KPE 391

What is ontology?

What exists in the world that we can acquire knowledge about

What we know/what is reality

What are the two types of ontology?

Realism: 1 reality exists and we can uncover it with the right methods

Relativism: multiple realities exist and we must ask questions from different perspectives to understand them

What is epistemology?

How we know what we know/how we create knowledge

What are the 3 types of epistemology

Objectivism: There is 1 objective reality based on logic

Constructivism: Multiple perspectives come together to form 1 reality

Subjectivism: Everyone has their own interpretation of the world; there are multiple realities

What is qualitative research?

A form of social inquiry that focuses on the way people interpret and make sense of the world

What makes up qualitative research?

Ontology: relativism (reality is dynamic and contextual)

Epistemology: constructivism or subjectivism

Methods: interviews, field notes, focus groups, case studies, media analyses, ethnography, narrative analysis, video analysis, grounded theory, phenomenology

When should we use qualitative methodology?

To become experienced with the phenomenon of interest

To achieve a deep understanding of issues that can be conveyed quantitatively

To understand feelings, values, and perceptions with nuance

To understand the context and meaning of data

To develop parameters for quantitative study (new questions, variables)

What are the benefits of qualitative research?

Can understand phenomena, experiences, and events

Flexible - method can change as you go

Obtain detailed info and understanding

Explore opinions, attitudes, perspectives, and sensitive issues

No limitation around defining variables because you define things on your own

Open-ended

No pressure to be generalizable

Limitations of qualitative research

Not generalizable (but doesn’t have to be)

Potential for bias in interpretation

Time consuming

Potential loss of privacy for participants, invasive, or sensitive

Reliability of data depends on researcher’s skils (not every can get people to talk)

What makes qualitative resesarch different from journalism?

Systematic process (clear methodology), anonymity of participants, triangulation

What is triangulation?

Using multiiple data sources to develop a comprehensive understanding to check validity

What is member checking?

Analyzing your data, then bringing that analysis to the participants to ensure that your interpretation of the data is correct

What are exploratory research questions?

Investigate little-understood phenomena, identify/discover important variables, and generate hypotheses for further reserach

What are explanatory research questions?

Explain things that cause the phenomenon

What events, beliefs, attitudes, and policies shape this phenomenon? How do things interact to result in the phenomenon?

What are descriptive research questions?

Document phenomenon

What are behaviors, events, attitudes, structures, processes occurring?

What are predictive research questions?

Predict outcomes, forecast events, and behaviors from phenomena

What will occur as a result of this phenomenon? Who will be affected and how?

What is a construct?

Concept that has been deliberately and consciously invented or adopted for a specific scientific purpose (Kerlinger, 1973)

Rarely observable, must be inferred from other info

These are mental shortcuts made of only the simple, essence of a thing

Only includes features that are common to all instances of it, removes all non-essential info

Allows us to communicate and process info faster, but we lose details and examples

When does a construct become a variable?

When it is operationalized (turned into a value or set of values)

What is a theory?

Offers insights into why, how, when, where, and under what conditions a phenomena occurs

They describe relationships between concepts and constructs

When are theories used in research?

Develop hypothesis/RQ, guide methods and analyses, frames interpretation of results

What makes a theory good?

Employs clear definitions to account for what is observable (eg. define sunrise)

Define who or what is included and excluded from the theory (eg. sunrise on Earth, exclude sunrise on other planets)

Specify exact setting where theory can be applied and limits of it (eg. apply to pro sport but not community sport)

Explain relationship between items/actors and state how variables are related or unrelated to other variables

Be unique - if 2 are identical, then it is just 1

Be parsimonious - the simpler the better, less assumptions and definitions

Accurate within its domain, can verify empirically

Be generalizable - more areas it can be applied = better

Be consistent within itself and with other accepted theories related to the same phenomena

Be simple and make sense of seemingly disparate parts

Why are theories important?

