Order 1000984: Part 3: The Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data

Part3-Assignment Part3-VisualizingDatawithWORDorEXCELProgramTranscript Part3-SecondCycleCodingProgramTranscript Part3-LearningResources Part3-FirstCycleCodingStructuralCodingProgramTranscript Part3-InterviewingTechniquesPartTwoProgramTranscript Part3-InterviewingTechniquesPartOneProgramTranscr Part3-ExcelVideoCodingDocumentTemplate.xlsxPart3-InterviewGuideExample Part3-InterviewGuideInstructions Part3-WorkingTowardTheCommonGoodArticle-PerspectivesonSocialChange IntrotoCodingVideo1.zip

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Part 3: The Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data In previous weeks, you completed Parts 1 and 2 of this Major Assignment. For this week’s Assignment and for Weeks 8 and 9, you will complete Part 3: Results. But before you complete Part 3, you must conduct your phone interview. Please note that before you conduct your interview, make sure you have completed your Discussion 1 for this week. To prepare for this Assignment: • Review the Interview Guide Instructions and the Interview Guide Example found in this week’s Learning Resources, and use these questions for your interview. • Conduct your phone interview with your colleague from this course or another Walden student you selected. (THE PHONE INTERVIEW CAN BE A MOCK INTERVIEW THAT YOU AS THE WRITER CAN MAKE UP) • Make sure to record your phone interview for your transсrіption. (Note: It will be important for you to notify your interviewee that the interview will be recorded for transсrіption purposes prior to conducting the interview.) • Review the readings and media programs in this week’s Learning Resources related to coding and consider how you will code the data you have gathered for your Major Assignment 2. • Once you conduct your phone interview, begin to transcribe and code your interview. Once you complete your phone interview, continue with the Part 3: Results section of your Major Assignment 2. You will continue to work through your Part 3: Results section in Weeks 7–9. Part 3: Results During this course, you have coded your two Scholars of Change videos, you have conducted and coded your phone interview, and you have gathered data from the Walden social change website and any other documents or websites you might have included. For this Part 3 of your Major Assignment, you will write up the results of your findings. You will include the following in your write-up: A. Data Sources—briefly describe each data source including location, duration of data collection, how data were recorded, and unusual circumstances. o Two Scholars of Change videos o One phone interview o Resources from the Walden social change website B. Instrumentation—briefly describe the type of instrumentation you used for your data collection. a. Who developed each data collection tool and what is the date of publication? b. Where and with which participant group has it been used previously? c. How appropriate is it for current study and include whether modifications will be or were needed? C. Data Analysis—based on the data sources in “A.”, provide a detailed analysis to include the following: o Report the process used to move inductively from coded units to larger representations including categories and themes. o Describe the specific codes, categories, and themes that emerged from the data using quotations as needed to emphasize their importance. 1. 1st cycle—describe, give examples. 2. 2nd cycle—describe, give examples/moving from codes to categories. 3. Identify themes—provide examples and illustrate your results with a figure or a chart. Be sure to support your research with reference to the week’s Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA style

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Part 3: The Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data

In previous weeks, you completed Parts 1 and 2 of this Major Assignment. For this week’s Assignment and for Weeks 8 and 9, you will complete Part 3: Results. But before you complete Part 3, you must conduct your phone interview. Please note that before you conduct your interview, make sure you have completed your Discussion 1 for this week.

To prepare for this Assignment:

· Review the Interview Guide Instructions and the Interview Guide Example found in this week’s Learning Resources, and use these questions for your interview.

· Conduct your phone interview with your colleague from this course or another Walden student you selected. (THE PHONE INTERVIEW CAN BE A MOCK INTERVIEW THAT YOU AS THE WRITER CAN MAKE UP)

· Make sure to record your phone interview for your transcription. (Note: It will be important for you to notify your interviewee that the interview will be recorded for transcription purposes prior to conducting the interview.)

· Review the readings and media programs in this week’s Learning Resources related to coding and consider how you will code the data you have gathered for your Major Assignment 2.

· Once you conduct your phone interview, begin to transcribe and code your interview.

Once you complete your phone interview, continue with the Part 3: Results section of your Major Assignment 2. You will continue to work through your Part 3: Results section in Weeks 7–9.

Part 3: Results

During this course, you have coded your two Scholars of Change videos, you have conducted and coded your phone interview, and you have gathered data from the Walden social change website and any other documents or websites you might have included. For this Part 3 of your Major Assignment, you will write up the results of your findings. You will include the following in your write-up:

A. Data Sources—briefly describe each data source including location, duration of data collection, how data were recorded, and unusual circumstances.

· Two Scholars of Change videos

· One phone interview

· Resources from the Walden social change website

B. Instrumentation—briefly describe the type of instrumentation you used for your data collection.

. Who developed each data collection tool and what is the date of publication?

a. Where and with which participant group has it been used previously?

b. How appropriate is it for current study and include whether modifications will be or were needed?

a. Data Analysis—based on the data sources in “A.”, provide a detailed analysis to include the following:

· Report the process used to move inductively from coded units to larger representations including categories and themes.

· Describe the specific codes, categories, and themes that emerged from the data using quotations as needed to emphasize their importance.

· 1st cycle—describe, give examples.

· 2nd cycle—describe, give examples/moving from codes to categories.

· Identify themes—provide examples and illustrate your results with a figure or a chart.

Be sure to support your research with reference to the week’s Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA style

Visualizing Data with WORD or EXCEL

Visualizing Data with WORD or EXCEL
Program Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SUSAN MARCUS: Hi. This is Dr. Susan Marcus. And in this video, we’ll be covering
how to take the data that you coded and move it into categories and themes for
presentation in visual and descriptive forms.

This document contains all of the coding work that we’ve done-- our first cycle
descriptive codes, our first cycle concept codes, and our second cycle pattern codes.
We take each column of codes and put them into a Word document one right after the
other. So it looks like this.

So here we are in this document where we have a list of all of our individual codes. And
as a qualitative researcher, before you proceed, you want to check to make sure with
your memo notes and your Excel spreadsheets that the meaning of each of these codes
is clear to you. Once you do that, then you spend some time reading through each of
the codes. Again, checking to see that you understand, you recall, how you came to that
particular code, and if it actually reflects what the interviewee said when you were
coding that bit of information.

