Qualitative Documentary Analysis Research Articles

A vicious cycle of health (in)equity: Migrant inclusion in light of COVID-19

ObjectivesWhilst mass vaccination is suggested as an important means to contain COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination policies across many countries have systematically excluded some groups of population, especially migrants. This study aims to document the impact of diversified vaccination strategies as a preventative and control measure for the health and safety of the wider population within a country. MethodsWe selected five countries that have experienced the changes in migrant inflows to the most extreme among OECD countries in 2020: The United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. We conducted an extensive qualitative documentary analysis focused on policies and interventions implemented in these countries since January 2020 till the end of September 2021. We also analyzed publicly available epidemiological data (released by the governments and other international organizations). ResultsWe find that achieving migrants’ health and vaccination equity is not without challenges, and a failure to address those multiplicity of concerns may result in a vicious cycle for the vulnerable population at the fringes of our economy. Migrants continue to face extenuating circumstances with higher risks to their health and safety, when they are excluded or disadvantaged in vaccination policies. The more inclusive and proactive the governments are in consideration of diversity of migrant populations, the better they can manage the pandemic, which leads to overall societal benefit of ensuring public health. ConclusionsEquity-based policies can mitigate disparities in access to vaccination and healthcare, thereby reducing the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

International perspectives on wellbeing and democratic living in early childhood curricula

ABSTRACT Early childhood curricula are constructed from what is deemed important for young children’s development and learning nationally, while influenced by international policy developments. Following concerns surrounding international neo-liberal agendas in early childhood policy formation, this article examines the position of young children’s wellbeing and democratic living in early childhood curricula in China, Colombia, Denmark, England and Portugal. A qualitative documentary analysis revealed multifaceted aspects of wellbeing, where the five curricula share an emphasis on holistic health, though with cultural distinctiveness. Social responsibility, relationships and respect for diversity are positioned as key to promoting safe and caring learning environments, where children’s participation, agency and rights are emphasised in the Chinese, Colombian, Danish and Portuguese curricula, and with young children’s play as the base for the curricula. However, it is a concern that the position of children’s rights and agency is comparatively weak within the English curriculum, especially in the context of England’s influence in developing international learning and wellbeing assessments of five-year olds. The authors urge stakeholders to use this knowledge to promote democratic living and young children’s wellbeing, and to challenge when these values are not present in curricula, or national and international contexts.

Collective violence and the culture of peace: researching the social psychology of memory and social reconciliation

This monograph aims to disseminate the results of various research studies carried out in the field of social and community psychology. The studies focus on efforts to build a culture of peace in post-conflict contexts and societies that have suffered collective and socio-political violence, with multiple and persistent human rights violations. Six studies on the psychosocial effects of transitional justice rituals from Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Basque country, Chile, and Ecuador compose this issue. This issue presents a series of results regarding the effects of reparation rituals and Truth Commissions, combining different methods and analysis strategies, including general population surveys, newspaper and social media content analysis, community intervention assessments and qualitative documentary analysis. Finally, two review books were included. First, a Peace Psychology Book that explores the implications and difficulties faced by societies that have experienced large-scale collective violence. Second, the problem of human rights violations and how to confront them, socio-political conflicts and the building of a culture of democracy and peace in Latin America are transversal axes of the chapters of this second book.

Qualitative Document Analysis of Patient’s Healthcare Trajectory With and Without Palliative Care

