scholarly journals Experience of Negotiating Access in the “Field”: Lessons for Future Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. p503
Author(s):  
Siyabulela C. Fobosi
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Global South ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Simple Process ◽  
Key Informants ◽  
Access To The Field ◽  
Conducting Research

Accessing the field for the purposes of conducting research often starts with negotiation and engagement with gatekeepers. This is the first requirement for the research to be conducted; however, this step has challenges. While research has been conducted on negotiating access and research ethics, very little is known about the experiences of doctoral students from the Global South on negotiating access in fieldwork, and thus giving an account of what it entails conducting qualitative research from the Global South. As such, this article engages with the challenges of negotiating access to the field for my PhD studies. Due to the nature of research for my thesis, I conducted interviews with key informants from the departments and participants from the taxi ranks. In this article, I problematize the view that gaining access to the field is a simple process, by exposing my own uncomfortable encounters during the process.

scholarly journals Attending to Methodological Challenges in Qualitative Research to Foster Participation of Individuals with Chronic Critical Illness and Communication Impairments

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 233339362110000
Author(s):  
Fuchsia Howard ◽  
Sarah Crowe ◽  
Scott Beck ◽  
Gregory Haljan
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Critical Illness ◽  
Therapeutic Relationship ◽  
Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Interpretive Description ◽  
Study Participation ◽  
Chronic Critical Illness ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Communication Impairments

Individuals with chronic critical illness experience multiple complex physiological disturbances including ongoing respiratory failure, requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation, and thus communication impairments. In conducting a qualitative interpretive description study, we sought to ensure that individuals with chronic critical illness themselves were included as participants. Our commitment to recruiting these individuals to the study and ensuring their data meaningfully informed the analysis and findings required us to reconsider and challenge some of the traditional notions of high-quality qualitative research and develop appropriate practical strategies. These strategies included: (1) centering participant abilities and preferences, (2) adopting a flexible approach to conducting interviews, (3) engaging in a therapeutic relationship, and (4) valuing “thin” data. In this article, we extend existing literature describing the complexities of conducting research with individuals with communication impairments and strategies to consider in the hopes of informing future research with other populations historically excluded from study participation.

scholarly journals Conducting Research in Authoritarian Bureaucracies: Researcher Positionality, Access, Negotiation, Cooperation, Trepidation, and Avoiding the Influence of the Gatekeepers

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 160940692199686
Author(s):  
Dilsora Komil-Burley
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Unfair Treatment ◽  
The Government ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Gain Access

During Islam Karimov’s presidency in Uzbekistan, between 1991 and 2016, the government had a complex, repressive, and paradoxical relationship with Islam. Widespread persecution, fabricated crimes, and unfair treatment of Muslims were common. Therefore, investigating the relationship between the state and Islam involves significant political risk, which has an intimidating effect on both gatekeepers and participants. Based on the field research I conducted, this paper offers insights about what to expect when conducting research in strictly controlled states like Uzbekistan. Identifying the right gatekeepers who can grant or deny access to research sites, obtaining qualifying permissions, and negotiating and collaborating with gatekeepers are important to gain access to and remain in the relevant research sites for the study. This paper contributes to the literature on conducting qualitative research in authoritarian states. The researcher positionality and their role as an insider or outsider are important parts of such research; however, they also present challenges for researchers. The discussions of reflexivity and the reflexivity of discomfort can guide researchers who face similar challenges in the field. This paper also contributes to the understanding of the importance of considering gatekeeping structures in an effort to advance qualitative research methods and research ethics.

scholarly journals Addressing Contextual Challenges in Underserved Indigenous Spaces of the Global South: In Search of an Approach Based on Unlearning, Co-Learning, and Relearning

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 160940691989126
Author(s):  
Uttaran Dutta
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Global South ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Research Experiences ◽  
New Learning ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Emic And Etic

Qualitative scholars are increasingly arguing in favor of bridging the gap between emic and etic knowledge as well as to become critically reflexive while conducting research, especially in the underserved contexts. Conducting qualitative research in marginalized spaces of the global South often poses unique challenges. In this case, my research took place in rural eastern India where some of the challenges faced were my ethnocentrism and preconceived baggage, trust building challenges, and situated communicative and structural barriers. My field research experiences taught me the importance of unlearning, co-learning, and relearning to meaningfully engage with the underserved populations and their realities. Unlearning involves critically examining our previously acquired knowledge/assumptions toward exploring purviews and avenues for new learning. Co-learning is a process of collaborative learning with and in grassroots communities toward cocreating culturally meaningful knowledge and opening up avenues for social equality. Intertwined with unlearning and co-learning, the relearning efforts are focused on gaining and embodying new knowledge or ways of seeing. Grounded in the examples from my field research experiences, this article discusses the roles and significance of unlearning, co-learning, and relearning in conducting qualitative research in the underserved context of the global South.