Once that’s done, you’ll start to see some commonalities among those different codes.
So for example, as I’m scrolling through, I see that several of the codes are about doing
something for others. So I’ll use the Highlighting tool to identify codes that talk about
how other people are affected or the intention to connect or do something for others.

So some of these I’m being a bit elastic in my thinking. And I would check here “at my
child’s school.” That’s certainly about helping others. But I would go back and check to
make sure that what I’m interpreting is, in fact, connected to the data.

And you see how I am looking up and down and just checking to see is there anything
else. Here’s another one, “helping others.” So of all these lists of codes, this has the
potential to be a category or a theme. And I would go through the list several times and
see if I could come up similar groupings of categories that may reflect different themes.

So what I have here on this document is the result of going through that process and
looking through that list over and over again and referring again back to my coding
sheets and even back to the transcripts in order to come up with these themes, which
summarize what our interviewees say about the meaning of social change as graduate
students at Walden University. So here, you can now see that in the beginning, we
moved away from what we were trying to identify or enquire into. And now as we come
back to the analysis of the data to identify themes, we now think about, so what are we
trying to do in the first place? And that is, exploring the concept of social change. And
these are the themes that came out-- a focus on the other, focus on local, responding to

Visualizing Data with WORD or EXCEL

specific needs, how it begins with a single person, it incorporates the education of self
as the object of change, and benefit to the self.

Now, this is a very interesting list. And when you put this into your document as part of
your results section, you’ll be able to define and describe each of these themes based
on the categories and the interview transcript quotes. So that gets explained in the
context of the results.

The other thing that you can do to make the results more interesting is to create a visual
display. And this is relatively straightforward to do in Word. So I go to the SmartArt tab.
And you can see here that there are lots of different ways to display data.

I’m going to choose the Relationship tab. And create a little visual. And now I can take
the content, the names of the themes and the title of the theme, and put it into the
graphic image. And then just add in the names of the themes into the text box. And at
the end, you get something like this.

By putting the names of the themes, the words of the themes, into a visual format, it
gives the reader another way to understand how the concepts that you identified in your
data analysis relate to each other. You know the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand
words,” so that you can see from the diagram how all of these concepts, of these
themes, relate to the notion of social change, to the experience of social change. So it’s
more evocative than looking at a simple list.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Second Cycle Coding

Second Cycle Coding
Program Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SUSAN MARCUS: Hi, this is Dr. Susan Marcus. And now we’re going to begin our
second cycle coding process. Before we begin, we’ll just do a quick review of what
we’ve accomplished so far.

In this spreadsheet, you can see that I’ve got the questions that I’m analyzing all
highlighted, the line numbers, the responses pulled out from the interview to answer
each question, my codes for the two kinds of first cycle coding that I’ve completed,
descriptive coding and concept coding, as well as my memos. I also have at the bottom
of this sheet, the brief summary of my impressions of this interviewers answers, as well
as direct quotes from the transcripts to exemplify my summary. You can also see that
I’ve done this for all of the participants in my study. So you’ll see on the bottom that for
each participant, I have a tab labeling their interview.

So now we’re ready to begin our second cycle coding. And this is an opportunity to look
at the data from yet another point of view. Rather looking at each person’s transcript
and responses, we’re going to look by question across participants.

So in order to do that, first we have to set up another spreadsheet. We’ll use the same
template-- question line, number, response. But this time, we’ll move the content from
each person’s answers so that every person’s answers are under one question.

So you can see that I’ve have color coded. This is participant 1. This is participant 2.
And I’ve done that for each of the questions.

So we were working with four questions. You see I have these on tabs-- Q1, Q2, 3, 4,
and 4a. And here this is a better illustration of you can see where the question is, all of
participant 1’s responses-- interviewee 1-- and then all of the interviewee 2’s responses.
I’ve also brought with me my codes from the first cycle. And I’ve created a third column
for what I’ll be coding next. Here, by organizing the data in this way, I can actually read
through from cell to cell to cell across cases to see if I can start to observe patterns or
similarities in what people were saying and how they were saying it.

So I’m going to do my second cycle using pattern coding. So pattern coding is the
opportunity to look at the data from a different point of view and look for words and
phrases across participants that are similar or have shared meaning. So in particular,
I’m seeing words like “helping,” “making a difference,” “enjoyment,” “volunteering,” and
I’ll highlight those.

OK. So now that I’ve identified the pieces of text that I think will be appropriate and
helpful to identifying patterns, I’m going to label those potential patterns. And I do this in
the second cycle patterns column.

Second Cycle Coding

So here as I read through this and I see my highlighted “wanting to be there to help,” I
might call this possible pattern the pattern of wanting to help. Here I see that I’ve
highlighted “I’m never, ever going to work at a school.” The question comes up, “can I
see myself as a social change agent?” When I see what I’ve highlighted here, “I enjoy
doing it,” there’s an expression of joy as a potential pattern. And I go through the rest of
the text making an interpretation of the text that I’ve highlighted.

Sometimes it’s not a very evocative interpretation. And again, sometimes I’ll capture or
use a particular phrase that was written in the text-- that I “did not feel like I was making
a difference.” And here, in his reflections on his line of work, here’s a potential pattern of
personal reflection and the emergence of social consciousness.

And I do this for each of the questions across the participants. And once that’s
completed, I’ll have a second Excel spreadsheet with all of my codes organized by each
question. And you can see, again, I have the tabs for each question and the highlights
and the complete codes.

