Elsa Gonzalez

For students and novice researchers, the choice of qualitative approach and subsequent alignment among problems, research questions, data collection, and data analysis can be particularly tricky. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a concise explanation of four common qualitative approaches, case study, ethnography, narrative, and phenomenology, demonstrating how each approach is linked to specific types of data collection and analysis. We first introduce a summary and key qualities of each approach. Then, using two common research contexts, we apply each approach to design a study, enabling comparisons among approaches and demonstrating the internal consistency within each approach. Given the nuance and complexity of qualitative research, this paper provides an accessible starting point from which novice researchers can begin their journey of learning about, designing, and conducting qualitative research.

The transfer of knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) across countries is a common practice in academia, which is both timely and useful to achieve research collaborations. Through a qualitative research approach, using interviews and observations, five STEM Mexican professors shared their experiences and expectations in leading the research collaborations where professors and students participated. This qualitative inquiry utilized Sargent and Water’s (2004) academic research collaborations framework, which highlights the interactive phases for achieving successful collaborations. The findings revealed that: 1) institutional support through department chairs’ encouragement along with professors’ leadership to expand research collaborations in both countries are favorable and 2) more resources to fund students’ participation in international research collaborations and better climate that help students feel socially included and academically integrate...

Many non-Western and non-English-speaking scholars express the need for supporting a methodological approach that foregrounds the voices of nationals and locals (or indigenous peoples). Supporting this stance, Western scholars will reach out in democratic and liberatory ways that effect research collaboration, helping to foster social justice and locally desired change. This article supports this search via presenting some methodological strategies culled from six different cases of cross-cultural and cross-language research in which both Western and non-Western scholars were involved and/or collaborated. A comparative study of the inquiries themselves, with follow-up interviews with their U.S.-based authors, is the strategy that has been chosen to respond to this search for additional, emerging methodological and narrative approaches to cross-cultural/cross-national research that is useful to both local and Western scholars equally.

This study proposes to answer the question--What is and might be the present and future scenarios of higher education institutions in Mexico according to their leaders' perceptions? Special emphasis is placed on the differences between public and private institutions. The study emphasized that leaders of private and public universities in Mexico look at their institutions as very different from one other. They recognize their own needs as well as their goals as particular to their own institutions. Both types of leaders identify the importance of their roles in the process of change and adaptation within their institutions. Getting close to the opinions of Mexican leaders in those institutions can help us to understand the present circumstances of higher education (HE) in Mexico, and get a deeper understanding of the complexity of HE in many developing countries, as well as begin to comprehend their future possible scenarios. The study of the leaders' perceptions and project...

Im Rahmen qualitativer Sozialforschung wird zumeist angenommen, dass Wissenschaftler(inne)n, die sich mit kulturvergleichenden Studien befassen, ein intimes Wissen uber die Kultur(en) haben sollten, von denen sie berichten. In der Vergangenheit waren solche Arbeiten vornehmlich an den rezipierenden Kontexten und an einer uberwiegend westlichen Leserschaft orientiert. Die Brauchbarkeit solcher Berichte ist jedoch in einer globalisierten Welt sehr begrenzt, und mittlerweile mussen derartige Forschungsarbeiten nicht nur den Interessen westlicher Wissenschaftler(innen) genugen, sondern auch nationalen und lokalen Bedurfnissen vor Ort Rechnung tragen. Insoweit gewinnen Studien unterschiedlicher sprachlicher Herkunft, aus nicht-westlichen Kontexten und aus unterschiedlichsten Kulturen vermehrt Aufmerksamkeit und es wird zunehmend wichtiger, deren intrinsischen Gehalt zu verstehen mit der steigenden Zahl an Forschungsberichten (wie z.B. Dissertationen), die von internationalen Wissenschaft...