Ronald E. Hallett

Ethnographic Research in a Cyber Era

Ethnographers have long been concerned with how individuals and groups live out life in social spaces. As the Internet increasingly frames lived experiences, researchers need to consider how to integrate data from online spaces into “traditional” ethnographic research. Drawing from two ethnographic studies, we explain how online spaces were needed to more fully understand the physical environments and issues we studied. In addition to discussing how we were led online, we present ethnographic data to demonstrate the epistemological importance of considering online spaces. While traditional methods of ethnography (i.e., in-person observations and informal interviews) continue to be useful, researchers need to reconceptualize space as well as what counts as valuable interactions, and how existing (and new) tools can be used to collect data. We argue that studying a group of people in their “natural habitat” now includes their “online habitat.” We conclude with a call for ethnographers to consider how digital spaces inform the study of physical communities and social interactions.

Teaching Writing in Graduate School.

Graduate students are typically expected to know how to write. Those who write poorly are occasionally penalized, but little in-class attention is given to help students continue to develop and refine their writing skills. More often than not, writing courses at the graduate level are remedial programs designed for international students and others with significant challenges to writing. In this article, we describe the ways in which we introduced writing into the curriculum of a masters-level qualitative methods course. We structured the course around a semester-long research project that called for students to work in a team with others to improve both their research and writing. We share the strategies we used to demystify the writing process and encourage improvement, both in the course and beyond.

Living Doubled-Up: Influence of Residential Environment on Educational Participation

Homeless youth face many barriers that limit success in the educational process. Subgroups of homeless youth frequently experience the educational process differently depending upon their residential context. Recent years witness the federal government’s expanding the definition of homelessness to include youth living doubled-up. This residential formation involves multiple families forced to live together as a result of economic crises. Although the largest subgroup of the homeless youth population, they are the least studied. This 7-month multiple case study of 4 adolescents living in Los Angeles uses data gathered from interviews, observations, and document analysis to explore how this residential context shapes educational participation. In particular, the division of labor and presence of a head of household influence how youth participated in school. Findings suggest (a) families have multiple ways of arranging doubled-up residences, and, (b) how the families structure the doubled-up residences influences educational participation.

That is not what homeless is: a school district’s journey toward serving homeless, doubled-up, and economically displaced children and youth

School districts play a key role in identifying, supporting, and educating homeless students. This qualitative case study of a school district in Northern California illustrates how district leadership serves as a bridge between federal policy and local school sites. In this case study, federal funding funneled through the state served as the incentive for the district to reeducate itself on what homelessness is. Four themes emerged concerning the role of districts in serving homeless students: (1) serving the needs of all students includes those who are homeless; (2) state and federal policy incentives can be an important aspect of reculturing a district; (3) once a district adjusts policy, it must make concerted effort to integrate and align other aspects of other district and school site functions; and, (4) once issues of access have been addressed, districts need to consider how to support the educational success of homeless students.

Beyond backpacks and bus tokens: next steps for a district homeless student initiative

How policies get translated and enacted by school districts frame how students experience reforms associated with federal law. This qualitative case study of a Northern California school district explores the importance of integrating homeless student initiatives within all aspects of the district functioning. Drawing from the equity framework of Skrla, McKenzie, Scheurich, and Dickerson (2011), the authors investigate the roles of the administrative, political, and professional systems as a school district enacts McKinney-Vento mandates. Findings suggest the following: (1) the complexity of HHM student experiences require more than counting students; (2) districts should consider how HHM students and associated programming fit within the district mission; and, (3) the educational needs of HHM students exceed access to school sites. Based upon these findings, states and districts should track HHM student performance in order to more fully understand the needs of this marginalized population as well as to evaluate initiatives designed to serve these students.

Empowering parents in the college planning process: An action inquiry case study.

Involving parents in the college-planning process is essential to increasing access for students from low-income communities of color. Using the action inquiry model, we explore how collaboration between a school district and a university can empower parents to engage in meaningful conversations and planning related to college access. This qualitative case study draws from 3 years of data gathered from the development and implementation of a college-access program designed for underperforming middle and high school students who would be first-generation college students. Our findings suggest that parents want access to specific information, desire a deeper connection with other parents going through the process, and lack proper knowledge to feel empowered to lead discussions with their children.

