Part A
Please note that all tables referenced in this blog post are from Plano Clark & Creswell (2015).
Having had the opportunity this week to delve further into Qualitative research and to read more of Plano Clark & Creswell (2015), I decided to return to my first article, Principles of Servant-Leadership in Community Health Nursing by researcher Bonnie Sturm (2009) in order to study it with a fresh perspective.
Plano Clark & Creswell (2015)
Part B
Plano Clark & Creswell (2015)
Part C
Plano Clark & Creswell (2015)
Part D
As a consumer of research reports, the most important aspects I will need to consider in the methods and findings sections of a high quality qualitative research report are:
- What type of research is being conducted (narrative, case study, ethnographic, grounded theory)
- Whether the research focuses on a particular phenomenon of interest or a story of either an individual or a few individuals
- Evidence of respect for and ethical treatment towards all participants
- Understand and define the sampling of data (whether it is probability or purposeful)
- Are there clearly defined themes/sub-themes and has the researcher coded them?
I am still a work in progress in learning how to better read, understand and evaluate both quantitative and qualitative research studies. However, I definitely feel much more confident and familiar with qualitative reports than I do with quantitative. Qualitative research studies are very applicable to education. By conducting case studies and observations of small groups of students/teachers/administrators; educators can gain a wealth of knowledge about classroom management, classroom set-up, student learning disabilities, relationships between staff and administrators, staff and students to name just a few. Important themes can be identified as well as the relationships between them and be explored further.
Image courtesy of www.themontessorimessage.net
What I have learned the past couple of weeks isn’t necessarily about qualitative research. Life circumstances and the course content have caused me to be self reflective about my own practice. I believe that I will be a better leader in my Department as well as a better teacher after having completed these lessons/this course for the following reasons:
- Learning is a lifetime process. We are never done.
- This is something that I want my Grade 12’s to understand as they transition from high school.
- This also applies to the members of my Department and myself as a teacher. There is always new curriculum to learn, and new and improved ways of doing things. It is detrimental to our own growth and those around us if we remain stagnant.
- Learning isn’t always easy and doesn’t always come naturally.
- The past two weeks have been extra difficult. The material is brand new to me and has taken me much longer to absorb than usual. I began to get extremely discouraged and as the work piled up due to work (parent/teacher interview nights, overnight professional development conferences, facilitating school workshops, after school volleyball coaching) and family obligations, I began to feel like I would never catch up. It was an overwhelming feeling, especially when I found the content to be difficult to grasp.
- This experience was a great reminder to me of why/how some students want to give up and why they stop coming to class. When students begin to feel, “What’s the point, I’m so far behind now” or “Why bother, I don’t even understand it” I can better relate now to that feeling and I don’t ever want my students to feel so overwhelmed that they want to give up. I will be adjusting my teaching practice even further as a result. I would rather have a student feel successful learning smaller portions at a time, than feeling so burdened down with work and burnt out that they give up.
- Focus on strengths first.
- Dr. Strong’s comments on our blogs are always very encouraging and she refers to each of our comments in her weekly summation blog post. It is a great reminder of how important it is to focus on strengths first instead of the things each of us need to improve upon.
- This is encouraging and motivating and a great example of servant leadership.
Questions:
I have two questions for you, one related to the topic this week and another simply out of curiosity.
- In your line of work, which is the design type that you would most likely use for qualitative research? Please refer to the extensive list on page 289 in Plano Clark & Creswell (2015).
- What is your biggest take away so far in this course? What have you learned about yourself as an individual and as a leader?
References
Plano-Clark, V. & Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide. (2nd Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Sturm, B. A. (2009). Principles of servant-leadership in community health nursing: management issues and behaviors discovered in ethnographic research. Home Health Care Management & Practice, 21(2), 82–89.
To the second question, I would argue that this course offers me an opportunity to discover good and bad in the world of research. It allows me to create a framework in my thinking process, and appreciate the values of perspective. I am discover, through unpacking research, that good work is hard work, and hard work is good work.
To the first question, I would most likely involve qualitative research as a part the organization assessment ( Where are we at? where do we want to, How do we arrive that, what are the elements of our organization that make us special).
– Emmanuel
Thanks for your response Emmanuel. I appreciated your comment about perspective when it comes to research (and life)! It is important to be able to understand the lens through which a study has been completed.
Excellent evaluation and thank you for your honest and vulnerable reflection! I really like the points that you made in your reflection and I will refer to them in this weeks summary.
I think you had mentioned in one of your previous posts that you are a Brene Brown fan. I too am a huge fan of her work and am currently reading her new book “Dare to Lead”. Perhaps you knew this already, but all of Dr. Brown’s work is based on her qualitative research findings. She uses grounded theory to explore shame, vulnerability and courage. For an excellent (and understandable) explanation of grounded theory you can find more about the design, methodology, sampling, and coding processes that she uses here:
https://brenebrown.com/the-research/
I also realized that in my face to face 591 course that I show a video clip of Dr. Brown discussing her work with Jonathan Fields (an entrepreneur). She shares what she learns through her qualitative research process and connects grounded theory and the concept of trust in emergence to the business world. I will post the video in my unit summary this week.
Have a great weekend.
Dr. Strong
I also want to thank you for your vulnerability. It does truly help to know that I am not alone and others have the same feelings, and similar schedules!
In answer to your question, I would think that grounded theory would be the design that we would use most in health care to generate theories about how a process, action, or interaction and then making predictions from that theory. This would apply to both direct patient care, and for “employee care”. A close second would be narrative research to describe the experiences of patients, and again, to describe the experiences of staff.
I end up sharing my take aways every week – because we are journaling, my blog ends up being an extension of my journal. I think my biggest take away is that in spite of my discouragement and frustration with not understanding the concepts I think… I THINK… I might actually enjoy research if I get my head wrapped around all of it and learn the language. Although it was very time intensive and I found it somewhat stressful, I also found the literature review somewhat fun. Almost like a treasure hunt – and when I found an article that related to my topic it was like finding treasure. Sometimes it was a gold coin, sometimes it was an entire treasure chest. But the search was enjoyable. And pursuing an answer to my question – that is like trying to solve a mystery (and I have loved mysteries since I was old enough to read). I am surprised by that self-discovery.
I always enjoy reading your blog posts! I love your honesty and there is always some part that makes me smile and shout “ME TOO!”. I am so glad that we are in this course together as I continue to learn from you! Your optimism is contagious and very encouraging. Thank you! I appreciate your posts more than you will ever know!