Jennifer R. Wolgemuth

Toward an Inquiry of Discomfort Guiding Transformation in “Emancipatory” Narrative Research

This article argues for conducting emancipatory narrative research with the explicit intent of transforming participants’ lives by opening up new subjective possibilities. Drawing from Megan Boler’s pedagogy of discomfort and Gubrium and Holstein’s active interviewing, a narrative research method called an inquiry of discomfort is proposed. An inquiry of discomfort emphasizes the proactive and transformative potential of research projects for both researcher and participant. The aim of an inquiry of discomfort is to identify and promote a beneficial shift from dualistic, categorical, and entrenched subjective positionality to a more ambiguous engagement with social reality. The argument is considered in light of preliminary empirical findings from a narrative pilot study of masculine heterosexual subjectivity in graduate education, conducted in the fall of 2003. Based on theoretical and empirical evidence, the general features of an inquiry of discomfort within an emancipatory narrative study are presented.

Preventing Sexual Assault Through Engaging College Men

Sexual assault occurs at alarming rates on college campuses, with men committing 99% of these crimes toward women and in some instances toward other men (Rennison, 2002). The number of women who report surviving a completed or attempted sexual assault while in college has hovered around 25% since Mary Koss completed the first well-documented study of college acquaintance assault in 1985 (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000; Warshaw, 1994). Historically sexual assault prevention has been seen as a “women’s issue,” and programmatic initiatives have focused on teaching women how to “protect” themselves, and largely neglected to engage men as allies in ending sexual violence against women. Prevention consisted of teaching women how to avoid potential perpetrators and by using tactics to escape dangerous situations, measures that are generally ineffective in addressing acquaintance rape, the most common form of sexual assault (Schewe & O’Donohue, 1993). Recently some campus prevention programs have engaged men as allies in addressing sexual violence, recognizing that most men do not perpetuate sexual violence, and given the right skills will intervene in potential sexual assault situations. Although few people intend to cause harm, not acknowledging and addressing the environments that allow sexual violence to occur contributes to the problem of sexual violence. When students do not understand the complex connection between sexual violence and sexism, a rape-prone culture is perpetuated in unintentional ways, including inappropriate behaviors, traditions, and rituals that maintain some men’s power over women (Davis & Liddell, 2002). Sexual assault is “a learned behavior acquired through routine social and environmental interaction . . . and an extreme form of the traditionally socialized ways that men and women act in the context of sexual relations” (Davis & Liddell, 2002, p. 36). Researchers have found positive correlations between rape-supportive attitudes and behaviors including sexual aggression, history of sexual aggression, and likelihood of future sexual aggression (Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1994; Truman, Toaker, & Fischer, 1996). Additionally, belief in traditional gender roles positively correlates with greater acceptance of rape myths, making obvious the link between traditional gender roles and sexual assault (Davis & Liddell, 2002; Truman et al., 1996).

Coaching (and) Commitment: Linking Ongoing Professional Development, Quality Teaching and Student Outcomes.

This research conducted in primary schools in Northern Australia evaluated the effectiveness of the web‐based program ABRACADABRA (ABRA) as a tool to complement early childhood literacy instruction in an Australian and Indigenous context. A further component of this research was to monitor implementation fidelity. The ABRA training was built around professional development best practices to address the challenges of providing ongoing training in remote areas. Teachers attended a one‐day workshop that trained them in the use of ABRA, and continued learning was reinforced by pairing teachers with a literacy coach. Data were gathered through an implementation fidelity measure, researcher field notes, focus groups, teacher logbooks, and the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation tool. This paper outlines challenges and successes that the researcher/coaches experienced while supporting teachers.

Participants’ experiences of the qualitative interview: considering the importance of research paradigms:

We used a multiple-case study to investigate participants’ experiences in interviews from six qualitative studies that differed in interview orientations, designs, methods, participants, and topics. Roulston’s (2010a, 2010b) interview orientation heuristic guided our ‘paradigm-driven’ analysis of participants’ experiences. We found no differences in participants’ articulation of benefits and risks by interview orientation. Participants’ experiences differed based on the opportunity to reflect on their interview experiences, the sensitivity of the topic explored, and the number of interviews conducted. We discuss the implications of our findings for ‘paradigm-driven’ qualitative research and suggest ethical questions qualitative interview researchers can ask to maximize the benefits of their interviews.

