KWALON - Volume 17, Issue 3, 2012

This editorial offers an introduction to the first three contributions in this volume about educating students in Methodology and in particular in qualitative research methods. In the near future Universities of Applied Sciences have to come up with plans for educating their students in methodology. In this editorial many questions are posed about the nature of research methods that will be taught at Universities of Applied Sciences. In December 2012 a conference is going to be organized about this topic.

The future teacher is an investigating one when educated at Fontys University of Applied Sciences

The Fontys University of Applied Sciences educates teachers for primary schools. Increasingly, teachers need a critical and reflective attitude towards scientific research to be able to work evidence-based. The article describes how the curriculum at Fontys has been changed to educate extended professionals who can put innovative educational insights into practice.

Applied research and an investigating attitude: how an Educational Programme and a Centre of Expertise link research and education for professionalization of the field

The University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht wishes to relate research, education of professionals and research questions that originate from professional contexts. To achieve this aim the curriculum has been changed recently. A project is described in which students write their theses based on projects that stem from the field, while their findings are fed back into the curriculum.

The role of research in educating masters at the University of Applied Science in Arnhem and Nijmegen (HAN)

The HAN wishes to achieve an educational culture that is research-minded. Professionals who have been educated at the HAN need to be able to resolve complex issues in applied fields. To achieve this objective research methodology has been introduced in the curriculum. For some professionals research is considered to be a core competence, for others it is a supportive competence.

Systematic Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) was introduced in the social sciences by Charles Ragin in 1987. Literature on and applications of QCA show the method as a way to systematically organize, summarize and compare qualitative data to discover and analyze patterns occurring over cases. Although the literature stresses the importance of iterating between theory and data in its procedures, its grounded nature remains relatively underexposed. In this article we illustrate the principles of QCA by means of a qualitative comparative analysis of fourteen Dutch spatial planning projects, thereby also articulating the method’s grounded nature.

@Malinowski, do you have ping?

Due to the fact that lives of respondents increasingly take place online, ‘being there’ and participating in everyday life has changed. Based on ongoing research, this article examines new and additional possibilities provided by technological developments in the field of digital communication in collecting data. In addition to focusing on offline practices, the use of digital communication, such as BlackBerry ‘ping’ and social media like Twitter, provides opportunities to incorporate the online practices of respondents during fieldwork.

Modelling Shared Reality

This article introduces ‘Modelling Shared Reality’, a new qualitative research methodology which has its roots in Clean Language and Symbolic Modelling. Using the protocol explained in this article, undesired influence of the researcher is minimized during all phases of the research: the interviews, the analysis and the reporting phase. The methodology is action-oriented: both the process and the results function as a catalyst for actions or behavioral change. It is frequently used in the context of organizational change or development processes, as well as policy decisions, policy evaluations, and participative processes.

Book review

In this contribution the author reviews De sociale vormgeving van depressie: tussen jobstijding en erepenning by J. Westerbeek.

Book review, reaction

Reaction to the book review of De sociale vormgeving van depressie: tussen jobstijding en erepenning by J. Westerbeek.

Book review, answer to reaction

Answer of the author to the reaction to the book review of De sociale vormgeving van depressie: tussen jobstijding en erepenning by J. Westerbeek.

Book review

In this contribution the author reviews Nursing research: generating an assessing evidence for nursing practice by D. Polit and C.T. Beck.

Book review

In this contribution the author reviews Qualitative research and theory development: mystery as method by M. Alvesson and D. Kärreman.

News

The section News gives an overview of current events.