Volume 5, Issue 1

ABSTRACT

This article focused on behavioral changes in street-level drug trafficking organizations and drug price fluctuations at the retail level during the COVID-19 in Germany, specifically in North Rhine-Westphalia. This study's primary purpose was to understand how the pandemic affected low-level drug markets and whether precautions taken to prevent the spread of disease caused any changes in their operations. Moreover, drug prices were compared before and during the Corona-19 pandemic. This study used a narrative analysis. Thirteen participants, some of whom used multiple drugs and all of whom are regular users, were interviewed from March 2020 to September 2020. Study results showed no significant change either in open or closed markets except for curfew times. Moreover, no shortages existed in the drug supply chain. Nevertheless, there were slight changes in drug distribution methods. Furthermore, contrary to the assumptions, the demand for using the Internet drug market did not increase during the pandemic.

ABSTRACT

Reflexivity is a concept that is pivotal in understanding and conducting qualitative inquiry but can be relevant to the teacher identities as they shuttle between what they do as teachers and how they engage with participants in conducting research. In the Notes from the Field article, the authors, Maribel Greene and Gloria Park (a doctoral student working on a research project with doctoral program peers and a graduate  faculty member teaching the qualitative research course, respectively) focus on a research-oriented concept of reflexivity to bring about more awareness around their roles and responsibilities as an emerging qualitative researcher (Greene) and a graduate  faculty member (Park) working with individuals from diverse contexts. In addition to highlighting reflexivity in their respective roles and responsibilities, the authors document the unprecedented influence the COVID-19 pandemic has had on their work. In this collaborative reflective piece, they discuss their positionalities and reflect on the role of reflexivity not just in their research but as a tool to navigate their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors highlight the importance of (1) being vulnerable; (2) looking more inward in what they do as a researcher and a graduate faculty member; and (3) taking risks in being reflexive to better understand their respective roles. The authors conclude with a list of critical questions and insights inviting readers to find ways to carry on the commitment to integrate reflexivity in working with individuals from diverse backgrounds in both teaching and research contexts.

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic, Emerging Researcher, Qualitative Research, Reflexivity.

ABSTRACT

From a discursive perspective, identities fall to be understood not as inherent properties of individuals but rather as matters that are negotiated within and emerge from social interactions with others. Adopting this perspective, we examine how mothers who breastfeed their infants in public negotiate issues of identity. The activity of public breastfeeding presents problems for identity in that it is often seen by others, and sometimes by breastfeeding mothers themselves, as socially inappropriate in that by engaging in public breastfeeding women are partly exposing their bodies. The aim of this study was to investigate how mothers who breastfeed their infants in public seek to address identity problems that can arise from engaging in this activity. We examine discussions from a focus group conducted with five members of a drop-in support group for breastfeeding mothers. Discourse analysis of group discussions shows that group members provide descriptions of difficulties that they have experienced when breastfeeding in public, and partly exposing their bodies to co-present others. These descriptions, however, rely on detail that allows the participants or other group members to undermine them and to ward off the potentially negative identities with which they are associated. The descriptions, then, are designed to attend to social concerns surrounding public breastfeeding and thereby to allow participants to construct identities that are not associated with problems.

Keywords: Describing Actions, Discourse Analysis, Identities, Mothers, Public Breastfeeding.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of rural experienced middle school teachers in Tennessee with low job satisfaction. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (EST) was the theoretical framework guiding this study. EST is composed of five environmental systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. This study included participation from 10 experienced teachers with 5 or more years of teaching experience who demonstrated low job satisfaction in Tennessee according to the results of a questionnaire given prior to conducting the study. The central research question guiding this study was, what are experienced middle school teachers’ perceptions of job satisfaction as a lived experience in rural Tennessee? The four sub questions were designed to investigate how teacher workload, collegial experience, administrative leadership and support, and student behavior impact job satisfaction. Data for this study were collected through individual interviews, an online focus group interview, and a reflective journal, and produced four major themes: (a) unrealistic expectations, (b) middle school environment, (c) students, and (d) middle school teacher challenges. The findings revealed participants’ perceived administrators and policy makers had unrealistic expectations on their teachers due to being disconnected from their teachers. The findings also indicated participants’ environment at the middle school level was challenging as they dealt with the basic needs of students before educating them. Participants expressed that collegial support was vital to the profession and that they loved teaching but had negative perceptions about the challenges they often encounter on the job.

Keywords: Low Job Satisfaction, Middle Schools, Rural Schools.