Analyzing for critical resistance in narrative research

This paper details a narrative analysis strategy called critical resistance analysis (CRA). The aim of a CRA is to bring forward the kinds of subjects participants draw on when talking about themselves in narrative interviews and to make explicit how those subjects are resisted and desired. The CRA is distinguished from other narrative analyses of self in that it focuses on resistance in both its structural, anti-hegemonic and ‘poststructural’, self-refusal forms. The latter kind of resistance is what Hoy (2005) refers to as ‘critical’ resistance; the desire to undo oneself. A CRA looks for participant resistance in narrative and antenarrative (Boje, 2001) data. Antenarratives are incomplete stories that are often too fragmented to analyze using traditional narrative methods and can be seen as powerful examples of meaning-making in progress. A CRA newly brings an antenarrative understanding to the study of self in four analytic foci: deconstruction trace, discourse-argument, resistance and intersubjectivity analysis. Together these analytic foci reveal the subjects narrative participants seek (not) to be and afford a more complex understanding of how participants struggle with and against themselves.

“There Are No Known Benefits . . .” Considering the Risk/Benefit Ratio of Qualitative Research

Institutional review boards (IRBs) are responsible for weighing the risks and benefits of research participation. Qualitative researchers note numerous instances where IRB ethical frameworks fail to align with the ethics of their research projects and point out that IRB understandings of the benefits and risks of research often differ from those of the participants they seek to protect. This qualitative cross-case research investigates participants’ interview experiences in six qualitative studies that differed in their methods, subject of focus, and populations. Our findings indicate that contemporary IRBs’ use of population “vulnerability” and topic “sensitivity” to assess project risk does not adequately determine the benefits, risks, or ethicality of research. We recommend that IRBs treat as real the evidence for benefits in qualitative research, recognize that sensitivity and vulnerability do not predict risk, and encourage researchers to attend to relationships in their projects.

Driving the Paradigm (Failing to Teach) Methodological Ambiguity, Fluidity, and Resistance in Qualitative Research

In this article, I explore my fantasy qualitative classroom, one that promotes “paradigm driving,” rather than paradigm-driven research. I discuss how paradigm essentialism, ontologization, and idolization, although important to learning qualitative research, get in the way of creative, flexible, and ambiguous approaches to research design. I share strategies for disrupting these forces in the classroom. My exploration highlights the challenges of teaching with multiple epistemologies in mind. I conclude by welcoming failure as necessary to revise my ideals and to stave off the fascism involved in imposing a utopian fantasy and looking forward to how I will work with failure the next time.

Examining the Impact of ABRACADABRA on Early Literacy in Northern Australia: An Implementation Fidelity Analysis

ABSTRACT To address students’ poor literacy outcomes, an intervention using a computer-based literacy tool, ABRACADABRA, was implemented in 6 Northern Australia primary schools. A pretest, posttest parallel group, single blind multisite randomized controlled trial was conducted with 308 students between the ages of 4 and 8 years old (M age = 5.8 years, SD = 0.8 years). Findings suggested that computer-based instruction under controlled conditions can improve student literacy, especially for Indigenous students at risk of reading difficulties. The authors examine the fidelity with which the computer-based literacy tool was implemented and the impact of implementation fidelity measures on student outcomes. Student exposure to and use of the literacy tool, and quality of instruction and lesson delivery, were analyzed for their influence on students’ literacy outcomes. Implementation fidelity measures accounted for between 1.8% and 15% of the variance of intervention students’ scores.

The Reconstruction of Community College Vocational Education: A Vision for Renewing American Democracy.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to explain how central points developed in Dewey’s 1916 Democracy and Education provide the rationale needed to adopt institutional and policy recommendations made by Grubb and Lazerson in their 2004 book, The Education Gospel: The Economic Power of Schooling. Method: The central points of Grubb and Lazerson’s work, and the policy agenda offered to guide reforms, are reviewed. Results: The authors describe how a Deweyan view of education and democracy may provide the motivation and guidance needed to move forward on the Grubb and Lazerson agenda to benefit community college vocational education. Contributions: The argument advanced in this article reveals that a meaningful reconstruction of community college vocational education will require implementation of institutional reforms and public policy reforms. This reconstruction will also require, however, a normative vision to motivate policy makers, educators, and citizens.

A Man’s Academy? The Dissertation Process as Feminist Resistance

The academy is a gendered institution that promotes and requires the adoption of a particularly masculine way of learning and producing knowledge. Commonly accepted notions of what constitutes a successful academic devalue emotions, vulnerability, and dependence in interpersonal relationships. Using Bourdieu’s concept of the habitus, our analysis focuses on a collaborative narrative of a critical incident between a graduate student working on her dissertation and a faculty member pursuing tenure. In our analysis we critique the masculine bias of the academic habitus, revealing how graduate student and faculty interactions can replicate gendered power relations in the academy and shedding light on avenues of resistance. We conclude by explaining how the practice of co-mentoring within a feminist framework may help conceptualize a new kind of successful academic-one who sees the rationality in emotions and the emotions in rationality, as well as the strength in vulnerability and the vulnerability in strength.