So we’ve just completed our second cycle coding. And again, this was an opportunity to
look at our data from another perspective and to generate ideas for patterns across
participants that can be used and combined in order to create themes for interpretation.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Learning Resources

Required Readings

Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

· Chapter 1, “An Introduction to Codes and Coding” (pp. 1–42) (previously read in Weeks 5 and 6)

· Chapter 2, “Writing Analytic Memos About Narrative and Visual Data” (pp. 43–65) (previously read in Weeks 5 and 6)

Ravitch, S. M., & Carl, N. M. (2016). Qualitative research: Bridging the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

· Chapter 5, “Methods of Data Collection” (pp. 145–183)

· Chapter 7, “An Integrative Approach to Data Analysis” (pp. 215–236) (previously read in Weeks 5 and 6)

· Chapter 8, “Methods and Processes of Data Analysis” (pp. 237–270) (previously read in Weeks 5 and 6)

Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2012). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

· Chapter 6, “Conversational Partnerships” (pp. 71–93)

· Chapter 7, “The Responsive Interview as an Extended Conversation” (pp. 95–114)

· Chapter 8, “Structure of the Responsive Interview” (pp. 115–129)

· Chapter 9, “Designing Main Questions and Probes” (pp. 131–147)

· Chapter 10, “Preparing Follow-Up Questions” (pp. 149–169)

· Chapter 12, “Data Analysis in the Responsive Interviewing Model” (pp. 189–211) (previously read in Weeks 5 and 6)

Yob, I., & Brewer, P. (n.d.). Working toward the common good: An online university’s perspectives on social change, 1-25. (previously read in Weeks 1 and 4)

Document: Interview Guide Instructions (PDF)

Document: Interview Guide Example (PDF)

Use these documents to guide you as you conduct your phone interview for this part of your Major Assignment 2.

Document: Excel Video Coding Document Template (Excel spreadsheet)

Review this Excel template as you view this week’s media program related to coding. Also, you will use this template for organizing your data and preparing for coding.

Required Media

In the following Part One and Part Two media programs, Dr. Linda Crawford provides two separate demonstrations of an interview conducted in a school setting. As you watch, focus on the differences between the two demonstrations in these areas:

· The interview setting

· The interview process

· Interviewer and interviewee behavior and body language (Is rapport being built? How?)

· The interview questions (Which questions elicited better information?)

Laureate Education (Producer). (2016). Doctoral research: Interviewing techniques, part one [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 9 minutes.

Accessible player

Laureate Education (Producer). (2016). Doctoral research: Interviewing techniques, part two [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 14 minutes.

Accessible player

Laureate Education (Producer). (2016). First cycle coding: Structural coding [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 8 minutes.

In this media program, Dr. Susan Marcus, Core Research Faculty with the School of Psychology at Walden University, introduces the first cycle of coding, structural coding. She will demonstrate how to begin highlighting text to matches the label of social change for example.

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First Cycle Coding: Structural Coding

First Cycle Coding: Structural Coding
Program Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SUSAN MARCUS: Hi. This is Dr. Susan Marcus. And we’re back to start our coding for
a qualitative data analysis.

We’ve got the questions and the content into our Excel spreadsheet. And we’re going to
begin with what’s called first cycle coding. This is our first approach to the data from the
perspective of looking for units of meaning that we can then take apart and then put
back together for the interpretation.

If this were a real research project or your dissertation, also keep in mind your primary
research questions, the theoretical approach that you might be using to examine the
research questions, and the methodological approach or design as well. Here, we’re just
approaching this from a very basic qualitative data analysis approach. So we’ll keep it
simple for the purposes of this demonstration. Regardless, the first step before
beginning data analysis is, to use an expression, to wash your brain, to let go of all
preexisting ideas and biases you have about what you are looking for and to approach
the data with curiosity and inquiry.

So we’ll begin with the first cycle coding process using descriptive codes. This is a really
easy way to get into the data analysis process using single words or short descriptions
to identify what’s going on in the content of the interview. So for example here, a
description of what’s happening here is she’s reporting on her degree.

Here she’s reporting on the year of the degree. So here she’s describing the type of
work that she did before she came to Walden. And here it’s the same. And here, as we
read through the text, the simple description was why she went on to get her degree.

So I would go through in this first column making simple identifying remarks describing
each piece of content from the responses. And when I get done with my descriptive
coding, the completed document looks like this. So for example, when she talks about
why she came to Walden, short comment how she found Walden.

The other thing you’ll note here is that I’ve started to put quick memos, my impressions
as I’m beginning and doing this coding process. So here’s my comment here in my
descriptive code-- “seeing a problem.” And my thought as I was writing the code was
she seeing that there’s a problem now that will impact the future.

And here’s my other comment here based on what she said. My impression of what
she’s describing sounds dire. These are, again, little short notes that I take that I can
expand on later on and use in the later coding process.

First Cycle Coding: Structural Coding

Next, we’ll try a more interpretive style of coding called concept coding, where we read
each piece of text and see what kind of meaning or concept or idea comes to mind. So
let’s look at this first bit of text here. As you can see, I’ve highlighted this piece of text in
red because it’s quite moving. “There are so many kids that have problems. I just
wanted to be there to help them because of the community and because these children
will be our future.”

So several concepts come to mind that I’d like to put in as my text. She’s seeing a
problem. And she wants to be part of the solution. She’s seeing the future and also
seeing possibility. So here, using a hard return, I’ve identified four possible concepts
that come out of that one piece of text.

Here, this is where she was talking about the type of work that she was doing before
Walden. Just to give you one quick little thing, “I retired from the Army. Prior to retiring,
just the times I would go to get my kids’ school and I would say, I am never going to
work in a school.” So the concept that comes to mind is that she is not seeing herself as
a teacher or social change agent.

And this is the way I would go through the text, reading each bit of text, observing what
was coming up as I was reading the text, and writing a short comment or phrase that
was more evocative and interpretive so that when I finished my concept coding, my data
sheet looks something like this. Here are my descriptions. Here are my interpretive
comments. And again, you can see as I’ve made my comments, I also note down what
comes to mind for me.

So this is a really great example of how to be reflexive while coding. You respond to the
text. And then you can also make a note about yourself.

So I say things, this is my internal conversation. “Never say never.” Sometimes my
comments to myself are the same as my comments for the concepts-- “transformation.”
I write down or I note my wonderings. I wonder if this is true for other people. So this is,
hmm, maybe I should keep this in mind when I’m looking at other interviewee
transcripts.

