Dorit Roer-Strier

Using Data Triangulation of Mother and Daughter Interviews to Enhance Research about Families

Qualitative researchers use the term triangulation to describe the use of multiple strategies to study the same phenomenon. Although it is endorsed in social work research textbooks and contested in the literature, qualitative social work researchers are left on their own to determine how to ‘do’ triangulation. This article discusses triangulation, including recent debates around the concept. It describes two methods of data triangulation and illustrates them with examples from the study of mothers and daughters coping with a daughter’s religious intensification. From the first method, a comparative analysis of mother-daughter dyads, the authors identify and provide examples of five types of triangulated data: (1) same story, same meaning; (2) same story, different interpretations; (3) missing pieces; (4) unique information; and (5) illuminating. The second method, triangulation within groups and between groups, makes visible perspectives that are common and distinct to mothers and daughters as members of different cultural groups. The article discusses the advantages of systematic data triangulation for qualitative research and draws implications for social work research and practice.

Arab students of social work in Israel: adjustment difficulties and coping strategies

Abstract Israel is a multi-cultural society, and this can no longer be ignored. However, there is a serious lack of theoretical and empirical literature dealing with the implications of Israels multi-cultural social context for social work education in Israel, as well as its impact on social work practice with different ethnic and national populations in that country. The dearth of material is even more pronounced in the case of Arab students attending Israeli universities. This paper documents the first stage of a project focusing on Arab students at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A triangulation method was applied for collection of data from students enrolled in the 3-year programme, graduate students, faculty members and field work supervisors, as well as reports from previous years. Personal, academic and socio-cultural difficulties are documented as well as coping mechanisms and recommendations for schools of social work in Israel. The results are used...

Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods to Study Perceptions of Immigrant Youth

This article illustrates the potential of combining qualitative and quantitative methods to increase understanding of social and cultural phenomena. An example of a multimethod study demonstrates the advantages of this combination. The study investigated perceptions of young people who immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union. The first stage of the study began as a quantitative study of role reversal in immigration and developed into a qualitative study investigating the subjective experiences involved in this phenomenon. An “alternatingmethod” model, in which a research effort alternates between qualitative and quantitative components, each stage building on the previous one, is proposed.

Ecological study of child care quality: A call for attention to the cultural context

SUMMARY Quality of child care is most commonly evaluated in light of the childs immediate surroundings, namely — family life conditions and child care settings, taking into consideration individual differences among children. This paper, while adopting a broader ecological picture, calls for attention to the importance of evaluating the quality of child care in the light of cultural differences. Examples taken from published literature as well as from the authors personal research, clearly demonstrate that parents from different cultures: (a) draw different lines when evaluating the physical settings of the child (i.e. safety, neatness, order, etc.); (b) differ in their preferences of care giver behaviour, orientation and qualifications; and (c) have different expectations regarding the day care curriculum. It is concluded that each society maintains its own definition of ‘ideal care’, which best relates to its goals and expectations vis a vis child development and socialisation. Thus, it is proposed th...

When role reversal and brokering meet: filial responsibility among young immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union.

Traditional conceptualizations of role reversal and brokering (language and cultural in immigration), in which children assume culturally atypical adult responsibilities, have developed as different scholarly domains, despite their theoretical similarity. The purpose of the present article is to increase the integration between the two bodies of literature to achieve a better understanding of filial responsibilities children assume upon immigration and their differential correlates with adjustment. The structure of filial responsibility in immigration, interrelations between its distinct components, and the ability of the brokering roles to add significantly to the predicting of adjustment are studied. Young adult immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel (n = 220) completed the Comprehensive Filial Responsibilities Inventory (CFRI), the Brief Symptom Inventory, and the self-efficacy inventory. Factor analysis identified six CFRI domains with satisfying psychometric properties. The factors are dominance in family, cultural brokering, language brokering, emotional support to parents, self-reliance, and money issues. Hierarchical regression analyses showed a contribution of the brokering roles to prediction of psychological distress above and beyond traditional roles. The results support the validity of the CFRI and contribute to the understanding of interrelations among the various filial responsibilities, including brokering roles.

