Volume 6, Issue 1

ABSTRACT

Stories that document the experiences of individuals are central to narrative research methods. Like narrative research, critical race theory (CRT) also values the experiential knowledge that can be documented through storytelling. CRT scholars, however, particularly focus on the use of storytelling to document how race and racism are understood and experienced by racially minoritized groups. As researchers, including CRT scholars, use narrative methods, they face many complex choices about which data analysis methods to use and how to use them. In this article, the authors feature a CRT research project to provide examples of three strategies they used for analyzing narrative data: restorying, typology development and classification, and memoing. The authors demonstrate the process of restorying to streamline participant narratives for a clearer understanding. They show the use of a typology for organization and exploration of stories based on common themes. And they outline how analytic memoing lends itself to exploring participant narratives more deeply by writing about them using consistent prompts. Overall, this article emphasizes working with whole narratives, understanding narratives as stories, and acknowledging participants and their narratives as a source of knowledge. While these analytic strategies can be applied to a wide range of research topics, the project featured in this article shows their potential and close alignment with research projects that employ a CRT framework.

Keywords: narrative research analysis, restorying, typology, analytic memos, Critical Race Theory.

ABSTRACT

Low-income and African American adults experience severe tobacco-related health disparities. Mindfulness-based interventions show promise for promoting smoking cessation, but most mindfulness research has focused on higher income, Caucasian samples. “iQuit Mindfully” is a personalized, interactive text messaging program that teaches mindfulness for smoking cessation. This qualitative study sought feedback from predominantly low-income African American smokers, to improve the intervention for this priority population. After receiving 8 weekly group sessions of Mindfulness-Based Addiction Treatment for smoking cessation and between-session iQuit Mindfully text messages, participants (N=32) completed semi-structured interviews. Participants were adult cigarette smokers (90.6% African American, 62.6% annual income <$30,000, mean age 45.1 [±12.9]). Interviews inquired about participants’ experiences with and suggestions for improving iQuit Mindfully, including message content, number, and timing. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded by a team of 5 coders in NVivo. The coding manual was developed based on response categories from the interview guide and themes emerging from the data. Themes were organized into a conceptual model of factors related to engagement with the mHealth program. Response categories included helpful aspects (e.g., themes of social support, mindfulness, personalization); unhelpful/disliked aspects (e.g., too many/repetitive messages); links between in-person sessions and texts; and suggestions (e.g., changes to number/timing and more personalization). Findings provide insight into participants’ day-to-day experiences with iQuit Mindfully and suggest ways to improve mHealth programs among low-income and African American adults.

Keywords: Smoking cessation, mobile health technology, mindfulness, qualitative research, African Americans.

ABSTRACT

Sense of belonging is associated with students’ social adjustment and academic success, especially during the first-year of college. In this study, ethnic minority first-year college students were exposed to a brief belonging video intervention designed to alter self-beliefs, antisocial behaviors and personally threatening interpretations of academic-related adversities. Using an innovative qualitative approach, the researcher assessed college students’ perceptions of the intervention on their health, well-being, and sense of belonging in the first year. Findings reveal that the video intervention helped first-year college students of color at PWIs reframe negative academic, financial, and social experiences while facilitating supportive networks, community, and belonging. Implications for research, policy, and practice are delineated.

Keywords: qualitative research, sense of belonging, college students, intervention.

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 took business, education, and the government sectors off guard. On the education front, the problem was interruptions in instruction when alternative forms of instruction are not provided. This study is a narrative of how six certified teachers, with between 1-26 years of teaching experience in K-12 grades, and who were recruited through snowball sampling quickly adjusted to providing instruction to students with available and accessible learning management tools during the first two months of the COVID-19 health crisis. Participants shared teaching practices to quickly transition to online education. Teachers drew from their toolbox to reach students using both high and low technology embedded lessons. Participants shared the types of technology and methods used for teaching. Teaching styles included the following approaches: inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, and kinesthetic approach. The study calls for a crisis management plan for K-12 virtual learning. Recommendations included providing continuous training, so K-12 teachers can effectively teach online.