So that brings us to the end of our first cycle coding. We’ve looked at descriptive coding,
short descriptions, concept coding, more interpretive coding, writing memos, personal
reflections, and then the last part of the process before we move on to our second cycle
coding, is to take a few moments and create a brief summary of your impressions of
what you got from her interview. So here I write, “The participant describes her
understanding of social change in terms of experience in seeing how important it is to
get in there and make a change. There’s urgency in some of her statements.”

And observe here, how as I write, I also insert quotes. So that’s how I connect my
interpretation with what the interviewee has said. “And a clear connection to how
present action can change the future at the social level.” And again, I’m using quotes to
illustrate some of the comments and summative statements that I’ve made.

First Cycle Coding: Structural Coding

This is a very basic approach to qualitative data analysis. As you look through your
coding manual book and read other kinds of qualitative research, you’ll see that there
are so many different ways to approach your data. The important thing to recognize is
coding is not just a one time pass through of the data. You’ll actually go through the
data several times using different coding processes in order to look at the data from
different points of view.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Interviewing Techniques Part Two

Interviewing Techniques Part Two
Program Transcript

We have now observed one interview. Let’s see how the next interview
compares with the first.

LINDA: Oh, hi, Laura, glad to meet you. I’m Linda. (Pleased to meet you, too,
hi.) Please have a seat. Thank you for taking the time for this interview. Your
participation in this educational project on workplace morale for teachers is really
important as a study. It’ll help us understand more about how to support
teachers and ultimately help the student achievement and student outcomes.
We’ll be interviewing yourself and about 10 other teachers, so we’ll have all this
information that will contribute to the project. Now, I know you’ve read about the
project and how we’re conducting it, but I’d just like to review a few items with
you. (Okay) First of all, as you know, your participation is totally voluntary. So, if
I ask you a question that you don’t want to answer or if you need to stop the
interview at any time, just let me know. Also, as you know, I’ll be audio taping the
interview and also be taking some notes. When I finish, when we finish the
interview, I’ll be giving you a transcript of the audio tape and sharing my notes
with you so you can look at them, review them, make any corrections that you
see need to be made to make sure that we really capture what it is you wanted to
say. This study may be published and in publication, we won’t use any of your
names – yourself or any of the other teachers, even if we use direct quotes, we’ll
use pseudonyms. And it also might be presented in conferences and
professional meetings. Okay – do you have any questions? (No) As you know,
we’ve set aside about 30 minutes for the interview and that seems to be okay for
you?   

LAURA: That will be okay.

LINDA: Okay. We won’t go beyond that time unless you wish to do so. (Okay)
Audio taping is still fine? (Yes) Okay. Ready to go? (Yes) Let’s start then.
Laura, what does workplace morale mean to you?

LAURA: Workplace morale I would say basically means that it’s a fun place to
work, that it’s a place where you are looking forward to getting up and going to
every day and that there’s nice people there that you enjoy working with.

LINDA: What makes it fun?

LAURA: I would say the idea that you can try out new ideas, that your
colleagues support you, that there’s a sense of friendship, camaraderie, flexibility
on the part of the supervisor, and support – just feeling supported, I’d say.

LINDA: So, support actually makes you enjoy the work? (Yes) I’d like to hear
some stories about workplace morale. (Okay) And if you could tell me a story

Interviewing Techniques Part Two

that might have enhanced workplace morale and one that de-enhanced it –
without naming any real names, that would be really helpful to me. Do you have
some stories like that?

LAURA: Yeah. I think I’ll start with the one that you call de-enhanced. (Okay)
At a school I worked at before, there was a principal who he just didn’t – didn’t
give us the flexibility to try out new ideas. I had a program I had my heart set on
starting. I had spent so much time on it and I really felt like it would help solve
some of the problems and difficulties that kids were having. It was an after
school program and I just thought it would just be so – the creativity and the
critical thinking involved would just really help the kids. And, he just said no way,
he squashed the whole idea and I felt bad because I felt like I had nowhere to go.
I couldn’t even - you know, every time I’d try to bring it up to the point that he
said, “Just please don’t bring this up to me again. Stick to the basics. That’s -
you know that’s what you were hired for.” And, I was completely deflated after
that and so that, yeah, that didn’t make me feel very good about my job.

LINDA: After that, did you propose any other new programs?

LAURA: No. No, I knew it wouldn’t work out. But I’d had other times and it was
because I had other times where little things he would just squash and that was
just sort of like the icing on the cake and I knew you know that there was nothing
else I could do at that point.

LINDA: Had you shared this idea with any of your colleagues?

LAURA: Yes. They liked the idea and then they told me about times that the
same thing happened to them. We were all very frustrated and you know it got to
the point that we were just complaining to each other and that didn’t help you
know because it sort of you know after you know complaining and just that
negative talk at least for me sort of makes me feel even worse. You know, we
were trying to support each other but that wasn’t helpful.

LINDA: When you say that you’re open to constructive critique, I’m interpreting
that to mean that you don’t need to be told everything you do is right and good.

LAURA: Right, yeah. (Okay) Right, like for instance, you know there’s
guidelines. (Okay) You know we need to be told that you know we’re going to
keep in those guidelines. And you know that’s – but it’s all in the way you do it,
the way it’s presented.

LINDA: So, my understanding is pretty much on target of what you’re saying?
(um-hm) As we think about the responsibility for workplace morale - we’ve talked
about the employees and the teachers and the supervisor or the principal -
particularly in education, does the community-at-large have any role in it and

Interviewing Techniques Part Two

what might be the relative roles of those three groups – the supervisor, the
teachers and the community-at-large?

LAURA: I would say the community-at-large, the only thing I can think about is
parents as another group that affects our workplace morale in terms of if they’re
too negative, if they’re not open, if they’re not supportive and helpful, that makes
our job harder. You know, if they’re – and especially if they’re not supportive if
we have new ideas or new programs. That, that makes – so, they’re an
important piece. And then the colleagues are also important, very important in
terms of that support. But if I were to put it in rank order, I would say your
principal, you know for teachers, the principal is the most important. The
colleagues second, and then parents, third – even though they’re all important,
that’s how I would rank them.

LINDA: Could we go back to an earlier question a little bit? Do you believe that
you’ve given me enough information or all the information you want about a
positive and a negative experience?  

