QRN Brown Bag December 13: Steve Tello and Yi Yang

Image via WikipediaTello and Yang presented the last Qualitative Resarch Network Brown Bag on the UMass-Lowell campus for the Fall 2011 semester.  The topic "How Nascent Entrepreneurs Leverage Networks in a University Network" drew a large audience from many corners of campus. 

The two are working with cases drawn from a university incubator for medical devices.  They found significant distinctions among the case examples, particularly between entrepreneurs who had prior experience with full product development processes and those who did not. 

What I particularly enjoyed in their presentation is their discussion of their process as qualitative researchers.  The description of how submitting to a presentation and getting feedback helped them to hone in on their analysis issues was very helpful. 

As in any field, even when a methodology is accepted (and in business qualitative research is a newer acquisition) each reader will come with their own pre-conceptions of that methodology.  We discussed the ways this affects the journal review process.

I can't wait to see where they will go next with this research.  I am sure there is going to be more to come.

Speaking of more to come...the Qualitative Research Network also has more to come in the next semester.  Plans are afoot for another great semester.  

Qualitative Research Network at UMass-Lowell: Another Great Brown Bag

Image via WikipediaToday our qualitative research brown bag featured Pia Markkanen from the Department of Work Environment at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.  Pia made a presentation on the mixed method study that became the Journal of Occupational Environmental Medicine (JOEM) article--"There's No Place Like Home: A Qualitative Study of the Working Conditions of Home Health Care Providers".  It was fascinating!

Pia described the qualitative to quantitative to qualitative interactions of the study like a dance.  Project SHARRP,as she called it, Safe Homecare and Risk Reduction for Providers, was funded by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Like it's name, Project Sharrp focused on accidents with sharp instruments in home health care and the issues related to blood borne pathagens. 

Her audience of qualitative researchers was interested in all the nitty-gritty detail, from how she selected participants and gained informed consent to the development of focus group questions and integration with quantitative data.  For more informationon this excellent study, contact Pia!  

In the course of this work, Pia has become a daily user of NVivo.  We didn't get a chance to look into her project, but she showed how coding was reflected in the article's charts, and she shared an NVivo model with us. 

Our last brown bag of the Fall 2011 semester will take place on Tuesday, December 13 from 12:30-1:30 pm.  Steve Tello and Yi Yang from Management will present.  We will be meeting in Southwick 240 on North Campus. 

Qualitative Research Network at UMass-Lowell: Brown Bags Fall 2011

Qualitative Research Network (QRN):        Fall 2011 Brown Bags

12:30-1:30

Bring Your Own Lunch

No Reservations or RSVP

Just Come and Engage!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011,  12:30 pm-1:30 pm

Rm 513, O’Leary Library:  South Campus

Pia Markkanen

Research Professor
Department of Work Environment

Using Qualitative Research Methods in Occupational Safety and Health - A Case Study on Bloodborne Pathogen Exposures in Home Healthcare. 

Dr. Markkanen’s Brown Bag talk focuses on using qualitative research methods in occupational safety and health (OSH) through a case study on bloodborne pathogen exposures in home health care. The talk describes through a case study how qualitative research methods (i) strengthen quantitative findings in OSH, (ii) help characterizing hazardous occupational exposures; and (iii) lead towards better understanding of the cultural context in which the study population experiences occupational hazards. 

Tuesday, December 13, 2011, 12:30 pm-1:30 pm

Southwick 240:  North Campus

Steven F. Tello, Ed. D. Associate Professor Management & Entrepreneurship

Yi Yang Assistant Professor Operations & Information Systems

How Nascent Entrepreneurs Leverage Networks and Resources in a University Incubator

This study utilized the setting of a technology incubator  to analyze how nascent entrepreneurs develop and leverage networks to secure resources as part of the venture creation process. Over the course of one year, we interviewed, observed, and tracked the progress of six medical device entrepreneurs as they accessed the resources and networks associated with this incubator.  Using qualitative methods, we examined how nascent entrepreneurs use networks to obtain needed resources, the types of internal resources and external networks pursued by hese entrepreneurs and differences among entrepreneurs based on their level of network skill.   We will discuss our methods, our use of Nvivo, as well our findings.

