Learning through a Reunion of Mind-Body-Emotion-Spirits

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-431
Author(s):  
Chizuru Nobe-Ghelani
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Important Concept ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
Critical Qualitative Research

While reflexivity has been taken up as an important concept in critical qualitative research, there are few texts that illustrate explicit approaches to practicing reflexivity. Drawing on my doctoral research experience, this article fills this gap and explores how the practice of mindfulness may guide us to a rich engagement with reflexivity during the critical qualitative research process, in particular within the context of interactions with research participants. More specifically, mindfulness is put forth as a practice to invite an embodied and holistic form of learning that goes beyond cognitive knowing. I argue that a mindfulness-based reflexivity has the potential to open up a space to learn from the messiness and discomfort experienced in the research process and deepen our understanding about the operation of power relations in critical qualitative research and beyond.

Negotiating Power

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 394-412
Author(s):  
Karen Campbell ◽  
Corinne Hart
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Nursing Program ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Qualitative Researcher ◽  
Critical Qualitative Research ◽  
Relational Factors

Learning to do qualitative research that is grounded in a critical perspective can be a turbulent time for graduate students and supervisors. The influence of power is omnipresent and can create significant problems for graduate student experiences. This article uses the graduate thesis research experience of one student and supervisor dyad to highlight the relational factors that we found to support learning: vulnerability, trust, and patience. For our dyad, negotiating the power structures surrounding us was one strategy that helped foster the development of a critical qualitative researcher. The relational factors that characterized our student-supervisor relationship, similar to those in the critical qualitative research process, provided a basis for discussion and growth through a graduate thesis in a nursing program.

scholarly journals Through the Looking Glass Space to New Ways of Knowing: A Personal Research Narrative

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Brand
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Health Professional ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Looking Glass ◽  
Personal Research

This article describes how writing personal research narratives during my doctoral research journey challenged my role as a health professional and my personal beliefs and values in fundamental ways. In qualitative narrative inquiry, the reflexive account of the research experience is a key element in conducting ethical, rigorous, and meaningful forms of qualitative research. However, as a novice researcher, I was unprepared for the unlearning journey I experienced during the research process. This uncomfortable experience cut to the core of my identity by dismantling unexamined belief and value systems that lay dormant and hidden from my everyday consciousness as a health professional. In the spirit of transparency, reflexivity and “good” qualitative research, this article presents an explicit account of my exquisite and sometimes excruciating reflexive research journey that profoundly changed how I relate and work with people. I believe health care professionals should adopt a narrative view of experience that creates the “looking glass space” to locate their own stories within the broader socio-cultural and historical context of their lives, especially in relation to their health professional identity. Exchanging diminishing dialogue with deeper dialogue honours both the complexities of young peoples’ lives and social worlds and encompasses socially-conscious methodologies of promise and hope.

Thinking About Data With Grounded Theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 743-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy Charmaz ◽  
Linda Liska Belgrave
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Access To Data ◽  
Deductive Research

This article examines qualitative data in an era of neoliberalism and focuses on the place of data in grounded theory studies. Neoliberal values of individual responsibility, self-sufficiency, competition, efficiency, and profit have entered the conduct of research. Neoliberalism fosters (a) reifying quantitative logical-deductive research, (b) imposing surveillance of types and sources of data, (c) marginalizing inductive qualitative research, and (d) limiting access to data in grounded theory studies. Grounded theory relies on data and resists current efforts to abandon data. The method resides in the space between reifying and rejecting data. Data allow us to learn from the stories of those left out and permits research participants to break silences. Data can help us look underneath and beyond our privileges, and alter our views. Grounded theory is predicated on data, but how researchers regard and render data depends on which version of the method they adopt. We propose developing a strong methodological self-consciousness to learn how we affect the research process and to counter the subtle effects of neoliberalism.

scholarly journals Student-supervisor-university expectation alignment in the undergraduate engineering thesis

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 199
Author(s):  
Brad Stappenbelt ◽  
Abheek Basu
Keyword(s):  
Rating Scale ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Research Supervision ◽  
Undergraduate Thesis

Given the lack of student research experience, the undergraduate thesis is necessarily focussed primarily on development of research skills (i.e. it is process oriented). Since postgraduate supervision is research output focussed, the lessons learnt from this field are not always directly transferable. In contrast to the vast body of work in the field of doctoral research supervision, there exists a dearth of literature on undergraduate dissertation supervision. To address this shortcoming, the present study examined the alignment of university, supervisor and student expectations regarding responsibilities in the undergraduate engineering thesis. University expectations, having undergone rigorous review, outline the sound pedagogical practice that should be applied to undergraduate supervision. Expectations of academic staff supervisors and thesis students were obtained through the use of survey tools and post-survey discussions. The surveys used in the present study were adapted from the Role Perceptions Rating Scale (RPRS). Alignment between student and university expectations regarding undergraduate thesis responsibilities in the present study was generally poor. The discrepancy between supervisor and university expectations was even greater, with academic staff generally assuming the bulk of the responsibility for many core thesis tasks. Post-survey discussion indicated that the driver for this behaviour were supervisor expectations that that undergraduate thesis research would contribute to publications. Taking primary responsibility for core thesis tasks away from the student, although improving the likelihood of successful research output, diminishes the ability for an accurate assessment of adequate academic performance. The learning that is intended to result from the undergraduate thesis is devalued when research outcomes are prioritised over research process.

