Research Article
Danielle Rae Daniel, Tara Rava Zolnikov
AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 1-32
ABSTRACT
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a multi-faceted, symptomatic mental health diagnosis often accompanied with various physical and psychological comorbidities. The complexity of this diagnosis makes treatment difficult, thereby suggesting that all options, including alternative approaches to care, should be explored. Aromatherapy from plant essential oils is an increasingly utilized integrative health modality. Essential oils are lipophilic, volatile aromatic metabolites in plants consisting of various natural chemical constituents that permeate the blood stream and influence neurobiological responses. This qualitative phenomenological study sought to understand the impact of aromatherapy from Bergamot essential oil on managing PTSD symptomology. A two-week pilot study was conducted consisting of 12 first responder, medical, firefighter and military men and women presenting with symptoms of PTSD in San Diego, California. Data collected from the interviews identified that the bergamot essential oil produced a calming effect, improved sleep, reduced anxiety, increased positive mood, enhanced concentration and reduced avoidance behavior. Participants in the research study reported that aromatherapy of bergamot essential oil helped mitigate certain symptoms of PTSD from the symptom clusters of arousal, negative mood, and avoidance behavior. This modality could help practitioners and treatment clinics facilitate an adaptive recovery, by providing a calm and safe atmosphere to engage with clients to execute trauma focused therapy more effectively. Aromatherapy provides a non-invasive and promising modality that would best serve the mental health field for practitioners and their overseeing organizations to further research, educate and implement this therapy in facilitating an adaptive recovery and management of PTSD symptoms.
Keywords: PTSD, mental health, aromatherapy, essential oils, complementary alternative medicine.
Research Article
James A. Bernauer
AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 33-50
ABSTRACT
This article discusses six types of “voices’ noted in the title that we encounter during our lives whether pre-pandemic, pandemic, or post-pandemic as we pursue the exhilarating quest to learn about ourselves and our world. The purpose of this article is to position and contextualize our current experience living in a world that continues to try and outsmart the mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus within the context of these six “logues” and how we might incorporate these new understandings into qualitative inquiry. An additional contextual component is the iPhone (and its variants) that also has had a dramatic impact on our lives but in a very different way. It is hoped that readers will critically evaluate this article since it represents the author’s perspective, perceptions, and understanding of why these voices are important in qualitative inquiry and how they interact with memories and the stories that surround them. The extent to which readers utilize these six logues in their own qualitative thinking and inquiries will be the measure of its transferability and usefulness.
Keywords: prologue, monologue, dialogue, polylogue, metalogue, epilogue, iPhone, pandemic, Star Trek, metamemories.
Research Article
Erkan Acar
AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 51-63
ABSTRACT
This exploratory qualitative study attempted to investigate how immigrant students in Florida’s K–12 schools acclimated. The study emphasizes the value of fostering a friendly and encouraging school climate for immigrant students since such climate can speed up their acculturation process and increase their academic and disciplinary achievement. Semi-structured interviews with 20 immigrant students from various cultural backgrounds gathered the data as part of the study's qualitative research design. The study population includes students who were born in different countries other than the US and who had attended Florida’s public schools for at least a year. According to the study’s findings, immigrant students experience a variety of difficulties connected to social separation, linguistic difficulties, and cultural alterations. On the other hand, the students also mention several advantages, including adjusting to unfamiliar surroundings, making new friends, and feeling more independent. The study adds to the body of knowledge on immigrant students’ acculturation experiences in the US, especially in K–12 institutions in Florida. The research results give educators, decision-makers, and academics new perspectives on how to better grasp the opportunities and difficulties faced by immigrant kids in the US K-12 educational system.
Keywords: immigrant students, acculturation, school climate, academic achievement.
Research Article
Hannah Fisher-Grafy, Rinat Halabi
AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 64-78
ABSTRACT
Peer exclusion is an undesirable phenomenon with serious implications for the present and future of children experiencing it. Growing peer exclusion and bullying rates in elementary-school-age children, especially on social networks, have been examined from a mostly pathological perspective focused on the rejected child or rejecting group. This qualitative study sought developmental explanations for this phenomenon’s pervasiveness during latency. Twelve focus groups of 140 Israeli children in Grade 5 discussed peer exclusion and other social issues. The data were categorized according to the revised Van Kaam method improved by Moustakas. Three themes from aspects of group flow emerged: reduction in the egocentric position and rise in the group’s importance, flexibility with changing social norms, and ostracism when the children perceive a block in the “flow.” The findings confirmed that at latency age, the importance of social flow increases, and rejection and even bullying play a normative developmental role. This study adds an alternative to the literature explaining peer exclusion as the result of the rejected child’s personality or the group’s destructive dynamic. It suggests viewing peer exclusion as a normative development during latency, helping children develop a “social self” free from their egocentric positions to function with a group.