The brown bag lunches are purposefully informal.  These are places to bring your half-baked ideas, excitement, concerns, and hopes about the projects with which you are working.  Participants are present to listen, learn, and support. 

Qualitative Research Network at UMass-Lowell: Brown Bag on "Giving Birth to Theory in Qualitative Research: Adolescents and the Sexting Continuum"

Image by Sally L. Smith via FlickrThe UMass-Lowell Qualitative Research Network sponsored its third brown bag for the Fall 2011 semester (November 8, 2011: 12:30-1:30).  We (the Sexting Project) were the featured project.

The Sexting Project is a three-state, interdisciplinary study of teens views of sexting (and the parents and educators who work with them).  It was funded by the Department of Criminal Justice.  We are about 2/3's through our data collection activities (surveys and focus groups).  We have collected data from 20 youth focus groups (123 individuals); 4 parent focus groups (5 more to go); and we still have 3 groups of educators and criminal justice professionals to interview. 

Our focus for the brown bag discussion was "Giving Birth to Theory in Qualitative Research:  Adolescents and the Sexting Continuum".  The topic was an answer to the hardball question musicologist Alan Williams lobbed at me at the end of the last brown bag--"How do you create a theory from your qualitative research data?" 

To explore the question, our group decided to trace the evolution of our notion of the sexting continuum.  The sexting continuum is our understanding of teens' responses to why sext?  We were surprised to learn that many had positive or unagressive reasons that they thought one might sext (you don't get pregnant or std's, for example).  On the opposite end, there was limited discussion from teens about overtly agressive behavior in regard to sexting.  The teens we talked to were not at all interested in relationships with strangers on the Internet...their connections were about people they knew.

What was very interesting is that the largest category was the squishy stuff in the middle--that wasn't quite one or the other--it implied agression or coercion, but teens were reluctant to label it that way.  Instead, they talked about joking with each other, trying to attract someone. 

So, the continuum is our theory that is growing as we delve more deeply into the data and talk with others about the meaning of what we are finding. 

Those who attended raised some very interesting questions that included:

• thinking about the narratives in which sexing is embedded (discourse formations)
• thinking about the technological literacy that is required of teens
• the notion of sexting as a rite of passage
• the aesthetics of sexting (how do people chose how to present themselves in these situations)

What was very exciting for me was to hear our two Emergent Scholars on the project, talk about the work they have been doing.  They did a great job describing how they were working with the project in NVivo and what they were learning about research in the process.  Nice job Mary Ann and Lindsay.

 Thanks also to Shanna, our fantastic graduate assistant, and the special insight she brings to the work.

We have two great talks coming up in the second part of the semester...more on that next!  

UMass Lowell Emerging Scholars and Qualitative Data Analysis Software NVivo

Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to be present at an NVIVO training workshop for the Center for Women and Work's (CWW) Emerging Scholars Program (undergraduates working with faculty mentors).

My former doctoral student, Stuart Robertson, NVivo trainer par excellence, led the three hour event. It is so exciting to see our UMass-Lowell graduates taking on the qualitative research world as consultants, trainers, and leaders in the NVivo world (In addition to Stuart, Stacy Penna, and Cindi Jacobs are also NVivo experts working for QSR).

The software continues to grow and complexity but Stuart makes it seem so easy and natural. He calms all fears and answers all questions--but he was doing this even as a graduate student. What a gift.

I am excited to see undergraduates thrown into the NVivo soup pot and seeing what happens. It doesn't seem to hurt them to start their learning about qualitative research from this place--a software. One told me that he hadn't been formally been introduced to qualitative research before, but from figuring out the software he could extract the ideas about qualitative research. [This would be anathema to some researchers...but really do we need to have all that theory and philosophy before we start doing it?]

My two emerging scholars have been working for the last few weeks in the software...same way...here's what you need to do, here is how the tool works...and I wrap in comments about qualitative research as we go along. They don't seem to be the worse for it, and I feel like I am teaching in a very fluid and natural way. Focusing on the project (sexting) keeps us organized. It makes me wonder how could I move classes that are formally named "Qualitative Research" more toward this model of "do".

An exciting evening. But then any time spent with our Emerging Scholars is time well spent.