Qualitative Research In Education Research Articles

Seven Practical Recommendations for Designing and Conducting Qualitative Research in Medical Education.

Qualitative research seeks to provide context, nuance, and depth of understanding in regard to systems, behaviors, and/or lived experiences. As such, it plays a key role in many areas of medical education. Composed of myriad methods and methodologies, each of which may be valuable for some areas of inquiry but less so for others, qualitative research can be challenging to design, conduct, and report. This challenge can be conceptualized as ensuring that the study design, conduct, and reporting are "fit for purpose," following directly from a well-formulated research question. In this Perspective, we share seven important and practical recommendations to enhance the design and conduct of high-quality qualitative research in medical education: 1) craft a strong research question, 2) link the study design to this question, 3) assemble a team with diverse expertise, 4) prioritize information power when selecting recruitment and sampling strategies, 5) collect data carefully, 6) rigorously analyze data, and 7) disseminate results that tell a complete story.

Beyond analytics: Using computer‐aided methods in educational research to extend qualitative data analysis

AbstractThis study proposes and demonstrates how computer‐aided methods can be used to extend qualitative data analysis by quantifying qualitative data, and then through exploration, categorization, grouping, and validation. Computer‐aided approaches to inquiry have gained important ground in educational research, mostly through data analytics and large data set processing. We argue that qualitative data analysis methods can also be supported and extended by computer‐aided methods. In particular, we posit that computing capacities rationally applied can expand the innate human ability to recognize patterns and group qualitative information based on similarities. We propose a principled approach to using machine learning in qualitative education research based on the three interrelated elements of the assessment triangle: cognition, observation, and interpretation. Through the lens of the assessment triangle, the study presents three examples of qualitative studies in engineering education that have used computer‐aided methods for visualization and grouping. The first study focuses on characterizing students' written explanations of programming code, using tile plots and hierarchical clustering with binary distances to identify the different approaches that students used to self‐explain. The second study looks into students' modeling and simulation process and elicits the types of knowledge that they used in each step through a think‐aloud protocol. For this purpose, we used a bubble plot and a k‐means clustering algorithm. The third and final study explores engineering faculty's conceptions of teaching, using data from semi‐structured interviews. We grouped these conceptions based on coding similarities, using Jaccard's similarity coefficient, and visualized them using a treemap. We conclude this manuscript by discussing some implications for engineering education qualitative research.

Book review: Qualitative research in education: a review for physics education and other sub-sciences

Book review: Qualitative research in education: a review for physics education and other sub-sciences

An analysis of the generative AI use as analyst in qualitative research in science education

An analysis of the generative AI use as analyst in qualitative research in science education

Navigating Complexity: Overcoming Challenges in Qualitative Research for Special Education in Pakistan

This paper aims to identify some of the challenges of qualitative research in special education in Pakistan and how such challenges could be effectively handled. It discusses the contemporary state of affairs concerning this type of education and the importance of using qualitative research strategies to study education-related processes in the country. This paper presents several issues, which could be methodological, ethical, linguistic, institutional, and specific to the researcher. Approaches for overcoming these challenges are enumerated, such as formulating culturally appropriate research models, addressing ethical issues, involving the host community members, and availing necessary expert assistance to the research workers. The paper also describes possible recommendations for further qualitative research of special education in Pakistan: The relation to novel qualitative approaches and the requirement of policy encouragement. Despite these challenges, by addressing them and implementing the assessed strategies, qualitative research can greatly support improving the special education practices and policies in Pakistan, thus positively impacting the education of students with disabilities. Keywords: , ,, , , ,

How do language education researchers attend to quality in qualitative studies?

Abstract The steady expansion in qualitative research in the area of language education over the last two decades indicates the growing recognition of its importance to investigating issues of language teaching and learning. Along with this recognition, understanding and assessing the quality of qualitative studies in this area has gained increasing significance. Addressing this concern, in this research synthesis, we qualitatively explore how 236 qualitative language education studies published in seven leading journals explicitly foreground the issue of ‘research quality’. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of how authors of these studies addressed the main quality concepts proposed by well-known frameworks of qualitative research quality. Our findings, presented as ten major themes, show that qualitative researchers' overt treatment of research quality is realised based on three distinct orientations: no explicit quality criteria, positivist views of quality, and interpretive quality conceptions. We discuss aspects of these orientations and their implications for qualitative research in language education.

