scholarly journals Reflexivity in Qualitative Research: A Journey of Learning

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erlinda Palaganas ◽  
Marian Sanchez ◽  
Ma. Visitacion Molintas ◽  
Ruel Caricativo
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Research Process ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Conducting Research

Conducting research, more so, fieldwork, changes every researcher in many ways. This paper shares the various reflexivities – the journeys of learning – that we underwent as field researchers. Here, we share the changes brought about to ourselves, as a result of the research process, and how these changes have affected the research process. It highlights the journey of discovering how we, as researchers, shaped and how we were shaped by the research process and outputs. All these efforts were done in our attempts to discover and understand various social phenomena and issues such as poverty, development, gender, migration, and ill health in the Philippines. This article includes the challenges encountered in our epistemological stance/s and personal and methodological concerns shown in our reflexivity notes/insights. Indeed, it is when researchers acknowledge these changes, that reflexivity in research constitutes part of the research findings. It is through this consciousness of the relational and reflective nature of being aware of personal and methodological concerns that we honor ourselves, our teammates/co-researchers and all others involved with the research project. As researchers, we need to be cognizant of our contributions to the construction of meanings and of lived experiences throughout the research process. We need to acknowledge that indeed it is impossible to remain “outside of” one's study topic while conducting research.

The Research Audit Trail: Methodological Guidance for Application in Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Carcary
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Information Systems Management ◽  
Audit Trail ◽  
Research Outcomes ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Research Findings

The merits of qualitative research remain an issue of ongoing debate and investigation. Qualitative researchers emphasise issues such as credibility, dependability, and transferability in demonstrating the trustworthiness of their research outcomes. This refers to the extent to which the research outcomes are conceptually sound and serves as the basis for enabling other researchers to assess their value. Carcary (2009) proposed trustworthiness in qualitative inquiry could be established through developing a physical and intellectual research audit trail – a strategy that involves maintaining an audit of all key stages and theoretical, methodological, and analytical decisions, as well as documenting how a researcher’s thinking evolves throughout a research project. Since 2009, this publication has been cited in greater than 600 studies. The current paper provides an analysis of the use and value of the research audit trail, based on the author’s application of this strategy across diverse research projects in the field of Information Systems management over a ten year time period. Based on a critical reflection on insights gained through these projects, this paper provides an in‑depth discussion of a series of guidelines for developing and applying the research audit trail in practice. These guidelines advance existing thinking and provide practical recommendations in relation to maintaining a research audit trail throughout a research project. Based on these guidelines and the core issues that should be covered at a physical and intellectual research audit trail level, a checklist that can be tailored to each project’s context is provided to support novice researchers and those who are new to the research audit trail strategy. As such, this paper demonstrates commitment to rigor in qualitative research. It provides a practical contribution in terms of advancing guidelines and providing a supporting checklist for ensuring the quality and transparency of theoretical, methodological, and analytical processes in qualitative inquiry. Embedding these guidelines throughout the research process will promote critical reflection among researchers across all stages of qualitative research and, in tracing through the researcher’s logic, will provide the basis for enabling other researchers to independently assess whether the research findings can serve as a platform for further investigation.

Conducting Qualitative Research on Wife Abuse: Dealing with the Issue of Anxiety

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sevaste Chatzifotiou
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Wife Abuse ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Abused Women ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Sensitive Topics ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Sensitive Group

Abused women are a very sensitive group with whom to conduct research. As such, researchers need to be aware of this inherent sensitivity and should design their research accordingly. The ethics of social research, the implications of conducting research on sensitive topics, the possible exposition of the participants to stressful moments for the sake of the interview are important issues to be taken under serious consideration by the researcher prior to undertaking the fieldwork. However, during the fieldwork the researcher might face issues which she had paid less attention to while designing the inquiry, namely issues of dealing with the anxiety that the interviews would expose on herself too. It is well recognised in the literature that the rights and safety of the participants must be of paramount importance to the researchers in every research project. Still, the researcher's ‘safety’ should not be underestimated or be given little attention. This paper, based on the experience of conducting research with abused women documents the issue of researcher's anxiety which was a salient issue throughout the study. Documenting the research process, from the research design through to issues which arose after the fieldwork, the paper draws attention on the issue of anxiety experienced by the researcher in various stages of the research, including prior, during and after leaving the field, and provides ways that these were dealt with.

