International Journal of Qualitative Methods: ARCHIVE
Not a member yet
403 research outputs found
Sort by
Methodological Reflections on the Use of Asynchronous Online Focus Groups in Health Research
No full textThe Internet is increasingly used as a tool in qualitative research. In particular, asynchronous online focus groups are used when factors such as cost, time, or access to participants can make conducting face-to-face research difficult. In this article we consider key methodological issues involved in using asynchronous online focus groups to explore experiences of health and illness. The written nature of Internet communication, the lack of physical presence, and the asynchronous, longitudinal aspects enable participants who might not normally contribute to research studies to reflect on their personal stories before disclosing them to the researcher. Implications for study design, recruitment strategies, and ethics should be considered when deciding whether to use this method
Re-viewing literature in hermeneutic research
No full textA literature review of some form is an expectation within research projects. This paper considers the particular form of re-viewing the literature in hermeneutic research. It begins by explicating hermeneutic philosophical assumptions. The argument is presented that a key purpose of exploring literature is to provoke thinking. The authors offer personal accounts of their experiences of working with literature. The guiding frameworks of three doctoral students’ hermeneutic approaches to literature are profiled. In conclusion distinguishing hallmarks of ways of working hermeneutically with literature are articulated. Literature, including anything that provokes thinking on the topic, forms a key dialoguing partner from which scholarly thinking emerges
From Field Notes, to Transcripts, to Tape Recordings: Evolution or Combination?
No full textFor researchers doing qualitative research, interviews are a commonly used method. Data collected through interviews can be recorded through field notes, transcripts, or tape recordings. In the literature, there is a debate regarding which of these recording methods should be used. There are issues of reliability, cost (time and money), loss of data, among others. Technology plays a pivotal role in this debate. Indeed, new technologies (e.g., direct coding) are often seen as potential replacements for older technologies (e.g., transcripts), which leads to a debate that is based on an evolution narrative (from field notes, to transcripts, to working from tape recordings). This article argues that a combination narrative should be considered where combination is better than substitution. Moreover, combining the advantages of field notes, transcripts, and working from tape recordings without accumulating each method’s disadvantages is possible because of new technology. To support this argument, two technological tools (OneNote and Smartpen) are presented as a way to increase the effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of qualitative data management
מיהו המועמד המתאים ללמודים במכללה להוראה?/Who is the Desired Applicant for Schools and Colleges of Education?
No full textתקציר
מאמר זה הוא דיווח על ניתוח קונספטואלי כדרך לחשיפת אפיונים אישיים של מועמדים ללימודי הוראה. החשיבות הרבה המיוחסת לטיב ההוראה, לרמת המורה כמפתח להצלחת ההוראה ולחינוך כעומד בראש סולם העדיפויות, דורשת להשכיל לבחור באנשים המתאימים ביותר למקצוע חשוב זה. כמכללה החורטת על דגלה דגש על פתוח לומד בעל הכוונה עצמית ברמת התנהגות מוסרית ערכית גבוהה, מקבל נושא זה עדיפות בחשיבה ובַחקר המכללתיים. ניתוח אפיונים אישיים של מועמדים ללימודי הוראה מאפשר למכללות ולבתי-ספר לחינוך לבחור מועמדים בהתאם למטרותיהם ובהתאם לסטנדרטים הרצויים להם.
שימוש באוריינטציה של שיטה מבוססת קריטריונים וממדים של קונספציות הנחה את הניתוח של סיפורי חיים, רפלקסיה כתובה ודבורה, שאלונים וראיונות. יחידות המחקר סווגו לקריטריונים ולממדים של קונספציות, ונוצר מבנה קונספטואלי, שנבדק בקונטקסטים שונים.
זהו מחקר המציע דרך לחשיפת פרופיל אפיונים אישיים של מועמדים ללימודי הוראה. הניתוח והמודל שנולד בעקבותיו מציע אופן הסתכלות כללי על מועמדים המתעתדים להיות מורים מוצלחים בעתיד. אוכלוסיית המחקר היא מועמדים לאחר שירות לאומי / צבאי (n = 99).
הניתוח לחשיפת המידע נעשה בדרך של Grounded theory . תרומתו המדעית של המחקר תהיה בתשומת לב להבדלים דקים ולרגישויות בין מועמדים לצורך סלקציה ולצורך טיפוח אפיונים רצויים במהלך הלימודים. המודל החדש קל ליישום ומאפשר אבחון עדין ומדויק יותר בין מועמדים בהשוואה להליך הקבלה שהיה נהוג עד כה.
