This Case Study discusses a multiple case study based on my doctoral dissertation, which focused on a rural area of a western American state and the cross-case analysis of five gang-affiliated youths (ages 19 to 30 years) and their chosen mentors. The findings from the dissertation highlight the importance of familial relationships among this…

Composite narrative case studies are a relatively novel technique to combine multiple data points into a single vignette. This method offers an accessible option for the presentation of research findings that can engage diverse audiences. Findings presented in this manner honor qualitative commitments to preserve rich, complex, and situated…

This case study presents two qualitative feminist research approaches to investigate lived experiences of early-career academics: autoethnography and collective narrative inquiry. Autoethnography tells a story from the researcher's perspective, whereas collective narrative inquiry challenges researcher objectivity and presents multiple participant…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused qualitative researchers to use virtual platforms more extensively than they had done in the past. This case study discusses how doctoral students who were completing their dissertations used the Zoom platform to conduct research that focused on social justice issues in education. It provides a historical backdrop of…

Narrative inquiry is a research approach used for the collection of personal accounts about an issue or experience among a pre-selected group of informants (participants) and assumes that we are all "storied individuals"--holding our own narratives and life stories about our experiences. As part of the PhD in educational research that I…

Accessing narrative oral history and phenomenological lifeworld experiences was significant for my doctoral research of teacher learning because I was able to explore individual post-reflection as story and the pre-reflective meaning on lifeworld in order to understand interconnections across experience. Education research predominately reports on…

The aim of this case study is to highlight the importance of piloting or pre-testing the research design (in this case, semi-structured interviews and narratives). Most textbooks offer minimal guidance about pre-testing the research design, and published reports rarely report whether the research was piloted and, if so, what were the results.…

Collaborative research aimed at building local capacity is a complex, contested, time-consuming, and at the same time immensely rewarding experience. The clash of different research cultures, managerial approaches, and values involved in conducting and delivering research is inevitable. Collaborative research requires support structures on…

In 2012, I began a life history research dissertation examining the lives of three Black art teachers in order to understand how they conceptualize and reconcile their social and professional identities as Black/artist/teacher. As a constructivist researcher, my goal was to understand the multiple social constructions of meaning of this group,…