어린이, 그 보이지 않는 맥락들: 문화인류학적 시선과 질적연구의 역할

Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research in Cross-Cultural Psychology

Las instituciones de educación superior dentro de su responsabilidad están llamadas a confrontar la acción social de sus estudiantes y egresados con la pertinencia de los programas que ofrece. El objetivo del estudio logró establecer los aportes educativos, productivos y comunitarios de estudiantes del programa “Licenciatura en Producción Agropecuaria” de la Universidad de los Llanos en comunidades rurales intervenidas en el municipio de Restrepo, durante el periodo 2012- 2014 a partir de procesos de formación en seguridad alimentaria y educación ambiental orientados desde los cursos de Educación y Extensión Comunitaria, y la Práctica Profesional Docente. Como ruta de investigación se optó por la cualitativa vinculando elementos propios de la complementariedad, se priorizaron técnicas como la observación participante, la interacción con la población objeto de estudio, el diseño y aplicación de fichas de caracterización, entrevistas en profundidad, grupos focales y la construcción de una matriz DOFA para el análisis reflexivo de la información obtenida. Los resultados de la investigación ratifican algunas de las fortalezas del programa de Licenciatura en Producción Agropecuaria: la formación pedagógica y humanista de los futuros docentes es útil para afrontar procesos de formación en educación no formal, para contribuir al mejoramiento de la calidad de vida de las comunidades participantes, quienes implementaron procesos de producción limpia de alimentos, escenarios de conservación de ecosistemas naturales y el fortalecimiento de los lazos comunitarios en pro de su desarrollo. El estudio concluyó que cuando la práctica pedagógica es contextualizada se consolidan soluciones para la diversa población rural atendida, que se hizo evidente con la implementación técnica y sustentable de huertas caseras, la adecuación de senderos ecológicos para la promoción del manejo ambiental, la implementación de proyectos sostenibles de avicultura, cunicultura, producción de abonos orgánicos, la agroindustrialización de productos y la implementación per se de procesos de seguridad alimentaria.

Thick description of qualitative findings is critical to improving the transferability of qualitative research findings as it allows researchers to assess their applicability to other contexts and settings. However, what thick description entails and how it should be carried out is often missing or insufficiently described. While expert qualitative researchers may be familiar with the concept, the wide variety of meanings and interpretations of thick description in the literature may make it difficult for novice qualitative researchers to understand this concept when reporting qualitative findings. The purpose of this paper is to propose the “MIRACLE” narrative framework for providing thick description in qualitative research. We developed this framework based on a critical review of theoretical literature about thick description and writing in qualitative research, as well as our personal experiences conducting, writing, and publishing qualitative studies. The proposed framework can be valuable for improving the reporting quality and transferability of qualitative research findings.

The Coming of Age for Qualitative Research: Embracing the Diversity of Qualitative Methods

This study examines the Walk & Talk method as an innovative approach to qualitative research, emphasizing its ability to capture rich, contextually grounded data through mobility and embodied experiences. By integrating walking interviews into fieldwork in Nepal, the method enhances data collection via seeding, feeding, and bridging processes. These processes facilitate reflective dialogue (seeding), provide deeper insights through physical engagement (feeding), and connect individual narratives to broader social and cultural contexts (bridging). The study illustrates how the Walk & Talk method shifts from inductive to abductive reasoning, uncovering new insights and theoretical connections in real-time. Fieldwork on spiritual practices, social relations, tourism management, and climate change adaptation demonstrates the method's effectiveness in exploring the intersections of place, identity, and social dynamics. The study highlights the method's potential for interdisciplinary applications in social anthropology, cultural sociology, and environmental studies, expanding qualitative research methodologies to explore intersectional identities and community resilience across diverse contexts.

