Conversational Interviews Research Articles

Reading Motivation of Young ESL Learners in Brunei Darussalam

In recent years, a large number of nations across the globe have shown an increasing focus on developing lifelong readers within their education system. To cultivate lifelong readers, research has found the importance of engaged reading. To encourage engaged reading, studies have found that apart from instructional practices that focus on cognitive competency (skills to read), a child’s motivation to read (will to read) too plays a pivotal role in this area. However, little attention has been given to ESL learners’ motivation to read, especially that of young ESL learners. To explore this, this study looks into the motivation to read of 13 young ESL learners from 3 government schools in Brunei. The students in Year 4, aged between 9 to 10 years old, were interviewed on their habits and motivations to read in English to provide an insight into the factors influencing their reading motivation. The questions posed to students were adapted from the conversational interview questions of Gambrell et. al .’s (2013) Motivation to Read Profile-Revised Questionnaire. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. The transcriptions were analysed and coded using the principles of the Constant Comparative Method, where eventually themes and sub-themes were derived. From the analysis, findings suggest that young ESL learners’ motivation depends on the following: self-competency beliefs, reasons for reading, environment, and access to engaging reading resources. The study gives an understanding of factors influencing young learners’ reading motivation, which in turn can inform stakeholders on the choice of reading pedagogy to help young learners become better and engaged readers.

“I would just like to see more acknowledgement, respect and services for the people who are in between, just Métis people”: recommendations by Métis women to improve access to health and social services in Victoria, Canada

This paper reports on recommendations made by Métis women, two-spirit, and gender diverse people for improving access to health and social services in Victoria, British Columbia. Expanding on research conducted in Toronto, Ontario, this study applied a conversational interview method to further explore and understand experiences of self-identifying Métis women, two-spirit, and gender diverse people ( n = 24) who access health and social services in Victoria. Participants provided wholistic and practical recommendations for improving access to health and social services, including (1) warm and inviting service spaces, (2) Métis-specific cultural safety training, (3) Indigenous specific clinic, (4) wholistic or integrative service delivery, and (5) non-judgemental service providers. This research demonstrates that Métis women, two-spirit and gender diverse community members hold practical solutions for improving access to health and social services for the larger Métis community.

Using social capital to develop South African principals and schools

One feature of deprived communities is a lack of social capital. Yet, research reports that social capital contributes to poverty reduction and positively impacts schools and student educational outcomes. In South Africa, there is a deficit in social capital in under-resourced and underperforming schools that limits students’ educational opportunities and achievement. Partners for Possibility (PfP) responds to the lack of social capital in South African schools by partnering school principals and business leaders to develop support structures such as collaboration, networking, and professional learning communities. Findings from a site visit, conversational interviews, and examining participants’ portfolios indicate that PfP provides opportunities for developing three types of social capital: structural, cognitive, and relational. These produce options that would otherwise be unavailable to these students. The discussion raises issues about social capital as a resource for development and offers suggestions for further research.

“Life is Bitter and Sweet”: The Lived Experience of Ethnic Minority Elders with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Rural, Thailand

The purpose of this study was to describe the lived experience of ethnic minority elders (EME) with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) to understand an individual's experience, perception, and behaviors connected to T2DM in rural areas where support is limited. The hermeneutic phenomenological methodology was used to explore the lived experience of EME with T2DM by using conversational interviews. Twenty EME were interviewed. The data analysis and interpretation followed the thematic analysis by van Manen. Analysis highlighted an overarching theme of "Life is Bitter and Sweet" and three main themes: (1) the struggle of living with diabetes, (2) living with inequalities, and (3) dealing with diabetes that reflects the experiences of EME with T2DM living in underserved areas based on the cultures, beliefs, and spirits. The finding led to recommendations to strengthen interventions by family members, improve supportive systems and services to improve knowledge, self-management, and maintain physical well-being in order to increase the quality of life for the EME with T2DM.