Keywords: normative development, elementary school, latency period, flexibility, social norm.
Research Article
Cheryl Marie Patton, Joshua Broward
AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 79-94
ABSTRACT
Scholars trace phenomenology as a philosophical movement back to the early twentieth century. The origins of the phenomenological movement are mostly credited to two German philosophers: the “founding father” of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl, and his successor, Martin Heidegger. The pair were instrumental in creating the framework for today’s inductive qualitative phenomenological research designs. However, the roots of phenomenology spread further than these two German philosophers. This article describes the thoughts of the two phenomenological giants as well as the earlier influences on the emergence of phenomenology, stemming back to ancient Greece. Though not all-encompassing, this historical overview offers a richer and deeper look into the emergence of phenomenology as a philosophical tradition.
Keywords: phenomenology, history, early influences, Husserl, Heidegger, philosophy
Research Article
Elif Kalemdaroglu-Wheeler
AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 95-118
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore teachers’ and administrators’ perceptions of test score pollution deriving from COVID-19-related issues that may affect students’ test scores on state-mandated standardized tests for grades six through 12 in a state along the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Four research questions were devised to investigate participants’ perceptions of factors stemming from COVID-19-related issues that may alter students’ performance on state standardized tests, commonly referred to as test score pollution. The conceptual framework centered around Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, Campbell’s Law, and Kane’s Validation Model. A purposeful stratified sampling method was utilized for participant inclusion criteria. The study sample included four middle school teachers in grades six through eight, two high school teachers, two middle school administrators, and two high school administrators. The data collection method included semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was conducted in unison with memoing, member checking, In Vivo, Descriptive, Focused, Axial, and Process Coding methods. The following themes emerged through data analysis: (a) inadequately preparing students for state standardized tests, (b) de-valuing of education, (c) understanding students’ emotional well-being, (d) providing data-driven support, (e) questioning test validity, and (f) recognizing magnified disparities among students.
Keywords: Campbell’s Law, COVID-19, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, Kane’s Validation Model, state standardized tests, test score pollution.
Research Article
Richardson Addai-Mununkum, Seyram Setordzi
AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 119-139
ABSTRACT
Research has long established that teachers’ characteristics such as attitude, knowledge, and pedagogical skills are superior expediters of curriculum implementation. Following Ghana’s recent introduction of a standards-based curriculum in K6 schools, we ponder how Ghanaian teachers are implementing change through their utilization of 21st-century pedagogies. We implemented a qualitative descriptive phenomenology research that explored teachers’ experiences with emerging pedagogies. Twenty-one participants from four schools were observed and interviewed to reflect on their experiences and to facilitate a comprehensive description of the phenomenon. Having analyzed the data thematically, we observed that teachers adopt teasers, cooperative, experiential, and inquiry-based approaches in implementing the new curriculum. Regardless, the curriculum implementation is challenged by inadequate resources and teachers’ personality and competency factors. We discuss these findings in line with Fullan’s (2012) characteristics of change and conclude by categorizing our respondents along the line of an adapted Roger’s (1995) diffusion model; innovators, early majority, and laggards. For this, we confirm that the difference among the three groups of teachers lies in their personal motivation to embrace change. We therefore recommend for innovative teachers be motivated, early majority teacher to be offered training and laggards to be effectively supervised for the attainment of the goals of the new curriculum.