Framework for analysis (commonality of language and provides structure)

Efficient method for field development

Clear explanations

What is narrative research?

Understand how participants construct story and narrative from their personal experience

What are the layers of interpretation in narrative research?

1st - participant interpret their own lives through narrative

2nd - researcher interprets the construction of that narrative (interpreting the interpretation)

How is narrative research presented?

Thematically or chronologically

What are types of narrative research?

Biographies - writing/recording experiences of another person

Autoethnography - biography of self, analysis into vulnerable and coherent self, critique of self in social contexts, subversion of dominant discourse

Life history - person’s entire life story

Oral history - multiple people’s account of a story, event, and causes/effects

What is key for narrative research?

Focuses on turning points/important events

Takes place within a specific context (time and place)

What is phenomenology?

Studying the common meaning for several individuals of their lived experience

What are features of phenomenology?

Emphasis on the phenomenon

Multiple sources of data (usually multiple people)

Philosophical discussion about the lived experiences of the participants being central to research (positioning to research as subjective-objective)

Researcher is bracketed (explain their relationship to phenomenon to understand biases and perspectives they bring)

Data collection

Descriptive passage of the phenomena (what was experienced, how was it experienced)

What is grounded theory research?

When no theory is available to explain a phenomena or topic, so you generate a new theory from the data you get

How do you conduct grounded theory research?

Collect data, write memos, compare to literature

Open coding - code data for major categories and identify core phenomena

Things to code for/key things to look for:

Causal conditions (what is causing the core phenomenon)

Core phenomenon

Strategies (how people respond to the core phenomenon)

Intervening conditions (what situational factors influence the phenomenon/strategies)

Consequences (what are the outcomes of using the strategies)

What is ethnographic research?

Focuses on an entire culture-sharing group

Describe + interpret shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors beliefs, and language of a culture-sharing group

What is the difference between anthropology and sociology?

Anthropology = study of another culture

Sociology = study of your own culture

What is the difference between etic and emic?

Emic = in-group perspective

Etic = outsider perspective

Holistical cultural portrait includes both an emic and etic perspectives

What are case studies?

Observational study of 1 case in a real-life context within a bounded system (specific time and place)

What are features of a case study

Specific case in a bounded system

Presents in-depth understanding

Strong descriptions of the case

Presented chronologically, thematically, or comparatively (cross-case comparison)

Concludes with note about overall meaning of case (assertion, patterns, takeaways)

What are the 2 types of case studies?

Intrinsic - case is unsual and can lead to further discovery

Instrumental - case offers insights into a broader issue or problem

When to use interviews

Interested in people’s perspective on something

Interested in lived experiences

Trying to understand how something happened or why it happened

Need details and context

Need to triangulate other sources of data

Why use interviews?

Structured way to ask direct, open-ended questions

Offers rich data

Opportunity for researcher to observe facial and body responses

Can build trust between researcher and participant

What is purposeful sampling?

A group of non-probability sampling techniques

Think about who is most appropriate to talk to and target them specifically, want people involved who can give you detailed data

What are the types of sampling?

Maximum variation sampling - Choosing cases that are purposefully as different as possible

Homogenous sampling - choosing cases as similar as possible

Critical case - Choosing cases that represent the idea “if it happens here, it will happen everywhere”

Theory-based - Choosing cases based on how well they represent or offer the opportunity to explore a theory

Snowball sampling - Using existing study participants to find new sampling

Extreme or deviant cases - cases that are unusual/outlier

Typical cases - cases that are common/normal

Opportunistic sampling - Choose cases based on who you know/who is easy to access

Convenience sampling - Choose cases based on who is closest to the researcher/most available

Expert sampling - Choose cases based on high level of experience with the topic/“experts

What are interview best practices?

Record interviews with consent

Tell them how many questions/how long it will probably be to manage expectations

Don’t speak over the person - prevents leading their answers

Keep the interview on track

Give yourself time in case it runs long

What are challenges of interviews?