Acceptance for schools and colleges of education is based on the existing standardized traditional admission system, which focuses mainly on cognitive competencies. High academic scores are insufficient to make a good teacher. Endless discussions on who the teachers college desired applicant is led us to the present challenging study. This study discusses the use of personal attributes for assessing applicants who wish to study for teaching credentials. A set of qualitative tools and methodology were used to elicit each individual’s personal attributes and to determine their weight, using a qualitative research design. Currently used tools do not supply a sufficiently detailed database to differentiate between applicants. When tools are interesting, meaningful, and taken from real life, tacit knowledge is easily revealed (Sabar-Ben Yehoshua, 1990). Applicants in this study document their reflections and their academic, vocational, or personal growth as a major part of the raw data for analysis. The new model delicately differentiates both between individuals and groups, providing an applicant profile pool of competencies, useful for admission committees, as well as for empowering student-teachers’ strengths during their studies. This study emphasizes a shift from generating scores to profiles, for the consideration of admissions committees. It included 99 post army/national service participants: 68 women and 31 men, aged 20-25. These procedures can easily be applied by teacher education faculty members. The predictive validity of the presented model requires further study in a longitudinal trial
Researching From a Distance: Using Live Web Conferencing to Mediate Data Collection
No full textAdvances in technology have transformed the way people learn, work, and conduct research. An increase in online university courses offers geographically separated learners a chance to work together using live videoconferencing software. Researchers, however, have little guidance on how to collect qualitative interview data in these virtual environments. This article examines how researchers used live videoconferencing software to conduct interviews with participants separated geographically in a graduate education course. The authors point out the ethical and practical challenges that arose from using this method of data collection and offer advice on overcoming these obstacles. The authors conclude live videoconferencing software has the potential to be a viable data collection tool for researchers after considering the practical and ethical concerns associated with this method.
Keywords: distance learning, Elluminate Live!, interviews, live data collection, online learning, technology, videoconference
Authors’ Note: This research was partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DUE0832026. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation
Picturing Reality: Power, Ethics, and Politics in Using Photovoice
No full textThis article considers research into barriers to learning (including HIV/AIDS) in a small, rural town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A variety of qualitative participatory research methods were used, including photovoice, a method in which research participants take photographs and then decode these together with the researchers. Rich, thick data was obtained using photovoice, and the researchers found this method particularly useful for dealing with the ‘unspoken’ and working with marginalised people. This method, particularly because of the emotive nature of photographs, is also a potentially powerful political tool in exposing and exploring deepening levels of poverty and crisis experienced by the marginalised in post-apartheid South Africa. Photovoice as a method, however, raises issues of ethics and researcher-researched power dynamics; in particular, whether it is ethically acceptable to use photographs from consenting participants in light of the imbalance of power between the subject and the researcher, particularly in the context of HIV/AIDS. This article explores ethical and power issues in using the photovoice method
Hermeneutics as Research Approach: A Reappraisal
No full textHermeneutics as a research practice, if it is to remain true to its philosophical origins, involves reappraisal and reinterpretation in relation to its cultural contexts. Among the threads of connection affecting hermeneutic practice are the exigencies of academic institutions and evolving cross-cultural perspectives. This article addresses these issues from the perspective of exploring hermeneutics for a research study of nurses’ relational practice on acute care mental health units from Buddhist perspectives. The exploration is, as hermeneutics must be, both a review and a refashioning, a looking back in order to look forward.
Keywords: hermeneutics, research, culture, Buddhism, nursin
Indigenous Innovations in Qualitative Research Method: Investigating the Private World of Family Life
No full textThe researched are rarely provided the opportunity to take a role in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data they themselves provide to researchers. This article describes a novel indigenous research method, for a project in progress, which was developed to explore the relationships between intra-whānau (family) communication and whānau ora (family well-being) within eight whānau over a three year period. The relationships are explored through self-reflexive praxis where research participants are encouraged to think reflexively about their whānau conversations. Conversations that take place in the private world of whānau are audio-recorded by family members, without the imposition of an intrusive researcher. Whānau decide the extent to which their private lives are exposed to the researchers via the recordings and assist the researchers with an interpretation of their everyday conversations. This method offers an opportunity for both whānau and researchers to contribute to insights and understandings of the complex ecologies and realities of life for Māori families. This research methodology involves culturally-centred ethical practice drawn from both Western- and Māori-centred perspectives. Sensitive issues arising from the ways in which individuals perceived their role as active agents of research and the effects of self-reflection on the method are explored