Interpretive Interactionism Research Articles

Representation of Educational Elitism and Entrepreneurship Merit in Contemporary Africa: A Cultural Shift to Self-Fulfilment

This paper explores and acknowledges the recurring theme of education in African literature, which is often depicted as both a means to reclaim African identity and culture and a tool for social mobility and economic empowerment. Using the Interpretive Interactionism methodology, the study identifies a growing emphasis on the representation of entrepreneurship as a form of vocational training, experiential and work-based learning that can supplement or even replace traditional educational qualifications. This evolving perspective reflects cultural shifts to self-fulfilment, where entrepreneurship is seen as a viable path to success. This study contributes to our understanding of the multifaceted role of education in postcolonial francophone African literature. The findings highlight the complex nature of education in many African societies and its potential for positive transformation as well as challenges to traditional notions of elitism, empowerment, and self-fulfilment.

Stories of Hope and Health: Wisdom From Older Mexican-American Women Who Broke Free From the Entangled Web of Love and Violence.

This interpretive qualitative study explores the lived experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) among 12 older Mexican-American women aged 55-85 with past experiences of IPV to understand how it shaped their lives. Sociocultural factors that influenced the IPV experience and sustained health amidst adversity were explored. Denzin's interpretive interactionism along with Antonovsky's salutogenic theory guided this study. These women survived IPV and discovered ways to foster health and thrive in later years. They all vowed to break the cycle of violence for future generations. Their wisdom offers hope and has implications for healthcare professionals, future research, and advocacy efforts.

"I Had to Rediscover Our Healthy Food": An Indigenous Perspective on Coping with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is disproportionally prevalent among the Bedouin minority in Israel, with especially poor treatment outcomes compared to other indigenous groups. This study uses the perspective of the Bedouins themselves to explore the distinct challenges they face, as well as their coping strategies. The study is based on an interpretive interactionist analysis of 49 semi-structured interviews with Bedouin men and women. The findings of the analysis include three themes. First, physical inequality: the Bedouin community’s way of coping is mediated by the transition to a semi-urban lifestyle under stressful conditions that include the experience of land dispossession and the rupture of caring relationships. Second, social inequality: they experience an inaccessibility to healthcare due to economic problems and a lack of suitable informational resources. Third, unique resources for coping with T2DM: interviewees use elements of local culture, such as religious practices or small enclaves of traditional lifestyles, to actively cope with T2DM. This study suggests that there is a need to expand the concept of active coping to include indigenous culture-based ways of coping (successfully) with chronic illness.

The Association between Health and Culture: The Perspective of Older Adult Hospital In-Patients in Israel.

People from different cultures are often hospitalized while the staff treating them do not have sufficient knowledge about the attitudes and feelings of the patients regarding culture and health. To fill this gap, the aim of this study was to examine the perspective of Israeli older adult hospital in-patients regarding the association between health and culture and to understand the meaning of the participants’ experiences with regards to the medical staff’s attitude towards them. This study was carried out using qualitative methodology that followed the interpretive interactionism approach. The research participants were 493 (mean age 70.81, S.D.: 15.88) in-patients at internal care departments at a hospital in Israel who answered an open-ended question included in the questionnaire as part of a wide study held during 2017 to 2018. Two main themes were found: (1) a humane attitude of respect and the right to privacy and (2) beliefs, values, and traditional medicine that are passed down through generations. The findings highlighted the issue of the patients’ cultural heritage and ageist attitudes they ascribed to the professional staff. This study provided recommendations for training the in-patient hospital workforce on the topic of cultural competence, beginning from the stage of diagnosis through treatment and to discharge from the hospital, in order to improve the service.

Creative and Expressive Arts in a Young Adult Problem-Solving Court and Its Influence on Participant Experience and Outcomes

This research explores the integration of creative and expressive arts in a young adult problem-solving court and the perceived benefits of participation. The Young Adult Diversion Court (YADC) was created to help young adults 17 to 20 years of age complete probation requirements. This qualitative study is informed by interpretive interactionism to examine the lived experience of participants. Ethnographic observations were conducted over 20 months, and interpretive interviews were held with 32 young adult participants and 8 program coordinators. Participants described an engaging programmatic design, and felt cared for and supported by staff in the YADC. The use of the creative and expressive arts and spoken-word practices allowed participants to overcome vulnerabilities through self-expression, regulate emotions and process trauma, and consider possible future selves. This research suggests the potential of alternative approaches in the criminal justice system that intervene in the lives of young adults to promote positive change.