LAURA: Oh, yeah, no, oh, yeah. The – oh, I’m glad you mentioned that (That’s
okay, it’s all right) because the situation I’m in now is like night and day (Okay)
comparing to the other one. We really have a collegial atmosphere. It all starts
with a program this principal said to us and it was his idea – he said, “I want each
of you teachers whatever your interests are to develop a program that’s going to
enhance student learning, student critical thinking and student creativity,” and he
left it open to come up with what we wanted to do and he said, “I want you to
meet every week, provide each other support and feedback. And, you know, I’ll
be at these meetings and we’ll help each other and we’ll brainstorm,” because he
really believed that that’s going to really help things. And for me, I just - you
know I felt like I was so thrilled, you know based on my other experience, I
thought this is wonderful. So, I developed a media literacy and a documentary
producing program for the kids in my class. And other teachers did totally
different things. And we meet every week and we talk about it and we give each
other really helpful feedback and it’s become just this great – it’s really enhanced
our interest and you know we’re interested in each other, we care, we give each
other good feedback. And, you know I’m friends with some of the teachers now
that I didn’t you know hardly know just because of the support. And the principal
is there. He reigns us in when he needs to and we can handle it because we
know we have his support, we know he’s just sticking to the guidelines that are
there and but otherwise – and if we’re going too far, he’ll help us brainstorm for a
way to work around it or address it so that you know it’s appropriate. And, I’m
just really thrilled. And the interesting thing is it – it is more work but we’re able to
really make changes and see it. We can see everyday in that classroom we see
it with the kids. We see it on their faces and then we see it – I see it in their
assignments in grades going up, and struggling kids doing better because they’re
excited about school. And, you know and we’re starting to bring in pieces of each

Interviewing Techniques Part Two

other’s programs. Every - you know all these programs are quite different and it’s
just been wonderful. It’s still in process, but so far everything is completely good
and I think you know part of it is that it’s a good principal, but all of us as teachers
at this particular school just jumped in and we’re ready, we’re open and ready to
try it out and it’s been working really well and so I’m happy.

LINDA: Laura, I want to respect your time and I notice we’re at 30 minutes.

LAURA: Oh, we are, okay.

LINDA: Yeah, already. (Oh, wow) I do have one more question, but it’s time’s
up, so I’d like to know if you’d like to stay or go.

LAURA: Okay, well, you know I was going to go but I have to say I’m really
enjoying this. I don’t mind answering another question, (You’re sure?) go right
ahead. (Okay) I’d like to. (All right.) Thanks.

LINDA: I’d like to know some of your ideas on how a school might ensure a
positive workplace morale.

LAURA: Well, I guess a typical school that aren’t doing sort of these unusual
motivating programs, one thing, simple thing they could do is just more social
occasions for the teachers, more opportunities for teachers to get to know each
other on a social level because I’ve been at schools where I only like have one or
two teacher friends that are my close friends at the school. And, you know don’t
really know the others and I feel it can be a bit isolating. And just to be able to
talk and to be able to share experiences and ideas and just I think it could start
with just you know social parties. You know, little after school you know get-
together hour, just informally, I think that would help. I think it would be a simple
way to help to be able to support each other. And, then I guess the key thing is a
supervisor who sort of makes it a point to be flexible and trusting and supportive.
I think that’s a key element and that’s going to affect everything.

LINDA: If you had to like say three or five words – the most – really key in terms
of this area, what would you say?

LAURA: Respect, support and openness.

LINDA: Okay. Laura, is there anything else you’d like to share with me on this
topic that I’ve not asked you about or that you would like to have an opportunity
to say?  

LAURA: No, I can’t think of anything else. I think we’ve covered everything on
this topic, yeah.

Interviewing Techniques Part Two

LINDA: Well, thank you so much. And as I say, I’ll be sending you a copy of the
transcript and also my notes. If you see any corrections or anything that I’ve
missed, please do let me know. Thank you so much, Laura.

LAURA: Okay, thank you. Thanks.

LINDA: Bye-bye. (Bye-bye) Have a good class. (Okay) Okay.

LINDA: You now have observed and collected data on two interviews. As a
researcher doing qualitative studies, you need to carefully plan for the time it
takes for you to collect, organize, analyze and interpret data. It can be quite a bit
of time. Estimate for yourself, for example, how much time it would take to collect
data for 10 audio taped 40 minute interviews. As you estimate the time, plan for
contacting and scheduling the interviews, travel time, conducting the actual
interview and transcribing the interview. That estimate feeds into your feasibility
planning for the study and it’s important for you in order to allocate adequate
resources to fulfill your research goals. You have observed various qualities of
interviewing. Now, imagine yourself as an interviewer. What would your body
language be like? How would you establish rapport? What about the phrasing of
your questions – how would you phrase questions to draw the participant into
dialog? In order to practice that, you might consider a question and write it 3, 4,
5 different ways. Then evaluate the phrasings in order to see which would be
most effective. You might even try them out with some folks. As an interviewer,
you are a scientist and an artist. As a scientist, you must use strong and rigorous
research designs and procedures. As an artist, you are painting a relationship to
establish comfort with your participant so that the participant can contribute as
much as possible to the study. Practice your science and art by designing and
conducting interviews. Invite people to observe those interviews and give you
feedback. Participate yourself as an interviewee and observe others conducting
interviews. One way to do that is to observe and critique interviews conducted
on news programs. This study, observation and practice will develop you as a
skilled interviewer.