ABSTRACT

In this article, we present lessons learned from "Our Stories," a digital writing project designed to assist students in the transition from high school to college. From the collective digital narratives of first-year and first-generation students at an urban public college, who are primarily Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), low-income, and immigrant, and who participated in a First-year Learning Communities course, we examine the challenges of becoming a college student at a public college. Further, we explore how digital writing supports community-building and influences students' transition experience, in particular, making sense of shared challenges. For these BIPOC students, the act of reflecting and writing about their college transition fostered individual and collective awareness and a sense of belonging as they began to negotiate college life. Their narratives also highlight the need for social justice pedagogies that are responsive to student experiences, use asset-based approaches, build community, and promote the active role of students in shaping their educational experiences. 

Keywords: BIPOC Students, Digital Narratives, First-Year College Experience, Public University, Social Justice Pedagogies.

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the utility in collecting qualitative data by employing synchronous focus groups via web-based video conferencing software such as Zoom. The authors underscore benefits and drawbacks of this data collection modality by reviewing recent interdisciplinary literature. Authors also bring forth an example of using Zoom to facilitate synchronous focus groups for a recent research study. The study centered on school psychologists’ perspectives of implementing physical activity within schools to support the mental health outcomes of youth and school communities. Authors offer reflections, lessons learned, and provide suggestions for employing successful online focus groups. Researchers that are interested in employing online focus groups should thoroughly assess if participants have access to and comfortability with technology. Such assessment data may provide insight into whether online focus groups serve as an appropriate modality. Further, Implications and suggestions for research are addressed.

Keywords: Focus Groups, Grounded Theory, Qualitative Research, Research Methods, School Psychology, Video Conferencing.

ABSTRACT

The current qualitative study investigates how religious experiences, in this case subjectively perceived encounters with the divine in worship practices, are induced and experienced by believers under the influence of music. Fifteen worship experts (worship leaders and pastors known to engage in this spiritual state in music) were recruited from Pentecostal and charismatic churches. A qualitative model for religious worship, incorporating essence, meaning, music, method, and experience is proposed. It shows that there is not just ‘one’ religious experience in worship but that there are many of them (a preliminary typology is attempted). There is a feedback loop between the music, the focus on the divine and the mental associations that can strengthen or weaken the experience. The role of music in worship, two approaches to religious experiences (i.e., the sui generis and the attribution theory), and the possibilities for future research are discussed.

Keywords: Devotion, Music, Phenomenology of Religion, Religious Experience, Worship

ABSTRACT

This research paper aims at critically analyzing the production end of the dairy value chain with a long-run vision and mission to develop a more efficient pro-poor development of value chain that will allow disadvantaged farmers, milkers, feed producers, and feed sellers to overcome barriers and earn more to escape from poverty through further value addition in a sustainable manner. It uses qualitative research with an integrated methodology, comprising in-depth interviews, focus group discussions (FGD), and observation. We collected data from 30 villages located in eight districts in northern Bangladesh, using 44 in-depth interviews and 18 FGDs. Thematic data analysis is used, and five cases are presented. Farmer or producer, milker, feed producer, and feed seller are the production end actors of the dairy value chain. Rearing cows within the homestead is a popular and enduring custom. The labor-intensive rearing lacks automation and needs helping hands. Traditional free-range cattle rearing practice is identified on some river islands. Despite politics in pricing, ethical pricing also exists but not at the institutional level. Hand milking is common practice with vulnerability as it impacts milk quality. Feed selling business is rising and getting institutionalized. Production end value addition scopes are identified along multiple dimensions for stakeholders to take necessary actions.

Keywords: Bangladesh, Dairy Value Chain, Feed Producer and Seller, Milk Production, Milker.

ABSTRACT

Evangelical Christians have always had a complex relationship with political issues in the United States, especially with the rise of the Christian right in the 1980s. Since 2017 the Trump presidency has amplified that complexity, presenting a new set of issues for consideration. With Festinger’s (1957) Cognitive Dissonance theory and Tajfel’s (1981) Social Identity theory as the foundation, this study examines how evangelical Christian pastors conceptualize their religious and political identities, and how they communicate with their congregants about political issues. Pastors act as crucial gatekeepers within their faith communities so they provide crucial insight into the evangelical community. Six pastors from a mid-sized, Midwestern university town were interviewed using a semi-structured format. Findings indicate pastors hold non-negotiable beliefs, distance themselves from political connotations of evangelicalism, and explain political values with religious values. When communicating with congregants, they reconcile competing values and respect differences but indicate their desire to follow God’s convictions.

Keywords: Social identity theory, cognitive dissonance theory, evangelical Christians, Donald Trump

ABSTRACT

There has been more discussion by and from the media in recent years over the issue of domestic violence, this has largely overlooked instances of fatal family violence. This project examines 340 cases of parents or stepparents who killed their children between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2013 and reported in the U.S. national news media. A content analysis of the news coverage identified themes of positive, negative, and sympathetic portrayals of offenders and victims as well as the minimization of victims. News coverage of offenders depicted them as multifaceted persons with details that could humanize or other offenders while victims were minimized with more focus on the harm done to them than the lives they led. As the focus on offenders occurred in conjunction with the minimization of victims, it is concluded that news media coverage is offender-centric and such media coverage needs to be more balanced in portrayals of victims and offenders to better address and respond to the issue of fatal family violence.

