Between Paradigms: Becoming a Pathological Optimist

Using an autoethnographic poststructural lens, I examined my academic journey in becoming a qualitative methodologist. I integrated my mentor’s maxims such as, “the institution will not love you back,” “prisoner of your words,” “make plans; if they don’t work, make new plans,” “one has mentors and tormentors and both help shape us,” “ever the opportunist,” “strategic groveling,” “a mosaic approach to mentoring” and “just get naked.” Despite paradigmatic contradictions between my doctoral and postdoctoral experiences, I gained much from working between the polarities of the social science and biomedical discourse. In time, I became a “pathological optimist,” one of the many lessons learned from an academic mentor that eventually led to my professorship

Deconstructing Women’s Leadership: Those Who Laugh Last

There is much research that illustrates the “glass ceiling” effect for women in elite leadership positions. Examining female academic chairs’ leadership in a male domain provides insight into leadership practices. The author interviewed three female clinical chairs and integrated the findings into a women's leadership model. Deconstructive thematic analysis of the subsequent text gathered systematic and in-depth information about this case at a U.S. top-tier academic medical center. A deconstructive view suggests that women leaders will be both masculine and feminine, that gender is not an issue although issues were identified by their laughter, that communal behavior may be considered a weakness but became their strength, and that threat may be “in the air" but not noticed. All three female chairs simultaneously accommodated and resisted constructs within the literature. All the barriers described in a model of women's leadership were dismantled by these successful women chairs

On(line) Being Relational: A Case Study

This study describes a master’s program cohort in the Southeast transitioning from a traditional to an online paradigm. This study examined through narrative analysis the online dialogue of engagement between students and faculty through the lens of social constructivism, specifically focusing on barriers creating monologue and facilitators creating “online” dialogue (Gergen, 1999). Transformative dialogue was more difficult in the online transition because of technology structures and differing expectations. Results suggest that faculty and students must be prepared to use online technology in a pedagogical setting that requires greater responsibility for students to “manage their education.” The “boundedness” of an online environment requires faculty to encourage a shift from blame to responsibility. Although online dialogue was considered “stilted,” even by experienced participants, the convenience is evident for students as well as faculty. The results demonstrated the need for faculty presence through the use of online tools to make the online environment meaningful. Reviewing these narratives may help administrators prepare for a transition to an online program

Impact of Interviews on Heterosexual Students\u27 Expressions of Cultural Competency

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the effects of a cultural competency intervention on dental pre-doctoral students’ attitudes toward individuals of a different sexual orientation. 22 heterosexual students interviewed gay or lesbian individuals and wrote reflective text. Results illustrated that participants found that their interviewees had “surprisingly similar” beliefs and values – especially in the areas of religion and family. Because of their “similar values,” these students expressed respect toward their interviewees who were “so different” than themselves. This conclusion of “sameness” forced them to see homosexuals as people, rather than a stigmatized invisible outgroup, mitigating sexual prejudice

Critical Thinking Criteria for Evaluating Online Discussion

A 21st Century challenge for educators is to promote meaningful engagement in online courses, and student development of critical thinking skills is an essential aspect of higher order learning. Evaluation of critical thinking in online discussions is often facilitated by the use of rubrics; however, it is not unusual for rubrics to either omit critical thinking as a component of the rubric or to reference it in a vague way. For the purposes of this study, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from faculty to identify their attitudes about critical thinking attributes as performance measures for evaluation rubrics. Factor analysis revealed that the response patterns clustered for each factor represented the themes 1) demonstrates logic and reasoning” (described as offering accurate supporting evidence and strategies and solutions); and 2) “creative critical thought processes” (described as novel perceptions, bias refutation, and alternative-seeking). From this study, we would suggest that faculty should use an evaluation rubric that encompasses these two dimensions

Grounding Qualitative Medical Research in Coherence, Not Standards

Qualitative research publications have become more prominent in medical journals. However, in medical discourse, those researchers who are adhere to postpositivist (quantitative) paradigm often criticize diverse qualitative inquiry for a perceived lack of rigor. We suggest that qualitative research, just like quantitative research should be guided by methodological coherence rather than prescriptive standards. Coherence is defined as an alignment between epistemology, theoretical perspective, methodology, methods, and research questions. In the medical field, a lack of training in methodological diversity, a long-held post-positivist privileging, and insufficient methodological dialogue, promulgates reliance on quantitative analyses. Neglecting to articulate sufficient methodological detail has caused other researchers to assert that qualitative research lacks rigor. Providing methodological details permits study replication. Qualitative researchers have been discussing the necessity for this scholastic imperative for decades, although it is relatively new in medical discourse. The authors’ interest in this topic stems from an analysis of rigor within qualitative medical educational articles since 2012 (CI), and reviewing grant proposals, doctoral research studies, and publishing in medical journals (LBH, CI). During out work, we observed that while the literature reviews in these submissions are frequently excellent, the method and results sections often lacked the essential linkages that are needed to support methodological coherence. Owing to our interest, we undertook a critical review while using deductive content analysis of forty qualitative articles in a top-tier medical journal. The purpose of this paper is to provide examples of coherence with the qualitative medical article reviewed. Our aim is to provide scholarly guidance to novice medical researchers and practitioners. The authors believe that this information will support increased scholarly integrity and coherence in the qualitative research publications, specifically in medical education and more generally in other discipline-related qualitative studies. We believe that both researchers and readers of qualitative research in academic medicine need to know about these issues so they can capably provide evidence of coherence

A Case Study of the Role of a School in a Community Undergoing Rapid Gentrification

Atlanta, one of the fastest gentrifying cities in the United States, is comprised of neighborhoods near the city center amid urban wealth that suffer from severe poverty and low literacy rates. One neighborhood school has been ranked as one of the lowest in the state. To combat decades of underperformance, Atlanta Public Schools (APS) created an initiative that has helped bring this community together. The purpose of this case study, using interviews and survey data with thematic content analysis, was to understand the role of school district leadership in the creation of a new framework, replacing the original public school with a long record of failure

Career Morph: Quantitizing Adversity in Academic Medicine

Many qualitative researchers reject textual conversion based on philosophical grounds although others believe it facilitates pattern recognition and meaning extraction. This article examined interview data from 52 physicians from a large academic medical center regarding work–life balance. Analysis ranked men and women in four career tracks: Clinician-Educator, Clinician-Researcher, Clinician-Practitioner, and residents. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a qualitatively driven (QUAL→quan) mixed method design illustrated differences between stratified groups. Although many initial codes were similar for men and women, their language was gendered and generational in context of work-life balance. Results indicated that women (and low-status men) expressed fewer strategies to successfully negotiate academic medicine. Quantitizing enhanced the interpretive description of adversity

From Gentrification to Regeneration: A Grounded Theory Study of Community Leadership in Southwest Atlanta

Urban neighborhoods have undergone property disinvestment, a decreasing population, and a general economic decline. Atlanta, the fourth-fastest gentrifying city in the United States exemplifies this trend. The purpose of this grounded theory study is to understand how discourse about gentrification helps a community address its goal of regeneration. We used Habermas’ critical hermeneutic lens to investigate the perceptions of 20 resident leaders and stakeholders in a community that was undergoing the process of gentrification. Our findings illustrate that this community is fraught with systematically distorted communication that used communicative action for emancipation. The four theoretical codes: gentrification (a collision between politics and economics), systematically distorted communication, regeneration, and strategies (communicative action as emancipatory), were used to represent how power and language intersected within economic and political discourse. Through an identification of elements of communicative action for neighborhoods that are undergoing gentrification, this study provides guidance for development of stakeholder community action plans