International Journal of Qualitative Methods: ARCHIVE
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403 research outputs found
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Automethodology: Tracing a Home for Praxis-Oriented Ethnography
No full textThe authors trace the development of ethnographic practices according to the methodological assumptions of ethnographers within different historical periods. As communication scholars, the authors find Calvin O. Schrag’s conceptualization of the self to be informative and advantageous for navigating an ethnographic sense of ‘self’ in the current status of the methodological contestation. Borrowing from Schrag’s work, which focuses on communicative praxis in understanding the self, this article explores an innovative methodological framework called automethodology. By examining the deployment and emplotment of the self within the automethods of autobiography, autoethnography, narrative co-construction, community autoethnography, critical complete-member ethnography, reflexive ethnography, autoperformance, and layered account, the authors develop epistemological foundations for praxis-oriented ethnographers. Throughout this journey, the authors end up situating themselves in a place they consider home—in the practices of automethodology
Cooking as Inquiry: A Method to Stir Up Prevailing Ways of Knowing Food, Body, and Identity
No full textIn this paper I develop a method of research that I call ‘cooking as inquiry’. This method seeks to add layers to the typically disembodied practices of social research that have long overlooked the body and the mundane rituals of foodmaking as sites of knowledge. Informed by autoethnography (Ellis and Bochner, 2000) and collective biography (Davies and Gannon, 2006), cooking as inquiry recognizes bodies and food as sites of knowledge and engages researchers as researcher-participants in reflexive, collaborative study that explores the ways in which the embodied self is performed relationally through foodmaking. In addition to a discussion of the epistemological and methodological frames of this method, I offer a case study that describes a project conducted by a colleague and myself
Our Journey to Becoming Ethnographers: An Exploration of Rhetorical Structures as Lived Experience
No full textThis article, originally written as a performative piece, presents the experiences and perceptions of five graduate students and one professor as they reflect on and write about becoming ethnographers throughout a graduate-level research course. Data sources include reflective journals, synthesis papers, and academic literature. Following the completion of the course, the group came together and applied grounded theory to analyze the data and write collectively about their experiences, feelings, and insights on ethnographic work. They present the data as a readers theatre that incorporates portions of a children’s book with the group’s reflections. Like authors of other academic literature the group discusses the challenges and benefits of ethnographic research. Their collaborative writing reflects their polyvocality as they negotiated their journeys toward becoming ethnographers
The Subjectivity Problem: Improving Triangulation Approaches in Metaphor Analysis Studies
No full textMetaphor analysis procedures for uncovering participant conceptualizations have been well-established in qualitative research settings since the early 1980s; however, one common criticism of metaphor analysis is the trustworthiness of the findings. Namely, accurate determination of the conceptual metaphors held by participants based on the investigation of linguistic metaphors has been identified as a methodological issue because of the subjectivity involved in the interpretation; that is, because they are necessarily situated in specific social and cultural milieus, meanings of particular metaphors are not universally constructed nor understood. In light of these critiques, this article provides examples of two different triangulation methods that can be employed to supplement the trustworthiness of the findings when metaphor analysis methodologies are used
The Grounded Theory Method: Deconstruction and Reconstruction in a Human Patient Simulation Context
No full textCertain modes of qualitative inquiry, such as grounded theory, can serve to uncover the abstract processes and broad conceptual themes influencing the personal experiences of undergraduate nursing students encountering clinical scenarios utilizing human patient simulators (HPS). To date insufficient research has been conducted to uncover the basic social-psychological processes encountered by students as they engage in a HPS-based clinical scenario. The authors assert that HPS-based learning experiences are in reality social endeavors that lead to the creation of socially negotiated knowledge and meanings relevant to the adult learner. To understand how grounded theory is suited to deriving answers to these questions, an analysis of the theoretical and philosophical foundations of grounded theory is undertaken. This critical analysis concludes with a discussion of specific considerations to be reflected upon by researchers when applying the inductively derived method of grounded theory in uncovering the social processes that occur within HPS-based clinical scenarios
A/r/tographic Collaboration as Radical Relatedness
