Teaching the Next Generation of Qualitative Researchers

1. Teaching the Next Generation of Qualitative Researchers Ron Chenail, PhD TQR Inaugural Conference January 8, 2010

2. Abstract The next generation of qualitative researchers will be able to demonstrate their conceptual, perceptual, executive, evaluative, and professional skills in mastering designing, conducting, and presenting qualitative research competencies. To achieve these outcomes educators of these new qualitative researchers will need to create transparent environments that facilitate active learning through a supportive relationship of performance and feedback all leading to the creation of meaningful real-world products.

3. Accountability and Transparency • Clarity in the marketplace • Consumer demand • Quality focus • Best practices

4. Call for Outcomes-Based Education Shift from • a focus on the courses, hours of training, and other activities that have been assumed to produce competently trained individuals to • the knowledge and skills that those individuals actually obtain and can demonstrate (Nelson, Chenail, Alexander, Crane, Johnson, & Schwallie, 2007)

5. Core Competencies • A core competency is a ‘‘measurable human capacity that is required for effective performance’’ (Marrelli, Hoge, & Tondora, 2004, p. 4 as cited in Nelson, Chenail, Alexander, Crane, Johnson, & Schwallie, 2007) • A collection of the basic or minimum skills that each practitioner should possess in order to produce ethical and effective practice

6. Primary Domains and Subdomains

7. Primary Domains The developmental trajectory by which qualitative researchers begin and complete their work in an ethical and effective manner (Nelson, Chenail, Alexander, Crane, Johnson, & Schwallie, 2007)

8. Qualitative Research Consultants Association Professional Competencies (2003) • Identify skills, traits and practices that constitute the professional conduct of QRCs • Provide QRCs with a guideline for self-evaluation and continued growth • Create a framework for QRC education in an ever-expanding and diversifying global society • Help clients identify the quality they seek in a QRC, and to evaluate the performance they receive

9. Qualitative Research Consultants Association Professional Competencies • Consulting • Research • Professional and Business Practices

10. Consulting • Consulting • Content Knowledge

11. Research • Conceptualization and Design • Research • Interviewing • Analysis

12. Professional and Business Practices • Communication • Professional Practices • Project Management / Coordination • Business Practices • Commitment to the Profession

13. QR Primary Domains • Designing Qualitative Research • Conducting Qualitative Research • Presenting Qualitative Research

14. Subdomains • Conceptual Skills • Perceptual Skills • Executive Skills • Evaluative Skills • Professional Skills

15. Conceptual Skills • What qualitative researchers know: • Qualitative research methodologies and methods • Epistemological and theoretical contexts • Awareness of the researcher as an instrument

16. Perceptual Skills • What qualitative researchers perceive or discern: • Interpretation of data through epistemological and methodological lenses • Tie theory or conceptual skills to what is happening in the research

17. Executive Skills • What qualitative researchers do: • Behaviors • Actions • Interventions

18. Evaluative Skills • How qualitative researchers assess what they have done: • Assessing and appraising the effectiveness of the research activities • Assessing and appraising the effectiveness of the researcher

19. Professional Skills • How qualitative researchers conduct research and themselves: • Activities • Attitudes

20. Designing Qualitative Research • Conceptual Skills: Understand the major historical, epistemological, theoretical, methodological, and ethical orientations for conducting qualitative research • Perceptual Skills: Recognize historical, epistemological, theoretical, methodological, and ethical coherence in qualitative research designs

21. Designing Qualitative Research • Executive Skills: Design a qualitative research study that is historically, epistemologically, theoretically, methodologically, and ethically coherent • Evaluative Skills: Evaluate qualitative research designs for their historical, epistemological, theoretical, methodological, and ethical coherence • Professional Skills: Maintain records documenting the creation and evaluation of coherent qualitative research designs

22. Conducting Qualitative Research • Conceptual Skills: Understand qualitative research quality control procedures • Perceptual Skills: Recognize the appropriate use of quality control procedures in the conduct of qualitative research • Executive Skills: Utilize appropriate quality control procedures in a qualitative research study • Evaluative Skills: Evaluate the effectiveness of quality control procedures in a qualitative research study • Professional Skills: Review research findings based upon quality control outcomes

23. Presenting Qualitative Research • Conceptual Skills: Know the major elements of a qualitative research manuscript • Perceptual Skills: Recognize the major elements of a qualitative research manuscript • Executive Skills: Compose the major elements of a qualitative research manuscript • Evaluative Skills: Appraise the quality of a qualitative research manuscript • Professional Skills: Comply with appropriate professionals style guidelines for producing scholarly manuscripts

24. QR Competencies and Curriculum • Commitment to QR competencies in the curriculum regardless of time commitment to QR in the curriculum • By the course • By the sequence • By the program

25. From Competencies to Courses • Design learning activities • Construct direct and indirect measurements • Measure student performance • Facilitate mastery of competencies

26. Implications • Maintaining environment transparency • Facilitating active learning • Relating performance and feedback • Creating meaningful real-world products (Chenail, 2009a)

27. Maintaining Environment Transparency • Stakeholders • Documentation • Accountability • Example: Syllabus

28. Facilitating Active Learning • Knowing and Doing • Evaluation is learning • Progressive Learning • Example: QR Boot Camp

29. Relating Performance and Feedback • Don’t leave learning behind • Revise and resubmit • Grade inflation • Example: Track Changing Rubrics

30. Creating Meaningful Real-World Products • Publishable and Presentable • Service-learning • Practical • Example: BTI Projects

31. Next Steps • Construct QR competencies • Share resources (see Chenail, 2009b) • Share Reusable Learning Objects • Embrace a scholarship of learning

32. References • Chenail, R. (2009a). Learning marriage and family therapy in the time of competencies. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 28(1), 72-87. • Chenail, R. J. (2009b). Teaching and Learning Qualitative Research. Retrieved January 5, 2010, from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/teaching_102709.pdf

33. References • Nelson, T., Chenail, R. J., Alexander, J. F., Crane, D. R., Johnson, S. M., & Schwallie, L. (2007). The development of core competencies for the practice of marriage and family therapy. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 33(4), 417-438. • Qualitative Research Consultants Association. (2003). Professional competencies of qualitative research consultants. Retrieved January 5, 2010, from http://www.qrca.org/associations/6379/files/ProfComp.pdf

34. Contact Ron Chenail, Ph.D. The Qualitative Report Nova Southeastern University 3301 College Avenue Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33317 USA ron@nova.edu