Interviewing Techniques Part One

Interviewing Techniques Part One
Program Transcript

NARRATOR: This program contains excerpts from two interviews. Observe the
differences between the two interview demonstrations. In addition, note the
information about interview techniques Dr. Linda Crawford provides throughout
the program.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: This interview provides excerpts from two 30-minute
interviews. As you view the videos, you have two jobs – one as a researcher and
one as a student. In your researcher job, you’ll be collecting data on both
interviews, practicing observation skills, and later, you’ll be analyzing the data.
As you collect the data, take care to be accurate in your observation of behavior
and language. Then differentiate between observation and interpretation. For
example, if you had notate the participant moved back in the chair, folded her
arms and waited before responding, that’s an observation. On the other hand,
the notation, “The participant was offended by the question,” is an interpretation.
As an observer, you don’t know the reason for the behavior. Here, perhaps the
participant may just have wanted time to think about the answer and wasn’t
offended at all. So, take care to differentiate between observation and
interpretation. In your student job, learn from the modeling some aspects of how
to conduct an interview with skill. Interviewing is an art with the goal of inviting
the participant to provide as much information as possible for the study. To do
that, you need to establish a level of rapport and trust. Use questions that draw
out the participant and engage the participant. As you observe the interviews,
look for both strong and weak models of establishing rapport and trust and
questioning. Weaker, ineffective interview strategies can cause confusion,
anxiety and discomfort. Some examples of ineffective strategies are giving
inadequate information on how the interview will proceed, using closed or one-
word answer questions, withdrawn body language. All of those may cause the
participant to feel uncomfortable, ignored or even coerced. On the other hand,
strong and effective interview strategies engage the participant, encouraging him
or her to provide clear and useful information. Some examples of effective
strategies are clear explanation and information on how the interview will
proceed, using open-ended question and probe, balancing rapport and neutrality,
appropriate body language. As you observe, identify and notate as specifically as
you can the exact content, verbal language, body language of both the
interviewer and the interviewee. How are questions asked, what responses do
they generate, how does body language play into the interview, what is the effect
of the interviewer’s action on the interviewee. With study and observation and
practice, you will build habits that allow you consistently to collect clear and valid
data. As an interviewer, you are a researcher, a scientist. You are also an artist
painting a relationship between yourself and the participant. Let’s see what the
painting might look like.

LAURA: Hi.

Interviewing Techniques Part One

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Oh, hi, Laura, come on. Watch the cord, please.
Thank you very much. I’m sorry about it but you know how it goes. Thank you,
have a seat. Laura, I’m so happy that you agreed to do this interview because
it’s really going to help me get my study done and get my degree. So, thanks a
lot. I have 5 questions. You ready to go on them?

LAURA: But, how long is this going to take?

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Oh, that was in the stuff I sent you. 30 minutes is
what I’m thinking, okay. That be a work -

LAURA: Yeah, yeah, I think that will be okay. But what – you’re taking notes or
something?

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Yeah. Oh, right. I’m going to be taking some notes,
so please don’t let that distract you. It – I won’t print your name with it, so it’ll
keep your – your stuff will all be anonymous. And to remind you, I’m also going
to tape it. Okay – that was okay with you still?

LAURA: Yeah, I guess, yeah, okay.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Okay, all right. Are you ready to go now? (Yes) And
remind you of the topic, we’re talking about workplace morale. (Okay) Okay.
Now, let me see – do I have the tape in here, yeah, okay. Oh, how does this
thing work? You know, every one is different. Oh, I think it’s – it’s running, so I
think we’re okay. All right, thanks a lot. What is workplace morale?

LAURA: Well, I guess – I guess would say workplace morale means it’s a fun
place to work that you know it’s a place I don’t mind going, I like going. Nice
people.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Nice people, okay. Now, we’ve all had bad
workplaces.

LAURA: Well, I guess what I can think of is a program that I wanted to start at
the school here, an after school program. I was very excited about it and you
know my principal, Rick Baxter, totally squashed the (ew) idea. I, you know I’m in
graduate school, so I’m using my new ideas that I’m learning to put everything
into really developing this program and seeing it as something that the kids here
really, really need and I know it would be appreciated. And, so, I went in to talk to
him and explain my ideas and he basically said no way, we don’t have time for
any extra stuff, stick to the basics – make sure your learning outcomes are good.

Interviewing Techniques Part One

He told me to focus on the important things. And I just – I left that meeting
feeling just – just terrible, all the work I put in. And, that’s just – that’s just one
example. I mean and the other teachers, we talk about it, too. It’s any new
ideas, whether it’s in the classroom, outside of the classroom. I mean, we want
to really help these kids and we want to really get them excited, you know get
them to be learning by getting excited about things. And Rick just doesn’t help us
you know in that way. He’ll say things like no way, forget about it, stick - you
know it’s something that makes you – I know for me at least, it makes me kinda
feel put down, you know acting like I’m doing the things I’m supposed to be doing
because I’m focusing on other things. So, I don’t feel respected and _____ just
have demeaning comments and (My goodness) that really hurts my morale. And
with this last program, that was like the icing on the cake. I just I felt like you
know what, I just gave up on it. And you know so now so I’m not feeling good
about my morale here, I have to say.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: I can understand – I’ve had a similar (Really?) yeah, a
similar experience where I had a program I wanted to do and it got totally
squashed the principal. So, I understand exactly how you feel. But really I’m
sorry that happened to you, that’s really unfortunate. 00:07:25 Do you think that
workplace morale in education is similar to workplace morale in other
professions?

LAURA: Well, yeah, definitely.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Do you think your school has good workplace morale?

LAURA: Not really.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Well, why?

LAURA: Well, it’s because of the way Rick treats us. You know, if we can’t have
new ideas, if we’re not respected, then you know how are we supposed to feel
good about what we’re doing. And the just it’s just I feel criticized. You know I
just – it’s definitely I’d say Rick. If I had to put it on anything, I’d have to say it
was Rick that just would make me say why I don’t have very good morale.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: I can’t believe – that’s really too bad for the leader of
the school to be behaving like that towards you.

LAURA: Yeah. Oh, I better check the time. I really, oh, I really have to go. (You
do?) Yeah, so-

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: I have one more question, I’ll ask it really fast.

LAURA: Well, okay, I guess if it’s really, really quick.

Interviewing Techniques Part One

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: It’s really fast. What are some ways your school could
improve workplace morale?

LAURA: You know, it’s not really that bad. I have to go, I really have to go.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Okay, thanks a lot. Bye, bye. Watch the cord,
please. Thank you, don’t trip. You’ll mess up my study if you do. Okay, thanks,
bye-bye, Laura.