No full textIn this paper the authors examine a/r/tographical collaboration in a community-engaged research study investigating immigrant understandings of home and place. The study, The City of Richgate, involves a complex collaboration between community members, community organizations, educational institutions, and a research team comprising artist-educators. The study crosses border zones of cultural, ethnic, geographic, institutional, public, private, and disciplinary boundaries, reflecting the ever-changing character of postmodern reality. In this paper the authors reflect critically and theoretically on the lived experience of radical relatedness found within the complex collaboration, particularly within the a/r/tographic research team. This offers a qualitative methodology of radical collaboration applicable to many fields of inquiry in the academy, art world, and community
A Novel Approach: The Sociology of Literature, Children’s Books, and Social Inequality
No full textThis article discusses the complexity of literary analysis and the implications of using fiction as a source of sociological data. This project infuses literary analysis with sociological imagination. Using a random sample of children’s novels published between 1930 and 1980, this article describes both a methodological approach to the analysis of children’s books and the subsequent development of two analytical categories of novels. The first category captures books whose narratives describe and support unequal social arrangements; the second category captures those whose narratives work instead to identify inequality and disrupt it. Building on Griswold’s methodological approach to literary fiction, this project examines how children’s novels describe, challenge, or even subvert systems of inequality. Through a sociological reading of three sampled texts – Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, A Wrinkle in Time, and Hitty: Her First Hundred Years – readers learn how these analytical categories work and how the sociology of literature might be enriched by attention to structural forms of inequality within literary fiction. This essay investigates children’s books in order to reinvigorate the discussion and use of novels by sociologists
A Critical Reflection on the Use of Translators/Interpreters in a Qualitative Cross-Language Research Project
No full textBased on experiences from a qualitative research project on immigrant women\u27s English language acquisition, we critiqued the traditional positivist model, and identified a number of issues related to the engagement of translators/interpreters in community-based research. The issues that we identified amount to serious questions about ambiguities and ownership of translated language content; assumptions about community familiarity and cultural similarity between researchers, translators, and participants; negotiation of power and authority in the research process; and the risks faced by translators. In the end, though individual research team members bear responsibility over these shortcomings and need to strive to make our research practices more inclusive and equitable, the institutional context of research imposes severe limitations on the ideal alternative model of working with translators and interpreters as co-researchers
Embracing the Creative: The Role of Photo Novella in Qualitative Nursing Research
No full textPhoto novella is presented as an effective and creative data collection method that has the ability to engage participants in the process of critical thinking and reflection. This reflective practice provides rich insight that can be of great benefit when exploring complex and multifaceted health issues. In this study, oncology and palliative care nurses were asked to think about what spirituality meant to them and then take photographs that represented these concepts. Once developed, the nurses were asked to select 4-6 photographs that were most meaningful and the most representative of what spirituality meant to them. These photographs then guided the semi-structured interview. The photographs provided great insight into the nurses’ perceptions and meanings associated with spirituality and highlight the benefits of utilizing photographs within qualitative nursing research
Intergenerational Dialogue Exchange and Action: Introducing a Community-Based Participatory Approach to Connect Youth, Adults and Elders in an Alaskan Native Community
No full textThe broad goals of the community-based participatory research (CBPR) include community engagement, capacity building, developing practical solutions for community concerns and knowledge building. This article describes the data generation and sharing process as it relates to the goals of CBPR and health promotion in American Indian/Alaska Native communities. The project described herein, “Investigating Inupiaq Cultural Resilience: A Pilot Study,” achieved these goals in a tribal context by fostering intergenerational dialogue. The intergenerational exchange served to collect data for a community-based participatory study and provide an opportunity for communication between Elders, adults and youth. By providing an arena
for intergenerational sharing, the format encouraged cross-age connections and in doing so, supported, in a broad sense, the transmission of cultural knowledge. The article describes the process and articulates the ways it supports the CBPR goals of engagement, practical relevance, knowledge generation and health promotion