Finding an appropriate sampling

Getting off-track or going over time

Finding a quiet space where you can hear each other

Distrust/lack of trust (need to build rapport to open up in their answers)

Knowing when to stop (when do you reach saturation?)

What is saturation?

Once responses start to be repetitive and you are not hearing anything new

What is conflict of interest and an example of conflict of interest?

People sponsoring/funding have an interest that may interrupt the research process

Eg. New England Journal of Medicine

1984: conflict of interest policy says reviewers can’t have any personal ties to research funders

2022: new policy says they can have personal ties, but never make more than $10,000 from companies whose work they judge

Being offered $9999 legit makes no difference in how people will act

What are the 3 principles of human research ethics?

Respect for persons: Treat people as autonomous agents; Informed consent, voluntary participation; Must have full understanding of what they are consenting to; Protect vulnerable individuals with extra safeguards

Beneficience: Benefits must outweigh risks/harm

Justice: Fairness in the selection of subjects; Equitable distribution of benefits and burdens of research; Avoid exploitation

What makes a research study ethically justified?

Scientifically sound: its novel and will contribute in some way

Potential benefit significantly outweighs the potential for harm

There is adequate process for informed consent and assent where applicable

There is justice/fairness in the selection of participants

What is reflexivity?

Be aware of what you are bringing to the study, power dynamics, and context, and how it influences the researcher

Personal reflexivity: Your own identity, prior knowledge, and insider/outsider status

Interpersonal reflexivity: Relationships between researcher and participants

Methodological: how method choices influence research process, paradigms, exclusion criteria

Contextual: cultural, historical, temporal

How do you do a reflexive thematic analysis?

Familiarization with data - go back through transcripts and notes, immersing yourself in data

Generating initial codes - tagging interesting features of data

Searching for themes - grouping codes

Reviewing themes - refining them, ensure that works with coded data and data set

Defining and naming themes - develop detailed analysis and try to capture the essence of that theme in a name

Writing the report - paper, dissertation, journal article, etc.

Focus on telling meaningful stories, not summarizing topics

What are focus groups?

Group of people interacting while discussing an issue that shares a similar background and provides different perspectives on the particular issue

Usually 4-12 people, 30-90 mins

When to use focus groups?

Working with questions that are light

Generating new ideas/solutions

Providing input into product/program development

Exploring range of experiences with various topics

When not to use focus groups

Dealing with sensitive, stigmatized, or personal topics

Building consensus on something

Educating people on the topic

How do you set up a focus group?

Choose platform/venue

Purposeful sampling

Send individual invitations to participate

Collect individual consent forms

Schedule the sessions at a time that works for the group

What are Chatham House rules?

Anybody who participates is free to use info/knowledge gained in the meeting but can’t disclose who gave the info

How do the ethics of focus groups differ?

No anonymity or confidentiality

Chatham House rules

Must be careful when crafting your group

No withdrawing after - must be in consent form

What are best practices for focus groups?

Record the focus group

Tell them how many questions you have, and how long it should take

Manage the speaker sequence

Set expectations at the beginning (is anything ‘off limits’?)

Keep the group on track

Give yourself time

What is thematic analysis?

Qualitative method for identifying, analyzing, and reporting themes

Pinpoint, examine, and record themes

What is the process of a thematic analysis?

Generate raw data

Organize data

Read through and make notes

Identify themes, attitudes, behaviors via coding

Amalgamate themes - create overarching themes

Interpret data - How do all of the following interact

What is coding?

Analytical process where data sets are categorized and key pieces of insight/info are highlighted and retained for further analysis

What are the 2 types of coding?

Inductive: Themes, codes, and categories emerge from the data; Look at the data and see what jumps out with fresh eyes

Deductive: Themes, codes, and categories are chosen before analysis starts based on previous research/theory; Set themes first → go look for it in the data

What are the benefits of coding?