LAURA: Bye.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: We have now observed and collected data from one
interview. It may be helpful to take a break to separate the two observations. As
a researcher, it’s a good practice to take breaks between observations. Many of
us have had the experience of teaching several classes in a row of the same
preparation. By the last class, it’s a mental jumble – we can’t remember what we
taught or to whom, and we find ourselves saying things like – did I tell you people
this. That mental jumble can also happen in research when the observations
follow very closely upon each other. But when people give us time to assist in
research, it is important that they have our full attention, that we are fully present
to them and focused on them. So, take a break. When you come back, recall
that you have two jobs. One as a researcher to collect accurate observational
data. Two, as a student, to learn skills for conducting interviews. Let’s see how
the next interview compares with the first.

LAURA: Hi.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Oh, hi, Laura, glad to meet you. (Pleased to meet
you, too, hi.) Please have a seat. Thank you for taking the time for this interview.
Your participation in this educational project on workplace morale for teachers is
really important as a study. It’ll help us understand more about how to support
teachers and ultimately help the student achievement and student outcomes.
We’ll be interviewing yourself and about 10 other teachers, so we’ll have all this
information that will contribute to the project. Now, I know you’ve read about the
project and how we’re conducting it, but I’d just like to review a few items with
you. (Okay) First of all, as you know, your participation is totally voluntary. So, if
I ask you a question that you don’t want to answer or if you need to stop the
interview at any time, just let me know. Also, as you know, I’ll be audio taping the
interview and also be taking some notes. When I finish, when we finish the
interview, I’ll be giving you a transcript of the audio tape and sharing my notes
with you so you can look at them, review them, make any corrections that you
see need to be made to make sure that we capture what it is you wanted to say.
This study may be published and in publication, we won’t use any of your names
– yourself or any of the other teachers, even if we use direct quotes, we’ll use
pseudonyms. And it also might be presented in conferences and professional
meetings. Okay – do you have any questions? (No) As you know, we’ve set

Interviewing Techniques Part One

aside about 30 minutes for the interview and that seems to be okay for you?

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Okay. We won’t go beyond that time unless you wish
to do so. (Okay) Audio taping is still fine?

LAURA: Yes, that’s fine.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Okay. Ready to go? (Yes) Let’s start then. Laura,
what does workplace morale mean to you?

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: What makes it fun?

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: So, support actually makes you enjoy the work?
(Yes) I’d like to hear some stories about workplace morale. And if you could tell
me a story that might have enhanced workplace morale and one that de-
enhanced it – without naming any real names, that would be really helpful to me.
Do you have some stories like that?

LAURA: Yeah. I think I’ll one that you call de-enhanced. (Okay) At a school I
worked at before, there was a principal who he just didn’t – didn’t give us the
flexibility to try out new ideas. I had a program I had my heart set on starting. I
had spent so much time on it and I really felt like it would help solve some of the
problems and difficulties that kids were having. It was an after school program
and I just thought it would just be so – the creativity and the critical thinking
involved would just really help the kids. And, he just said no way, he squashed
the whole idea and I felt bad because I felt like I had nowhere to go. I couldn’t
even - you know, every time I’d try to bring it up to the point that he said, “Just
please don’t bring this up to me again. Stick to the basics. That’s - you know
that’s what you were hired for.” And, I was completely deflated after that and so
that, yeah, that didn’t make me feel very good about my job.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: After that, did you propose any other new programs?

Interviewing Techniques Part One

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Had you shared this idea with any of your colleagues?

LAURA: Yes. They liked the idea and then they told me about time that the
same thing happened to them. We were all very frustrated and you know it got to
the point that we were just complaining to each other and that didn’t help you
know because it sort of you know after complaining and just that negative talk at
least for me sort of makes me feel even worse. You know, we were trying to
support each other but that wasn’t helpful.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: When you say that you’re open to constructive
critique, I’m interpreting that to mean that you don’t need to be told everything
you do is right and good.

LAURA: Right, yeah. Right, like for instance, you know there’s guidelines. You
know we need to be told that you know we’re going to keep in those guidelines.
You know that’s – but it’s all in the way you do it, the way it’s presented.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: So, my understanding is pretty much on target of what
you’re saying? (um-hmm) As you think about the responsibility for workplace
morale, we’ve talked about the employees and the teachers and the supervisor
or the principal. Particularly in education, does the community-at-large have any
role in it and what might be the relative roles of those three groups – the
supervisor, the teachers and the community-at-large?

LAURA: I would say the community-at-large, the only thing I can think about is
parents as another group that affects our workplace morale in terms of if they’re
too negative, if they’re not open, if they’re not supportive and helpful, that makes
our job harder. You know, if they’re – and especially if they’re not supportive if
we have new ideas or new programs. That, that makes – so, they’re an important
piece. And then the colleagues are also important, very important in terms of
that support. But if I were to put it in rank order, I would say your principal, you
know for teachers, the principal is the most important. The colleagues second,
and then parents, third – even though they’re all important, that’s how I would
rank them.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: could we go back to an earlier question a little bit? Do
you believe that you’ve given me enough information or all the information you
want about a positive and a negative experience?

LAURA: Oh, yeah, no, oh, yeah. The – oh, I’m glad you mentioned that because
the situation I’m in now is like night and day (Okay) comparing it to the other one.
We really have a collegial atmosphere. It all starts with a program this principal
said to us and it was his idea – he said, “I want each of you teachers whatever
your interests are to develop a program that’s going to enhance student learning,
student critical thinking and student creativity,” and he left it open to come up with