Embodied Research in Migration Studies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Vacchelli
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Invasive Approach ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
Embodied Research ◽  
Definition Of

The definition of data in qualitative research is expanding. This book highlights the value of embodiment as a qualitative research tool and outlines what it means to do embodied research at various points of the research process. It shows how using this non-invasive approach with vulnerable research participants such as migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking women can help service users or research participants to be involved in the co-production of services and in participatory research. Drawing on both feminist and post-colonial theory, the author uses her own research with migrant women in London, focusing specifically on collage making and digital storytelling, whilst also considering other potential tools for practicing embodied research such as yoga, personal diaries, dance, and mindfulness. Situating the concept of ‘embodiment’ on the map of research methodologies, the book combines theoretical groundwork with actual examples of application to think pragmatically about intersectionality through embodiment.

Investigation of Phd students' initial qualitative research experiences via their diaries

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 549-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Ersoy
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Qualitative Researcher ◽  
Research Experiences ◽  
Model Research ◽  
Analytical Research ◽  
Researcher Identity

The aim of this study is to understand initial qualitative research experience and the qualitative researcher identities they try to build via diaries they reflect. This research is a analytical research model. Research data were obtained 25 diaries which were selected by criterion sampling from 60 doctoral students' diaries that they wrote in qualitative research methods course between the years 2008 and 2014. Content analysis was applied to the data. As a result of the analysis, "becoming a qualitative researcher" category which consists of "I learned from my experiences", "I discovered my researcher identity", and "I discovered myself" have emerged. I learned from my experiences themes that compose "I learned from my mistakes", "I read, implemented, reflected", and found out that "I realized that I wasn't a qualitative researcher." I discovered my researcher identity theme includes subthemes such as "I should be open-minded", "I should try to understand", and "I should be patient." I discovered myself theme consists of subthemes such as "I realized my prejudices", "I learned criticizing myself", and "I saw the limits of my abilities." It has emerged that researcher diaries are functional tools to understand the research experiences of PhD students. Therefore, doctoral students can be encouraged to write diaries in the research process.

The Idea of Equality and Qualitative Inquiry

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Winter
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
The Political ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Late Capitalism ◽  
Core Element ◽  
Critical Qualitative Research ◽  
The Ideal

With his path-breaking The Qualitative Manifesto. A Call to Arms (2010), Norman Denzin calls for qualitative inquiry to be carried out with the aim of contributing to the empowerment of subjects involved in the research. He pleads passionately and vehemently in favor of a research process that is led by the ideal of social justice. My contribution wants to plead for making radical equality between researchers and research subjects a core element of qualitative inquiries as well. For this purpose, I will turn to the work of the French philosopher Jacques Rancière, who has been largely ignored in qualitative inquiry. His work, though, is of central importance for critical qualitative research. The idea of equality opens up a new and more profound understanding of politics that would allow us to specify the political meaning of qualitative studies in late capitalism more accurately.

scholarly journals The Vulnerable Researcher: Some Unanticipated Challenges of Doctoral Fieldwork

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Ballamingie ◽  
Sherrill Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Field Experiences ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Methodological Research ◽  
Professional Vulnerability

This paper draws explicitly on the field experiences of two doctoral researchers in geography to elucidate some of the challenges and issues related to researcher vulnerability that are especially acute for graduate students. In spite of significant differences in context, both researchers experienced an unanticipated degree of professional vulnerability during their doctoral fieldwork that warrants further exploration, including a theoretical interrogation of the complex (and shifting) terrain of power relations within qualitative research projects. This paper addresses the lacuna in the qualitative methodological research literature on the topic of researcher vulnerability (in contrast to the well-developed discussion of participant vulnerability). Throughout, the authors suggest possible strategies for mitigating researcher vulnerability while protecting the overall integrity of the research process.

scholarly journals Peeling Off the Layers in Qualitative Research: A Book Review of Robert K. Yin’s Qualitative Research from Start to Finish

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorcas Matowe
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Reference List ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Peeling Off

The title of Robert Yin’s (2016) book, Qualitative Research from Start to Finish, second edition, aptly summarizes what he intended to accomplish and did. The author’s writing and organizational style made for an enjoyable and engaging read given the subject matter. For the student, teacher, or researcher seeking an in-depth understanding of the entire research process, this book covers it all, including an exhaustive reference list on qualitative studies in varied disciplines. In keeping with his training as a social scientist, Yin incorporated his global research experience and understanding of human behavior to produce a book with something to offer researchers at various levels. I integrated my perspective as a doctorate student with intermediate experience in qualitative and quantitative research, highlighting what I found most useful.

scholarly journals The unequal power relation in the final interpretation

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pernille Almlund
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Power Relation ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Final Interpretation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Meta Theory

This article addresses the power relation in qualitative research and especially the importance of taking into consideration the problematic aspects of the power relation when executing the final interpretation of qualitative research. The methodology literature examines the unequal power relation in qualitative research by focusing on how society has become an interview society and on the lack of equality in interviews. Although the literature recommends being aware of asymmetry between research participants, it fails to look at how to address the final interpretation of qualitative research if the interpretation also takes the unequal power relation into account. Consequently, interpreting the researched in a respectful manner is difficult. This article demonstrates the necessity of increasing awareness of the unequal power relation by posing, discussing and, to some extent answering, three methodological questions inspired by meta-theory that are significant for qualitative research and qualitative researchers to reflect on. This article concludes that respectful interpretation and consciously paying attention to the unequal power relation in the final interpretation require decentring the subject, dissociating from the ideal of intersubjectivity, being descriptive instead of normative, accepting the unconquerable distance between the researcher and the researched and looking at the entire research process and analyses as an undeniable coproduction and interpretation.

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