‘It doesn’t bother me...I’m here for a reason’: a qualitative examination of white college athletes’ experiences at a historically black college/university (HBCU)

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to explore the academic, athletic, and social experiences of White college athletes at a Division I historically Black college/university (HBCU). Previous research has documented how White college athletes experience positive educational and developmental outcomes at historically White institutions (HWIs). However, there is a dearth of research on White college athletes’ experiences where they are the demographic minority within collegiate institutions like HBCUs. Three focus groups and four individual interviews were conducted and the data from four White college athletes at a HBCU were examined for the current study. Using symbolic interactionism and interpretive interactionism as theoretical lenses, key findings revealed participants largely expressed satisfaction with their academic, athletic, and social experiences. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

The meaning of nursing 200 years after Nightingale - perceptions of professional practice in the intensivist context.

to know the meaning of contemporary nursing from the experience of intensive care nurses. qualitative research based on the theoretical framework of Symbolic Interactionism and the methodological framework of Interpretive Interactionism. The setting was a general hospital in Bahia, being carried out with 12 nurses working in intensive care for at least one year, through semi-structured interviews and drawing-text-theme technique, whose data were organized according to Miles and Huberman and analyzed upon the referential. the sense of being a nurse was evidenced; a being for care, resulting from the experience in intensive care, capable of promoting the development of professional self-image, by causing, in nurses, other skills - besides the scientific ones, such as empathy, creativity, spirituality and compassion. the sense of being a nurse, currently, expresses developments inherited from the Nightingalean proposal, but transcends the technical-managerial emphasis of this to a humanistic care perspective converging with our contemporary professional identity: a being for care.

‘They follow the wants and needs of an institution’: Midwives’ views of water immersion

BackgroundA midwife’s ability to fully support women’s autonomy and self-determination with respect to midwifery care is often challenging. This is particularly true of water immersion for labour and birth. However, the woman’s agency over what happens to her body and that of her unborn baby should be key considerations for maternity care provision. ObjectivesA three phased mixed-methods study was undertaken to examine how water immersion policies and guidelines are informed. Phase three of this study captured the knowledge and experiences of Australian midwives, their support for water immersion and their experiences of using policies and guidelines to inform and facilitate the practice. MethodsCritical, post structural, interpretive interactionism was used to examine more than 300 responses to three open-ended questions included in a survey of 233 midwives. Comment data were analysed to provide further insight, context and meaning to previously reported results. FindingsFindings demonstrated a complex, multidimensional interplay of factors that impacted on both the midwife’s ability to offer and the woman’s decision to use water immersion under the themes ‘the reality of the system’, ‘the authoritative ‘others’’ and ‘the pseudo decision-makers’. Multiple scaffolded levels were identified, each influenced by the wider macro-socio-political landscape of Australian midwifery care. ConclusionsThe insight gained from examining midwives’ views and opinions of water for labour and birth, has aided in contextualising previously reported results. Such insight highlights the importance of qualitative research in challenging the status quo and working towards woman-centred practice and policy.

Exploring Organizational Strategies and Participant Experience in the Young Adult Diversion Court

ABSTRACTThe Young Adult Diversion Court (YADC) was created to empower young adults and break the cycle of recidivism by targeting the underlying issues of behavior. This study describes the development of the YADC, and examines the perceived benefits of participation. As such, it tells the story of an innovative intervention in criminal justice, and the young adults share their own stories as they were involved in this system. This qualitative study is informed by narrative inquiry and interpretive interactionism to understand the lived experience of participants. Young adults shared how they made connections with caring program coordinators and opened to the possibility of continued involvement. Many received counseling services and trauma-informed care. They reported multiple positive benefits that include accessing community resources, financial support, and intern opportunities to prepare for employment. This study provides an alternative example for the criminal justice system working to influence prosocial outcomes for young adults.

