Gary Shank

Building on New Foundations: Core Principles and New Directions for Qualitative Research

The authors review and comment on 24 qualitative research articles published in the JER from 1992 to 2001, which represent a wide range of qualitative approaches. The key finding was that patterns shifted from an average of 1 article per year for the 1st 7 years to an average of 1 article per issue for the final 3 years. The authors discussed the following criteria and then used it to evaluate these qualitative articles: investigative depth, interpretive adequacy, illuminative fertility, and participatory accountability. In addition, 4 unnecessary assumptions are illustrated by examples taken from the set of articles that concern false needs for consistency, rigor, coding completeness, and thematic reduction. Three practical suggestions for qualitative researchers in education are offered as a consequence of this review and commentary.

Six alternatives to mixed methods in qualitative research

Mixed methods are becoming more common in qualitative research, to the extent that they may come to dominate the field. In this article, I argue that there are at least six viable alternatives to mixed methods within the domain of qualitative research proper that qualitative researchers can use to collect, organize and analyse their findings. These six alternatives are juxtaposing, appropriating, prospecting, data grading and the examination of ingredients and presence. These alternatives are introduced and illustrated using formal and informal research examples from my own work.

Linking Radical Constructivism and Semiotics To Design a Constructivist Learning Environment

RADICAL CONSTRUCTIVISTS BELIEVE that knowledge is not disembodied but intimately related to the action and experience of the learner. It is always contextual and never separated from the knower. There is no objective reality that is independent of human mental activity. Radical constructivism shares many philosophical perspectives with the semiotic model of Stamper (1993). Semiotics claims that knowledge of the world is mediated through signs. A radical subjective synthesis of semiotics and radical constructivism leads to two axioms: There is no known reality without an agent, and the agent constructs reality through his action. This paper begins with a brief review of the philosophies of radical constructivism and semiotics, followed by a discussion of the implications of semiotics for radical constructivist learning. It concludes with the design of a constructivist learning environment using the semiotic perspective as manifested by Stamper.

Qualitative Analysis of Healthcare Professionals’ Viewpoints on the Role of Ethics Committees and Hospitals in the Resolution of Clinical Ethical Dilemmas

Ethics consultation is a commonly applied mechanism to address clinical ethical dilemmas. However, there is little information on the viewpoints of health care providers towards the relevance of ethics committees and appropriate application of ethics consultation in clinical practice. We sought to use qualitative methodology to evaluate free-text responses to a case-based survey to identify thematically the views of health care professionals towards the role of ethics committees in resolving clinical ethical dilemmas. Using an iterative and reflexive model we identified themes that health care providers support a role for ethics committees and hospitals in resolving clinical ethical dilemmas, that the role should be one of mediation, rather than prescription, but that ultimately legal exposure was dispositive compared to ethical theory. The identified theme of legal fears suggests that the mediation role of ethics committees is viewed by health care professionals primarily as a practical means to avoid more worrisome medico-legal conflict.