Section archive - Research Methods

In this article, the author argues that recognizing the role of subjectivity and bringing in the researcher's positionality as a tool in the research process can not only enhance the ethical integrity of the research but also enhance both the research process and the analysis and interpretation of the data. The author explores the relational dynamics of a qualitative research study in which the author worked with 15 Bosnian adolescent female refugees and 10 Bosnian refugee community members living in New York City. The author's purpose is to explore their understandings of identity after conflict, flight, and relocation.

The authors are three professors whose interests in collaborative self-study processes have led them to a shared research project investigating their collective experiences. The authors' aim is to identify practical implications of the tensions that emerged from collaborative group study. The findings suggest that groups engaged in collaborative self-study have to be both open and closed. Negotiating the tensions of these apparent opposites locally and within the field may have a large impact on what self-study will become.

In this article, the authors describe the challenge of teaching action research within the context of an undergraduate community health psychology module. The module was designed using principles from transformative learning, critical pedagogy and action learning. The module took place over one semester; and 15 students participated in the module. The authors reflect upon the students' experiences in the module and the learning outcomes. The authors conclude by addressing the major challenges involved in teaching action research to increase critical understanding.

This study examines the instructional steps that the author took, based on gaps between what was happening in a graduate literacy class she taught and what she had intended to happen. This study describes the ways that the author re-imagined the class and what came about when she created a pedagogical approach that featured multi-genre inquiry. The author found that the multi-genre approach led to moments of inter-discursivity as teachers extended their understandings by appropriating language from one genre into another.