From religious tourism to nostalgic pilgrimages. Reflections from Mexico

ABSTRACT By exploring the origin, motivation, and behaviour of visitors to the Saint Francis celebration in Real de Catorce (Mexico), this article exposes the link between religious tourism and nostalgic tourism in the case of regional migrants. The methodology was designed to use triangulation of three methods: questionnaires, informal conversational interviews, and direct observation. The results reveal that the celebration has strong family-tradition content. In this pilgrimage, religious faith coexists with longing and the search for identity. Religious tourism blends with nostalgic tourism. This becomes evident in the responses about travel motives and also in the origin of the journey, the frequency of the visits, and the kind of activities in which visitors engage. The visitors tend to come from the main destinations of past migrants from Real de Catorce. For them, a religious festival is a good excuse to embark on a recreational tour legitimated by the idea of family union and devotional obligations. By travelling to the festival, devotees comply with religious obligations, connect with family origins and enjoy recreation. This innovative study of religious and return tourism on a relatively regional scale shows that nostalgia is not associated exclusively with international migration.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Women’s Silence amongst the Banyakitara

The Banyakitara cultures today bring together the Banyankore, Bakiga, Banyoro, and Batooro people of Western Uganda. These are modern era Bantu remnants of the ancient Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom which at the height of its expansion, extended from the Karagwe area in Tanzania to the northern shores of Lake Kyoga. Among the Banyakitara, the women were typically assigned a subordinate status in the home and they in turn were inclined to use their silence for expressing submission, consent, indifference, and objection according to each situation. Based on the foregoing, the overall objective of this qualitative study which is based on conversational interviews was to interpret women’s silence among the Banyakitara, with a focus on the Banyankore- Bakiga. This overall objective was supported by specific ones aimed at investigating the linguistic, cultural, and ideological significance of women’s silence using the Critical Discourse Analysis approach. In the final part, the researcher also applied the African Feminist Framework to gauge whether women’s silence is a projection of the muting of their voices and whether public silence has private outlets within the power relations framing gendered discourse among the Banyakitara

Living beyond expectations: a qualitative study into the experience of long-term survivors with pleural mesothelioma and their carers

BackgroundMalignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is characterised by poor prognosis and limited treatment options. However, a minority of patients can survive well beyond these bleak estimates. Little is known about the...

The Role of Language in Mass Media Anti-HIV/AIDS Campaigns: A Case of a Patriarchal Community, Kenya

This paper examined how language used in mass media in HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns influenced social action towards ill-health behaviors based on the ethnographic data collected from 100 young people aged 19- 40 years over a period of nine months. The sample was selected using snowball and purposive sampling technique. The sample size was determined through saturation method after taking into account diversities such as gender, marital status and level of formal education. Data was collected using themes guided in-depth conversational interviews. Augmentative data was collected from two purposively selected key informants. Data which was in form of narratives was transcribed ad verbatim and was thematically analyzed using the hermeneutics methodological framework. The study found that the language used by mass media in HIV/AIDS campaigns did not take into account language use contextually as it intersected with gender and gendered sexual practices in relation to HIV/AIDS. This created discrepancy in the interpretation of what was being communicated by mass media texts and expected action. As a result, the language used to sensitize and create awareness about HIV/AIDS risk was found to reinforce existing social practices which HIV/AIDS prevention mass media campaigns aim to change. Therefore, any health communication relying on mass media should take into account gendered use of language and sexual practices in relation to HIV/AIDS contextually for maximum effectiveness.

Familial Tensions: Morphing Gender Relations of Power Among Tajik Migrant Workers in Russia

International labor migration impacts gender relations between migrant workers and their families. Social workers need a more nuanced understanding of the gendered aspects of international migration for developing ethical social work practices and research. This article discusses morphing gender relations of power within the family context. The data presented in this paper originated from conversational interviews that were conducted in Tajikistan and Russia. Using social constructivism and intersectionality as the main theoretical approaches, this paper illustrates how male–male, male–female, and female–female gender relations are constantly negotiated and renegotiated within the family in the midst of labor mobility. This distinct understanding is critical for social workers who work with migrant workers and their families both locally and globally.