Training model for online nurse educators

Background and objective: Online instruction is very different from teaching in a face-to-face setting and educators may lack formal pedagogical training specific to online instruction; in addition, online instructors may feel isolated and have less access to direct support than their counterparts on campus. The objective of this study was to promote best practice in online education through faculty support and professional development; a structured online training process was created.Methods: Design: Instructors that teach in the online venue need teaching and training to feel comfortable with the technology and online pedagogy strategies that support best practice in online education. A structured training process was created to support novice online educators. Setting: Nursing faculty and Masters of Science in Nursing education track students co-taught one online class together. Participants: Faculty and senior level Masters of Science in Nursing education track students were asked to reflect on their one-year teaching and training experience as educators. Methods: Qualitative analysis using Denzin’s interpretive interactionism was used to elicit meaning from participant experiences.Results: Four themes emerged from the data; online pedagogy, knowledge acquisition, mentor-mentee role, and online nurse educator. These themes align with the scholarship of teaching, discovery, application, and integration, respectively. The Training Model for Online Nurse Educators was developed to show this relationship.Conclusions: Using Boyer’s model of scholarship as a framework for online training can prepare instructors for the online nurse educator role. Online instructional delivery is a mainstay in education necessitating nurse educators who are prepared to apply best practice strategies in online education.

A qualitative study exploring the experience and motivations of UK Samaritan volunteers: “Why do we do it?”

ABSTRACT Telephone helplines offer a valued service for those in distress. However, little research has explored the experience of helpline volunteers. Through semi-structured interviews, we explore the volunteering experiences of nine long-term UK Samaritan volunteers. Interviews were analysed using Interpretive Interactionism. The analysis highlighted that volunteering impacted participants’ experience of their sense of self. The decision to volunteer was framed as part of a search for personal meaning, tied to experiences of loss and reparation. Participants reflected positively on their volunteer identity, but highlighted tensions between a sense of vocation and the experience of care burden. The Samaritan Community also offered a sense of belonging and social support. They experienced involvement as personally meaningful, enabling the construction of a positive self-identity.

Child's Play? Children and Young People's Resistances to Domestic Violence and Abuse

Children and young people's (CYP) space to play can be constrained in families affected by domestic violence and abuse (DVA), potentially impacting their development. Play also has the potential to strengthen CYP's capacity to resist controlling and abusive dynamics in the family. Interviews were conducted with 107 CYP aged 8–18, and were analysed using interpretive interactionism. Three themes relevant to children's experiences of play were identified: Play and Coercive Control; Play Re‐makes the World and Play and Relationality. This article highlights the potential for play to enable children to retain a sense of relational connectedness and agency, despite violence and control; we argue for more opportunities for children to play away from the gaze of adults and advocate for more dedicated services for families who experience DVA.

Water immersion policies and guidelines: How are they informed?

BackgroundWater immersion for labour and birth is consistently challenged as a practice lacking support from high quality evidence. Despite this, the option is available to Australian women. Practitioners are guided by policies and guidelines however, given the research paucity, questions surround the way in which water immersion policies and guidelines are informed. AimsThe aims of the study were to determine how water immersion policies and/or guidelines are informed and to what extent the policy/guideline facilitates the option of water immersion for labour and birth with respect to women’s choice and autonomy. MethodsPhase two of a three phase mixed methods study used critical, post structural interpretive interactionism to examine the process of development and implementation of water immersion policies and guidelines from informant’s experience. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 Australian participants. FindingsParticipants highlighted that the lack of randomised controlled trials had resulted in other forms of evidence being drawn upon to inform water immersion policies and guidelines. This was influenced in part by individual interpretations of evidence with medical views taking precedence. This sometimes resulted in policy and guideline documents that were restrictive with this impacting on women’s ability to access the option. ConclusionPerceived limitations of research and the subsequent translation of this perceived paucity of evidence into policies and guidelines, has impacted on women’s ability to exercise choice and autonomy with respect to water immersion and indeed, on the professional autonomy of practitioners who wish to facilitate it.