Using crystallization to understand loneliness in later life: integrating social science and creative narratives in sensitive qualitative research

2021 ◽  
pp. 146879412110059
Author(s):  
Barbara Barbosa Neves ◽  
Josephine Wilson ◽  
Alexandra Sanders ◽  
Renata Kokanović
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Creative Writing ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Older People ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Care Homes ◽  
Social Phenomena

This article draws on crystallization, a qualitative framework developed by Laurel Richardson and Laura Ellingson, to show the potential of using sociological narratives and creative writing to better analyze and represent the lived experiences of loneliness among older people living in Australian care homes. Crystallization uses a multi-genre approach to study and present social phenomena. At its core is a concern for the ethics of representation, which is critical when engaging with vulnerable populations. We use two case studies from research on loneliness to illustrate an application of crystallization through different narrative types. To supplement our sociological narratives, we invited author Josephine Wilson to write creative narratives based on the case studies. Josephine was awarded the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2017 for Extinctions, a novel exploring themes such as later life and loneliness. By contrasting the two approaches—sociological and creative narratives—we discuss the implications of crystallization for qualitative research.

A Comparison of Two Different Strategies for Undergraduate Research Within the Framework of a Rotor Dynamics Laboratory

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Meagher ◽  
Xi Wu
Keyword(s):  
Student Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Rotor Dynamics ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Literature Searches ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Directed Research

Introductory graduate level courses and upper division technical electives often present a student with his or her first research project. Time limitations of a course require a balance between open ended discovery, development of specialized technical knowledge, and teaching the mechanics of research methodology. The case study presented in this paper is an outline of two different strategies to introduce research to undergraduate students within the framework of a rotor dynamics laboratory. The laboratory had historically been designed to demonstrate machinery malfunctions in a series of short exercises. The laboratory was changed to have several introductory labs designed to prepare students for an extended self-directed research project that included literature searches, paper reviews, design of experiments, and presentation of research findings to the class. In one strategy the students were expected to practice discovery primarily through experimentation with specific, restricted goals. In the other strategy the students were given more flexibility defining the research question and in establishing priorities. Both projects had students design an experiment whose results were compared to mathematical simulations and each led to research that was presented at a conference. Although both were considered successful in terms of student learning and research outcomes, a balance biased toward experimentation and restricted student options for discovery actually led to broader research findings and more in-depth student research but with less student appreciation for and practice with the necessary preliminary stages of conducting research. The student learning experiences and methodologies for each scenario are presented and compared in this paper.

scholarly journals Through Their Lens: Using Visual Methods to Illuminate the Lived Experiences of Diverse Older Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 727-727
Author(s):  
Jarmin Yeh ◽  
Tam Perry
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
New Jersey ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Visual Methods

Abstract Visual methods, like photovoice and photo-elicitation, have attracted modest attention in gerontological inquiry with diverse and vulnerable community-dwelling older adults. Visual methods are based on the idea of inserting images, produced by informants or not, into research interviews, allowing informants to be the experts of knowledge and meaning-making while the researcher becomes the student. The empowerment of informants as subject-collaborators in the research process is a distinctive feature of visual methods. Benefits include revealing unique insights into diverse phenomena by evoking elements of human consciousness, feelings, and memories that words may not easily express and surveys may not easily capture. This symposium presents qualitative research using visual methods to illuminate the lived experiences, voices, and perspectives of diverse and vulnerable older adults living in New Jersey, Connecticut, and California. Reyes’ research critiques how the operationalization of mainstream notions of civic participation becomes exclusionary and provides a more inclusive understanding of how civic participation is enacted and performed through the practices of Latinx and African American older adults living in New Jersey. Versey’s research with homeless older adults subverts the attention often focused within cities by interrogating the meaning of place with informants whose needs and desires are often overlooked or obscured by residing in a small, rural town in central Connecticut. Yeh’s research on aging in place inequalities chronicles the everyday lives of housed and unhoused older San Franciscans to reveal their tactics for negotiating a moving tension between the daily interiority of identity and contingencies of a changing environment. Qualitative Research Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.

scholarly journals Metode Penulisan Naskah Kolektif: Di Balik Pertunjukan Teater “Tanah Ode Kampung Kami”

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Iman Soleh ◽  
Mahesa El Gasani ◽  
Mazeinda Al Biruni ◽  
Tari Purwanti
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Data Collection Methods ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
Theatrical Performances ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Collection Methods

The creation of a play entitled “Tanah Ode Kampung Kami” have several stages, starting from determining the issue and the ideas, conducting research, implementing the method of collective writing text, and finally becomes a show. The research process is a way of organizing and understanding the main problem of a play, i.e. the land, so it would be able to be implemented as a drama script collectively in theatrical performances. Collective text aims to make actors and directors have the same perception of a predetermined theme. This study uses a qualitative research design with data collection methods in the form of observations and interviews. The conclusion of this study is that the collective text method used in the “Tanah Ode Kampung Kami” script is used to harmonize the ideas that were built together so that it becomes a complete text which is the result of collaborative thinking between the elements involved in the process of making the script.

Scientific Collaborative Research with Māori Communities: Kaupapa or Kūpapa Māori?