Keywords: Curriculum implementation, pedagogy, Africa, qualitative research
Research Article
Frank Hang Xu, Leena Saurwein
AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 140-158
ABSTRACT
In this paper, two authors have explored and demonstrated their own multi-dimensional positionality’ in the manner of reflectively interpreting four meaningful scenarios relating to their encountered methodological challenges in a cross-border COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) project. Throughout the construction of multi-dimensional positionality, the recognition of the subtle insider-outsider binarism encouraged these two authors to revisit the role of national cultures in the formation of researcher positionality and then to incorporate the idea of ‘simplexity’ into their understanding of the on-going positionality, which has resulted in the proposition of ‘simplex multi-dimensional positionality.’ Alluding to this concept, the two authors acknowledge the possible intervention of national cultures as their researcher positionality evolves and contend that it is the degree to which researchers tend to (not) make use of national cultures as resources that keep their positionality oscillating rather than the national cultures per se.
Keywords: multi-dimensional positionality, simplexity approach, fluidity and relatedness
Research Article
Stephen Bell, Joshua Adams
AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 159-181
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to explore how law enforcement officers in Los Angeles County described their lived experiences of engaging in discretionary enforcement behaviors when policing narcotics crimes. Rational choice theory was utilized as the theoretical lens for the study. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 15 active law enforcement officers in Los Angeles County. Data were collected through open-ended surveys, semi-structured interviews, and reflexive memos. The data were coded utilizing thematic analysis with the assistance of NVivo 12 Plus. Three primary themes were evident from the data: (1) positive reinforcement-motivators, (2) justifications for reduced narcotics enforcement, and (3) methods of reduced enforcement. Findings revealed law enforcement officers, much like offenders’ criminal behaviors in rational choice theory, can be dissuaded from discretionary enforcement behaviors with adequate negative reinforcement. Implications of the study’s findings, limitations, and recommendations for future research are discussed.
Keywords: rational choice theory, discretion, narcotics, deterrence, Proposition 47, defelonization.
Research Article
Dorothy Dillard, Howard Henderson, Maruice Mangum, Johnny Rice II, Amy Goldstein
AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 182-202
ABSTRACT
This article contributes to our national understanding of gun violence by incorporating in our analyses the perspectives of the young men most likely to be victims and/or perpetrators of gun violence in urban areas. It also describes a more complex gun violence crisis by taking into account the environment in which many young Black men live and learn and how those settings contribute to their gun possession decisions. This focus on environment underscores the contextual differences between mass and school shootings compared to urban gun violence. The cities where our respondents live are marked by violence and few positive opportunities. By the time they were 15 years old, the majority of our study participants knew someone who had been shot, many knew someone who had been killed by a gun, and the majority had been arrested. On the contrary, few had significant adjucation or incarceration records and most were either in school or had graduated from high school. The findings represent the lived experience of 364 young Black males living in high crime cities. The interviews were conducted in collaboration with community partners in Baltimore, MD, Jackson, MS, Houston, TX, and Wilmington, DE.
Keywords: gun possession, lived experience, urban gun violence, black male perspective
Research Article
Soua Xiong
AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 203-219
ABSTRACT
This qualitative study explored the college aspirations of Hmong males who are pursuing or have completed higher education in the U.S. Using qualitative data from The Hmong College Student Success Project, this study analyzed trajectory analysis statements from 59 Hmong males to understand their aspirations to attend college. This study highlights how Hmong males leverage their aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistant capital to navigate their ways to college. Specifically, findings from this study reveal the cultural resources emerging from parents, siblings, educators, college and career preparation programs, and themselves that cultivated their college aspirations. Implications for research and practice focus on cultivating college aspirations and increasing college enrollment among Hmong males are provided.
Keywords: Hmong Americans, male students, college aspirations, cultural wealth
Research Article
Mina M. Gul, Zakir Gul
AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp. 220-240
ABSTRACT
The Turkish government implemented antidemocratic policies and practices after the attempted coup in 2016, leading to the victimization of its own citizens. This qualitative study examined alleged constitutional and human rights violations in Türkiye using a phenomenological research design and semi-structured, in-depth interviews to document the lived experiences of 25 participants who were selected through snowball sampling. The main themes found in the study were loss of jobs, mobbing, loss of freedom of travel and movement, denial of health services (within and outside the criminal justice system), and physical and psychological persecution. The results of the study support previous research, contribute to the literature by revealing additional types of victimization, and, through first-person accounts, shed light on the serious harm that Turkish citizens suffered at the hands of the Erdogan government. Policy implications and limitations of the study are included.
Keywords: Türkiye, human rights violations, victimization, loss of job, mobbing, loss of freedom of travel, denial of health services, persecution.