Showing papers in "Qualitative Inquiry in 2012"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the methodological issues arising from interviewing elites, with an emphasis on gaining access, acquiring trust, and establishing rapport, and argue the central importance of preinterview preparation, which is essential to enhance the researcher's knowledgeability.
Abstract: This article focuses on the methodological issues arising from interviewing elites, with an emphasis on gaining access, acquiring trust, and establishing rapport. I argue the central importance of preinterview preparation, which is essential to enhance the researcher’s knowledgeability. The success of interviewing elites hinges on the researcher’s knowledgeability of the interviewee’s life history and background. It enhances the researcher’s positionality and decreases the status imbalance
between researcher and researched. The researcher’s positionality is dynamic; it shifts over the course of research. Moreover, positionality is not solely determined externally in the context of an insider/outsider dichotomy but is on a continuum that can be proactively influenced by the researcher. These issues are discussed with reference to recent research on postsocialist transition in Estonia, which involved interviews with political and economic elites. These experiences will be of interest to social scientists working on elites because it focuses on meeting the challenges of interviewing elites from establishing contact through to postinterview follow-up.
494 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that a more frank acknowledgment of the convergence of subject-object roles does not necessarily threaten the validity of social science, or at least, “it is a threat with a corresponding gain.”
Abstract: In contrast to many other social sciences, criminology has largely resisted the notion that qualitative inquiry has autoethnographic dimensions and remained quiet on the subject of the emotional investment required of ethnographic fieldworkers studying stigmatized and/or vulnerable “others” in settings where differential indices of power, authority, vulnerability, and despair are felt more keenly than most. Emotion appears in criminology in discussions about public sentiments, populist punitiveness, and the emotional motivations behind offending but rarely features as a lens through which one might better understand the process of doing research. This article examines the state of the field, discusses the work of a small minority of ethnographers who acknowledge the emotional content of prison studies, and tells the story of a personal research encounter that changed the author’s methodological and theoretical orientation. It argues that a more frank acknowledgment of the convergence of subject-object rol...
270 citations
TL;DR: The risk of Othering as mentioned in this paper, the risk of portraying the other essentially different, and translating this difference, arouses questions of representation, and specifically the risk for Othering.
Abstract: Writing about the Other arouses questions of representation, and specifically the risk of Othering, that is, the risk of portraying the other essentially different, and translating this difference ...
241 citations
TL;DR: The concept of causation has long been controversial in qualitative research as discussed by the authors, and many qualitative researchers have rejected causal explanation as incompatible with an interpretivist or constructivistic approach to qualitative research.
Abstract: The concept of causation has long been controversial in qualitative research, and many qualitative researchers have rejected causal explanation as incompatible with an interpretivist or constructiv...
226 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that such practices can lead to (over)simplified knowledge claims, something especially risky when participant "voice" is presented as an expression of "experience" devoid of context.
Abstract: In this article, the authors respond to the editors’ call to challenge simplistic and mechanistic approaches to qualitative research that preclude dense and multilayered treatment of data. The editors assert that such practices can lead to (over)simplified knowledge claims, something especially risky when participant “voice” is presented as an expression of “experience” devoid of context. The authors approach the methodological project of a simplified voice in qualitative inquiry that attempts to offer an authentic essence or voice that is present, stable, and self-reflective. Aided by Deleuze to conceive a voice without an image, the authors specifically challenge simplistic treatments of voice that beckon voices to “speak for themselves” or that reduce complicated and conflicting voices to analytical “chunks” that can be interpreted free of context and circumstance. The authors conclude with illustrations from their research that demonstrate how they put such complicating practices to work and how they ...
193 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address the simplistic use of the interview as a methodological technique that abstracts the humanist subject as an object for analysis, rather than simply a tool of inquiry.
Abstract: In this article, we address the simplistic use of the interview as a methodological technique that abstracts the humanist subject as an object for analysis. Rather than simply a tool of inquiry, we...
117 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the use of access to information (ATI) and freedom of information (FOI) requests as a means of data production, and show how these requests intersect with issues such as reflexivity, the Hawthorne effect, interviewing, and discourse analysis.