Determine how much you have, what you have, what you want to keep/get rid of, remind you of things that you forgot, visual way to see things

Amount of times a theme shows up tells you what you should pay attention to vs. what you should throw out

What are 2 ways to approach case studies?

Identify something interesting → write RQ to address it

Identify RQ that needs addressing → find a case that matches

What makes a case good for a case study?

Interesting

A lot of potential data points (eg. people to interview, documents to collect, etc.)

You have access to it

It is unique (intrinsic) or representative of a broader theme (instrumental) and you can defend it

What is a content analysis?

Systematic approach to analyzing the content/meaning of communicative messages

Focuses on the meaning of content in the form of textual, visual, aural, or multimodal text

Eg. Jasper Fire research

What are the 2 types of content analyses?

Conceptual analysis: Existence and frequency of concepts in a text; Doesn’t tell you more than whether it is there or not

Relational analysis: Examine relationships among concepts in a text

Where does the data for content analyses come from?

Interview, open-ended questions, field research, conversations, any form of communicative language (Books, essays, discussions, news headlines, speeches, social media, historical documents)

When are content analyses used?

Quantify and analyze the presence, meanings, and relationships of certain words, themes, or concepts within textual data

Want to apply a more interpretive level of analysis to your data that would be possible through quantitative content

Identify intentions, focus, or communication trends of individuals, groups, or institutions

Describe attitudinal and behavioral responses to communications

Reveal patterns in communication content

Reveal intentional differences in communication content

What is a framing analysis?

Studying process of procedures of meaning-making/meaning construction

Exploring processes of meaning-making and influencing among governmental social elites, news media, and public

Explores elements of reality that are strategically or tacitly foregrounded/backgrounded in text/conversations

What is a frame?

Socially shared organizing principle that works symbolically to shape democratic discourse and influence public opinion by creating and promoting particular vocabularies

Mental shortcut/heuristic that makes complex issues into smaller, manageable thought structures

What are the questions to ask about frames?

What describes the symbolic foundation of a frame?

What describes the symbolic patterns and themes used to weave together a coherent frame?

What describes the cultural constraints and social situations revealed by the symbolic coherence of particular frames?

What describes the power relationships produced by a particular frame?

What is a narrative analysis?

Focused on the elicitation and interpretation of people’s narrative accounts of their experiences (stories)

What are types of narrative analyses?

Narrative study: Uses paradigm thinking to create descriptions of themes that hold across stories or taxonomies of types of stories; collects descriptions of events and configures them into a plot line

Biographical study: Write + record experiences of another person’s life

Autobiography - written/recorded by individuals who are the subjects of the study

Life History - a person’s entire life documented in 1 or more episodes, private situations, or communal folklore

Oral History - Gathering personal reflections of events and their causes and effects from 1 individual or several individuals

How do you conduct a narrative study?

Determine if the research question/problem best fits narrative research - is the RQ appropriate, is the group small enough to capture a specific detail

Select 1 or more individuals who have stories or life experiences related to your research, and spend time with them to gather stories through multiple types of information

Collect information about the context of these stories

Analyze the participant’s story and “restory” them into a framework that makes sense

Collaborate with participants by actively involving them in the process

What is an ethnograpahy?

Study of social interactions, behaviors, and perceptions that occur within cultures, organizations, or groups

Document the culture from the perspective of “insiders”

Goal: to observe and explain interactions in an ordinary setting

Who created ethnography?

Bronislaw Malinowski (1915)

What are 3 types of ethnographic data?

Detailed descriptions of day-to-day activities and interactions

Documented all the stories, myths, narratives, norms, expectations, etc.