Qualitative research in science education: A literature review of current publications

This study analyzed articles from the last four years regarding how science education research is framed and discussed as qualitative research. The research question that guided this study was: <i>To what extent do qualitative secondary science teaching research publications reflect high-quality practices found in mainstream methodological texts? </i>The researchers utilized a systematic literature review methodology by (1) creating search terms based on the research question; (2) choosing relevant databases in which to search; (3) conducting the search and gathering articles; and (4) selecting articles based on inclusion criteria. The researchers chose “secondary education” and “science teaching” as search terms relevant to this study. Articles included in the review were peer-reviewed for credibility, available free online as full-text for accessibility, and available in English, which is the authors’ first language. The researchers conducted three levels of screening on the full collection of articles–title, abstract, then methods, to efficiently narrow the large sample of qualitative science education research articles to a manageable and characteristic selection. The findings include that few articles addressed science teaching and learning with deep qualitative engagement. Some articles claimed to use specific qualitative methodologies without adequately expressing aspects of those methodologies, which lend support to the credibility, transferability, dependability, or confirmability of the articles such as the researchers’ subjectivity or member-checking. Those studies that did are indeed diamonds in the ruff.

The formative dimension of self-analyses of teaching activity

The educational environment, in its entirety (ethos, environment, educational offer, teacher-pupil relations, pedagogical actions) is oriented towards meeting formally established quality standards in line with the educational needs of the direct and indirect educational beneficiaries. Ensuring the quality of teaching is a concern of teachers, and they are therefore interested in increasing the degree of professional efficiency and, implicitly, their perception and self-perception. This paper, based on qualitative educational research, presents a comparative analysis of ten case studies, based on specific teaching actions undertaken and self-monitored by primary school teachers in Romania, through the practice of self-analysis of teaching activity. In this paper we aimed to explore the triggers of teachers' higher-quality professional performance generated by the practice of self-analysis of teaching activity. As relevant aspects of teaching effectiveness, perceived by the participants in a focus group, following the practice of self-analysis of the teaching activity, we mention the following formative valences of it: use of critical thinking, knowledge of personal and professional identity, identification of answers to self-reflective questions, teaching self-regulation and awareness of dysfunctions in the educational process.

Evaluating the quality of posthuman music education research: diffracting quality criteria through response-ability

ABSTRACT Although encompassing a variety of research approaches, qualitative research in music education shares the assumption that reality is socially constructed; it takes this construction to be based on the specific perspective of the individual human; and it considers epistemology and ontology to be different fields of study. The posthuman theory of agential realism, on the other hand, argues that the world is becoming through intra-actions; it decentres the individual humanist subject; and it studies onto-epistemology – practices of knowing-in-being. Considering these fundamental differences, the quality criteria of qualitative research are not applicable to posthuman music education research. Nevertheless, posthuman research is concerned with the ethics of research and how to response-ably and ethically take part in the world’s becoming. Thus, the emerging field of posthuman music education research must develop other ways of evaluating research beyond the quality criteria found in qualitative methodologies. This paper argues that diffraction – both as a physical and musical phenomenon and as a philosophical concept – might be a fruitful approach. By reading quality criteria diffractively through the agential realist concept of response-ability, it poses critical and creative questions, moving us towards evaluating the quality of posthuman music education research on its own terms.

How to discuss transferability of qualitative research in health professions education.