Doubled-Up Homeless Comparing Educational Outcomes With Low-Income Students

Living doubled-up is a form of homelessness that can go undetected by schools, yet the toll it takes on the lives of students is significant. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to determine how students who live in doubled-up homeless families differ from low-income students who live in permanent housing with regard to demographics, academics, and behavior problems. The study used records from a Northern California school district and a nonexperimental research design to determine how student homelessness predicts various school-related outcomes. Results indicated that doubled-up homeless students earned significantly lower grade point averages (GPAs) and were less likely to graduate on time than students in permanent housing. Doubled-up homeless students were also more likely to have truancy problems. Previous research has mainly focused on more visible forms of student homelessness (e.g., living in shelters, cars, or hotels). Given that this group has been largely avoided by research, our study suggests that this group warrants consideration. School districts need to identify students living in doubled-up families and seek ways to improve their academic experiences.

In treatment: Writing beneath the surface

How a text is written influences what is written. The writing process involves more than grammar and sentence structure. The authors use Laurel Richardson’s “writing-story” to discuss the process of writing a dissertation. The authors share how they negotiated the advisor—advisee relationship throughout the dissertation process. Narratives are used to illustrate the differing perceptions experienced and negotiated within the advisor—advisee relationship. Mentoring emerging scholars requires knowledge of the student beyond evaluation of his or her manuscript. Five aspects writing frame the discussion: trust, communication, time, identity, and reflexivity.

Homeless and highly mobile students: equity, access and institutional response

The introductory article sets the stage for this special issue of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education on educational institutions’ responses to the increasing and shifting populations of homeless and highly mobile children and youth in a post-economic recession era.

Reframing professional development: An action-inquiry case study of a collaborative school counselor network

Purpose The school counselor can reduce barriers to college access for students in underserved communities but there is a lack of focused support and professional development resources to assist them with this task. The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into how a collaborative partnership reframed professional development to increase counselors’ capacities and enrich their role in addressing educational inequities in a local context. Design/methodology/approach The authors employed an action-oriented qualitative case study through the lens of social justice to critically consider how urban school counselors took action to address local educational inequities in the postsecondary process. Data were collected over a ten month period and consisted of semi-structured interviews, 17 hours of meeting transcriptions, meeting notes, field observations, numerous field notes, researcher reflections, weekly e-mail correspondence, electronic data, counselor demographic surveys, and document analysis. Findings The inter-agency networked learning community model encouraged the school counselors to take ownership for their professional development, starting small led to greater collaboration, the counselors engaged in collective learning and counselors took a responsibility for the broader school community. Research limitations/implications Inter-agency partnerships can address social inequities and initiate transformative change but further research is needed to explore how to address what happens as actors move in and/or out of the partnership. Acknowledging and validating the experience of the school counselors empowered them to take risks, invite new ideas, and adapt the new idea to their local school site. Reframing professional development began to transform how the counselors were viewed by the broader school community. Further research is needed to explore how educational systems can be empowered to engage in conversations to embrace change. Social implications This study illustrated the transformative power of school counselors in building community, collaborating, and constructing bridges between each other, school administrators, and postsecondary researchers. Unless the current devaluing of school counselors shifts, the benefits associated with networked collaborative partnerships will likely go unrealized. We call on policymakers to reconsider the role of school counselors and call on them to ensure these positions are mandatory in all K-12 schools. Originality/value This study demonstrated how an inter-organizational collaboration between a university and a K-12 local education agency initiated transformative change. The collective action of the network equipped counselors with tools to build community with each other, within their individual school sites, and in the local community. Many studies provide models regarding what school counselors should do but few explore how to empower them to use the models to enact change. The action-inquiry approach provided an opportunity to explore how urban school counselors experienced and understood the process of engaging in professional development designed to help them try something new in addressing educational inequities in underserved communities.