Palliative care is important to the care of seriously ill patients to support the patient and family. Palliative care is often timely in the inpatient setting, but delayed in outpatient care, leading to missed opportunities. Identifying when to engage patients with palliative care in outpatient settings has been challenging. As part of a larger quality improvement project to increase access to palliative care, a qualitative sub-study was completed to identify missed palliative care engagement opportunities in patient’s healthcare trajectories. A document analysis of patients notes from a convenience sample of 20 recently deceased patients who received care within the Veteran Affairs healthcare system (VAHCS) was completed. Patients were sorted into four categories that emerged from initial analysis: cancer/palliative, non-cancer/palliative, cancer/non-palliative, and non-cancer/non-palliative. Two qualitative analysts reviewed the notes, paying particular attention to notes preceding or following seminal healthcare events. Patients in the cancer/non-palliative category were more likely to decline preventive care, engage less with the VAHCS health care or only interacted with the VAHCS for specific needs (e.g., determine VA health benefits). Similarly, non-cancer/non-palliative care patients were more likely to use a mix of VAHCS and outside healthcare, with inpatient care occurring outside of the VAHCS. For non-palliative care patients, seminal healthcare events were less likely to occur in the VAHCS. Thus, identifying opportunities to engage patients with palliative outside of seminal healthcare events may be important to increasing patient access within the VAHCS.

Canadian Resources for Siblings of Youth With Chronic Health Conditions to Inform and Support With Healthcare Management: A Qualitative Document Analysis.

Background: As children and adolescents with a chronic health condition (CHC) age and transition to adulthood, many will increasingly assume responsibilities for the management of their healthcare. For individuals with CHCs, family members including siblings often provide significant and varied supports. There are a range of resources in Canada to support siblings of individuals with a CHC, but these resources are not synthesized and the extent to which they relate to healthcare management remains unclear.Purpose: The purpose of this document review was to identify, describe, and synthesize the types of resources currently available to provide general information and healthcare management information about how siblings can provide support to individuals with CHCs in Canada.Methods: Print and electronic resources were systematically identified and retrieved from the websites of organizations, treatment centers, and children's hospitals that are part of Children's Healthcare Canada. Each unique resource was treated as a text document. Documents that met the following inclusion criteria were included: addressed the topic of siblings of individuals with a CHC and written in English. Data were extracted from included documents and qualitative conventional content analysis was conducted. Throughout the process of this review, we partnered with a Sibling Youth Advisory Council.Results: The systematic search yielded 1,628 non-duplicate documents, of which 163 documents met the inclusion criteria. Of the total of 163 documents, they were delivered in the following formats: 17 (10%) general informational products (e.g., booklets, videos) about a CHC and sibling relationships, 39 about support programs and workshops (24%), 34 news articles (21%) that described the roles of siblings, and 6 (3%) healthcare management informational products (e.g., toolkit, tipsheets), 31 blogs (19%) and 39 interviews (24%) with parents and siblings. In the blogs and interviews, siblings and parents described how siblings developed knowledge and skills for healthcare management, as well as their role and identity over time.Significance: This study identified that there are limited resources available about healthcare management for siblings of CHC in Canada. Resources are needed to facilitate conversations in the family about the role of siblings with healthcare management of their sibling with a CHC.

DOES THE SAUDI ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULUM REFLECT THE CURRENT STATE OF ENGLISH? A DOCUMENTARY ANALYSIS FROM A GLOBAL ENGLISHES PERSPECTIVE

The Saudi English language education has experienced a continuous process of reform and revision. Recently, the Saudi English Language Curriculum (SELC) has been introduced to the research and practice community. The lack of research investigating language policies in the Saudi context is where the current study situates itself. Thus, a qualitative documentary analysis was carried out to study the document. The findings suggest that the newly reformed curriculum recognises the new global status of the English language, though implicitly. However, this recognition of English as a global language is not reflected in the desired practices. The native-speaker model seems to be the one that SELC has adopted. This is shown in the use of CEFR as the assessment reference of grading and in the traditional teaching approach. Regarding culture depiction in SELC, there was an emphasis on the role of culture in language education. The local culture (source) has received a considerable amount of attention in the form of topics relevant to Saudi Islamic culture yet the understanding of the notion of culture was still that of a traditional one. A number of research implications and limitations are reported in the conclusion of this paper.