Transferability is commonly identified as a quality criterion for qualitative research. This criterion was introduced by Lincoln and Guba to describe the degree to which a study's findings can be transferred to other contexts, settings or respondents. In this How To paper, we present a more nuanced, multidimensional view of transferability and explain relevant concepts, reflexive approaches and specific techniques to guide researchers in discussing transferability. We identify three dimensions of transferability for use in many approaches to qualitative research: applicability, resonance and theoretical engagement. Transferability as applicability relates to providing sufficient information for readers to evaluate the relevance of findings to other contexts. Transferability as resonance requires the researcher to present the research in a way that evokes a sense of familiarity or shared experience. Transferability as theoretical engagement refers to ways the researcher uses theory to frame a problem, connects findings to existing constructs and/or proposes a model or theory that could explain a process or phenomenon. We encourage researchers to consider all three dimensions of transferability when developing and presenting their work, keeping in mind that some dimensions may be more relevant than others based on study methodology and project goals.

Your Qualitative Research “Guide on the Side”: A Review of Marilyn Lichtman’s Qualitative Research in Education: A User’s Guide (4th Edition)

Lichtman’s fourth edition of Qualitative Research in Education: A User’s Guide has become my qualitative research guide on the side. From the book cover to the way she organizes and writes the chapters, Lichtman invites readers to join her on a journey to learn how qualitative research can address some of education’s most pressing problems. Up-to-date, easy to read, and useful, this book has earned a permanent place on my bookshelf. In this review I provide a review organized by themes. I describe each theme, offer excepts from the text that represent the theme and explain its importance to me as a qualitative researcher and lifelong learner. While most examples in the textbook are related to education, Lichtman’s sage advice and style transcend disciplines.

Japanese midwifery preservice professionals’ journal reflections on practicum experiences working with mothers and infants

Abstract The purpose of the current study was to examine Japanese preservice professionals’ socialization experiences while working with mothers and infants during midwifery practicum experiences. This study utilized an interpretive case study research design (Merriam, Sharan B. 1998. Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass). Data were collected from reflective journals (Janesick, Valerie. 1999. A journal about journaling: Writing as a qualitative research technique history issues and reflections. Qualitative Inquiry 5(4). 505–524) and electric portfolios. Participants were ten female students enrolled in a midwifery certification program at one private university located in central Tokyo in Japan. A constant comparative analysis method was used to interpret the data, with four themes emerging from the data: (a) struggling to make decisions related to lesson procedures, (b) adjusting lesson content to meet mothers’ and infants’ unique needs, (c) paying less attention to partners’ roles and responsibilities, and (d) applying knowledge and skills to future midwifery settings. Results indicated that the preservice professionals struggled to prepare and plan lessons and activities in a timely manner, and had the challenge of modifying activities based on the infant’s unexpected and unpredictable behaviors. However, the preservice professionals believed that the practicum course was beneficial for their professional learning and development, and applicable to various educational and professional settings. In order to advance the quality of practicum experiences in the midwifery program, instructors, department chairs, and researchers need clear and focused goals related to the status, quality, and relevance of the midwifery program mission and curricula. Due to the paucity of research in this area, it is essential to further explore these issues in Japan.

When We See Us: An Endarkened Autoethnographic Approach to Excavating the Extraordinary Literacies of Black Women

A frequent question amongst Black scholars and practitioners is how to succeed in institutions that thrive on our cultural erasure. How to unmask and survive. For Black women these questions are doubly significant. The questions we answer in our collaborative Blackgirl autoethnography have implications for how Black women scholars, and others navigating multiple social oppressions, must ritually turn inward to understand the rhetorical, spiritual, ancestral, and cognitive tools that we use to hold onto important parts of ourselves. Additionally, the field of qualitative research in education, steeped in its own complex settler colonial, and racially exclusive ideologies, has had little opportunity to be shaped by the extraordinary inner worlds of Black women. At the nexus of our orientations as Black and women, we utilize a collaborative approach to Blackgirl autoethnography, an endarkened feminist epistemological methodology, which insists on the epistemic shifts available to us when methodology is grounded in Blackgirl ways of knowing. Our autoethnographic excavation revealed the ways that our inner worlds offer blueprints for the kinds of social and pedagogical change necessary to agitate the colonial and carceral logics that mark the lives of Black women and girls in education.