Keywords: Coronavirus, COVID-19 Pandemic, K-12 education, alternative instruction, online learning, technology, distance education, web-based learning.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of writing this article is to demonstrate that the case study methodology can be very useful in the exploration of inclusion in education. As evidence, the authors have presented their experiences of using a case study methodology to study inclusive education with a particular focus on girls with visual disability and their school context. Going beyond an interpretation aligned with ecological system theory and theory of dysontogenesis, the methodology was able to capture the essence of the participants’ experiences, exploring the different layers of environment and how the layered aspects influenced the school experiences of girls with visual disabilities and their integration or segregation in schools. In the meaning-making process, the case study was able to unpack the complexity of school and classroom practices and their connections amongst diverse layers at the levels of the teacher, the pupil, the classroom, the school, and its context.

Keywords: inclusive education, inclusion in Nepal, research in inclusion, case study, visually impaired girls

ABSTRACT

A qualitative phenomenological study, the lived experiences of clinicians who treat clients using marijuana pre- and post-legalization in California are explored. This study was conducted to better understand the misconceptions associated with user attitudes and beliefs about marijuana use and provide clinicians, researchers, and physicians with information on the overall physical and emotional effects of marijuana use. Since legalization, investigating attitude and belief changes was essential to understanding the impact of marijuana's accessibility on user behaviors. Participants (n=10) were licensed mental health care providers working in California who provided treatment for current or recent users of marijuana products over the last year. A 20-question open-ended interview was delivered via Zoom regarding provider experiences with client marijuana use disclosure post-legalization.  A thematic analysis of qualitative data was performed. The results provide clinician insights about post-legalization marijuana attitudes and beliefs about use. Findings revealed differences in reported youth and adult-use behaviors. Reduced stigma and social acceptance of marijuana post-legislation has resulted in clients’ more clearly, openly, and honestly addressing their drug use, specifically, use behaviors associated with marijuana products. There is a need for research to further explore the attitudes and beliefs of users and how often CUD is identified and treated in clinical therapy. This study has provided the perspective of the therapy provider treating individuals who use cannabis. This study provides opportunities for further study on the legalization of marijuana, potency, and accessibility of marijuana as it pertains to the practice of clinical therapy with cannabis users as legalized use continues to increase for recreational and medicinal use.

Keywords: Cannabis Use Disorder, CUD, Clinical Therapy, Qualitative, Mental Health.

ABSTRACT

The present study identifies and discusses the impact of personality factors on remote workers in China, using a phenomenological methodology to understand participants' lived experiences. The sample population is comprised of Chinese citizens born in China. Data were collected through one-on-one, online semi-structured interviews using WeChat. The interview questions are structured to allow participants to explain personality traits found in productive and unproductive remote workers. In addition, the questions explore traits positively associated with developing trust and how the psychological needs of autonomy, competency, and relatedness impact remote workers. After data collection, the data were analyzed and coded to develop themes used to answer the core research questions. This study’s findings offer benefits to companies using remote workers and employees new to remote work or those aiming to become remote workers since the data collected provides a holistic picture of remote work from actual workers' perspective. The information gathered from the research participants allowed the researcher to determine that one of the most beneficial aspects of remote work is autonomy and the ability to set one's schedule. Confidence directly impacts feelings of competency among remote workers, and relatedness is negatively impacted by being a remote worker because of decreased opportunities for face-to-face interactions.

Keywords: China, personality, remote work, self-determination theory, phenomenology

ABSTRACT

During the Khmer Rouge period (1975-1979), an estimated 1.7 million people died from executions, starvation, or disease; children older than age seven were separated from their parents and suffered from a myriad of traumas, likely resulting in various adverse childhood experiences.  This research was to identify the effects of trauma on the Khmer Rouge child survivor, and to assess the effectiveness of mental health treatment. A qualitative phenomenological study using 20 semi-structured interviews of Khmer Rouge child survivors who immigrated to the U.S. and received mental health services. Most survivors appeared to have a secured attachment/relationship to an adult figure and had goals or an optimistic view which helped improve outcomes; most survivors experienced improved psychosocial outcomes after receiving mental health services.  Participants recognized the link between mental health and physical health, while also reporting that they needed to help themselves get better in order to help their children. They reported using Dharma talk, mindfulness meditation, and mindfulness breathing to cope and manage their symptoms. These results could be transferable to other Cambodian child survivors, and other survivors of worldwide atrocities providing preventative and integrated care resulting in improved physical and mental health for this population.

Keywords: Khmer Rouge, child, mental health treatments, conflict, health, treatment.