Women’s Experiences Following Mastectomy: Loss, Grief, and Meaning-Reconstruction

The purpose of the study is to explore women’s experiences following mastectomy, from a perspective of loss and grief. Eighteen women (age 26–80 years) who had undergone mastectomies were interviewed. Half of the participants choose immediate breast reconstruction. The interviews were thematically analyzed based on Denzin’s interpretive interactionism approach. The findings show that the women’s experiences can be divided into three central themes: diagnosis, mastectomy, and living without breasts. Mastectomy was perceived as a lifesaving procedure in light of their cancer diagnoses, making it difficult for women to acknowledge the loss of their breasts and to allow themselves to feel grief. They used meaning-reconstruction processes to reduce the importance that they attributed to their breasts, or placed them in a negative context in order to minimize the significance of their loss and avoid postmastectomy grief. Women who choose immediate reconstruction did so in an attempt to escape the loss, and any feelings of postmastectomy grief were reconstructed as depression. The study highlights meaning-reconstruction processes in light of social constructs, as women attempt to reconstruct their bodies and their identities. Breast loss following mastectomy is experienced as disenfranchised grief because the loss is ambiguous, especially for women who had breast reconstructions. Implications for psychosocial providers is as follows: Acknowledging loss is essential in order to experience grief and should be the focus of therapy and counseling for women coping with breast cancer.

Vivenciando a parada cardiorrespiratória e óbito por familiares: estudo descritivo

Aim: understand the experience of relatives of people who suffered cardiac arrest and died. Method: this is a descriptive, qualitative study that used, respectively, symbolic interactionism and interpretive interactionism as a theoretical and methodological reference. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview at the household of 11 relatives, from November 2015 to June 2016. Results: the analysis of the narratives evidenced several feelings such as anger, anxiety and hope. Two epiphanies were identified. The first epiphany, discovering that the relative died, had as categories: experiencing the moment of the CRA and receiving the news. In the second epiphany, coexisting with the immediate changes, the following categories were evidenced: remembering and feeling the pain of loss and changes after the death of the relative. Conclusion: the interactionist perspective made it possible to better understand the experience of relatives in waiting for the attendance of cardiorespiratory arrest and the subsequent reception of the news of death of their loved one.

The Manabí project: participatory video in rebuilding efforts after the earthquake

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses three short films to identify instances of Margolin's proposed theoretical frameworks when using Participatory Video in the aftermath of a disaster: Interpretative Interactionism, Community Narratives as Community Resources, and Sense of Community. Participatory Video sessions were conducted only eight weeks after a 7.8 earthquake hit the Ecuadorian coastal city of Manta, resulting in three final videos that served as input to study their intertextualities in comparison with the proposed concepts. Although Margolin's initial recommendations focus solely on children and youth, this article argues that its application can be effective in nurturing agency, developing shared narratives and encouraging a deeper sense of community in disaster environments regardless of age, as portrayed in the resulting videos.

Midwives’ Perceptions of Barriers to Respectful Maternity Care for Adolescent Mothers in Jamaica: A Qualitative Study

Background:Few studies have examined respectful maternity care (RMC) of adolescent mothers in the Caribbean. The researchers’ objective was to explore the perceptions of midwives who provide care for adolescent mothers in Jamaica. Design: A pilot qualitative study was conducted in 2015. Participants were 12 community or nurse-midwives who practiced in rural and urban regions of Jamaica attended a nursing and midwifery conference.Method:Semistructured focus groups and interviews of Jamaican midwives were conducted. The World Health Organization (WHO) definitions of respectful care in relationship to sexual and reproductive health rights, and data were examined using a poststructural feminist version of Denzin’s interpretive interactionism theory. Braun and Clark’s method of reiterative content analysis was employed. Findings:Participants shared their work experience with adolescent mothers and explained that restrictive public and institutional policies culture, personal beliefs, and the location of care delivery hindered them from providing respectful care which allows for shared decision-making, informed consent, and allowing for a desired labour companion. They perceived their roles as advocates, educators, expert helpers, and worker activists. Conclusions:Out of hospital environments appeared to facilitate the advocacy role. Policies and attitudes had the potential to hinder or to promote RMC. These findings may be used to inform a national midwifery survey, educational modules, health systems change to allow for less restrictive policies and spaces.

Phenomenon of moral distress through the aspect of interpretive interactionism.

