"Stretching" Exercises for Qualitative Researchers

by Valerie J. Janesick

Overview

In the new Fourth Edition of her inventive, one-of-a-kind book, author Valerie J. Janesick uses dance, yoga, and meditation metaphors to help researchers tap into the intuitive and creative side of their research. In every chapter, "stretching" exercises help readers develop, practice, and hone fieldwork skills and vital habits of mind such as observation, interviewing, writing, creativity, technology, and analysis. While reading the book and working through the exercises, readers can complete a researcher’s reflective journal—an invaluable tool that will remain useful throughout their careers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506316277
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	08/25/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Valerie J. Janesick (PhD, Michigan State University) is Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, in the department of Leadership, Counseling, Adult, Career and Higher Education, LCACHE, University of South Florida, Tampa. She teaches classes in qualitative research methods, curriculum theory and inquiry, and ethics in leadership. Her latest book, “Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry: Practicing the Zen of Research (2015) Left Coast Press, argues for the use of Zen approaches to qualitative inquiry cast as Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry.  Her chapters in the Handbook of Qualitative Research (first and second editions) use dance and the arts as metaphors for understanding research. Her book, Oral History for the Qualitative Researcher: Choreographing the Story (2010), Guilford Press, incorporates, poetry, photography and the arts to capture lived experience.  She serves on the editorial board of The Qualitative Report, and the International Journal of Qualitative Methods. She continues to take classes in yoga and meditation.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Qualitative Research and Habits of Mind
Identifying, Practicing, and Developing Habits
Getting Feedback and Writing About It
Finding Your Theoretical Habit
Developing Habits of Mind
Terms Used to Describe Qualitative Research
Characteristics of Qualitative Work
Questions Suited to Qualitative Research Methods
Using Theory in Qualitative Research
Artistic Approaches to Qualitative Research
Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry and the Zen of Research
Why Try These Exercises?
How to Use This Book
The Audience for This Book
Suggested Resources
Chapter 2. The Observation, Reflection, and Writing Habit
Exercise 2.1: Observing a Still Life Scene
Description of a Still Life Scene
Constructing a Researcher Reflective Portfolio
Types of Portfolios and Assessment
How the Electronic Portfolio Works
Portfolio Contents
Exercise 2.2: Physical Description of This Setting
Exercise 2.3: Observation in the Home or Workplace
Exercise 2.4: Description of a Familiar Person or a Stranger
The Qualities of Exemplary Case Studies
Exercise 2.5: Observing at an Art Museum or at a Movie
Exercise 2.6: Observing an Animal at Home, the Zoo, or a Pet Shop
Exercise 2.7: Drawing to Become a Better Observer: Drawing Upside Down
Chapter 3. Advancing the Observation, Reflection, and Writing Habit
Exercise 3.1: Nonparticipant Observation Assignment
Exercise 3.2: Reflecting to Strengthen the Writing Habit
Exercise 3.3: Writing Your Educational Autobiography
Exercise 3.4: Writing a Pedagogical Letter
Next Steps: Self-Evaluation
Pitfalls in Observation
Chapter Summary
Suggested Resources
Chapter 4. The Interview and Writing Habit
Two People Talking, Communicating, and Constructing Meaning
Types of Interview Questions
Preparing Questions
Examples of Interview Questions From a Recent Study
Exercise 4.1: Interviewing Someone You Know
Exercise 4.2: Interviewing a Stranger
Exercise 4.3: The Oral History Interview
Exercise 4.4: The Focus Group Interview Demonstration Exercise
Exercise 4.5: Presenting Interview Data as a Found Data Poem
Exercise 4.6: Describing Your Role in a Research Project as Identity Poetry
Exercise 4.7: The Digital, Virtual Interview and Google Groups
Exercise 4.8: Interviewing Someone Twice
Exercise 4.9: Practicing an Online Interview
Conducting Qualitative Interviews: Some Rules of Thumb
Chapter Summary
Suggested Resources
Chapter 5. The Creative Habit
The Role of the Researcher and the Researcher Reflective Journal
Exercise 5.1: Variations on Writing Your Name
Exercise 5.2: The Camera as an Extension of the Eye, the Eye as an Extension of the Soul
Exercise 5.3: Building a Collage: My Role as a Researcher
Exercise 5.4: Constructing a YaYa Box or Making a Quilt Patch
The Qualitative Researcher and the Intuitive Sense
Exercise 5.5: Writing About Your Favorite Vegetable
Serendipity
Intuition, Creativity, and Compassion in Research
The Researcher Reflective Journal as Creative Act
Exercise 5.6: Your Journey
Future Directions
Exercise 5.7: Reflective Journal Writing Practice in Dialogue Form
Exercise 5.8: Haiku and Any Form of Poetry on the Role of the Researcher
Exercise 5.9: Framed Photograph and Narrative Writing Exercise
Exercise 5.10: Writing Timeline Exercise
Chapter Summary
Suggested Resources
Chapter 6. The Analysis Habit
The Qualitative Researcher as Contemplative and Mindful
Checkpoints for Data Analysis, Reporting, and Interpretation
Various Approaches to Analysis and Interpretation of Data
Ethics and the Qualitative Researcher
True Stories: Sample Ethical Dilemmas
Attributes of the Qualitative Researcher
Qualitative Researchers Interacting With Institutional Review Boards, IRBs
Chapter Summary
Exercise 6.1: Design and Create a Cover for Your Researcher Reflective Journal
Exercise 6.2: Describe Your Favorite Meal
Exercise 6.3: Writing About Change in Yourself in Any Five-Year Period
Chapter 7. The Technology Habit
Benefits for Small-Scale Studies Using Technology
The Context
The Power of Skype Interviewing
Next Steps: Editing Through Audacity
Transcription With Express Scribe, Dragon, iTalk, iSpeak, and MS Word
Voice Recognition Software
Researcher Reflective Portfolios
Excel as a Text/Data Analysis Tool
Analysis Strategies From MS Word to MS Excel
Overall Virtual Interview: From Collection to Analysis
Electronic Mailing Lists, Websites, Journals, and Software Options
Exercise 7.1: Conducting and Transcribing a Skype Interview Using Express Scribe for Transcription
Exercise 7.2: Create a Word Cloud Using Wordle and One With Tagxedo
Exercise 7.3: Create a Glog, a Poster Online Through Glogster
Chapter Summary