Abstract: Access to information (ATI) and freedom of information (FOI) mechanisms are now relevant features of governments in many liberal democracies today. Citizens, organizations, and permanent residents in several countries across the globe can request unpublished information from federal, provincial, state, county, and municipal government agencies. However, most qualitative researchers appear to be unfamiliar with ATI/FOI or write it off as an approach used by journalists rather than as a way to systematically produce qualitative and longitudinal data about government practices. In this article, the authors discuss the use of ATI/FOI requests as a means of data production. The authors show how the use of ATI/FOI requests intersects with issues such as reflexivity, the Hawthorne effect, interviewing, and discourse analysis. The study objective is to foster a multidisciplinary discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of ATI/FOI requests as a data production tool.
83 citations
TL;DR: The 7,024th Patient project as mentioned in this paper is an arts-informed, narrative study that resulted in an installation that is 1,739 square feet in area and over 9 feet in height.
Abstract: The process to knowing entails perpetual curiosity as well as wearied surrender in which one’s understandings transform. This philosophy describes the approach that our team took to research, interpret and exhibit patients’ narratives of open-heart surgery in “The 7,024th Patient” project – an arts-informed, narrative study that resulted in an installation that is 1,739 square feet in area and over 9 feet in height. With the intention to physically and emotionally engage viewers, patients’ stories were aesthetically translated into an installation of poetry and photography that was configured as a winding, labryinth-like path. In this article, we recount the journey of creating “The 7,024th Patient” exhibition illustrating the employment of the arts as a tool in research for acquiring understanding. In order to vividly highlight our journey, poetic excerpts and photographic images from the installation are embedded.
79 citations
TL;DR: The authors proposes that methodological multiplicity and complexity can move researchers toward conceptual, analytical, and interpretive spaces that can meet the needs of ever-changing communities of practice by using voids, intervals (reflections, disclosures, images), and examples from other researchers.
Abstract: In this article, the author wants to work against simplified and mechanical notions of qualitative research simultaneously illustrating that researchers have a choice. The author aims to create an overlapping and plural text that is dynamic, presenting possibilities for surprise and more intensive experiences with research and texts. More specifically, the author disrupts the traditional ordered narrative in a conceptualizing and critiquing of methodological simplicity through the use of voids, intervals (reflections, disclosures, images), and examples from other researchers. The author proposes that methodological multiplicity and complexity can move researchers toward conceptual, analytical, and interpretive spaces that can meet the needs of ever-changing communities of practice.
61 citations
TL;DR: The authors consider how poststructural orientations to thinking about epistemology and ontology have been enriched by feminist materialist readings of quantum physics and suggest that greater complexity might involve opening up qualitative research to a methodology of encounters, an array of interruptive, aleatory practices.
Abstract: I consider how poststructural orientations to thinking about epistemology and ontology have been enriched by feminist materialist readings of quantum physics. In light of these developments, I suggest that greater complexity might involve opening up qualitative research to a methodology of encounters, an array of interruptive, aleatory practices, attending to encounters that are both accidental and on purpose. I show how this approach has informed my work, intervening in habitual analytics involving scholarly critique and inspiring new ways of dealing with and expanding what might be thought of as data in qualitative research. Refusing the repositivation of qualitative research, I believe that what is at stake is more than just the knowledge we make, it’s the worlds we would like to make, the kinds of people we want to be, the kind of work we want to do in the world.
58 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an in-depth qualitative study that examined ideological beliefs among Indigenous parents regarding school desegregation and school "choice" policies in South Africa was conducted, and the results showed that the majority of the parents were opposed to desegregating schools.
Abstract: This article emanates from an in-depth qualitative study that examined ideological beliefs among Indigenous parents regarding school desegregation and school “choice” policies in South Africa. The ...
TL;DR: Maxwell and Donmoyer as mentioned in this paper argue that narrow definitions of causality in educational research tend to disqualify qualitative research from influence and funding, and they argue that such narrow definitions can be used to exclude qualitative studies from influence.
Abstract: Maxwell and Donmoyer both argue in this issue of Qualitative Inquiry that narrow definitions of causality in educational research tend to disqualify qualitative research from influence (and funding...
TL;DR: In this article, two American-Israeli women have encountered difficulties while conducting research in Israel on issues related to Jewish-Arab dynamics, and since beginning their research they have encountered many difficulties.