We are our own subjects. How our subjectivity becomes entangled in the lives of others is and has always been our topic. (Denzin 27)This article reflects on the process of disclosing the ethnographic self, particularly in relation to the use of e-mails and social networking sites, such as Facebook. Previous work has examined virtual ethnography as the main research method or its place within a mixed method approach (Orgad; Hine, Virtual Ethnography; Fay; Greschke). My focus lies on the voluntary and involuntary intertwining of physical ethnographic work (i.e. going to a specific location to immerse oneself in a culture) and the virtual relations formed with informants in the course of such fieldwork. Connecting with informants on Facebook has brought a new dimension to the active approach of impression management that is encouraged in traditional texts on ethnography and participant observation (Hammersley and Atkinson; Taylor and Bogdan; Ellen). Examples are drawn from my experience of three phases of geographically located fieldwork for my thesis on Spanish- and English-language media and the Cuban-American community in Miami, Florida, and from online “repercussions” of my physical presence in the field.In an ideal (research) world, the process of immersing oneself in a culture, studying and understanding its values, dynamics and symbolism is paired with professional and personal distance and reflexivity. Most of the time, the reality of fieldwork does not adhere to this ideal (Kleinman and Copp). Data collection does not take place in a void. On the contrary, it is a personal, emotional, embodied and challenging experience in which the researcher’s persona is highly involved: “If informants are people and have rights that affect ethical practice, ethnographers are also human and have identities that affect research practice” (Brewer 99).The researcher’s identity has a strong influence on the research process, but the same holds true the other way around. Ethnographic encounters have an effect on the ethnographer’s sense of identity or sense of self. The researcher’s identity, just like the informant’s, is ever-changing and in a constant process of negotiation that continues throughout the ethnographic experience. As Sarah Pink (47) points out, individuals not only position themselves and their identity in relation to others, but also in relation to objects and discourses (see also: Miller).Therefore the process of relating to the field does not end with physically removing oneself from it (Coffey). Dealing, relating and “coming to terms” with the field and those we encounter is much more complex. The assumption made that the researcher would not be influenced by this, meaning that the field has no impact whatsoever on the one collecting data, has been challenged severely, often by feminist scholars among others, over the past decades (Hey; Roberts; Berger).Establishing and positioning oneself and one’s role in the field can be a daunting process (Lindner). It can be informed by fears of acceptance, uncertainties about conventions not (fully) understood yet and the underlying dynamics one still hopes to uncover. The process of role(s) and identity negotiation of the researcher in the field goes on when writing the field, going through field notes and making sense of what we have experienced (Okely). So even though strict temporal and spatial boundaries might never have existed to the extent ethnography textbooks would have us believe, the use of e-mails and social networking sites have brought the field even closer to home. I have structured the following reflections on disclosing the ethnographic self in face-to-face conversations, that is, exposures made while being physically present in the field, and those taking place online. However, it is worth remembering that this is an artificial distinction as they are clearly interlinked and can overlap in time. Disclosure in Face-to-Face ConversationsWith establishing and negotiating one’s identity in the field and fieldwork relations comes the question of how much to disclose of oneself. How much should informants know about me? There are obvious ethical requirements: Every researcher should be clear about scope and aim of the research project, institutional affiliations, the way data will be stored and used (Mauthner et al.). But beyond that, how much of myself do I have to expose? What stands in the way of a straight-forward answer is the undefined nature of relationships of those we meet in the field: “Fieldwork relationships are at once professional and personal, yet not necessarily readily characterized as either”(Coffey 39).Arguably, there is not one right way to proceed, as it depends on the kind of field the researcher is finding herself in, her personality, role, identity and the type of relationship she wishes to establish with informants. The process of relationship-building to the field as a whole as constructed in the ethnographer’s mind and to individuals in the field is of course ongoing and very likely to evolve and change over time. This applies not only to the relationships built but also to the researcher’s sense of self and how he or she relates to those encountered in the field. It is partly in and through these encounters that the researcher’s understanding of self is influenced, shaped and negotiated on a continual basis. During three phases of fieldwork in 2006, 2007 and 2008 I interviewed over 40 Hispanic journalists, media executives and active members of the Cuban-American community in Miami, Florida. How much was I willing to disclose of myself during these encounters and subsequent e-mail exchanges? Should I correct informants when they wrongly assumed I was British because I was based at a British institution? Do they need to know why I have chosen to research this particular topic and them as a group, why I was based at a Scottish university and what brought me to the U.K. in the first place? The answers were no secrets, but neither was I comfortable to share them with all informants I met in the field. Gender and age-related dynamics came into play here with the majority of interviewees being male and significantly older than me (Easterday). At times, I was uneasy when it came to talking about myself. While I defined the majority of my initial relations as mostly, though not entirely, professional, some interviewees did have a different take on this. In particular, I felt that one interviewee who after the interview started asking me personal questions about my move to Scotland, clearly overstepped an invisible line, although it would have been perfectly alright from my perspective to ask him questions similar, though different in tone, within the context of an interview. A further aspect of disclosure within the context of ethnographic work is the open discussion of the research process with informants. Although this can be very fruitful, it can also be source of scorn and end in closed doors, especially in the highly polarised field I was researching: Once interviews were finished, some interviewees would ask whom I had interviewed previously—maybe just out of interest, maybe to go on and suggest future interviewees. I had never considered in detail what kind of reactions interviewees might have by my naming of previous contacts because for one, reactions had so far been positive and secondly, all interviewees had some understanding of what research entails and that I would naturally want to speak to as many people and as many “sides” as possible. In one particular case, though, the interviewee showed clear disapproval of my talking to a journalist at a well-known Miami-based newspaper. At the time, I did not take this minor condemnation very seriously, but in retrospect it turned out that this interviewee could have been a valuable source for further information and contacts. It taught me that it is wise to hold my cards closer to my chest in such a sensitive environment. This does not mean, however, that secrecy and constant striving towards a neutral position is always the best way to proceed, nor a believable position to hold as Kloos (511) found out: “One of the clergymen in Eastern Flevoland asked me once: ‘Do you have any opinions of your own?’”Virtual Exposure and DisclosurePrevious studies underlined that relationships forged and maintained online mirror offline everyday-life contacts, interests, concerns and vice versa. (Castells; Miller and Slater) For ethnographers whose informants have ready Internet access, this can bring significant advantages as well as challenges. Contacting informants whom I had heard about but not yet met in person by e-mail proved an extremely useful approach. An e-mail allowed me to say a few words about myself and introduce my research project. If there was no response to the e-mail, I was much more comfortable to call the person at this stage—rather than before an e-mail had been sent. E-mails proved a very successful way in contacting informants, thanking people after the interview and exchanging further information that had been touched upon in conversation. What surprised me, however, was that e-mails were also used by interviewees to contact me months after I had been in touch with them and had physically left the field. On a couple of occasions, interviewees sent me information that they thought was essential for my research or, in fact, asked me to fill out a questionnaire and comment on matters relating to my research topic. My role in the field and my relation to informants had turned from researcher to research participant, or interviewee in this case.While e-mails offer a rather controlled environment when approaching informants, other information about the researcher might be more unpredictable and harder to control or manage. I sometimes found myself wondering what information about me informants would find when they Googled my name. How would they combine and make