Public safety intelligence activity: Advice in the fight against criminal organizations

The present work, as a research involving the intelligence activity in Public Security, the present work aimed, through a historical rescue, which dates back to the emergence of a criminal organization in the state of Pará - Brazil, to verify how the intelligence activity it is capable of advising the decision-making process of public security institutions, in order to generate a balance of forces favorable to the latter, in the fight against crime. It started from the hypothesis that the intelligence agencies would show themselves capable of gathering privileged information, according to legality and efficiency criteria, able to subsidize the decision-making process. Using an inductive method and a qualitative documentary analysis, it was identified that, in addition to subsidizing managers with appropriate knowledge, the agencies were responsible for the frustration of measures of direct confrontation with the State, preventing damage to public coffers, as well as unjust attacks on civil and military civil servants and the Pará society itself.

Exploring Curriculum Alignment through Syllabus Document Analysis: From National Language Policy to Local ELT Practice

Effective syllabus document design hinges on an alignment between learning objectives, teaching principles and curricular policy. Much of the work on syllabus design in the English Language Teaching (ELT) context focuses on the implementation of language teaching principles, such as those from the Communication Language Teaching (CLT) approach. Limited attention has been paid to this alignment, which is pivotal for ensuring the coherence and consistency between the intended outcomes, content selection and organisation, and assessment tasks. Employing qualitative document analysis (QDA), this study identifies the core syllabus elements and their alignment with current teaching approaches in twelve, localised ELT syllabuses. Utilising elements from Richards and Rodgers’ (2014) methods analysis and Nunan’s (1988) syllabus design, the analysis demonstrates that while CLT principles have been incorporated into the syllabuses, misalignments remain, such as those between intended objectives and assessment tasks. This paper offers an analytic framework to guide teachers in designing a more closely aligned syllabus and making visible its connections.

Political party elite and election-related violence in Nigeria: The nexus and implications for democracy and governance

Failure to conduct violence-free elections in Nigeria has frequently reflected in the writings of local and foreign election observers and monitoring groups. Previous studies have devoted much attention to the consequences of electoral violence on sustenance and consolidation of democracy but less attention has been paid to the role political party elite play in this violence. This study examined the role of political party elite in election-related violence in Nigeria, 2011-2019. It equally assessed its nexus and implications for democracy and governance. The study utilized documentary research method using qualitative documentary analysis to analyze the data obtained from secondary sources following four-step approach. Findings revealed that political party elite exerted greater influence on politically-sponsored thugs, who were utilized to perpetrate election-related violence due to zerosum game, winners-takes-all syndrome, and non-punishment of electoral offenders with far-reaching implications for popular participation, free, fair and credible election, party politics, leadership legitimacy and stable polity. The study submitted that curbing party elite-sponsored electoral violence requires that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the National Assembly wake up to their responsibility of ensuring strict enforcement of laws for electoral offences as this would deter both sponsors and perpetrators from engaging in violence during election.

Learning and teaching benchmarking in Australian universities: the current state of play

ABSTRACT Benchmarking is a formalised evaluation process by which a university can measure the standard of their policies, processes, programmes or strategies through comparison with other universities. Currently, there is a paucity of research that focuses on the documentation associated with external benchmarking undertaken by Australian universities. Given that Australia’s higher education regulatory body requires universities to reflect the purposes of external benchmarking within policy frameworks and for external referencing to be overseen by peak academic governance bodies such limited research is of significance. This paper contributes to the literature by investigating whether documented structures, policies and guidelines are in place to inform learning and teaching external referencing processes. Using a qualitative documentary thematic analysis, policies, procedures and guidelines found on university governance websites were investigated and analysed. The findings indicate that many Australian universities are at risk of not meeting mandatory regulatory requirements.

Stakeholders facilitating hope and empowerment amidst social suffering: A qualitative documentary analysis exploring lives of homeless women with mental illness.