Abstract: This article emerges from struggles we, two American–Israeli women, have encountered while conducting research in Israel on issues related to Jewish-Arab dynamics. Since beginning our research we h...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider whether constructivist qualitative researchers have anything to offer policymakers who expect researchers to tell them what works, and they consider whether it is legitimate for qualitative researchers who claim to be employing a constructivist research paradigm to even attempt to provide simplified causal explanations that policy makers normally expect.
Abstract: The article asks whether constructivist qualitative researchers have anything to offer policymakers who expect researchers to tell them what works. The first part of the article addresses philosophical objections to characterizing the social world in cause/effect terms. Specifically, it considers whether it is legitimate for qualitative researchers who claim to be employing a constructivist research paradigm to even attempt to provide the sort of simplified causal explanations that policy makers normally expect. The second part of the article takes a more empirical tack by focusing on three recent evaluation studies in which funders wanted to learn what types of programs they should support to produce desired results. The underlying question in this part of the article is pragmatic: Even if there is no paradigmatic prohibition against attempting to answer policymakers’ what-works question, are constructivist qualitative researchers able to answer policymakers’ bottom-line question in a defensible way?
TL;DR: From High Skill to High School as mentioned in this paper describes the experiences of immigrant professionals in an adult education employment program and reveals that immigrants with graduate degrees and years of experience performed well in the program.
Abstract: From High Skill to High School details the experiences of immigrant professionals in an adult education employment program. This research reveals that immigrants with graduate degrees and years of ...
TL;DR: In the aftermath of my father's sudden death in 1988, I had resigned myself to living without the closure of a healing conversation that could break my heart as discussed by the authors, and this narrative is a work of memory and mourning.
Abstract: This narrative is a work of memory and mourning. In the aftermath of my father’s sudden death in 1988, I had resigned myself to living without the closure of a healing conversation that could break...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine their work as education researchers in three different international contexts (Kenya, Cambodia, and "Indian country" in the United States) highlighting research practice shaped by context, relationship, and discourse emergent in their investigations of schooling, language revitalization, and scientific knowledge access.
Abstract: Indigenous scholars have debated the impact that researchers and the act of researching have on Native and Indigenous people and communities. Although literature on this subject has grown, little has been written explicitly laying out the doing of research with these communities. The authors seek to articulate their doing by drawing upon the essential research principles and standards set by scholars. The authors seek to examine their work as education researchers in three different international contexts—Kenya, Cambodia, and “Indian country” in the United States—highlighting research practice shaped by context, relationship, and discourse emergent in their investigations of schooling, language revitalization, and scientific knowledge access. The authors reflect, analyze, and summarize their actions of decolonizing research that were present or particularly challenging cross-culturally, in each context. Examples of common action in the projects include relinquishing control, reenvisioning knowledge, culti...
TL;DR: In this paper, the author explores the dynamics of father-son relationships by calling upon bits and pieces of memory and representing them through poetic forms and vignettes, and explores the relationship between the two.
Abstract: In this article the author seeks to explore the dynamics of father–son relationships by calling upon bits and pieces of memory and representing them through poetic forms and vignettes. Issues of em...
TL;DR: The authors propose that answers be seen not as a final step in the research process but rather as an opening, an assemblage, a jar, or a call to transition into new forms of questions, new outlooks on methods and new processes of thought.
Abstract: Although educational researchers predominately study complex, multidimensional problems, research findings and proposed arguments can sometimes be characterized as definite, simplified, and prone to particular types of answers or expected outcomes. The authors seek to problematize these definite and simplified notions of answers by looking at some historical developments of dialogue and how answers have been conceptualized within these historical discourses. The authors propose that answers be seen not as a final step in the research process but rather as an opening, an assemblage, a jar, or a call to transition into new forms of questions, new outlooks on methods, and new processes of thought. Finally, the renegotiation of the philosophical notion of answers that the authors will discuss in this article exemplifies potential for a renewed commitment to meaningful educational research.
TL;DR: In this article, a poetic-narrative autoethnography employs expressive writing in exploring the author's experiences of living and growing up as a second generation Kindertransport survivor.
Abstract: This poetic-narrative autoethnography employs expressive writing in exploring the author’s experiences of living and growing up as a second generation Kindertransport survivor. The methodological a...
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TL;DR: This paper explored the lives of seven women in professional golf and prior to this, like the women in my research, I had earned my living in the supposedly cutthroat world of professional sport.
Abstract: My PhD explored the lives of seven women in professional golf and prior to this, like the women in my research, I had earned my living in the supposedly cutthroat world of professional sport. Durin...