The Renewal of a Concept: Analyzing “Innovation” Through The Five Contexts Framework

In Cooper’s and White’s “Distinguished Performances: The Educative Role of Disciplines in Qualitative Research in Education” published in the International Review of Qualitative Research (2009), Cooper and White describe programs of research that led them to develop “The Five Contexts,” a analytical framework for conducting, understanding, and interpreting qualitative research in education and in other disciplines (169). That article ends with a question: “How can we delve more deeply into The Five Contexts to develop greater understanding of issues that cross disciplinary lines?” (185). This paper applies The Five Contexts framework to a theoretical analysis of the term “innovation”. As education researchers embarking on a research project on innovation in social sciences and humanities education, Cooper and Waterman view innovation literature, especially the work of Benoît Godin, through the lenses of The Five Contexts—autobiographical, historical, political, postmodern, and philosophical. The discussion provides a critical analysis of the term “innovation” in the educational context. It suggests that the concept of innovation in education may be due for a renewal, in the sense of a return of the old as new and a broader concept of innovation beyond information technology, which is becoming status quo. This paper provides an example of employing The Five Contexts analytical framework as a tool for theoretical analysis, with “innovation” as the concept being explored.

A Handy Guide to Qualitative Research in Education

Marilyn Lichman's Qualitative Research in Education: A User’s Guide is a well-written and valuable textbook for new and experienced researchers. Regarding title and content, this textbook focuses more on educational research. Still, it does not rule out the possibility that this book can be used in qualitative research outside education. An exciting thing was the division of phases into three stages: (1) Tradition, theory, and practice; (2) Research planning; and (3) Collect, organize, and communicate. This perfect division allows researchers who have read this book to conduct qualitative research. Readers will also find that the examples used throughout the text and the appendices complement the written instructions clearly and explicitly. Therefore, this text is handy for a researcher who will conduct qualitative research. It deserves a good rating for any curriculum and should be a reference source for relevant qualitative inquiry.

Practical Guide to Qualitative Research in Surgical Education.

This Guide to Statistics and Methods provides an overview of the selection and application of qualitative research in surgical education.

Inclusion of Students with Disability in Qualitative Education Research – A Scoping Review

Inclusion of Students with Disability in Qualitative Education Research – A Scoping Review

Lessons Learnt From Conducting an Instrumental Ethno-Case Study in a Mainstream Secondary School

The aim of this paper is to provide an insight into the lessons learnt as the primary researcher during an instrumental ethno-case study research project that took place in a mainstream secondary academy that set out to examine the physical education (PE) experiences of adolescent, white, pupils in a ‘typical’ working-class secondary school (Ayrefield Community School – ACS). With the term instrumental ethno-case study used to reflect the non-continuous nature of the 34 days spent in the school over a 16-month period, the structure and content of the paper aims to provide a greater theoretical and practical understanding of this relatively nuanced and contemporary approach to qualitative research in education. Determined that the study design remained based in ethnography, consideration is also given to the impact of professional and personal time constraints on an ability to engage in a truly immersive ethnographical study. In this regard, the paper also aims to provide additional guidance on the design and implementation of the study and the recording and interpretation of the data for any researcher with similar aims and/or time constraints. In addition, the paper also utilises Norbert Elias’ sociological concept of involvement and detachment as the lens through which the juxtaposition between objective researcher and experienced mainstream secondary school teacher was explored and managed throughout the duration of the study. Overall, therefore, the paper aims to provide a theoretical justification for the use of the term instrumental ethno-case study design, additional guidance and lessons learnt on the design and implementation of this approach, and further detail on the extent to which the potential conflict between objective researcher and former school teacher was acknowledged and managed. The project itself primarily set out to examine the physical education (PE) experiences of adolescent, white, pupils in a ‘typical’ mainstream working-class secondary school (Ayrefield Community School – ACS) and in doing so also sought to explore the attitudes of the pupils in relation to their views on qualifications and education generally, how they spent their leisure time, and more specifically, how their own actions and relationships with their male PE staff came to influence the content and delivery of their PE provision. Therefore, reflecting on the use of the traditional case study methodologies of covert and overt observations, informal guided conversations, and focus group interviews with male pupils and school staff, the paper highlights and examines the practicalities and considerations associated with the selection of, and access to, a ‘typical’ white, working-class school, how care was taken to encourage ‘natural’ behaviour during covert and overt observations, the specific nature of informal guided conversations with pupils and staff, and the techniques utilised in order to facilitate focus group interviews with these male adolescent pupils.