Human Development Education for Social Workers in Multicultural Societies

In many countries, social workers are faced with the challenge of tailoring their practice to the diverse needs of children and families in multicultural realities. Our training and teaching practices, however, lag behind in their readiness to face this challenge. Attempts to reconcile cultural perspectives and postmodernism with the traditional goals of human development education are generally premised on the following assumptions: (a) postmodernist education fosters the ability to think critically and question assumptions underlying claims to knowledge; (b) theories should be evaluated for their usefulness and applicability to a more equitable society; and (c) a dialogic model of education in human development highlights the ‘inherently polysemous’ nature of human existence rather than transmitting a codified body of knowledge. The paper calls attention to the challenges of cross‐cultural psychology, indigenous psychology and postmodern critique and offers the means of confronting these challenges. Examples are based on teaching experiences in Israel and the US.

Changing Familial Roles for Immigrant Adolescents From the Former Soviet Union to Israel

This article examines how young immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union during their adolescence perceive and cope with the resulting changes in their family roles. Data collected via interviews and focus groups from adolescents and young adults (N = 34) revealed six distinct roles: language broker, family navigator, breadwinner, cultural broker, self-caretaker, and counselor. These roles were reported to generate negative effects (e.g., lost childhood, distress) and simultaneously positive effects (e.g., gaining independence, life-experience). Various mechanisms facilitated coping, including help from friends and family, self-strength, and a sense of meaning. The findings challenge traditional views of role reversal and broaden the perspective on role change in immigration. This article discusses the importance of cultural context as well as implications of the findings for theory, research, and practice.

Family Reactions to Religious Change: The Case of African American Women Who Become Muslim

This paper presents a study of family reactions to African American adult daughters’ conversions from Christianity to Islam. Examining qualitative data from interviews with Christian mothers and Muslim daughters in 17 family units, we explored reactions to a family members religious conversion initially and over time. We also identified the specific challenges facing African American families when a daughter converts to Islam. We found a wide range of initial emotional responses to an adult daughters conversion. Over time, the families showed marked changes, predominantly in the direction of increased respect and acceptance. Reactions to the change and the challenges facing the families are discussed in relation to several theories, including ambiguous loss, and implications for practice are described.

Moving beyond the ‘official story’: when ‘others’ meet in a qualitative interview

This article examines the qualitative interview as a site for meetings between interviewers and interviewees from groups that are in conflict. It shows how interviewees who initially resisted participation and voiced what one called the ‘official story’ of her group moved beyond this position enabling the encounter to become a meaningful experience for both parties. This critical case analysis is based on three interviews from three different studies and follow-up interviews with interviewers and interviewees. The paper describes six phases of the encounters found in all the interviews (on guard, the ‘official story’, expert position, confrontation, looking for common grounds, and beyond the ‘official story’) and explores the conditions that brought about bidirectional communication and intimacy. The findings are discussed in light of current debates around reflexivity, positionality, and power relations in qualitative interviewing. The article highlights the importance of the historical and political contexts.

Context-informed, counter-hegemonic qualitative research: Insights from an Israeli/Palestinian research team studying loss

Theorizing social work qualitative methodologies have always been closely related to the context of the studied subjects. This paper offers the framework of context-informed, counter-hegemonic qualitative research for theorizing research in conflict zones. Based on a case study of a group of Jewish and Palestinian social work researchers who examined together the effect of the loss of home on families during an ongoing political conflict, this paper explores the impact of participating in a research team on the researcher’s perceptions and study of otherness and otherization in the context of asymmetries of power. Analysis of the group dynamics discovered: (1) a growing ability to see and acknowledge the other, accompanied by a growing willingness to be attentive; (2) a growing ability to empathically listen to and hear the experiences of suffering of the other; (3) overcoming silencing by allowing voices of dissent, pain and resilience; and (4) creating a liminal space of “safe haven” for the researchers. The paper explores the development of context-informed group reflexivity leading to emancipatory consciousness and academic activism.