Most previous studies on moral distress focused on the factors that cause moral distress, paying inadequate attention to the moral conflict of nurses' values, the physician-nurse power hierarchy, and the influence of the culture. To analyze the main causes for moral distress with interpretive interactionism. A qualitative study was adopted. Through purposeful sampling, 32 nurses from 12 different departments were chosen as the samples. Approval from the Institutional Review Board of the Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital. Moral distress is likely to occur in the following clinical situations: patients have no idea about their diseases; the medical decisions fail to meet the optimum benefit of patients; and patients with terminal cancers are not given a proper death. The reason why nurses become trapped in moral distress is that they fail to achieve moral goodness. Inadequate confidence, the physician-nurse power hierarchy, and the Oriental culture affect nurses' goodness-based intention for patients, which deteriorates moral distress. The main cause for moral distress is the moral goodness of nurses. If nurses' goodness-based intention for patients is inconsistent with the moral objective of achieving optimum benefit for patients, it leads to moral distress. Culture is an essential background factor of care for patients. In the Oriental culture, family members influence patients' right to know about their diseases, the choice of treatment, and patients' autonomy of not receiving cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. This results in moral distress in medical care. The occurrence of moral distress demonstrates that nurses have moral characteristics such as goodness and caring. It is suggested that appropriate educational strategies can be adopted to weaken the power hierarchy between physicians and nurses and enhance nurses' confidence and cultural sensitivity, so as to reduce the moral distress of nurses.

PhD Thesis: Understanding the Practice of Girl-Marriage in Northern Nigeria From the Perspective of Key Decision Makers

Research on the practice of girl marriage has been extensive with studies recommending local strategies that are peculiar to the countries involved. According to this extensive body of research the continued practice of girl marriage is concerning given the harms associated with it at community or societal level, especially for girls and women. While the perspectives of the people involved in girl marriage decisions are however relevant for these local strategies, very few studies have focused on these decision makers (parents and community leaders) within a cultural context. This gap in the research is addressed in the current study, which presents the perspectives of 25 community leaders and parents (21 men and four women) who are involved in girl marriage decisions, and five policy stakeholders whose roles include the enforcement of Nigeria’s 2003 Child Rights’ Act. In-depth interviews and observations were used to collect data in answer to the research question - how do the key decision makers explain the practice of girl marriage? Denzin’s (1989; 2001) construction of Interpretive Interactionism was employed as a framework for analysing and understanding the socio-cultural contexts within the study. While the findings of the present study suggest that strong cultural explanations underpin the continuity of girl marriage practices in Northern Nigeria, it also argues that this practice is strengthened by patriarchal power structures and the male exercise of control over the lives of women. This study suggests that the tendency to generalise about the practice of girl marriage in developing countries misses the relevance of individual country’s differences in historical backgrounds, political, legal, socio-economic and cultural context – all of which interact in complex ways to influence the age at first marriage in different countries. These findings have implications for the Nigerian constitution and policy stakeholders in terms of the need to institutionalise an approach which will address the issue of girl marriage in Northern Nigeria with the consciousness of the people involved in these marriage decisions.

Children and domestic violence: Emotional competencies in embodied and relational contexts.

Objective: This paper engages critically with the claim, present in most psychological literature, that children who live with domestic violence are likely to be emotionally incompetent and dysregulated. We explore how children who experience domestic violence make sense of and experience their emotions. Method: 107 young people aged 8-18 (44 boys, 63 girls) from Greece, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom participated in semi-structured and photo elicitation based interviews. These interviews were analysed using Interpretive Interactionism. Results: We identified three common themes relevant to children’s experience of emotions. In the theme Constrained Articulation – Expressing Emotions we explore how children use complex and contextually specific verbal and non-verbal ways to express embodied emotionality. The theme Emotion, Embodiment and Relationality considers how children’s emotionality is not experienced in social isolation, but in relationship with others. The third theme Catharsis, Comfort and Self-Soothing explores children’s strategies for coping with difficult emotions. Conclusions: As reflexive and agentic beings, children experience, manage and express their emotional lives as relational and contextually located. We challenge dominant explanatory models that conceptualise children who live with domestic violence as emotionally incompetent and dysregulated. We argue that these models underestimate the complexity of children’s emotional responses by decontextualising and individualising them as a set of abstract social skills.