What do you mean being biased isn’t wrong!: Teaching Qualitative Research to Emerging Scholars
Location
1047
Format Type
Event
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
January 2019
End Date
January 2019
Abstract
Engaging emerging scholars in qualitative research is a challenge in the era of big data. While the arc of the qualitative research process has several challenges, perhaps the most pervasive issue that students come into class with, is the assumption around issues of bias. Convinced that bias is a problem to be avoided at all costs, most students develop a biasphobia. As faculty teaching qualitative research, we can address these fears by helping students understand that rather than seeing bias as something to guard against, we need to work on increasing our awareness of our biases and celebrate our ‘positionality’ by way of structured reflexivity exercises. Helping students recognize the impact “biases,” “worldviews,” and “positionalities” have on what (and how) we see and hear, and how they shape our understandings about social realities, prepares them for the self-interrogation that qualitative researchers must engage in continuously. In this context, the role of the researcher as insider, outsider, friend and peer, companion, among others, will be examined. In addition, the issues surrounding empathic listening as an empowering or silencing effect will also be discussed. Alternative ways of conceptualizing and teaching empathic listening will be explored.
Keywords
Teaching Qualitative Research Methods, Qualitative Research Pedagogies, Novice Researchers
What do you mean being biased isn’t wrong!: Teaching Qualitative Research to Emerging Scholars
1047
Engaging emerging scholars in qualitative research is a challenge in the era of big data. While the arc of the qualitative research process has several challenges, perhaps the most pervasive issue that students come into class with, is the assumption around issues of bias. Convinced that bias is a problem to be avoided at all costs, most students develop a biasphobia. As faculty teaching qualitative research, we can address these fears by helping students understand that rather than seeing bias as something to guard against, we need to work on increasing our awareness of our biases and celebrate our ‘positionality’ by way of structured reflexivity exercises. Helping students recognize the impact “biases,” “worldviews,” and “positionalities” have on what (and how) we see and hear, and how they shape our understandings about social realities, prepares them for the self-interrogation that qualitative researchers must engage in continuously. In this context, the role of the researcher as insider, outsider, friend and peer, companion, among others, will be examined. In addition, the issues surrounding empathic listening as an empowering or silencing effect will also be discussed. Alternative ways of conceptualizing and teaching empathic listening will be explored.
Comments
Presenter Information:
Thalia M. Mulvihill, PhD, is Professor of Higher Education and Social Foundations and Acting Assistant Provost at Ball State University. She serves as Director of the Certificate Program in Qualitative Research and Education and of the Certificate Program in College and University Teaching. And served as Director of two doctoral programs. Dr. Mulvihill is coeditor of The Teacher Educator and author or editor of four previous books related to qualitative research and innovative pedagogies. A recipient of numerous teaching, research, and mentoring awards, she is engaged in the study of qualitative inquiry, historical and sociological issues in the field of higher education, innovative pedagogies, and educational leadership.
Raji Swaminathan, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Policy and Community Studies in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She has served as Director of Doctoral Studies and Chair of the Department and is a recipient of the university’s Faculty Teaching Award. Dr. Swaminathan has authored or edited two previous books on qualitative research methods and one on the narratives of immigrant women. She is interested in and works in the areas of qualitative research, youth resilience, urban and alternative schools, creative pedagogies, and school leadership.