Editorial Reviews

Describes 29 exercises that can be used in or out of the classroom to tap into budding researchers' more creative and less inhibited artistic side and help them become more active observers, interviewers, and learners. Some are related to painting, sculpture, poetry, literature, history, philosophy, and dance. Many appendices support the core with sample applications and educational material. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

Research methods is a rigorous and over-rational man sitting in a pond. People are afraid of him and hold him in awe. No one invites him to dance. But Valerie J. Janesick did, because he saw his emotion, his passion, and his possibility to be a dancer.

Wenfan Yan

"Stretching" Exercises for Qualitative Researchers is an important text, and a must have for qualitative researchers. For my students—and myself—the opportunities to deepen the creative self provide essential tools for broadening our horizons of understanding and approaches to our participants, our work, and ourselves.

Dave Shen-Miller

"This is a valuable work, which has been made even better in revision. In this Second Edition, Valerie Janesick extends the boundaries of qualitative inquiry, taking up IRBs, ethics, writing as inquiry, and new stretching exercises--drawing, quilting, cinema, listservs, and journaling. This book is a gift to instructors and students alike. Use it, teach from it, and stretch your imagination in the process."

Norman K. Denzin

"This book is indeed quite non-traditional from other texts offering studies of qualitative research; it is easy to read and requires little contextual background to be understood. Likewise, it does educate readers quite effectively in the basic skills of qualitative research. This book can be quite useful to persons first learning how to engage in qualitative research, plus it offers a realistic set of exercises and examples for these learners to use. "

Stacey L. Edmonson

In this third version of Stretching Exercises for Qualitative Researchers, Janesick (2011) continues to refine and expand upon ways in which qualitative researchers—both new to the field and experienced—can expand and hone a number of skills essential to being an effective researcher. This book combines valuable information, as well as practical exercises, to assist in the development of interviewing, observing, journaling, narrating, analyzing, interpreting, and collaborating skills, which Janesick refers to as "habits of mind "...

"Overall, this book does an excellent job of supporting beginning and intermediate qualitative researchers who have questions about many of the stages, processes, and procedures that they will face and who want to sharpen themselves as a research instrument. "

The Qualitative Report - Kristen Chorba