Educational Qualitative Research Research Articles

When Is a Partnership Not a Partnership? Reflecting on Inherent Challenges in University-Community Collaborations on Educational Programs

In our research on supported education (SEd) programs in Canadian psychiatric hospitals, community-university partnerships have offered hopeful findings that demonstrate the potential for improved social and educational outcomes for patients in these programs. There were inherent challenges associated with conducting academic research on these programs alongside nonacademic partners. While some of our research collaborators, who were patient-educators with varying backgrounds, were fully engaged in the research process, others were only somewhat engaged, and some wanted minimal involvement. Because most psychiatric hospital–based research involves medical or pharmaceutical research, we did not locate established frameworks that could be used as models for our educational qualitative research. Although we encountered some obstacles to fully engaged partnerships, we still conducted productive collaborations that resulted in rich, broadly useful qualitative and quantitative data from interviews with students, teachers, and administrators. That being said, we found that in trying to respect the limited time availability of our partners, we ended up with less input from our partners than we had originally hoped for. The lessons we learned—such as the need for clearer role definitions and strategies to manage power imbalances, conflicting objectives, and time constraints faced by nonacademic collaborators—may be applied to other projects that engage community partners whose time and capacity constraints may inhibit their full engagement, such as municipalities supporting long-term care homes or emergency shelters.

Fostering Social Connectedness in Educational Qualitative Research

This paper discusses the meaning and effect of social connectedness in the process of the research storytelling. It will start by arguing that the social aspect of the qualitative research is directly affected by the philosophical underpinnings of the researcher which, in turn, influences the paradigm tradition the research situates itself in. Following this debate, a research scenario will be presented where the reader will be taken on a journey from the issue, aims and purpose to the design, methodology, method and ethical considerations. This journey will highlight how the social constructionism theoretical framework permeates through all the decisions that have been made during the research design, implementation, analysis and the final stages. Keywords: social constructionism, connections, collaboration, action research DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-10-13 Publication date: April 30 th 2021

Hermeneutics and Phenomenology Problems When Applying Hermeneutic Phenomenological Method in Educational Qualitative Research

Hermeneutic phenomenology is a research method used in qualitative research in the fields of education and other human sciences, for example nursing science. It is a widely used method example in Scandinavia, and Van Manen is well known for his hermeneutic phenomenological method. In many studies the hermeneutic phenomenological method is inarticulate or ambiguous. Researchers generally lack a common understanding of what this method actually is. One reason for that is that the expression “hermeneutic phenomenological method” is contradiction in terms. Hermeneutics and phenomenology have their own distinct history. Hermeneutics and phenomenology as philosophical disciplines have their own distinct aims and orientations. Hermeneutic is orientated to historical and relative meanings. Phenomenology in Husserlian sense is orientated to universal and absolute essences. Martin Heidegger connects hermeneutics and phenomenology in very sophisticated manner as hermeneutical phenomenology and he provides a very specific definition of his brand of phenomenology. For Heidegger, hermeneutical phenomenology is the research of the meaning of the Being as a fundamental ontology. However, this kind of phenomenology is of no use for educational qualitative research.

Teaching communication as a core competency in health professions education: An exploratory case study in a college of health sciences, South Africa

Background. Competency-based and interprofessional education are increasingly favoured approaches for training health professionals (HPs) to meet patient and population needs. The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and College of Health Sciences (CHS) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, SA, specified a requirement for a core competencies framework to be incorporated into all HP programmes in 2014. Objectives. To explore teaching, learning and assessment of communication as a core competency in eight HP programmes in the CHS to determine how communication was taught and whether the competencies framework had been adopted successfully. The study is important, as there has been limited research on the teaching of communication as a competency in HP education in SA. Methods. The case study comprised educational qualitative research. The CHS document was reviewed and purposive sampling was used to select educators from the programmes. Focus group discussions were conducted in July and August 2015 with 5 - 9 participants per group. Data were analysed thematically and themes and subthemes described. Gatekeeper and ethical permissions were obtained. Results. Aspects of communication were taught in all programmes. None of the programmes had fully incorporated the CHS framework. The medicine programme had incorporated aspects of the framework in teaching, although it did not reflect consistently in all disciplines. Teaching was largely profession or discipline specific. Important challenges were language barriers and interprofessional communication. Conclusions. While the consistent use of the CHS core competencies framework may contribute to improving the teaching of communication in the HP programmes, the success of a competency-based approach depends on responsiveness to context. Research in local settings is recommended to identify and align competencies and content with patient and community needs.

Formação de professores/as pesquisadores/as: contribuições e implicações do método cartográfico para as pesquisas em educação

Este artigo apresenta reflexões teóricas acerca do campo educacional na pós-modernidade e as contribuições do método da cartografia social para as pesquisas em educação, considerando a formação de professores/as-pesquisadores/as. Tem como objetivo central discutir as contribuições e as implicações do método cartográfico para os processos formativos no campo educacional, perpassando: a gênese do método cartográfico e suas principais características; a diferenciação da cartografia tradicional e da cartografia social; o papel do professor/a-pesquisador/a no método cartográfico; os princípios básicos da pesquisa cartográfica; e os desafios que se apresentam no campo educacional, em especial da pesquisa qualitativa em educação. Como perspectiva metodológica, foi utilizada a pesquisa bibliográfica, a fim de apresentar o método, sua gênese e contribuições para um fazer implicado/engajado no campo educacional a partir do diálogo teórico. Diante desses diálogos, apontamos que o método cartográfico contribui para a formação de professores/as-pesquisadores/as no sentido de promover o processo formativo e autoformativo à medida que nos desloca a pensar e a experimentar novas decisões metodológicas de modo a buscar singularidades, narrativas contextuais e inventivos caminhos na aventura de pesquisar. Estes processos descritos em pistas implicam em buscar saídas para escapar de grades e narrativas homogeneizadoras e correr riscos ao deslocar pontos de vista tidos como certos e adequados às decisões metodológicas adotadas, e que nos possibilite contagiar tantos outros/as pesquisadores/as, que, como nós, buscam novos caminhos e novos olhares na pesquisa em educação.