ABSTRACT

The present autoethnography uses stories, pauses for reflection, and social scientific theory to explore two-plus years of identity deconstruction, as well as passive and active identity reconstruction, following a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia and eventual stem cell transplant. I cast these parallel identity processes in terms of centripetal force, a result of loss of volition expressed through victim/patient syndrome, monitoring fatigue, disability bias, isolation, and dehumanization; and, centrifugal force as characterized by an increase in volition and expressed through the contemplative practices of centering prayer, T’ai Chi, and guided imagery. Central to these practices is the dynamism between nonresistance and refocus. I finish this exploration by suggesting that two manifestations of centrifugal force are spaciousness and love arising from indifference.

Keywords: Identity, centripetal force; centrifugal force, love, cancer.

ABSTRACT

A qualitative reflexive narrative methodology was employed to examine factors that constructed and constrained the experiences of working women academics who were quarantined with their children full-time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty-four motherscholars responded to a computer-based survey with open-ended questions encouraging participants to share their unique stories. Purposive and convenience sampling was employed to obtain a diverse and representative sampling of women that included marginalized groups such as women of color and women who self-identify as members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning and all other people (LGBTQ+) associated with this community. Key themes identified include division of labor, self-care, privilege, socialized gender roles, feelings about partners, boundaries, safety, parenting, privacy, and impact on career/productivity. Focusing on participants’ personal experiences of privilege or lack thereof, and the interruption of established systems, provided greater insight into how socialized gender roles are intensified during pandemic conditions. When established systems were interrupted, participants were more fully exposed to the negative impacts of socialized gender roles. Support structures motherscholars rely upon are fragile, particularly in times of crisis, which is when they are needed most. Institutions should recognize the hardships incurred during the pandemic and consider adjustments to performance expectations. Future research is needed to determine how best to create stronger structures during times of instability.

Keywords: motherhood; socialized gender roles; social privileges; COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT

Ex-offenders are deemed for lifetime conviction as they are subjected to neglect and restrictions since most perspicacity stigmatizes individual who were sent to prison for constant deviance. The overall intent of this case study was to explore how ex-offenders can live life after incarceration while they grapple difficulties outside such as alienating their capability to live anew. Their perceptions on the encountered challenges and vantage on the overcoming strategies they generated themselves after their release; and, reflective insights, were burrowed. Utilizing interview guide questions to instrument the in-depth or one-on-one interview of the five participants agreed from the initial search through purposive sampling, open-ended responses were obtained and carried through thematic analysis. From the excerpts of the candid data, it is found that people are pertinent for ex-offenders on living their lives after release that either trigger problems or motivates constructive-drive in overcoming. In conclusion, ex-offenders are concerned on the objective approach for challenges that impact their immediate family, risk their lives, and compels recidivism requiring them to decide adhering with conventional activities and detach from friends. Refusal to social association is their subjective approach to criticisms and stigma in the society, hence became passive on receiving comfort and acceptance assimilated by immediate family and by the liberty they are exercising    outside the prison.

Keywords: Challenges, ex-offenders, objective approach, reoffending, strategies.

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic brought its attendant health and social challenges to people worldwide. Some categories of people who endured most of the COVID-19 pandemic peculiarly were breastfeeding mothers and their infants given the lockdown that followed because it created an unfriendly atmosphere. Consequently, this study sought to explore the perceptions and experiences of breastfeeding mothers during the lockdown in various parts of the world. Interviews were conducted over WhatsApp telephone calls using a purposeful and homogenous sample of 6 mothers who volunteered to participate in the research. Using the dictates of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), interview recordings were transcribed, coded, and analyzed to capture the idiographic experiences of participants. Findings revealed the emergence of major themes like the adjustment, protective, and psychological impact that summed up the experiences of breastfeeding mothers. Areas of limitation of the study are highlighted, and direction of future research proposed.

Keywords: Breastfeeding mothers, COVID-19 Pandemic, experiences, IPA, perceptions

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to understand the reading habits and preferences of digital and printed books. A qualitative research was carried out, which analyzed eighty interviews involving people from four different age segments. Deepening guidelines were used to perform the interviews, and a content analysis was conducted. Dissimilarities were found regarding age segments: younger respondents agreed that the computer is an element used to study, while the main functionality of cell phones is communication. They usually read in both formats but prefer traditional support when reading for pleasure. Older respondents take pleasure in involving their senses with reading: touching and smelling their printed books. These results reinforce previous founds concerning the coexistence and complementarity of the formats.

Keywords: E-books, printed books, reading habits, cell phones, content analysis.

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