Browsing by Subject "Qualitative Research"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Cultivating Student-Staff Connections in Middle School: An Integrative Theory of Creating Space as a Holistic Approach to Promoting Adolescent Health and Wellbeing
    (2019-01) Fredkove, Windy
    Connection with a caring adult in the school setting contributes to healthy youth development, yet little is known about the nuanced patterns and processes leading to student-staff connectedness (SSC). The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory study was to explore the process through which school staff members connect with students in middle school settings and identify the factors influencing that process. Data was collected and analyzed over a nearly two-year period using semi-structured interviews and observations with 24 staff members in varying roles from two middle schools situated within a large, metropolitan school district in the Midwest. Line-by-line, focused and theoretically-sensitive axial coding, constant comparison, theoretical sampling, extensive memoing and reflexive journaling were used to analyze data. The integrative theory of Creating Space is the core, overarching process within which the SSC process takes place. Creating Space and the SSC process describe what staff members do. The how is characterized by (a) the higher-level awareness process of seeing within, beyond and between; (b) two translational processes described as embracing our shared humanness, and equilibrating with empathy; and (c) a praxis-level process of demonstrating relational artistry. The multi-dimensional space that is created by school staff members offers numerous potential connection-catalysts that may spark a students-staff connection. Nurses, teachers and other allied staff working with adolescents in schools have an opportunity to encourage healthy youth development, promote human thriving, and contribute to equity and social justice by Creating Space within which meaningful connections can flourish.
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    Difficult Histories in an urban classroom
    (2010-06) Sheppard, Maia G.
    Academic standards for history in all states require students to learn about deeply troubling events, such as war, genocide, and slavery. Drawing on research and theories related to trauma studies and history education, this ethnographic study aims to better understand what happens when teachers and students examine the pain and suffering of others in the shared social place of an urban U.S. history classroom. In order to clarify how such troubling events are co-constructed and experienced in the classroom, I first outline a framework for conceptualizing difficult histories as histories where three interrelated components are present: (a) content centered on traumatic events; (b) a sense of identification between those studying the history and those represented in history; and (c) a moral response to these events. Analysis revealed that only two of the histories addressed over the course of one semester were co-constructed by the teacher and her students as difficult histories: slavery and Westward Expansion. Yet, even though slavery and Westward Expansion shared the defining characteristics of difficult histories, there were significant differences in how difficulty was constructed in the classroom. Analysis also revealed that the diverse group of students in this study used their understandings of these difficult histories to engage in similar activities, such as finding evidence of how they belong in America, making sense of America, and morally responding to past and present events. In both slavery and Westward Expansion, students relied heavily on their own personal experiences and beliefs to make sense of these histories. Throughout this research, the power of personal beliefs and experiences, especially those related to issues of race and ethnicity, remained crucial to students' historical understanding. They were central to students' participation in co-constructing slavery and Westward Expansion as difficult histories in the classroom and in their own applications of historical knowledge. At times these personal beliefs were vehicles to better understand distant others and at other times, they were barriers.
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    Finding Home: A Qualitative Study on Healing Homelessness through Expressive Arts Engagement
    (2019-07) Bueno, José
    This phenomenological study seeks to expand the understanding of the impacts of expressive arts engagement on the mental health and trauma among homeless youth through the experiences of professionals working with those populations. Organizations across Massachusetts and Minnesota were selected based off their organizational mission statements for helping the homeless youth population, as well as referrals. This study demonstrates expressive arts engagement as one of the many tools in working through trauma and mental illness seen in the homeless youth population. Organizations should work towards the successful integration of the arts and healing mental illness found among youth homelessness.
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    The lived experience of self-compassion in social workers.
    (2012-07) Rickers, Susan
    Social workers often face challenging work situations. The result of these situations can be stress, burnout, and secondary trauma. Though social workers are known for having compassion for others, the concept of self-compassion, having compassion for oneself, is relatively new and understudied. The purpose of this study was to develop and advance an understanding of the lived experience of self-compassion among social workers. The study was guided by one research question: What is the lived experience of self-compassion in social workers who have completed Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, a program on developing mindfulness? The conceptual framework and methodology are grounded in phenomenology. This dissertation is important as it provides critical knowledge about self-compassion for social workers, other helping professionals, and lay people living in a stressful world. Participants in this study included 10 social workers who have completed Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a program on mindfulness that also incorporates learning about self-compassion. The social workers represented a variety of practice experiences including: county human service work, private practice, non-profit work, school social work, hospital social work, nursing home social work, and crisis work. The participants had between five and 30+ years of experience as social workers. During an in-depth interview, each participant responded to the primary interview prompt: Please think about and describe a specific instance or situation in your social work practice when you experienced self-compassion. A thematic analysis of individual interviews was completed and validated by each study participant. Analysis across interviews revealed four distinct themes. First, the participants described the nature of self-compassion, emphasizing five elements. Second, participants described the value of self-compassion in stressful work situations. Third, the participants described self-compassion as a "conduit" of healing for others. Fourth, the participants described self-compassion as a life long journey. In a fifth finding, not shared by all participants, inclusion of self-compassion into the social work education curriculum and continuing education was advocated. This research leads to an understanding of what self-compassion is as well as what it means for practicing social workers. Implications of this study are relevant to social work practice, education, and research.
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    Medication Experiences of Hispanic People Living with HIV/AIDS
    (University of Minnesota, College of Pharmacy, 2010) Sánchez, Luz Dalia
    Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the medication experiences of Hispanic people living with HIV/AIDS. Specific aims were to describe their current medication experiences and to describe how they viewed their medication history in order to determine essential themes for improving culturally-appropriate medication therapy management services. Methods: A qualitative, phenomenological research methodology was employed. Ten adults living with HIV/AIDS were audiotaped during semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted in Spanish. In addition to audiotaping, field notes were taken. Thematic analysis of text was done to obtain themes consistent with the research objectives. Analysis was accomplished in two phases. The first phase applied Van Manen’s lifeworld existentials of lived body, lived time, lived relation and lived space as the organizing framework for identifying themes. The second phase identified “essential themes” using holistic, selective, and detailed approaches that were applied to the themes identified in the first phase. Results: The results showed that lifeworld existentials were relevant medication experiences for Hispanic patients living with HIV/AIDS and their medication-taking behavior during their lives. Ten themes were identified. From these, we identified an overall “essential theme” comprised of: (1) Duality of Living with HIV/AIDS and (2) Primacy of Medications for Hispanic HIV/AIDS patients. Conclusions: The findings revealed that the medication taking experiences for Hispanic people living with HIV/AIDS can be described in terms of the duality of living with HIV/AIDS as “living dead” patients and in terms of the centrality that medications take in their lives, even to the point of a spiritual level.