English

English

Reflexivity in qualitative social research: bridging the gap between theory and practice with Alvin Gouldner’s reflexive sociology

Reflexivity has become a buzz-word in the social sciences. In this article I provide a critical discussion of the concept of reflexivity and its use in qualitative social research in educational contexts. I argue that one of the dilemmas of a lot of literature on reflexivity in the social sciences is the frequent absence of a discussion of how academics’ aspirations to be reflexive in their research can be made accountable in academic practice. Based on the work of Alvin Gouldner I point to a different way of framing reflexivity in educational qualitative research that bridges the gap between theorising and practising reflexivity in the university and raises important questions about the implications of reflexivity or, of its lack. I thereby draw on extensive research on academic work and identity which I carried out in the UK and Chile based on qualitative interviews with academics. To conclude with, I suggest that discussions upon how to practise one’s aspirations to be a reflexive academic should depart from a collective analysis of the current structures of marketisation in higher education and how they may constrain reflexive academic practice in the university.

Somatic sensitivity and reflexivity as validity tools in qualitative research

Validity is a key concept in qualitative educational research. Yet, it is often not addressed in methodological writing about dance. This essay explores validity in a postmodern world of diverse approaches to scholarship, by looking at the changing face of validity in educational qualitative research and at how new understandings of the concept might be applied in dance inquiry. With new methodological frameworks, ideas about validity have changed. Through this article, I trace validity in educational research frameworks and discuss appropriate approaches, given the purpose of the research and its paradigmatic frameworks. My big questions are: is validity a key aspect of qualitative research in dance? Do we hold onto the concept of validity as a useful indicator of methodological rigor? Do the traditional criteria for qualitative research change according to the purpose of the research? Or has the idea of validity itself become challenged with newer trends in dance education research in the United States? If so, how do we then assure that qualitative research is valid?

Challenges to anonymity and representation in educational qualitative research in a small community: a reflection on my research journey

This paper outlines my research journey, specifically in relation to the challenges I faced in anonymising and representing my research participants. Anonymity is an important ethical procedure and every researcher is expected to ensure that his or her research participants are protected. Although ethical guidelines are written to inform and guide researchers, how these guidelines are interpreted by novice researchers can present some formidable challenges to those carrying out research in different cultural contexts. One of the dilemmas that I faced as a new researcher from the Maldives was how I was going to anonymise my participants as they came from such a small community. This became a concern because one of the underlying aims of the qualitative action research I was conducting myself and also facilitating with the teachers required me to represent their voices fairly in my research study. However, the small size and the hierarchical nature of the community, together with my identity as a researcher and a former teacher educator, posed some difficulties. My perception of anonymity as a rigid set of guidelines also prevented me from negotiating issues relating to anonymity and representation with my participants. Based on my experience, I conclude that while ethical procedures are necessary, it is still important to explore ways of situating these within our own cultural systems. Ethics should be approached as a negotiable process from the beginning to the end of the research process.

Developing qualitative coding frameworks for educational research: immigration, education and the Children Crossing Borders project

The Children Crossing Borders (CCB) study is a polyvocal, multi‐sited project on immigration and early childhood education and care in five countries: Italy, Germany, France, England and the USA. The complicated nature of the data pushed us as a group to expand our methodological resources to not only organize the data but also to make it searchable, and thus comparable, so that we could understand more deeply the perspectives and desires of immigrant parents and preschool teachers on education. This article uses examples from the CCB project to show how coding frameworks can be created to support large‐scale collaborative projects that seek to amplify the voices of marginalized groups in educational qualitative research. We argue here that creating qualitative coding frameworks depends on a balance between etic/insider and emic/outsider knowledge, decisions about interpretation and practical compromises about labels and meanings. These three elements play out in necessary debates and disagreements as part of the creative process and are critical for large‐scale projects looking for a coding framework and a coding process that is both useful and meaningful.

Judging research quality: from certainty to contingency

In this article, I hope to stimulate dialogue and reflection among sport and exercise scientists about how one might judge qualitative research. Over the last 40 or so years, much has changed in how we go about sorting out the good from the not‐so‐good social and educational qualitative research. We have left/are leaving behind the idea of method as a universal, ahistorical criterion for judging research. Instead, it has become increasingly clear that our judgments always have been, and only can be, contingent on historical time and social/cultural/political place. In this article, I discuss this transition from both a philosophical and personal perspective. I conclude that the recent philosophical changes and an understanding of oneself as a person as researcher rather than a researcher as person makes it clear that all social and educational research, including the supposedly ‘scientific’ research, is a matter of telling stories. And when it comes to judging stories, as we are all aware, there are no and can be no, ‘fixed’ criteria. Thus, our judgments about what is good versus bad research are always contestable because our criteria change as we change and we change as our criteria change.