ritualization theory to analyze various volunteer activities, which the research considers ritualized symbolic practices. It also considers how transformative rituals within a SCP impact volunteerism, and it provides recommendations on how to increase SCP volunteer recruitment and retain volunteers. The article concludes with suggestions for future research.
Annette Willgens
Robin Cooper
Doles Jadotte
Bruce Lilyea
Cynthia Langtiw
Alice Obenchain-Leeson
Methodological Congruence: The Development of a Tool for Guidance in the Appraisal of Qualitative Research
In an ever-changing research landscape, the future of qualitative research demands a focus on researcher integrity in appraising research. From the vantage point of qualitative research appraisal, one principle stands out because it represents researcher integrity. This principle is known as methodological congruence, defined as a “fit” between research purpose, research question, methodology, data sources/types, and data analysis (Creswell, 2013). As researchers, appraisal of one’s own work begins with the ability to assess the work of others. It requires that the researcher remains true to the chosen philosophical stance and embark on a journey of critical thinking to design, conduct, and appraise, all at the same time. Additionally, it is important to teach the next wave of student scholars about best practices and rigorous qualitative methods. From a developmental perspective, novices must learn to think critically and meet issues of methodological congruence with intention and purpose (Chenail, 2011).
A variety of high quality tools and instruments exist which support and guide in this appraisal process (Cooper, 2011). However, a tool that offers detailed guidance on the five main forms of methodological congruence does not yet exist. In the spirit of transparency, quality, and ethical decision-making, the intent of these researchers was to design and pilot such a tool and seek feedback from the qualitative research community. Through the design and pilot of this research tool that complements current best practices and delivers a pedagogical roadmap that is embedded in ethical intentions, we commit to a shared responsibility that reaches our colleagues, sponsors, and most importantly, the participants whose stories we share (Tracy, 2010).
In this conversation the presenters will describe the process of developing the tool and encourage a reflective dialogue on how to increase practical application of this tool. We welcome your varied perspectives.
Room: 3034
Stephen Gentles
Sampling in Qualitative Research: Insights from a Systematic Overview of the Methods Literature
The methods literature regarding sampling in qualitative research is characterized by important inconsistencies and ambiguities, which can be problematic for students and researchers seeking a clear and coherent understanding. Here, I will present insights about sampling in qualitative research derived from a systematic methods overview conducted of the literature from three research traditions: grounded theory, phenomenology, and case study. In this review, recently published in TQR, we identified and selected influential methods literature from each tradition using a purposeful and transparent procedure, abstracted textual data using structured abstraction forms, and used a multistep approach for deriving conclusions from the data. The findings are organized into eight topic sections corresponding to the major domains of sampling identified in the review process: definitions of sampling, usage of the term sampling strategy, purposeful sampling, theoretical sampling, sampling units, saturation, sample size, and the timing of sampling decisions. I will summarize how each topic is characterized in the literature selected for review, presenting our comparative analysis of important differences among research traditions, and our analytic conclusions for each topic.
Cheryl White
A Holistic Approach to Reducing Recidivism in a Large Urban County
This applied dissertation addressed the need to reduce the high rate of recidivism in a large urban Florida county. Although scripted programs are being used to reduce recidivism, the rate has remained high and there is a need to determine more effective strategies to reduce the high rate of recidivism. The study explored (a) social stigmas that ex-offenders’ resettlement created, (b) multiple ex-offenders’ needs including those of education, employment, housing, and supportive relationships, and (c) other factors ex-offenders endured upon embarking into society after years of institutionalization. In this regard, it was postulated that difficulties arose in the individual service providers ability to meet these multiple and complex needs as part of proven evidence-based practices. Focus groups were conducted to (a) identify service providers and the resources available for aiding ex-offenders upon release into communities, (b) gaps in service delivery for released prisoners, (c) challenges that existed in communities dealing with servicing the ex-offender population, (d) barriers to collaboration between agencies and service providers, and (e) recommendations to meet the needs of ex-offenders transitioning back into community living.
After reviewing, the study confirmed the current model of service delivery in the context of current theories to rehabilitation and ex-offenders’ reentry into society related to the (a) types of support, resources, and services ex-offenders needed to help them successfully transition back into community life and not return to criminal activity, (b) factors in ex-offenders’ lives that trigger a return to criminal activity, and (c) barriers preventing service providers along with profit and non-profit organizations in a large urban South Florida county, as needed to be revisited to include service providers working pre-release and post-release collaboratively. Moreover, the study found that to streamline the confusing process of finding and contacting agencies to assist ex-offenders, required creating an all-inclusive approach, with both small and large organizations who are adequately funded and working together to reduce recidivism; and improving the tracking system of follow-up services, rendered to ex-offenders to ensure that service provisions are efficient and effective. Finally, by incorporating the types of support, resources, and services that are responsive to ex-offenders’ individual needs so that a more holistic approach is taken into the prevention of recidivism, providers must receive the funding necessary to continue engaging with reentry.
Patricia Mason
Roger Mayer
Wen-Wen Chien
Diffusion of Electronic Health Records in Rural Primary Care Clinics
By the end of 2015, Medicare-eligible physicians at primary care practices (PCP) who do not use an electronic health record (EHR) system will incur stiff penalties if they fail to meet the deadline for using EHRs. Yet, less than 30% of rural primary clinics have fully functional EHR systems. The purpose of this phenomenology study was to explore rural primary care physicians and physician assistants’ experiences regarding overcoming barriers to implementing EHRs. Complex adaptive systems formed the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with a purposeful sample of 21 physicians and physician assistants across 2 rural PCPs in the southeastern region of Missouri. Participant perceptions were elicited regarding overcoming barriers to implementing EHRs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act legislation. Interview questions were transcribed and processed through qualitative software to discern themes of how rural PCP physicians and physician assistants might overcome barriers to implementing electronic health records. Through the exploration of the narrative segments, 4 emergent themes were common among the participants: (a) limited finances to support EHRs, (b) health information exchange issues, (c) lack of business education, and (d) lack of transformation at rural medical practices.
Mohammed Ahmed Gharawi
Qualitative Transnational Research: Addressing the Methodological Challenges
All steps of inquiry in transnational qualitative research (TQR) involve additional challenges that researchers have to consider and deal with. This paper aims to provide insights into these challenges and proposes strategies to mitigate their influences. The paper introduces three transnational research projects in which the author has participated either as a team member or primary investigator during the past five years. These projects explored three transnational knowledge networks that each involved participants from at least two different nations. Also, all three projects applied case study methods were primary data collected through semi-structured interviews. Drawing on the experience gained while working on these projects and based on extensive review of pertinent literature on qualitative research methods and cross-national research, the paper presents a set of pitfalls encountered during preparation, execution, and presentation of TQR and discusses possible strategies to overcome such challenges.