Globally homeless mentally ill (HMI) individuals are considered one of the most vulnerable populations. An individual-centric, psychopathology-oriented focus of the existing mental health-care system limits the understanding of the HMI individuals through the disability lens overlooking their strengths and resilience that enable them to survive extremely hostile environments. Contemporary mental health research has embraced a paradigm shift that allows researchers to look beyond the predominant medical model to give precedence to a socio-culturally contexted and experientially firm understanding of human behaviour. Through the theoretical lens of social suffering, this article attempts to understand the lived experiences of the HMI women, the perspective of their caregivers and the standpoint of service providers in the context of homelessness and mental illness. A documentary analysis as a qualitative research methodology has been used to reflect upon the concerns mentioned above. Following Figueroa's approach to the analysis of audio-visual texts, the documentary Lapata Zindagi, directed by Radhika Lata Murthy, has woven the stories of four HMI women and their caregivers have been analysed. The two-phased analysis involved constructivist grounded theory procedures. The methodological steps, rigour and the resulting categories (experience of social suffering associated with homelessness among HMI women, denial of care and rights within patriarchy, helplessness associated with the burden of caregiving and roles of NGO and community in building hope and empowerment) have been discussed through the lens of social suffering and how stakeholders might facilitate hope and empowerment amidst it. The article highlights the dire and urgent need to integrate mental health into primary health care and community-based intervention and move beyond clinical recovery to nurture 'hope' to enable recovery and empowerment for such marginalised populations.

COVID-19 and the portrayal of older people in New Zealand news media

ABSTRACT International epidemiological data have emphasised that COVID-19 poses a particular threat to older adults. As media coverage plays an important, direct role in shaping official responses to unfolding crisis situations, the aim of this paper was to analyse the portrayal of older people and COVID-19 by mainstream New Zealand news media. We undertook a qualitative document analysis (QDA) of New Zealand coverage during March 2020. From a total sample pool of 482 articles obtained from the database Knowledgebasket, 91 articles met our inclusion criteria. Our analysis of this coverage found that older people were most often referred to as an nameless, homogeneous ‘other’ group who were overwhelmingly framed as being at risk and passive. Only a third of articles framed older people as active. Older people's agency and ability to navigate threats to their health and wellbeing were under-represented in news coverage. Coverage stigmatised older people as passive and inherently, rather than situationally, vulnerable and neglected the diversity of their social circumstances and intersecting identities, including ethnicity. We conclude this article with suggestions informed by our findings for promoting equitable media coverage of older New Zealanders’ in the context of pandemics.

Role of Educational Institutions in Building a Peaceful Society

Educational institutions’ role is not limited to technology’s progression or improvement in their social and economic values but also is to teach the lesson of harmony, humbleness, tolerance, equality, and justice. Educational institutions are not merely building individuals to strengthen society and eradicate the negativities but also to build a peaceful society. Pakistan’s educational system is a complex one that does not merely involve government and private schools; there are also many registered or unregistered madrassas. Lack of regulation of the curriculum and monitoring of the activities of madrasas is a matter of concern. Terrorism, too, is linked to such madrasas, which contradicts and nullifies educational institutions’ purpose and aim of building a peaceful society. The study applied the functionalism theoretical assumptions and employed Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) based on the previous studies review of literature on educational institutions’ role in building peaceful societies to figure out the gap and develop new findings. The study suggests committing the national educational system, with it, the school and its teachers so that from their work, they contribute towards building peace in society.

The Internationalisation of higher education in Ireland and its impact on language policy: a qualitative document analysis

This paper studies the effect of internationalisation in Irish higher education on the language element of policies and strategies, and provides an insight of the current approaches towards language in higher education. The author explores the language-related trends over time in national public records, as well as the current linguistic targets reflected in European, national and institutional strategies by means of Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA). The evaluation shows a shift from the focus on inward mobility and the efforts for meeting international students’ linguistic needs, to an internationalised higher education system that requires the expansion of outward mobility and domestic students’ linguistic repertoire. Although Irish higher education institutions (HEIs) present the perfect context for becoming leaders in linguistic internationalisation practices, the scant consideration given to language in institutional strategies together with the lack of explicitness in existing national strategies result in language prevailing as a major issue for both, international and domestic students.