TL;DR: The epistemic interview is a conversational practice, which aims to generate knowledge by subjecting respondents' beliefs to dialectical tests of reasons as mentioned in this paper, which draws inspiration from Socratic dialogues where the interviewer asks confronting questions to press respondents to articulate the normative bases of their views.
Abstract: The epistemic interview is a conversational practice, which aims to generate knowledge by subjecting respondents’ beliefs to dialectical tests of reasons. Developed by Svend Brinkmann, this model draws inspiration from Socratic dialogues where the interviewer asks confronting questions to press respondents to articulate the normative bases of their views. In this article, the author argues that Brinkmann’s model is a valuable methodological innovation but warrants further development. The author suggests that the epistemic interview can be put on a stronger methodological footing when the Socratic model is complemented by developments in democratic theory, particularly its deliberative variety. Translating deliberative democratic virtues to methodological terms addresses some of the epistemic model’s gaps, including an account of the dynamic of knowledge production and the ethical norms that govern this method. To illustrate the practice of epistemic interviewing, the author draws on her experience in int...
TL;DR: In this article, a triple autoethnographic text written by three men of differing racial and cultural backgrounds with the purpose of exploring the nature of their relationships with their fathers is presented.
Abstract: This is a triple autoethnographic text written by three men of differing racial and cultural backgrounds with the purpose of exploring the nature of their relationships with their fathers. The auth...
TL;DR: The academic job hunt is fraught with unknowns: a time of fear, hope, and despair as mentioned in this paper. And failure, according to the academic canonical narrative, is anything other than a tenure-track professorship.
Abstract: Failure, according to the academic canonical narrative, is anything other than a tenure-track professorship. The academic job hunt is fraught with unknowns: a time of fear, hope, and despair. This ...
TL;DR: For instance, this paper pointed out that many scholars have increasingly turned to the Internet to examine diasporic communities and corresponding identities, and while I am happy that social scientists have embraced the use of onl...
Abstract: Currently, many scholars have increasingly turned to the Internet to examine diasporic communities and corresponding identities. While I am happy that social scientists have embraced the use of onl...
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TL;DR: In this paper, Adams used a relational perspective to understand the relationship I have with my father, a perspective that conceived of our relationship as a co-constitutive endeavo...
Abstract: In “Seeking Father” (Adams, 2006), I used a relational perspective to understand the relationship I have with my father—a perspective that conceived of our relationship as a co-constitutive endeavo...
TL;DR: In this article, a personal journey through the ethicsapproval process at a Canadian university integrating components of the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS) is described, and the author reflects on a personal journeys through the Ethics Approval Process.
Abstract: It is sometimes a difficult journey receiving ethics approval for research involving vulnerable populations, research involving our own children, or innovative research methodologies such as autoethnography. This autoethnographical account is a story about one student who wanted to write a PhD dissertation in a very different way and also the story of her co-supervisors who supported the student in using autoethnography as a creative way to share her “secrets of mothering” and who also supported her through an ethics-approval process that was both challenging and rewarding. This article reflects on a personal journey through the ethics-approval process at a Canadian university integrating components of the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS), that guides university ethics committees across Canada, and asks the questions: What is the purpose of research and how can research ethics boards support research and stories that are difficult to tell and difficult to hear? It is an inquiry into secrets and difficu...
TL;DR: In this paper, the complexity and nuance of qualitative practice are discussed, and the author intervenes in the simplification of understandings of qualitative inquiry as mere method overlook the complexity of practice.
Abstract: Simplified understandings of qualitative inquiry as mere method overlook the complexity and nuance of qualitative practice. As is the call of this special issue, the author intervenes in the simpli...
TL;DR: In this article, the author experimented with artful writing as a means of contemplating research with internationally educated female teachers, in doing so, she sat with, listens to, writes from p...
Abstract: In this article, the author experiments with artful writing as a means of contemplating research with internationally educated female teachers. In doing so, she sits with, listens to, writes from p...
TL;DR: In this article, participatory action synthesis is presented as a new approach to qualitative synthesis, which may be used to facilitate the promotion and use of qualitative research for policy and practice.
Abstract: This article presents participatory action synthesis as a new approach to qualitative synthesis which may be used to facilitate the promotion and use of qualitative research for policy and practice...