Qualitative research is widely used as a means of understanding and analysing a range of health and care issues. Qualitative researchers are a diverse group who use interpretive approaches to...

This study aims to examine and describe the extent to which the optimization of public services in the transportation sector is implemented by the Gorontalo Regency Transportation Agency. The approach used is qualitative research with descriptive methods, in order to deeply understand the practices of transportation policies at the regional level. Data collection techniques were carried out through in-depth interviews, participatory observation, and documentation of the activities and policies implemented. The results of the study indicate that the optimization of public services in the transportation sector has been taking place progressively based on three main indicators. First, service effectiveness is reflected in the implementation of regulations in accordance with the law, such as controlling private vehicles parked haphazardly to reduce congestion and routine inspections of public vehicles to ensure safety aspects. Second, efficiency is achieved through technical supervision of vehicles that are not roadworthy, including brake conditions, tire wear, and completeness of route permits, as part of efforts to reduce operational risks and improve service quality. Third, productivity increases through the use of digital technology in socialization activities and the provision of supporting infrastructure such as bus stops, terminals, adequate roads, and traffic signs. These findings indicate that the Gorontalo Regency Transportation Agency has implemented a transportation service optimization strategy that is adaptive and oriented to community needs.

Hypertension remains a leading cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Although effective antihypertensive therapies are available, sustained blood pressure control remains suboptimal due to inconsistent medication use. Most adherence research is quantitative and offers limited understanding of how individuals interpret lifelong treatment within daily life, particularly in culturally grounded contexts. To explore the lived experiences of Filipino adults taking antihypertensive medication. A qualitative study grounded in Heideggerian interpretive phenomenology was conducted. Ten Filipino adults diagnosed with hypertension were purposively recruited from outpatient clinics in Manila, Philippines. In-depth semi-structured interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using the six-step IPA framework. Analysis revealed six interconnected themes describing how participants interpreted and sustained medication use: (1) Diagnosis as Disruption; (2) Medication as Protection and Responsibility; (3) The Paradox of the Silent Illness; (4) Everyday Barriers to Sustained Treatment; (5) Constructing Routine and Adaptive Self-Management; and (6) Family as Anchor within Cultural Contexts. These themes reflected emotional adjustment, symptom-driven adherence, financial and work-related barriers, adaptive coping strategies, and strong family-centered motivation. Medication-taking was experienced as an ongoing negotiation shaped by bodily cues, daily demands, and relational obligations. Conclusion: Antihypertensive medication use is shaped by relational, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts, underscoring the need for family-inclusive and culturally responsive hypertension care.

