Opening the Ears that Science Closed: Transforming Qualitative Data Using Oral Coding

The purpose of this article is to describe an alternative method for transcribing and transforming (analyzing and interpreting) oral data collected from interviews. Rather than record and then immediately transcribe data, the “oral coding” approach relies on a Three-Phase Approach. Phase One involves extended and reflective listening to the original interview data. This extended time with data in its original oral form enables researchers to construct both propositional and tacit knowledge in relation to the phenomenon being investigated. Intensive encounters with the original data are continued during the Second Phase of analysis and interpretation by re-recording on another device those segments that are thought to be potentially thematic as well the researcher’s own reflective and interpretive comments in relation to these segments. Finally, in Phase Three, using a combination of keyboarding and optionally voice recognition software, both in vivo quotes and researcher reflections are transcribed to text and organized by research question. This entire Three Phase process is intended to transform raw data into understandable accounts by allowing researchers to “hang on” to the original oral data for an extended time thus delaying reduction to text and thereby enabling researchers to capture participant nuances conveyed through tone, inflection, volume, pause, and emphases. Consequently, this method may have the potential to promote a higher degree of credibility and trustworthiness. Experience to date provides limited support for this process based on a previously published article (Bernauer, Semich, Klentzin, & Holdan, 2013) that used both traditional and oral coding and another article (Bernauer, 2015) that used only oral coding. It is hoped that colleagues try out this method and “transform” it based on their own creative insights

How calls for research can awaken self-reflexivity and latent interests in scholarly inquiry

While we may think that we are well-aware of our scholarly interests, “calls for research” can provide the spark that can transform latent and largely unconscious interests into written accounts. This account describes how “calls” can incite us to explore phenomena that, while there may have been no conscious prior interest, serve to incite creative interest. Psychological perspectives are integrated with autoethnograhic experience with “calls” in order to explore how these calls can spark creative responses. Suggestions for improving calls revolve around understanding to a greater extent the dynamic relationship among calls, creative inquiry, and subsequent transformation into written accounts

The Unfolding of Methodological Identity: An Autobiographical Study Using Humor, Competing Voices, and Twists

This article explores my journey from quantitative to qualitative researcher, including the effects this journey has had on my identity as well as on those whom I previously referred to as “subjects”. “Identity” is examined from both an historical as well as from a self-dialogical, autobiographical perspective. Eleven “twists” that mark turning points and detours describe this journey, and this paper employs “voices” that offer contextual background and contradictory advice on the road towards methodological identity. These twists describe experiences as both teacher and student and readers are invited to join in this retrospective reflection in order to experience insights and new appreciations. The article concludes with a brief integration of the literature and contextual reflection as well as several questions that invite readers to consider issues related to methodological identity and implications for teaching and learning that arose as a consequence of this journey

Review: Marilyn Lichtman (2023): Qualitative Research in Education - A User's Guide

LICHTMAN's 4th edition of "Qualitative Research in Education: A User's Guide" is a timely and clearly-written text that both new and experienced researchers will find useful. Although the title and many of the examples in the text relate to education, this book has applicability across different areas of qualitative inquiry. What is especially appealing is that the book is broken into three distinct phases: 1. Traditions, theory, and practice; 2. Planning your research; 3. Collecting, organizing, and communicating. These sections build on each other and this results in readers being able to actually plan and conduct their own qualitative inquiries. Readers will also find that the examples used throughout the text as well as the appendices complement the clear writing and explicit instruction. For all of these reasons, this text deserves serious consideration for any curriculum where qualitative inquiry is an essential component.LICHTMANs 4. Auflage von "Qualitative Research in Education: A User's Guide" ist ein zeitgemäßer und klar geschriebener Text, der sowohl für neue als auch für erfahrene Forscher*innen von Nutzen sein wird. Obwohl sich der Titel und viele der Beispiele im Text auf das Bildungswesen beziehen, ist das Buch in verschiedenen Bereichen der qualitativen Forschung anwendbar. Besonders ansprechend ist, dass es in drei Phasen unterteilt ist: 1. Traditionen, Theorie und Praxis; 2. die Planung von Forschung und 3. das Sammeln, Organisieren und Kommunizieren. Diese Abschnitte bauen aufeinander auf, was dazu führt, dass es Leser*innen gelingt, es begleitend zur eigenen Untersuchung zu nutzen. Hilfreich im gesamten Text und bei den in den Anhängen verwendeten Beispielen sind außerdem die klare Schreibweise und die expliziten Anweisungen. Aus all diesen Gründen verdient das Buch eine ernsthafte Erwägung für jeden Lehrplan, in dem qualitative Forschung ein wesentlicher Bestandteil ist

Teaching and Learning Qualitative Inquiry Online and Impacts on Family Life

This study uses letters-to-self and a group interview to integrate the experiences of two groups of participant-researchers—(1) a professor of qualitative inquiry and two of his doctoral students in an online qualitative research class and (2) this same professor and his family. The specific purpose of this study for the first group, comprised of the professor and his two former doctoral students, was to jointly explore perceptions of teaching and learning qualitative inquiry in a formal university setting as well as these students’ perceptions of the impacts that their entry into full-time doctoral study has had on their family life. The specific purpose for the second group, comprised of the professor and his family, was to jointly explore perceptions of teaching and learning qualitative inquiry in a family setting. It was found that a richer understanding of the dynamics of teaching and learning qualitative inquiry amidst the dynamics of family life emerged from this study and will hopefully lead to further explorations of this complex phenomena among professors, students, and families