A positive legacy – against all odds Olympic facilities at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games

The aim of this study is to explore the concept of legacy in mega sporting events. More precisely, it examines how one of the smallest cities to host the Olympic Winter Games, Lillehammer in 1994, more than 25 years after the Games, has a rather positive legacy of the investments in sporting facilities, opposite to a majority among the hosts of the Winter Games. The research, which entailed qualitative documentary analysis (e.g. bidding documents, government guarantees, white papers and minutes of meetings in the Parliament, supplemented with interviews), shows how the concept was changed after Lillehammer was awarded the event in 1988. Lillehammer went from an extreme compact Games model to place the venues in five municipalities. Also important was the establishment of government funding to maintain the different arenas. For many hosts of mega/major events, sport facilities end up with a negative legacy because of poor or insufficient planning. Today, the ‘after-use fund’ has been depleted, which is challenging for Lillehammer because several municipalities in the Olympic region are also responsible for the funding. It remains to be seen if the positive legacy will remain positive in the years to come.

Adoption of Green IT in the university environment: systematic review of sustainability practices in educational institutions

Introdução: as universidades estão preocupadas e cientes das mudanças climáticas e questões de sustentabilidade em Tecnologia da Informação (TI). TI Verde é a prática de projetar, fabricar, usar e descartar computadores, servidores e equipamentos associados com o mínimo ou nenhum impacto no meio ambiente. Objetivo: o objetivo deste artigo é examinar a implementação de casos de estudo de TI Verde no ambiente universitário a partir das práticas e resultados relatados em artigos científicos para ter um melhor entendimento de como as universidades estão lidando com estes. problemas. Metodologia: para o desenvolvimento deste trabalho, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática e definido um protocolo de pesquisa com base nas publicações científicas nas bases de dados de periódicos ACM, IEEE e Scopus nos últimos dez anos. O processo foi realizado em duas etapas de compreensão da busca nas bases de dados de periódicos e da análise sistemática dos artigos escolhidos relacionados ao tema da pesquisa. Resultados: foram identificados nove artigos da África, América, Ásia, Europa e Oceania, que relataram a prática de aplicação de TI Verde em universidades. Por meio dos casos estudados, discute-se como iniciar um projeto, tecnologias e dificuldades e benefícios da implementação dos mesmos. Conclusões: este estudo apresenta uma visão geral de algumas práticas de sustentabilidade em TI, que ajudam a compreender o universo da TI Verde aplicada às universidades. A pesquisa se limita à análise documental qualitativa de artigos científicos.

Comparative study on current recommendations on technologies for the Teaching of Mathematics in Brazil and Portugal

Background: The general guidelines of the prescribed Mathematics curricula in force in Brazil and Portugal emphasise the use of digital technologies for Mathematics Education to meet the demands of the globalised world. Objectives: To analyse perspectives expressed in the documents and speeches that circulated in the reform processes of the curricular guidelines. Design: Comparative research for the analysis of recent reforms concerning the recommendations on the use of technologies. Setting and participants: Literature review and documentary analysis of the curriculum guidelines in Brazil for the final years of elementary school in Brazil and for the last year of the 2nd cycle and the entire 3rd cycle in Portugal. Data collection and analysis: Qualitative documentary analysis, the categories of analysis emerged from the literature review and trends that are under discussion and will compose the reference framework of the Mathematics Project 2030. Results: In the Digital Literacy category, we observed an emphasis on digital applications aiming at changing the framework, representation and unclear communication of the real objectives; and in the Computational Thinking category, we observed a focus on building algorithms in a limited and very specific way and using language, aiming at the development of mathematical logical thinking in structuring digital applications, in formulating and solving problems. Conclusions: The study raised the need to discuss issues related to the clear definition of objectives, the emphasis on the adoption of software primarily for illustration, limits on the connection between computational thinking and algebraic language, and the focus on rigour in the development of skills for control and management.