Breathing our way into mindful academic writing: a collaborative autoethnography of an online writing community

ABSTRACT Although literature demonstrates that mindfulness practices enhance undergraduate student learning, writing composition, and sense of well-being in higher education, there is minimal research that explores faculty and doctoral student engagement in mindfulness practices to support academic writing and build online writing community. In this collaborative autoethnographic study, we fill this gap by exploring our experiences as five female academics participating in an online mindful writing group where we gathered regularly to meditate and write throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We developed and engaged in innovative meditations designed to support our academic writing and writer identity. Data included individual position statements and reflections and group conversational interviews. The findings are clustered under three main themes: (a) deepened understanding of the writing process and writer identity as expressions of self-reflection, creativity, and joy that led to greater acceptance of ourselves and others as writers, (b) the role of mindfulness in academic writing as present-moment non-judgemental awareness and acceptance that promoted well-being, and (c) development of a mindful online writing community that provided a space for honesty, vulnerability, knowledge exchange, and knowledge creation. We identified tensions of collaborative writing, such as navigating different writing styles, negotiating writer voice, and interpreting asynchronous feedback. We recommend that universities support the development of online mindfulness-based writing communities and pedagogies recognising that faculty and doctoral students vary in their continuum of mindfulness practices and, thus, are likely to hold different expectations from such communities.

Linguistic portrait of aRussian-German speaking woman with dementia : Longitudinal observations from aGerman language nursing home

The advantages of an individual use of the linguistic resources of multilingual persons in need of care are obvious, but quite often an implementation is hardly possible. This leads to areduction of the linguistic abilities of those concerned. This case study shows the differences in the abilities of aRussian-German bilingual woman suffering from dementia in expressing herself in two languages and traces the longitudinal changes. Data material from 4years of observation (including conversation recordings, linguistic tests and interviews with nursing personnel) was used to create the linguistic portrait. The expression abilities and changes in the languages were different. In German, the receptive abilities at word level and sentence level and productive abilities at word level remained unchanged over the entire period. In Russian, the situation was less stable; at the beginning, she was an interested interlocutor who could express herself fluently at all levels. Over time, her syntactic complexity and willingness to interact decreased; nevertheless, better and productive Russian skills remained. The asymmetrical distribution of the two languages entails the danger of aone-sided assessment of the general abilities of the person concerned. This underlines the need for adifferentiated view of the languages.

Teachers’ perceptions of children’s access to toilets in urban ECDE institutions, and the psychosocial consequences

ABSTRACT Access to clean and functional toilet is quintessential in meeting children's physiological and psychosocial needs in a learning environment. However, little is known on experiences of children's access to quality toilets while in preschool institutions within urban settings of sub-Saharan Africa countries. This paper draws from a study that explored experiences of vulnerable children in early childhood development education (ECDE) institutions in underserved and informal urban settings of Kenya and South Africa. 11 urban ECDE centres were purposively selected and 17 teachers were recruited as key informants. Data was collected using an adapted infrastructural checklist, observation and conversational interviews. Findings indicated that a majority of toilets in ECDE centres were inadequate, inappropriate, poorly maintained, or had structural weaknesses which affected children's experiences of access and use of the facilities. Scheduled toilet visits as a control measure and toilet avoidance potentially exposed them to psychosocial and health risks. Insights into children's toilet facilities, managing their access in institutions located within informal and low resourced areas, and investment policies that target preschool children’ sanitary facilities are given. Suggestions are made for interventions for children's positive toilet experiences in poor urban areas.

Desistance from Sexual Offending or Not Reoffending? A Taxonomy of Contact Sex Offenders

This paper explored why contact sex offenders lack reoffending, and a taxonomy was developed to better understand the desistance process, or more commonly, the non-reoffending process. Through qualitative conversational interviews with 29 contact sex offenders, it was found that contact sex offenders can be categorized into two broad groups. First, the criminal career sex offender who had persistent habitual offending. This category was comprised of a relatively small number of the sample (20.7%). This category can then be further broken down into two smaller categories, the desisters and the non-reoffenders. The desisters lacked reoffending due to cognitive transformations, while non-reoffenders were able to manage their sexual deviant behaviors due to strategies such as therapy, religious practices, and avoidance. Only two participants could be considered desisters, while the other participants were non-reoffenders. This is a noteworthy finding, demonstrating how rare it is to desist from contact sex offending based on scholars’ definitions of desistance as a process. Conversely, contact sex offenders who are not habitual persistent offenders lack reoffending because they never came to see themselves as “sex offenders” nor do they feel they have problems to address as their crimes were temporary and situational. This group contained the majority of the sample (79.3%) and was further divided into taxonomic subgroups. This study established the need to differentiate between career criminal sex offenders and those who are situational and temporary. Persistent offenders and situational offenders need different treatment practices, and they have different non-reoffending pathways.

