Judith Davidson

A New Role in Facilitating School Reform: The Case of the Educational Technologist

School reform advocates have been frustrated over the slow pace of integrating proposed school improvements, hypothesizing that the resiliency of established roles contributes much to the conserving tendencies of educational institutions. In seeking to understand this issue, the school reform movement has paid close attention to established roles, such as teachers and principals, and the issues these individuals face as they seek to address change. They have paid relatively little attention, however, to the emergence of new roles. The educational technologist (ET) is a role that is growing rapidly within schools in conjunction with the widespread adoption of networked technology. Looking back over 6 years of research data from a qualitative research study of networked technology integration in one K–12 system, the author examines the emergence of the ET role from the classical sociological perspectives of social structure, space, and time and its relationship to the cluster of core positions. This study demonstrates the importance of role to school reform issues, indicating that it can be used as a critical lens for understanding the progress of reform and the nature of technology integration.

The Implications of Qualitative ‐ Research Software for Doctoral Work Considering the Individual and Institutional Context

As qualitative researchers struggle to come to grips with the technological revolution, they are faced with the necessity of learning and teaching qualitative data analysis software in higher education research courses. This change has significant implications for their practice as researchers and teachers. In this article we provide experienced‐based recommendations for individual practice (research instructors, dissertation advisers, and doctoral students) and for institutional practice (scaling up for deep integration of qualitative data analysis software). Our recommendations are grounded in hard‐earned experience gleaned from many years of working with individuals and institutional contexts to improve the use of qualitative research in higher education.

Speculating on the Future of Digital Tools for Qualitative Research

Development in digital tools in qualitative research over the past 20 years has been driven by the development of qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) and the Internet. This article highlights three critical issues for the future digital tools: (a) ethics and the challenges, (b) archiving of qualitative data, and (c) the preparation of qualitative researchers for an era of digital tools. Excited about the future and the possibilities of new mash-ups, we highlight the need for vibrant communities of practice where developers and researchers are supported in the creation and use of digital tools. We also emphasize the need to be able to mix and match across various digital barriers as we engage in research projects with diverse partners.

The Journal Project Research at the Boundaries Between Social Sciences and the Arts

The Journal Project is a qualitative research study of self at the crossroads—a female, middle-aged academic, posttenure, postmenopausal—at sea in her profession and not entirely able to inhabit her own skin. My solution to this dilemma was to study an 18-month period of my personal journals written from June 2006 to March 2008, the period after I received tenure from my university. I used standard qualitative research methods of document analysis to study the 303 entries. The materials were organized and analyzed within NVivo, a qualitative data analysis software. Throughout the process of standard social science analysis, I was also employing arts-based approaches (fiber arts in particular) to deepen and extend my understanding of the findings. The outcome of this work was an exhibit of the fiber works at a qualitative research conference in which I was able to blend the findings derived from a social science analysis within an arts-based presentation. In this piece, I describe the genesis of the Journal Project and document my love affair with fiber arts. The heart of the piece is a description of the exhibit, with attention to the ways that the making of art AND the description of that making extend the possibilities of interpretation for qualitative researchers. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of this experiment with arts-based research for my own practice as a qualitative researcher and, by extension, for others.

Thinking with Things, Teaching with Things: Enhancing Student Learning in Qualitative Research through Reflective Use of Tools and Materials

In this article, two experienced QR instructors argue that reflective attention to the tools and materials used by researchers and instructors can help to enhance student learning. Identifying three sorts of things in QR those on which research is conducted (texts, images, etc.); the technologies used by the researcher, from software to notebooks; and the objects of the culture under study the authors discuss three examples of their use of things in the context of QR. A detailed case discussion based on the authors’ experience with flip chart paper, NVivo software and Tinkertoy concept maps reveals some of the benefits of attention to things. Based on their analysis, the authors conclude that there are four ways in which a focus on things can support learning and teaching: by scaffolding student understanding, by providing transparency in the learning and research process, by representing and supporting multiple views and perspectives, and by promoting reflexivity and reflection.