Keywords: Filicide, Family Violence, Media Portrayals, Victims, Victimization.

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a reflexive account of how the use of joint interviews with romantic dyads creates a unique conversational space for people to reflect on relational practices that are often invisible. The contribution this paper seeks to offer is to encourage other qualitative scholars to think critically about the use of joint interviews as a data collection method when studying mediated communication and technology’s place in relational life. Using the data from a larger research project, I argue that with joint interviews, the process of metacommunication inevitably impacts the couple’s behaviors and direct communication at that moment, and potentially after the interview ends. Therefore, it is important for future scholars using joint interviews to include a follow-up interview with the couple to learn more about how their relational communication, especially over mediated channels, transforms after the interview concludes. Questions about the effect of joint interviews as a research practice are presented.

Keywords: Communication Rules, Expectancy Violation Theory, Joint Interviews, Mobile Communication, Romantic Relationships.

ABSTRACT

This study utilized the narrative inquiry and phenomenological research design. This inquiry aimed to explore and capture the eidetic life stories and hopes of the Out-of-School Youths. A total of five participants who were selected applying the chain-referral sampling took part in an individual open-ended and in-depth interview. The narratives of the participants were categorized into three. The first category is their life stories during their stay in School. It was noted that four themes emerged in this category, such as (1) struggle to live and to survive, (2) push, pull, and fall out, (3) Bully, bullied: Blended (4) low, lone, and leave. This study also highlighted the life stories of the participants after they dropped out of school. There were two themes generated: (1) Home, Haze, and bored; (2) easy go lucky. Moreover, the study also highlighted the hopes of the participants, and three themes appeared such as (1) hope for education and employment, (2) hope for the revival of their sense of pride and self-esteem, and (3) hope for support and assistance.  Likewise, the researchers came up with initiatives to answer the hopes of the participants, to wit: (1) organization of Parent Teachers Association, (2) collaboration with the PSWD, DTI, and TESDA (3) collaborative extension programs between and among the different departments of the university.

Keywords: Collaboration, Extension Program, Hopes, Life Stories, Out-of-School Youth

ABSTRACT

Adolescent obesity is a major public health concern, increasingly affecting low and middle-income countries (LMICs) undergoing the nutrition transition. In developed countries, governments had the time to adjust to this rise in the consequent non-communicable diseases (NCDs), whereas the developing world is facing a triple burden of nutrition-related disease simultaneously. However, amidst the nutrition transition, drivers to obesity may differ within the same country especially between the urban and rural areas, depending on the context and environmental factors. In order to unravel how the nutrition transition process unfolds in both urban and rural areas, an exploration of the factors affecting adolescents’ lifestyle and eating behaviors, in the current context was deemed appropriate. Almost similar behaviors were perceived between the urban and rural area, showcasing the impact of the nutrition transition in both areas although different underlying factors were stated. The factors identified in this study were grouped and discussed based on the socio- ecological model (SEM) highlighting the importance of the social and environmental influences on adolescents’ eating behaviors. Given the findings of this study regarding the dramatic changes affecting both urban and rural areas regarding the number of meals consumed away from home, the increase in fast-food consumption and the increase in sedentary lifestyles, new challenges in relation to adolescent obesity prevention in LMICs are created. The creation of supportive local environments, in both urban and rural areas, represents an important avenue where eating behaviors concerns, and thus adolescents’ obesity can be addressed.

Keywords: Adolescence, Low-Middle Income Countries, Obesity, Policies, Public Health

ABSTRACT

Pragmatic competence is a constituent of overall communicative ability, and within pragmatic competence, implicature comprehension is itself a constituent. This generates studies on teaching implicature comprehension, most of which are lacking in qualitative probes into how attributable the ensuing performance changes are to the instructional materials and procedures themselves. Nevertheless, effective assessment of pedagogical interventions/innovations would require experimental studies to be adopted along with qualitative research for in-depth understanding from participants’ perspective. In this regard, through semi-structured retrospective interviews, the current study investigated how far and in what ways the performance changes after a project on teaching implicatures via film could be ascribed to the treatment itself. The content analysis results indicate that the performance changes originated mainly from the instruction and illuminate the share of the filmic materials as the innovative component there. On account of these, with its epistemological approach enabling triangulation, the study contributes to instructional pragmatics by providing an exemplary practice of quality assurance in teaching implicature comprehension/interpretation.   

Keywords: English Language Teaching, Implicature, Pragmatic Comprehension, Pragmatic Instruction, Qualitative Method.

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