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll ◽  
Maui Hudson ◽  
Jeff Foote ◽  
Maria Hepi ◽  
Marara Rogers-Koroheke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Collaboration ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Track Record ◽  
Kaupapa Māori ◽  
Research Excellence ◽  
Conducting Research

The phrase ‘for Māori, by Māori, with Māori’, synonymous with Kaupapa Māori research, reflects the strong community participatory orientation and aims of this paradigm. Its use has evolved from glib reference and catchphrase, to a ‘checklist'/gauge of how well a research project has enacted community participatory principles, and to what extent Māori participation in the research process is meaningful and empowered. Description of research according to this ‘shorthand’ definition, however, can be misleading. This paper will discuss two models of collaborative scientific research, conducted at the Institute of Environmental Health and Research (ESR) in association with Māori communities, ‘for, by and with Māori’. However, Te Riu o Hokianga and the Rakaipaaka Health and Ancestry Study occupy opposite ends of the shared partnership – researcher-led spectrum, and differ quite significantly in their orientation, application of Māori research principles, and approach to achievement of their objectives. If the ‘for, by and with’ mantra does not in itself sufficiently guarantee alignment with Kaupapa Māori principles, what other mechanisms exist to ensure that this is so? Is articulating the degree of Māori responsiveness for funding and ethics proposals adequate? Where these judgements are largely subjective, who decides when a research project ‘measures up’: Kaupapa Māori researchers, participating Māori communities, funders, or perhaps ethics committees? The importance of Māori-focused innovation, development and advancement in research has been indicated within Vote RS&T policy and incorporated into funding/investment opportunities within an existing framework that values research excellence and a track record. Ensuring that research excellence as defined and purchased translates into excellence in practice is one issue. A further and equally important issue is whether the measures and means of achieving excellence therein translate into excellence for research practice with Māori communities. In the context of conducting research with Māori within a Crown Research Institute, a third issue emerges: that of the alignment (or not) of science excellence indicators and outcomes with those of Māori research excellence. With reference to two examples of science research collaboration with Māori communities, these three key issues will be considered, with inference for Māori research excellence and future directions in collaborative scientific research.

The methodological challenge of cross-national qualitative research

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Martinus ◽  
David Hedgcock
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Qualitative Case Studies ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Cross National

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the difficulties faced during the interview process in a cross-national qualitative comparative case study between Japan and Australia. It discusses the challenges in producing insightful data and preserving the integrity of findings when methodologies are influenced by different cultural and professional environments. Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores literature on cross-national qualitative research in the context of policy research as well as the philosophical and professional differences between Japan and Western countries (like Australia). It reflects on practical examples and strategies used by the researcher during the ethics and interview processes when adapting widely accepted qualitative case study methodology to suit the Japanese cultural and professional environment. Findings – The paper finds that linguistic, cultural, professional and philosophical differences between the countries challenged initial researcher assumptions that comparability between the case study regions would be maintained through the application of accepted methodologies and an “insider” status. It observes that the quest to generate rich and insightful data places the character and capability of the researcher as central in the research process. Originality/value – This paper provides practical examples and strategies for social science researchers using interview methods in Japan and Australian. It points to a need for further research on the ambiguous and elusive nature of the “insider” paradigm as well as the “comparability” of cross-national qualitative case studies when methodological “flexibility” is used to enrich and preserve the integrity of research findings.

Reflections on the research process

2020 ◽  
pp. 181-188
Author(s):  
Natalie Booth
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Social Position ◽  
Personal Reflection ◽  
Depth Data ◽  
The Family ◽  
Conducting Research

This chapter provides some brief reflections on the realities of conducting research with the caregiving kin. While this openness enhances the ‘credibility’ of the qualitative research, it can also help future researchers learn about the complexities and messiness of fieldwork. The chapter then discusses the practical challenges of recruiting participants, the ethical issues of managing implicit withdrawal, and a more personal reflection about how the researcher considers their own identity to have shaped the data collected. Ultimately, what is most important is that the fieldwork produced original, rich, in-depth data that are grounded in the lives and experiences of the family members, and informed by their accounts of maternal imprisonment. It is one of very few studies that has engaged directly with relatives looking after children whose mothers are serving a custodial sentence in England, producing insights that detail the ‘family sentence’ that they serve from a ‘disenfranchised’ social position.

scholarly journals From crowdsourcing data to network building: Reflections on conducting research in the open

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-327
Author(s):  
Katy Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Online Courses ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Completion Rates ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Network Building ◽  
Social Media Tools ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Recent Project

This commentary presents an account of a recent project as an example of engaged research. The project focused on collecting and analysing the completion rates of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). It began informally, through blogging, and developed into a funded research project with formal academic outputs. In addition to its formal outputs, the project is also cited as an example of the benefits of conducting an 'open' research project. This reflective piece tells the story of the project, and discusses the lessons learned about the value of openness and the interplay of different social media tools in the research process.

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