School leadership in networked schools: deciphering the impact of large technical systems on education

This article introduces readers from education to the emerging area of sociological literature about the growth and development of Large Technical Systems, and, in particular, the notion of “translation” and “social communication spaces”. It provides readers with a discussion of the ways this literature is applicable to discussions in the field of educational leadership in regard to distributed leadership and technology integration in an era of systemic school reform. The discussion of Large Technical Systems is grounded in a case example – the Hessen Model School Partnership – a multi‐year qualitative research study of technology integration in one school district. The authors focus on three specific areas of identified change in the content and exercise of the practice of leadership within the schools: 1) the emergence of new roles; 2) the repurposing of old roles; and 3) the creation of new collective bodies. The study found that leadership roles were significantly reshaped and redistributed as a result of the acts of translation required by technology integration. At the same time, however, that technology was acting upon the social context of the schools, there is also evidence that the social context of the schools was powerful in shaping the organization and use of the technology. The findings point strongly to the need to provide rising educational administrators with deeper knowledge of the complexity of the issues undergirding technology integration.

Digital Tools for Qualitative Research: Disruptions and Entanglements:

In this introduction to the special issue on digital tools for qualitative research, we focus on the intersection of new technologies and methods of inquiry, particularly as this pertains to educating the next generation of scholars. Selected papers from the 2015 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry special strand on digital tools for qualitative research are brought together here to explore, among other things, blogging as a tool for meaning-making, social media as a data source, data analysis software for engaging in postmodern pastiche and for supporting complex teams, cell phone application design to optimize data collection, and lessons from interactive digital art that pertain to the use of digital tools in qualitative research. This collection disrupts common conceptions (and persistent misconceptions) about the relationship between digital tools and qualitative research and illustrates the entanglements that occur whenever humans intersect with the nonhuman, the human-made, or other humans.

Teaching Them all to Read

We must have literacy skills in order to participate in todays society—to vote, to help educate our own children, to work. We look to our schools to provide young people with the solid foundation of literacy skills that will prepare them to perform these tasks. Yet, national illiteracy statistics indicate many students do not attain the literacy skills they need. Twenty seven million American adults are illiterate; they cannot read or write. Another 47 million are considered

Qualitative Data Analysis Software Practices in Complex Research Teams: Troubling the Assumptions About Transparency and Portability:

Early hypotheses about the ways Qualitative Data Analysis Software (QDAS) would be integrated into qualitative research lacked the backing of extensive experience. Changing contexts, such as the increasing use of complex teams, raise issues that bring into question earlier assumptions about the role of QDAS in transparency and portability. Using Jackson’s (2014) conception of transparency in motion as a grounding concept, the authors present an exemplar case of the ways one complex qualitative research team made use of QDAS to support interpretive activities in a project that was also geographically far flung. The article concludes with a reconsideration of the notion of transparency, suggesting a more nuanced approach for the future.

Art as a Tool to Read Social Science Data: Case Study—Teen Sexting Meets Jane Austen, Kara Walker, and Ryan Trecartin

This paper examines the ways arts can serve as a tool to nourish richer and more thoughtful qualitative research interpretation. Using a study of youth views of sexting as the case example, the authors explore the ways encounters with the arts—specifically, literature (Jane Austen), visual art (Kara Walker), and video (Ryan Trecartin)—in interaction with the reading of social science data led one member of a multidisciplinary team to develop new critical questions and embodied awareness of youth views on the issue of sexting. The authors claim art can serve as a catalyst for deeper understanding of social science questions if we allow ourselves the time and circumstances for such inquiry. In todays world, where research teams are increasingly interdisciplinary, focused on a similar problem but highly diverse in the theory and techniques the members possess, art may be a means of developing new shared ways of approaching and experiencing a problem.