THE ROLE OF NIGERIA IN THE ECOWAS AND ITS SUPPORT TOWARDS THE COMMON PROPOSED CURRENCY ECO

Nigeria is the arrowhead of the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS), which was emerged in Lagos on May 28, 1975, as a regional institution consisting of fifteen nations. The essence of the establishment is to integrate the region into the single economic bloc and to ensure sole currency existence, which has been on the agenda of the head of the state conference. The study adopted regional integration theory and employed Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) in order to elaborate on the big-brother and sub-regional leader role of Nigeria in the region. The study found that loyalty to colonialism and the francophone country's long-existing monetary cooperation towards France was the strong blockade of the proposal as well as the member state was unable to reach-up to the merging criteria, which resulted in the shift and delays on the establishment of the common currency date. It was also discovered that on the efforts to embark on the process, two fast track approaches were being agreed upon towards the realization of the common currency. The first track meeting was held in Accra, Ghana, in April 2000, proposing that the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) were to create a second Monetary Union by July 2005 termed the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), mainly comprising of Anglophone countries. The second track was stressing on the consequent merging of the WAMZ and WAEMU to form a common currency union in the region. The study went further to provide some suggestions toward the implementation of the common currency in the region.
 Keywords: Nigeria, ECOWAS, Single Currency, Regional Leader.

Towards responsive energy governance: Lessons from a holistic analysis of energy access in Uganda and Zambia

Electrification rates in sub-Saharan Africa are low despite increasing national and international efforts. Good governance is key to translate these efforts into tangible energy access improvements. However, evaluating the quality of energy access governance is challenging due to the multitude of stakeholders involved and its dynamic institutional environment. This paper designs a novel, holistic analytical approach to assess energy access governance based on three data collection methods: Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA), semi-structured stakeholder interviews and closed surveys. It assesses energy access governance along six indicators. Applying this approach to the previously unstudied cases of energy access governance in Uganda and Zambia allows us to induce a new model of the type of interdependencies between different indicators of good governance. It suggests that while a multitude of feedback loops between indicators exist, basic rule of law and transparency standards are critical prerequisites for accountability and inclusiveness, which in turn foster efficacy and, ultimately, responsiveness of energy access governance. For Uganda and Zambia specifically, our analyses reveal shortcomings across all six governance indicators, hampering electrification efforts. Key levers include completing regulatory frameworks, improving transparency, and designing meaningful interactions between stakeholders to foster inclusiveness, and responsiveness of energy access governance.

Closing the policy-practice gaps in Nigeria’s desertification interventions: a qualitative document analysis of sustainable practice

ABSTRACT In Nigeria’s frontline states, the southward dryland degradation continues due to the failure of interventions to address the human and natural causes. This study provides a theory-driven evaluation to ascertain the causes of desertification intervention’s poor performance. It provides a conceptual model for scaling up interventions towards achieving the 2030 target 15:3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Guided by intervention theory, relevant policy documents on desertification control were analyzed via Qualitative Document Analysis and triangulated by a semi-structured interview, and secondary data with the aid of ATLAS.ti 8. Findings revealed that a weak integration of Sustainable Practice across the policy cycle is responsible for notable gaps in the areas of an absence of participation of Civil Society Organizations and the use of Indigenous Knowledge, non-involvement of local government, and poor community ownership. Others include monitoring lapses, and the non-inclusion of the Land Degradation Neutrality concept – leading to failure in the Sustainability of Policy Instrument. A pragmatic approach integrating multi-stakeholder participation, the establishment of grass-root structure, and situation awareness should be incorporated across the policy cycle. The need for the development of Key Performance Indicators for tracking the progress of the Pan-African Great Green Wall initiative is also required.