INCIVILITY AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ON CAMPUS: CAUSES AND IMPACT

This study aimed to study the manifestation of incivility among students of University of Azad Jammu & Kashmir and further analyze the causes and impact of students’ incivility at campus as it provides a detailed picture of the types and classification of interpersonal conflict situations that arise among students. The study was conducted in one of the oldest and largest university of Azad Jammu & Kashmir. 55 student respondents were selected using purposive sampling technique. Phenomenology as a research method was adopted and data was collected using unstructured and conversational interviews which was later analyzed by making themes. The results obtained from the study have indicated that students differentiate among various uncivil behaviors, from a regular bullying to abusing, to major hand fights. The reasons behind the uncivil behaviors as analyzed by the collected interviews are personal differences, management ignorance and sometimes a latent hate. In addition to this, students who have experienced frequent uncivil behavior at campus has an impact on their academic learning as well as psychological health. The study concludes that majority students who have been part of any kind of incivility at campus are the fresh comers and are enrolled in BS programs. Hence recommends to introduce faculty-led orientation sessions and to increase the faculty civility as teachers can play eminent role in shaping students’ civil behavior. Keywords: uncivil behaviour, incivility, conflict at campus, hate speech

Exploration of university students’ lived experiences of using smartphones for English language learning

This study aimed to understand the nature of learning English in the digital age from students’ personal ‘learning lives’. Drawing on hermeneutic phenomenology’s principles, this study conducted conversational interviews and obtained reflective reports from students over 5 months. The findings reveal that students’ English learning experiences are sociocultural processes involving a complex interplay between learner agency, other agents, the cultural practices using smartphones, and the wider context. Furthermore, learning English using smartphones facilitates an approach to it or Computer Assisted Language Learning that embraces ‘anytime’ and ‘anywhere’ learning and involves a seamless integration of personal, social, formal, and informal learnings. Therefore, we propose smartphone-assisted English language learning (SAELL), addressing smartphone use for learning English, based on qualitative data and recent trends in the field. Future research should include rich qualitative evidence to support the SAELL framework in practice in multiple empirical settings. Empirical studies are mostly applied within university settings; however, the practical implications have more relevance to students, teachers, educators, and policymakers who may be involved in shaping novel smartphone learning spaces for formal and informal contexts.

Constructing and performing hotel hospitality culture

This article discusses the social processes underpinning the co-construction and performance of hotel hospitality culture. The influence of culture within the hospitality sector has inspired conceptual and empirical research resulting in a significant literature base. However, gaps remain in understanding how culture manifests itself through behaviour in the publicly accessible areas of a hotel. This gap was addressed by research designed to uncover the social processes and behavioural dynamics underpinning the construction of hotel culture/s. Informed by social constructionism, a purposeful sampling strategy and a range of qualitative methods were employed: participant observation, a fieldwork diary recording observations of behavioural encounters, conversational and semi-structured interviews. The findings demonstrate that hotel hospitality culture is co-constructed and performed through interactions between people. Two distinct hotel cultures emerged, Second home/extended family and Corporate leisure. The findings provide a deeper, more holistic understanding of how hospitality culture is brought to life in hotels through the taken-for-granted social encounters between people, encounters wherein hospitality is given, received and experienced.