Created synoptic charts (maps)

Things to look for when doing an ethnography

Basic needs (individual): Nutrition, Reproduction, Bodily comforts, Safety, Relaxation, Movement, Growth

Direct responses (How they meet basic needs): Where they get their food from, Marriage and family, Protection and defense, Systems of play, communication, training and apprenticeship

Instrumental needs: Renewal of cultural apparatus, Charters of behaviors and sanctions, Renewal of personnel, Organization of force and compulsions

Responses to instrumental needs: Economics, Social control, Education, Political organization

Symbolic and integrative needs (old stories, knowledge, how do we learn tradition and religion, games): Transmission of experience by means of precise, consistent principles, Means of intellectual, emotional, and pragmatic control of destiny and chance, Communal rhythm of recreation, exercise, and rest

Systems of thought and faith: Knowledge, magic, religion, art, sports, games, ceremony

Why do “outsiders” do ethnographies?

Insiders/natives sometimes are too close to the culture to see it clearly

Ethnographer can see things from outside that aren’t part of your everyday life

Beginner’s mindset is an asset/tool to ethnographer → allows for discovery

What are the characteristics of an ethnography?

Exploratory, conducted in a natural setting, aimed at discovering a local’s POV, gather data from a wide range of sources, unstructured data collection

When to use ethnography?

To understand roles of families or institutions

Examine social interactions

Observe the impacts of new policy

Explore new cultures (different from your own)

Search for meaning in cultural norms and views

Micro- vs. Macro-ethnography

Micro-ethnography: study of a narrowly defined cultural group (eg. undergrad students at UofT)

Macro-ethnography: study of a broadly-defined cultural grouping (Eg. Torontonains)

Skills needed for ethnography

Interpretative agility

Familiarity with the social setting

Respect for the culture (even if you don’t like it)

Good interacitonal and interpersonal skills

Sensitivity toward the culture, values, and norms

Open-mind

Focus (ability to stick with it for a long time)

Patience

Ability to put people at ease

Advantages of ethnography?

In-depth findings

Possibility to uncover new information

To share cultural understanding and build empathy

Experiential (you actually get fully immersed in the culture)

What is documentary cinema?

Cinematic genre that broadly includes “non-fiction” films

What is ethnographic cinema?

Subgenre within the non-fiction genre; very specific about a following of a group of people to understand their culture

Uses the camera as a tool to collect ethnographic data

To be considered research, it must be “anthropologically significant” and have scientific rigor

Eg. Box Girl, (people) of water

What are Indigenous methodologies?

Research by and for Indigenous Peoples, using techniques and methods drawn from the tradition and knowledges of those people

What is the Plains Cree Model (Nêhiýaw Kiskêýihtamowin)?

Circular conceptual framework of tribal research

Researcher Preparation and Research Preparation: Everyone must be prepared, co-creation of knowledge

Gathering Knowledge: What is yours to know and what is not yours to know

Giving Back: Responsibility and Reciprocity

Making meaning

Decolonizing and Ethics

What is the challenge of promoting Indigenous research?

Historical privileging of “empircal” evidence over oral history and story-telling

Western view that not every story is valid or factually correct (Victor’s history)

What is aboriginalism?

The story about Aborigines told by whites using only white people’s imaginations

Research was only from an etic (White settler) perspective for a long time

What are features of Indigenous research?

Community-led

Incorporates Indigenous world views

Purposeful

Personal

Based on relationships

Pushes back against colonial boundaries

Focused on resiliency and resistance

Resiliency: Ability to cope and thrive despite adverse conditions

Resistance: Practice/performance/experience of fighting back against problematic social and environmental conditions

Raises up Indigenous voices and peoples

What is yarning?

Informal and relaxed discussion through which both research and the participant journey together visiting places and topics of interest relevant to the research study in a culturally safe way

What are types of yarning?

Social: Initial informal conversations that occur before research yarning commences

Collaborative: Active and focused engagement on the topic between 2 or more people and a sharing and discussion of research ideas and findings

Research: Structured or unstructured, done to gather information through participant’s stories, has a clear beginning and end

Therapeutic

Family

Cross-cultural: Includes Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers

What is Wiisokotaatiwin?

“Gathering together for a purpose”

What are the key concepts of IRM?