Detectives and The Legal System: A Paradigm to Support Scholarly Inquiry and Mixed Methods Research in the Social Sciences

It is argued in this article that the legal system, from initial investigation by detectives to final resolution in court by lawyers, judges, and juries, offers a basis for investigating phenomena in the social sciences using mixed methods. We think that this new paradigm combines the components of both the qualitative and quantitative paradigms and provides a practical model for conceptualizing and conducting mixed methods research. The implication of this new paradigm is that it may help us better understand underlying phenomena in scholarly inquiry and thus offers a potential contribution for using a mixed-methods approach in both education and the social sciences. However, adopting and adapting this paradigm for mixed-methods inquiry will require further exploration and empirical replication

Blending the Old and the New: Qualitative Data Analysis a s Critical Thinking and Using NVivo with a Generic Approach

In this article the authors seek to make the case that qualitative data analysis can be explained within the framework of critical thinking and incorporates within this framework the role of technology – specifically NVivo. First they discuss critical thinking from the perspectives of Bloom, Adler, and Polanyi. They then link critical thinking to the concept of a general inductive approach to qualitative analysis as described by Thomas. Finally, they illustrate connections of both critical thinking and the general inductive approach to technology using NVivo screenshots

Lowest Q^2 Measurement of the gamma*p -> Delta Reaction: Probing the Pionic Contribution

To determine nonspherical angular momentum amplitudes in hadrons at long ranges (low Q^2), data were taken for the p(\vec{e},e'p)\pi^0 reaction in the Delta region at Q^2=0.060 (GeV/c)^2 utilizing the magnetic spectrometers of the A1 Collaboration at MAMI. The results for the dominant transition magnetic dipole amplitude and the quadrupole to dipole ratios at W=1232 MeV are: M_{1+}^{3/2} = (40.33 +/- 0.63_{stat+syst} +/- 0.61_{model}) (10^{-3}/m_{\pi^+}),Re(E_{1+}^{3/2}/M_{1+}^{3/2}) = (-2.28 +/- 0.29_{stat+syst} +/- 0.20_{model})%, and Re(S_{1+}^{3/2}/M_{1+}^{3/2}) = (-4.81 +/- 0.27_{stat+syst} +/- 0.26_{model})%. These disagree with predictions of constituent quark models but are in reasonable agreement with lattice calculations with non-linear (chiral) pion mass extrapolations, with chiral effective field theory, and with dynamical models with pion cloud effects. These results confirm the dominance, and general Q^2 variation, of the pionic contribution at large distances.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Hard Two-Photon Contribution to Elastic Lepton-Proton Scattering: Determined by the OLYMPUS Experiment

The OLYMPUS collaboration reports on a precision measurement of the positron-proton to electron-proton elastic cross section ratio, $R_{2\gamma}$, a direct measure of the contribution of hard two-photon exchange to the elastic cross section. In the OLYMPUS measurement, 2.01~GeV electron and positron beams were directed through a hydrogen gas target internal to the DORIS storage ring at DESY. A toroidal magnetic spectrometer instrumented with drift chambers and time-of-flight scintillators detected elastically scattered leptons in coincidence with recoiling protons over a scattering angle range of $\approx 20\degree$ to $80\degree$. The relative luminosity between the two beam species was monitored using tracking telescopes of interleaved GEM and MWPC detectors at $12\degree$, as well as symmetric M{\o}ller/Bhabha calorimeters at $1.29\degree$. A total integrated luminosity of 4.5~fb$^{-1}$ was collected. In the extraction of $R_{2\gamma}$, radiative effects were taken into account using a Monte Carlo generator to simulate the convolutions of internal bremsstrahlung with experiment-specific conditions such as detector acceptance and reconstruction efficiency. The resulting values of $R_{2\gamma}$, presented here for a wide range of virtual photon polarization $0.456<\epsilon<0.978$, are smaller than some hadronic two-photon exchange calculations predict, but are in reasonable agreement with a subtracted dispersion model and a phenomenological fit to the form factor data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

Infestation of Transgenic Powdery Mildew-Resistant Wheat by Naturally Occurring Insect Herbivores under Different Environmental Conditions

A concern associated with the growing of genetically modified (GM) crops is that they could adversely affect non-target organisms. We assessed the impact of several transgenic powdery mildew-resistant spring wheat lines on insect herbivores. The GM lines carried either the Pm3b gene from hexaploid wheat, which confers race-specific resistance to powdery mildew, or the less specific anti-fungal barley seed chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase. In addition to the non-transformed control lines, several conventional spring wheat varieties and barley and triticale were included for comparison. During two consecutive growing seasons, powdery mildew infection and the abundance of and damage by naturally occurring herbivores were estimated under semi-field conditions in a convertible glasshouse and in the field. Mildew was reduced on the Pm3b-transgenic lines but not on the chitinase/glucanase-expressing lines. Abundance of aphids was negatively correlated with powdery mildew in the convertible glasshouse, with Pm3b wheat plants hosting significantly more aphids than their mildew-susceptible controls. In contrast, aphid densities did not differ between GM plants and their non-transformed controls in the field, probably because of low mildew and aphid pressure at this location. Likewise, the GM wheat lines did not affect the abundance of or damage by the herbivores Oulema melanopus (L.) and Chlorops pumilionis Bjerk. Although a previous study has revealed that some of the GM wheat lines show pleiotropic effects under field conditions, their effect on herbivorous insects appears to be low