Imagined futures: Occupation as a means of repair following biographical disruption in the lives of refugees

ABSTRACT The transitions associated with forced migration create extensive disruption to the daily lives of refugees. Such change affects opportunities, expectations, and identity in ways associated with the concepts of occupational and biographical disruption. Biographical disruption reflects the way an individual’s life path is changed by illness, injury, or social circumstances; and occupational disruption focuses on the impact of change on occupational aspects of the individual’s life path. This article explores the findings from a phenomenological study of the lived experiences of 10 refugees from Africa and the Middle East who had sought asylum in the United Kingdom. They were invited to share their experiences through a series of up to three conversational interviews, which were analysed using the Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen method. Findings illustrate the impact of disruption and the potential for occupation to help promote a sense of constancy and biographical repair. Participants highlighted how important occupation was to their experience of biographical disruption. They reflected on how their drive to achieve constancy across their life path encouraged their return to valued, familiar occupations, which provided a means of repair following disruption. This information offers insight into the scope of disruption faced by refugees, and how the major changes in their life path influence and are influenced by occupation. Readers are encouraged to consider how they could help to reduce feelings of disruption and enable refugees to retain a better sense of their imagined future.

Branding Saudi Arabia’s Capital

This paper explores the employment of urban and architectural branding strategies within Riyadh's plan to become a globally recognized city. Within this framework, the text examines Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and its spatial impact on the city's urban environment. The paper discusses how mega-events and urban mega-destinations function as branding, place marketing, and placemaking tools to showcase this vision and promote a "new" Saudi Arabia image. The paper also examines in how far globally established values of culture, leisure, greening, wellbeing, connectivity, and quality-of-life are leveraged in the branding process of Riyadh's mega-destinations to communicate a positive image to a transnational class of metropolitan business travelers and tourists, and an affluent, cosmopolitan Saudi middle class. Deliberating this market-oriented methodology's various implications, the paper concludes with a call for a more participatory and inclusive approach to Saudi Arabia's urban branding process to enhance long-term credibility and identification. To achieve the outlined objectives of this paper, the author employed a combination of qualitative methods that included on-site field research, literature reviews, and conversational interviews with various stakeholders that include representatives of involved architectural and urban planning offices, members of the academic community, and citizens of various professions and age groups

Ageist Communication Experienced by Middle-Aged and Older Canadians.

Ageism has been well-documented in the United States, but ageism experiences in Canada remain less well-known. To address this gap, in the current research middle-aged and older Canadians completed a conversational interview in which they described their ageism experiences. Their descriptions were coded for life domain, perpetrator, and type of ageist communication. The most common domain in which ageist communication occurred was the public sphere, with perpetrators most often being strangers. Ageist communication most often involved age-based social or physical assumptions about the participant. In combination, these findings detail how ageism manifests in the everyday lives of Canadians and contribute to understanding the nuances of the expression of ageism in North America.

Emotions, care difficulties and ethical problems experienced by nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study

Protecting the health and safety of nurses and other health professionals taking an active role during the COVID-19 pandemic is important. Risks not understood by health professionals and inadequate working conditions cause concern and lead to ethical problems. This qualitative research study was conducted to gain an understanding of the difficulties and emotions nurses experience, and their awareness of the ethical problems experienced while providing nursing care in the COVID-19 clinic. Data was collected by two different methods; deep conversation and semi-structured interview and evaluated by content analysis. Using an empirical phenomenological approach, data analysis concluded with two main themes and eight sub-themes. The average age of the nurses is 32.8±6.7, 91.1% are female, 73.3% have a bachelor's degree. Average weekly work hours before COVID-19 pandemic was 43.3± 4.6, after the pandemic 37.8± 5.5, 86.7% expressed that the care patients with COVID-19 received was adequate. The emotions experienced by the participants are positive, negative and ambivalent. During the COVID-19 outbreak, nurses were dominated by negative emotions intensified with the ethical issues surrounding the safety of patients, colleagues, families and themselves. Nurses primarily experience ethical problems related to their, patients’, colleagues’ and families’ safety. Positive emotions expressed by nurses; hopefulness, heroism, joy and success because of the patients' recovery, respect and emotions of gratitude. Some of the difficulties experienced by the participants are difficulties in care due to protective gear worn, difficulty reaching the physician and communication problems. Different studies can be planned regarding the factors affecting healthcare professional-patient communication during the COVID-19 care and treatment process.