Chasing Methuselah: Theology, the Body, and Slowing Human Aging

Background in the psychology of music The historical development of the psychology of music largely followed that of psychology in general. In the 20th century it adopted the research methods and interests of cognitive psychology and more recently has turned to new interdisciplinary connections with psychobiology and the neurosciences. There remains, however, a certain inadequacy regarding work in the psychology of music and cultural psychology and as well of interpretative research aimed at interpreting the role of music in those processes, processes Bruner called “the nature and cultural shaping of meaning-making, and the central place it plays in human action”. Background in historical musicology and cultural anthropology Historical musicology and cultural anthropology maintain that experiencing and understanding music represents a process fundamentally dependent upon cultural context. This begs the question as to how cultural context influences social and individual representations of music in the sense that a particular “style of aesthetic experience” typifies a historical period. Although this is a genuine psychological question, it cannot be answered by a psychology which is restricted to “ahistorical” explanations of information processing. Thus from a cultural anthropological perspective there is strong interest in any kind of “cultural psychology” which is able to conceptualise the dynamic interactions between culturally determined “social representations” of music and the individual mind. Goals We argue for a “cultural turn” in the psychology of music. Following developments within psychology, research over recent decades in the psychology of music has concentrated on neuro-cognition while cultural aspects have been underestimated — as they continue to be in psychology in general. Conclusions An important task for an interdisciplinary framework that wishes to include the cultural sciences and psychology should be to review recent cultural psychological theories to assess their implications for a psychological theory of music. As examples we use Ernst E. Boesch's Symbolic Action Theory which explicitly refers to the role of aesthetic experience in cultural contexts and Alfred Lang's “semiotic ecology” which provides an appropriate model for conceptualising the complex relations between the development of cultural patterns and the development of related individual representations.

This research addresses the global ecological crisis by proposing a new paradigm that integrates spiritual and social values to ensure cultural and environmental sustainability. The study analyzes the integration of Islamic ecotheological values and Sharia economic principles within the preservation of Reog Kendang, a local tradition in Tulungagung, Indonesia. Adopting a qualitative-interpretive method with an intrinsic case study design, data were collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. Analysis was conducted using the Miles and Huberman model, ensuring a rigorous interpretive depth. The findings reveal that the Reog Kendang community manifests spiritual-ecological values by fulfilling the role of khalifah fil ardh (steward of the earth) through collective prayer, the use of eco-friendly materials, and active nature conservation. Simultaneously, Sharia economic principles are reflected in the ethical management of communal funds, distributive justice, and blessing-based (barakah) social activities. The study concludes that this synthesis creates a model of Islamic ecocultural harmony that preserves indigenous culture, strengthens social solidarity, and supports the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This model serves as a strategic reference for developing a creative economy and cultural preservation framework rooted in Islamic ethical values. This research addresses the global ecological crisis by proposing a new paradigm that integrates spiritual and social values to ensure cultural and environmental sustainability. The study analyzes the integration of Islamic ecotheological values and Sharia economic principles within the preservation of Reog Kendang, a local tradition in Tulungagung, Indonesia. Adopting a qualitative-interpretive method with an intrinsic case study design, data were collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. Analysis was conducted using the Miles and Huberman model, ensuring a rigorous interpretive depth. The findings reveal that the Reog Kendang community manifests spiritual-ecological values by fulfilling the role of khalifah fil ardh (steward of the earth) through collective prayer, the use of eco-friendly materials, and active nature conservation. Simultaneously, Sharia economic principles are reflected in the ethical management of communal funds, distributive justice, and blessing-based (barakah) social activities. The study concludes that this synthesis creates a model of Islamic ecocultural harmony that preserves indigenous culture, strengthens social solidarity, and supports the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This model serves as a strategic reference for developing a creative economy and cultural preservation framework rooted in Islamic ethical values.

Thoughts on the Conduct and Dissemination of Qualitative Research

How can qualitative research contribute to educational policy-making in developing countries?

Elderly Bedouin men in southern Israel are a unique traditional population living in remote unrecognized villages and experiencing rapid social transition, in addition to deep poverty and political tension. In this study, we aimed to explore stressful events, as self-defined by the participants, and the ways in which these men have coped with those stressful events. This study involved 12 men, aged 69–74, who participated in in-depth narrative interviews during which they were asked about transformative stressful events in their lives and how they had managed, understood, and utilized human capital, meaning-making, and other methods of coping. Analysis of the interviews revealed several themes: (a) the definition of stressful events within the cultural context, (b) the use of human capital to overcome those events, (c) the transformation of experience from hindsight into a didactic narrative that can be used to assign meaning to past events, which can then be passed on to the next generation, and (d) cultural transition as a catalyst for the creation of new understandings of events. This paper sheds new light on how elderly indigenous Bedouin men self-define stressful situations within a complex and unstable cultural context. This specific context, can help us to gain insight into how indigenous impoverished older men in similar contexts may self-define their stress and coping, based on the types of generalization accepted in qualitative research. The methodological contribution of this work lies in its use of narrative to culturally contextualize phenomenological meaning structures. Its theoretical contribution lies in its examination of the concept of stress within a specific cultural context.