Resistance: ongoing process made up of personal decolonization and Indigenous resurgance efforts

Political integrity: IPs leading research by and for themselves and their community, Relational accountability to communities, ancestors, and future generations

Privileging Indigenous voices: Hone in to priorities that matter to communities the most, Centering Anishinaabemowin (Annishabeg language), Making space in health sciences

What are some Indigenous methods?

Asemma and ceremony (tobacco)

Sharing circles

Dibaajimowinan (personal stories and interviews)

Physical activity as part of Dr. McGuire-Adams data analysis process

Dreaming and citaitonal practices for dreams

Rocks (living spirits of rocks are their ancestors)

What research did Dr. McGuire-Adams do?

1st iteration of Wiisokotaatiwin

• Used kettlebells as a form of PA

• Invited research participations

• Urban Aboriginal Healthy Living Program (UAHLP) at the Odawa Native Friendship Center

• Explore how directed PA, coupled with critical dialogues regarding colonization, decolonization, health, wellbeing, ancestral stores, may influence urban Indigenous women

• Results

  • Restoring wellness by enacting community: Empowerment, joy from being together, Disrupted other spaces of marginalization

  • Forced colonial displacement: Awareness/understanding of how it impacted their families, health, and wellbeing, still enact resistence and resilience and still participate in PA together

  • Critical consciousness of marginalization(s): Education, employment, family dynamics, etc., Colonialism happens in their everyday life, but not told from a deficit-based narrative

2nd iteration of Wiisokotaatiwin

• Sharing circles with Annishnaabeg elders

• Worked with Advisory committee and Elder’s council in Naicatchewenin First Nation (Treaty 3 Territory)

• Had previous relationships with the community and people

• Focused on land-based activities for Annishnaabeg health and wellbeing

• Guided by Elders to go out on the land

• Sharing circles in the roundhouse to answer questions about health, wellness, importance of the land, PA, etc.

• Community Sacred Stories: Use the findings to document and preserve their community’s sacred stories

• Stories of the Community Drums: Understanding of how community drums inform key aspects of health and wellbeing

• Knowledge of the sacred sites: got to go out on the land and explore and help document knowledge

• Findings

  • Being on the land fosters wellbeing but is often no accessible to Elders

  • The legends teach us about how to live with wellbeing as Annishaabeg

  • Healing and connection to ancestors is found when visiting the land

  • Engage reciprocal sharing through implementing the practice of Bagijigan (gift giving)

• Community outputs (priority of the study)

  • Presentation of the draft results with the Elders

  • Community newsletter and powerpoint

  • Transcripts and videos for community archives

  • 2 video collages of research

  • Photobook of research process

What is participatory research?

Process of research, reflection, and action that is carried out with people instead on them

What are the 3 key elements of participatory research?

People-centered: Informed by and responds to the experiences/needs of people involved, Sharing knowledge with participants, gives them agency, not gatekeeping

Power: Crucial to construction of reality, language, meanings, and rituals of truth, Power is knowledge and knowledge creates truth and therefore power, Allow participants to be the decision-makers, evens out the power-imbalance

Praxis: Cyclical nature of theory and practice with the outcome of making an impact, Encourage reflection and action to make change

What is action research?

Coined by Kurt Lewin (1940s)

Help minority research to seek independence and equality through the research process

Brought focus to the lower classes of people → unions, worker rights

Include active participation of workers with RQs that were identified by them

If groups have more control over working conditions, they are more productive

Promotes empowerment and social equity

Researcher is still mainly doing work

What is empancipatory research?

Created by Paulo Freire (1970s)

Collaboratively engage groups that experience marginalization with praxis

Praxis: critical reflection on social forces that reduce oppression with the goal to empower, transform, and initiate political action

Questions values of research/education in relation to political power/oppression

Believed people are not objects of inquiry and are able to determine their own needs and act to improve their own lives

Mainly people doing the work