My wellness is

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-88
Author(s):  
Robert Jason Lynch ◽  
Bettie Perry ◽  
Cheleah Googe ◽  
Jessica Krachenfels ◽  
Kristina McCloud ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Doctoral Program ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type

Purpose As online education proliferates, little attention has been given to understanding non-cognitive success factors, such as wellness, in online graduate student success. To begin to address this gap in understanding, this paper aims to explore the experiences of doctoral student wellness within the context of online distance education. Doctoral students, and their instructor, in an advanced qualitative research course sought to use collective autoethnography to address the following questions: How do the authors perceive the wellness as doctoral students engaged in distance education, and how do the authors understand the influence of the doctoral program cultures on the perceptions of the own wellness? Design/methodology/approach This paper emerged from a 12 week advanced qualitative research course where students opted to engage in a poetic arts-based collective autoethnography to reflect on and analyze their experience of wellness as doctoral students taking online courses. Data collection included the use of reflective journaling, creation of “My Wellness Is” poetry, and weekly group debriefing. Journals and poems were analyzed individually, then collectively. First and second cycle coding techniques were used, with the first cycle including process and descriptive coding and second round coding involving pattern coding. Findings Through first and second round coding, three primary themes emerged: positionality as an element of wellness, the role of community in maintaining wellness and awareness and action regarding wellness. Research limitations/implications Due to the inherent nature of qualitative research, and specifically autoethnographic methods, the findings of this study may be difficult to generalize to the broader online graduate student population. Future research on this topic may use the experiences explored in this study as a basis for the development of future quantitative studies to measure the extent of these findings in the broader population. Practical implications This paper includes implications for the development of interventions that may support wellness in graduate students in online environments including support interventions from faculty advisors, leveraging academic curriculum to promote wellness, and suggestions for building community among online graduate students. Social implications As technology advances, online education is quickly becoming a leading mechanism for obtaining a graduate education. Scholarship in this discipline has primarily focused on academic outcomes of online students and has largely focused on undergraduate populations. This paper broadens the conversation about online education by illustrating a non-cognitive dimension of the student experience, i.e. wellness, through the perspective of graduate students. Originality/value This paper addresses a gap in the current understanding of online graduate student experiences and outcomes using methods that provide vivid illustrations of the nuanced experience of online doctoral students.

scholarly journals The Interpretivist and The Learner

10.28945/3936 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 001-008
Author(s):  
Bonnie Amelia Dean
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Research Impact ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Doctoral Studies ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Learning Journey ◽  
Original Contribution

Aim/Purpose: In the time that we study for our dissertation, our learning takes many turns. Sometimes we feel excited, motivated and accomplished, while other times frustrated, tired or unsure. This paper presents a poem to illustrate one student’s PhD journey through reflection on those fluctuations, milestones and learning moments experienced along the way. Background: Central to the journey presented here is learning about the interpretivist paradigm, its approaches, methods and critics. Interpretivism is a qualitative research approach which, in many disciplines, continues to be the positivist’s poor cousin. Methodology: This original paper takes an autoethnographic approach, expressed through poetry. Autoethnography uses self-reflection to connect personal experience to wider social and cultural understandings and has been seldom applied to investigate and uncover the contested and emergent doctoral experience. Contribution: Little opportunities arise during doctoral studies for the student to pause, reflect and communicate new learnings or knowledge without the boundaries of academic discursive conventions. In this way, the poetic medium of expression offers an original contribution to the field. The poem also illuminates the struggles with finding voice, an ontology that resonates, and the place that marks independence from others in becoming a researcher. Findings: Poetry affords ideas and feelings intensity through a distinctive style and rhythm of literature. This original poem offers a creative artefact that can be useful for supervisors and students at any stage of their dissertation, to ignite conversation on the challenges of higher education study. Recommendations for Practitioners: This paper invites others to consider their learning journey and discovery of self, to reflect on and record the milestones, tensions and catalysts of learning. Recommendation for Researchers: It opens doors particularly for those exploring, or wanting to explore, qualitative research through an interpretivist paradigm where knowledge is socially or experientially co-constructed and the researcher is inseparable to the research. Impact on Society: Becoming a researcher as synonymous with being a learner is a crucial discovery that widely connects to being a practitioner in any field. Learning to love the red pen is a metaphor of doctoral studies used to denote acceptance of feedback on written work as well as acceptance more broadly that there is always more to learn. Future Research: What if we encouraged doctoral students and academics to challenge convention and write/produce/create authentic expressions of learning? Encouragement should be afforded to doctoral students and academics to reflect during and beyond their research journeys, in a medium that personally resonates to empower deeper insights and understandings.

