EDS 102 – WEEK 3

April 17, 2025

Agenda

Going back to the table…

• Go back to the table we started on Tuesday.
• Add a question or two for each type.

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Grounded Theory

• Rather than starting with a theory, this approach focuses on building a theory that is “grounded” in the data.

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• The theories that are developed are based on everyday social situations (e.g., how people cope with trauma) rather than grand theories (e.g., psychoanalytic theory)

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Grounded Theory (cont’d)

• The researcher concurrently collects, codes, and analyzes data using the constant comparative method of data analysis

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• Connections between codes are explored to develop the elements of a theory
• Example: You conduct a study of how high school students choose colleges, and you code interviews according to the themes (e.g., family, peers) that arise. You look for connections between the themes to build a theory about the college choice process

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Examples of grounded theory studies

A study of the factors influencing college students’ decisions to drop STEM majors

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A study of teachers’ emotional labor (Horner et al., 2020)

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** Note that these same studies could be addressed through other qualitative approaches as well. What makes them grounded theory studies is that they involve developing a theory grounded in the data.

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How do ML leaders move beyond compliance to support system transformation?

Qualitative Case Studies

• A case study differs from the other types of qualitative research because it is defined by the unit of analysis (the case) rather than the topic of study.
• Investigates a case or cases within a real-life context
• Case: A case could be a single person, a program, a group, an institution, a community, or a specific policy.
• Bounded system: To be a case, it must be intrinsically bounded.

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Qualitative Case Studies (cont’d)

• Involves triangulation of multiple forms of data including interviews, observations, and document review.
• Can employ qualitative and quantitative methods
• Could involve multiple cases (a cross-case or comparative case study) or a single case.

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Examples of case studies

A case study of how teams of teachers engage in lesson planning

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A case study of schools undertaking math reforms

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A case study of university summer transition programs

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If someone were to do a case study of the high school you attended, what would it focus on? What would it be a case of?

Going back to the table…

• Go back to the table we started on Tuesday.
• Add a question or two for each type.

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Newer Forms of Qualitative Research

• Mixed methods research: Makes use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods
• Action research studies: Focused on the improvement of practice in a setting
• Critical research studies: Intended to examine and challenge power relations
• Arts-based approaches to qualitative research

Models of Mixed-Methods Research

• Convergent: Qualitative and quantitative data are collected simultaneously; both data sets are analyzed, and the results are compared.
• Explanatory sequential: Quantitative data are collected before qualitative data, which is used to explain results in more depth.
• Exploratory mixed methods: Qualitative data are used to explore and define the topic to create a survey instrument to gather data from a larger sample.

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Principles of Action Research

• Focused on the improvement of a problematic situation in practice.
• The design of the study is emergent, with four phases: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting.
• Researchers engage participants as co-investigators.
• The lead researcher may be either an insider, an outsider, or a configuration of the two that may emerge over time.

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Types of Action Research

1. Technical action research guided by an interest in improving practice to achieve outcomes

2. Practical action research guided by an interest in educating or enlightening practitioners or organizations so they can act more wisely

3. Critical action research guided by an interest in emancipating people and groups from irrationality, unsustainability and injustice.

Goals and Types of Critical Research

Goal: To critique, challenge, transform, and analyze power relations, and through that critique effect change in the status quo.

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Types:

• Critical theory
• Critical race research
• Feminist
• Queer
• Postcolonial
• Postmodern/poststructural -- the context of power relations among groups

The Researcher’s Positionality and Reflexivity in Critical Research

• Insider vs. outsider: Status vis-à-vis participants.
• Positionality: Researcher’s identities and experiences particularly with respect to the study purposes.
• Reflexivity: Awareness of the dialectic between the influence the researcher has on what is being studied and, simultaneously, how the research process affects the researcher.

Arts-Based Research

• Participants make meaning via visual art, symbol, theatre-based art, photography, music, dance, story, or poetry.
• Goes “beyond words” to incorporates creative expression into qualitative research efforts.
• Neither the researcher nor the participants need to identify as an artist.
• One can make meaning in new ways when using arts-based forms of expression.

Uses of Arts-Based Research

• Data collection: artwork used to elicit how participants make meaning
• Presentation of findings: participants create visual or verbal imagery or performance.
• Studies of artists or of the processes of creating and/or presenting some form of art.
• Auto-ethnographies: the researcher examines aspects of his or her cultural identity through engagement in one or more of the arts.

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Example of arts-based research

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Participants were were asked to capture their lived experiences as first-generation college students via photographs and explain why they chose such photos. They were also asked questions such as: If you had to choose one place on campus as your home-away-from-home, where would it be? Is there something in your room that reminds you of home?

(p. 1701)

Example of arts-based research

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pp. 1702-1703

Example of arts-based research

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Study examined elementary students’ perceptions of high-stakes testing through the use of drawings and writings. On the day after students completed their tests in the spring, 225 students were asked to “draw a picture about your recent testing experience.” The same students then responded in writing to the prompt “tell me about your picture.” (p. 237)

Example of arts-based research

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Which of these “newer” forms of qualitative research appeals to you and why?

Brainstorm topics for a qualitative study

• Personal interest
• Timely topic
• Understudied issue, phenomenon, or perspective
• Unique site or sample
• Significance for the field

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Topics students pursued in the past

• How do high school counselors assist students with attending 4-year universities?
• How do students respond to the use of classroom behavior charts in primary grades classrooms?
• How do extracurricular activities support high school students’ academic and social experiences?
• What factors influence public school teachers to leave the profession?
• What mental health challenges do first-generation college students experience?
• How does having a deployed parent shape students’ educational experiences?

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Brainstorm topics for a qualitative study

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Brainstorm ideas with a partner for 10 minutes.

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Then put your ideas in the Padlet and record them for yourself as well.

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Looking ahead

For Tuesday, 4/22:

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Read Chapter 4 (at least pp. 73-83) of the Merriam & Tisdell book

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