PENSAMENTO CRÍTICO E METODOLOGIAS DE ENSINO DE ENSINO DE CIÊNCIAS NO CONTEXTO COLOMBIANO

The development of Critical Thinking (CT) is essential so that one can think in a rational and reflective way, focused on what one should believe and do. In this sense, the debate on the use of Teaching Methodologies (ME) that encourage the development of CT in the training of students, future citizens, is indispensable. We aimed to investigate the potential of PC development in the main EM used in the Colombian context to teach Science. The present research is configured as a qualitative research in education, of documental nature, developed in three stages: pre-analysis, exploration of the material and treatment and interpretation of the results. From the analyzed data, we noticed that the ME that best promotes CT is Project Pedagogy, followed by: teaching through investigation, teaching through research/educating through research, investigative experimentation and problem solving. We also realized that all analyzed MEs can promote CT in Science, when well mediated by the teacher.

Editorial

I am delighted to announce the publication of the inaugural issue of “Qualitative Inquiry in Education: Theory & Practice (QIETP)” under the umbrella of EDU Publishing. It’s a great pleasure to reconnect with you through this new journal. QIETP, being the first thematic journal in its field in Türkiye, builds upon the experience I gained during my 10-year tenure (2013-2023) as the founding and chief editor of the Journal of Qualitative Research in Education (ENAD). I aim to advance this experience further in QIETP. I am fully confident that, with the support of our valued authors, reviewers, editors, and readers, QIETP will soon earn a respectable position in the field. The first issue of QIETP comprises 5 articles: 4 research articles and 1 review study. The first study in this issue, “A critical view to educational technologies in the context of social inequalities,” comes from Fatma Akgün, Cem Çuhadar, and Şenay Ozan Deniz of Trakya University. The authors have examined the use of technology in the learning-teaching process from a phenomenological perspective regarding social equality. The second study, “A critical overview of Turkish research on 21st-century skills in education: 2017- 2022,” is authored by H. Ferhan Odabaşı, Elif Akyol Emmungil, Elif Atabay, and Melkaç Değer Demir from Anadolu University. This article evaluates studies conducted in Türkiye between 2017 and 2022 on 21st-century skills in education through meta-synthesis. The third study in this issue is “How to integrate sustainable development in English lessons: Reflections from teachers, students, and academicians,” conducted by Yasemen Şanal, Sena Sezgin, Seden Doğa Döker, Furkan Yavuz, and Gülçin Mutlu from İzmir Democracy University. In their qualitative descriptive study, the authors aimed to examine the characteristics of a middle school foreign language curriculum that incorporates the concept of sustainability. The fourth study of this issue, “How phenomenological are phenomenology studies in educationalsocial sciences: A sample from TR Dizin,” is a research article by M. Emir Rüzgâr and İbrahim Sözcü. The authors have evaluated how much the phenomenology studies published in the national TR Dizin index in Türkiye adhere to the assumptions of phenomenology. Although the study’s findings are presented from a quantitative perspective, it was deemed worth publishing in QIETP as it directly evaluates phenomenological studies. The only review article in this issue is “Educational science traditions and qualitative research” by Ali Yıldırım from the University of Gothenburg. In this article, Yıldırım presents the relationship between qualitative research methods and two main traditions in teacher education: the Anglo-American and the Continental European. This informative work discusses both the teacher training in these traditions and their relation to qualitative research. I am grateful to many esteemed individuals who have shown their close interest and support throughout this process. I extend my endless thanks to all colleagues who have been part of QIETP’s boards and provided technical support. I feel indebted to thank Prof. Ali Yıldırım, a pioneer in the field of Qualitative Research Methods in Türkiye, for his role in forming the international editorial board and supporting the publication of articles in the first issue.