scholarly journals Collective efficacy and disorder through the eyes of neighbourhood inhabitants and key informants

2021 ◽  
pp. 147737082110006
Author(s):  
Wim Hardyns ◽  
Thom Snaphaan ◽  
Sara Willems ◽  
Lieven J. R. Pauwels
Keyword(s):  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Ecological Stability ◽  
Organizational Processes ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Key Informants ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
Key Informant

This study examines the ecological reliability, convergent validity and ecological stability of neighbourhood (dis)organizational processes measured by means of two methods: inhabitant surveys and the so-called key informant analysis technique. Considering that ecological processes play a major role in many contemporary criminological theories and research, it is vital to take into account methodological challenges and to question the reliability, validity and stability of the measures reflecting these underlying processes. (Dis)organizational processes are predominantly measured by means of questionnaires surveying neighbourhood inhabitants. To yield ecologically reliable and valid measures this approach requires large numbers of respondents. In this study we analyse the relationships between ecological measures of neighbourhood processes based on surveys of inhabitants versus key informants. The findings suggest that key informants can provide reliable, valid and stable measures of (dis)organizational neighbourhood processes. Therefore, the key informant analysis technique is an essential complementary, or even substitutive, method in the measurement of neighbourhood processes; shared survey-method variance is eliminated and it is possible to survey fewer key informants than inhabitants to obtain reliable and valid information on social trust and disorder. Nevertheless, this method is not suitable for measuring all neighbourhood processes, such as informal social control. Therefore, outstanding challenges and avenues for future research are discussed as well.

scholarly journals Disruptions, distractions, and discoveries: Doctoral students’ reflections on a pandemic

2020 ◽  
pp. 147332502097334
Author(s):  
Chinyere Y Eigege ◽  
Priscilla P Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Research Agendas ◽  
Work Education ◽  
The Impact

This paper describes the reflections of two social work PhD students based on their personal and professional experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. The students describe their positionality and use that to expound on the impact of the pandemic on their lives. They reflect on the disruptions to their social work education and research priorities including transitioning to online learning and modifications to research agendas. They then discuss ongoing distractions such as worries about getting sick, mental health concerns, and financial constraints. They share their discoveries about glaring disparities in coronavirus infection and death rates, the need to adjust research agendas in response to current events, and the urgency for qualitative research strategies to add meaning to the numbers being reported. In addition, the authors describe shared experiences and intersections they discovered while writing this essay. Finally, recommendations for practice include recommitting to social work values to help surmount the ongoing waves of this pandemic; reimagining social work education so that disparities and injustice intersect with every subject taught and graduates become experts at leading social change; and harnessing the untapped potential of qualitative research to drive real, systemic change.

If things go South: The renewed policy of sport mega events allocation and its implications for future research

2021 ◽  
pp. 101269022098134
Author(s):  
Billy Graeff ◽  
Jorge Knijnik
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
Global South ◽  
International Olympic Committee ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Construction Costs ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
The Past ◽  
Global North ◽  
Analytical Tools

The past few decades have seen an increase of sport mega events (SMEs) held outside the Global North. This tendency has been accompanied by a growing public expenditure in these events. This paper employs selected Global South SMEs to discuss this trend. By critically analysing public documents, biddings and reports, the study traces comparisons between 21st-century Global South and Global North SMEs expenditures, in the revenue of franchise owners (FIFA and the International Olympic Committee), in construction costs within the budgets and in the costs related to security. This comprehensive and intertwined investigation shows the need for new analytical tools – such as the Renewed Policy of Sport Mega Events Allocation, a concept developed here - to better capture the central questions posed by the challenges of ‘SMEs going South’.

Corporate Sustainability Indicators In Banking Sector

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 581-584
Author(s):  
Dumitrascu Mihaela ◽  
Ileana Ciutacu ◽  
Iulian Vasile Săvulescu
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Corporate Sustainability ◽  
Sustainability Indicators ◽  
Global Reporting Initiative ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Industry Sector ◽  
Sustainability Reports

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to see the situation regarding the indicators from the Sustainability Reports. For this we use a qualitative research, a content analysis of these reports. Our sample is composed by the banks that develop their activity in our country for which we analysed the last year reports at group level. We choose only an industry sector to obtain the homogeneity of the sample. The findings reveal a number of 86 indicators, which were used in these reports. We analyzed the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators used by 12 companies. The most reported indicators are EN4, EN8, LA1, LA10, while the last reported indicators are E5, E10 E13 E15, EN20, EN21, EN23, EN27, HR9, HR10 The results obtained are important for future research in this area, for both managers and researchers.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document