Interviewing Techniques Part One

what we wanted to do and he said I want you to meet every week, provide each
other support and feedback. And, you know, I’ll be at these meetings and we’ll
help each other and we’ll brainstorm because he really believed that that’s going
to really help things. And for me, I just - you know I felt like I was so thrilled, you
know based on my other experience, I thought this is wonderful. So, I developed
a media literacy and a documentary producing program for the kids in my class.
And other teachers did totally different things. And we meet every week and we
talk about it and we give each other really helpful feedback and it’s become just
this great – it’s really enhanced our interest and you know we’re interested in
each other, we care, we give each other good feedback. And, you know I’m
friends with some of the teachers now that I didn’t you know hardly know just
because of the support. And the principal is there. He reigns us in when he
needs to and we can handle it because we know we have his support, we know
he’s just sticking to the guidelines that are there and but otherwise – and if we’re
going too far, he’ll help us brainstorm for a way to work around it or address it so
that you know it’s appropriate. And, I’m just really thrilled. And the interesting
thing is it – it is more work but we’re able to really make changes and see it. We
can see everyday in that class when we see it with the kids. We see it on their
faces and then we see it – I see it in their assignments in grades going on, and
struggling kids doing better because they’re excited about school. And, you know
and we’re starting to bring in pieces of each other’s programs. Every - you know
all these programs are quite different and it’s just been wonderful. It’s still in
process, but so far everything is completely good and I think you know part of it is
that it’s a good principal, but all of us as teachers at this particular school just
jumped in and we’re ready, we’re open and ready to try it out and it’s been
working really well and so I’m happy.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Laura, I want to respect your time and I notice we’re at
30 minutes.

LAURA: Oh, we are, okay. Oh, wow.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Yeah, already. I do have one more question, but it’s
time’s up, so I’d like to know if you’d like to stay or go.

LAURA: Okay, well, you know I was going to go but I have to say I’m really
enjoying this. I don’t mind answering another question, (You sure?) go right
ahead. (Okay) I’d like to. (All right.) Thanks.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: I’d like to know some of your ideas on how a school
might ensure a positive workplace morale.

LAURA: Well, I guess a typical school that aren’t doing sort of these unusual
motivating programs, one simple thing they could do is just more social
occasions for the teachers, more opportunities for teachers to get to know each
other on a social level because I’ve been at schools where I only like have one or

Interviewing Techniques Part One

two teacher friends that are my close friends at the school. And, you know don’t
really know the others and I feel it can be a bit isolating. And just to be able to
talk and to be able to share experiences and ideas and just I think you start with
just you know social parties. You know, little after school you know get-together
hour, just informally, I think that would help. I think it would be a simple way to
help to be able to support each other. And, then I guess the key thing is a
supervisor who sort of makes it a point to be flexible and trusting and supportive.
I think that’s a key element and that’s going to affect everything.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: If you had to say 3 or 5 words – the most – really key
in terms of this area, what would you say?

LAURA: Respect, support and openness.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Okay. Laura, is there anything else you’d like to share
with me on this topic that I’ve not asked you about or that you would like to have
an opportunity to say?

LAURA: No, I can’t think of anything else. I think we’ve covered everything on
this topic, yeah.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Well, thank you so much. And as I said, I’ll be
sending you a copy of the transcript and also my notes. If you see any
corrections or anything that I’ve missed, please do let me know. Thank you so
much, Laura.

LAURA: Okay, thank you. Thanks.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: Bye-bye. (Bye-bye) Have a good class. (Okay)
Okay.

DR. LINDA CRAWFORD: You now have observed and collected data on two
interviews. As a researcher, you have three tasks in addition to data collection
Organization of data, analysis of data, and interpretation of the data to answer
your research question. Your course materials and assignments will develop
those skills. As a researcher doing qualitative studies, you need to carefully plan
for the time it takes for you to collect, organize, analyze and interpret data. It can
be quite a bit of time. Estimate for yourself, for example, how much time it would
take to collect data for 10 audio taped 40 minute interviews. As you estimate the
time, plan for contacting and scheduling the interviews, travel time, conducting
the actual interview and transcribing the interview. That estimate feeds into your
feasibility planning for the study and it’s important for you in order to allocate
adequate resources to fulfill your research goals. Here, you’re not going to have
to transcribe the interview, but you are going to be organizing, analyzing and
interpreting the data. Again, you’ll be relying on course materials for guidance in
that. In your student role, you have observed various qualities of interviewing.

Interviewing Techniques Part One

Now, imagine yourself as an interviewer. What would your body language be
like? How would you establish rapport? What about the phrasing of your
questions – how would you phrase questions to draw the participant into dialog?
In order to practice that, you might consider a question and write it 3, 4, 5
different ways. Then evaluate the phrasings in order to see which would be most
effective. You might even try them out with some folks. As an interviewer, you
are a scientist and an artist. As a scientist, you must use strong and rigorous
research designs and procedures. As an artist, you are painting a relationship to
establish comfort with your participant so that the participant can contribute as
much as possible to the study. Practice your science and art by designing and
conducting interviews. Invite people to observe those interviews and give you
feedback, participate yourself as an interviewee and observe others conducting
interviews. One way to do that is to observe and critique interviews conducted
on news programs. This study, observation and practice will develop you as a
skilled interviewer.

Direction

st Cycle Descriptive

Patterns

Direction 1 2

, again placing each one in a cell of the spread sheet.

and one 2nd cycle codes.

Video Code #

Student Gender

Student Program of Study

Subject matter/topic

What happened in the Video? (2)

1st Cycle Concept

2nd cycle

Quick

Memos

My Notes

Transcript

The Transcript

Directions: For each video you chose, type in the following information, extracted from your video field notes guide. Put the data of one video per tab.

The numbers above correspond to the directions below.

1. Create a video code number, so the identifying information will not be visible in this record.

2. Indicate speaker’s gender

3. Indicate speakers program of study

4. Briefly describe the subject matter or topic of the video.

5. (a) Under the sub-heading “My Notes”, copy each sentence describing a “fact” of the video (#2 from your Notes guide) into one cell of the spread sheet. Use the “wrap text” function for readability.

5 (b) Under the sub-heading “Transcript”, select sections of text from the video

transcript

6-7. Using the techniques from your Saldana text and the coding videos, code each line with two

1st cycle

8. Create a short statement or phrase summarizing your reflexive notes (#4 from your guide).

Video 1

Video Code # Student Gender Student Program of Study Subject matter/topic

1st Cycle Concept

Quick Memos

My Notes Transcript

What happened in the Video? (1)

1st Cycle Descriptive

2nd Cycle Patterns

Video 2

Video Code # Student Gender Student Program of Study Subject matter/topic What happened in the Video? (2) 1st Cycle Descriptive 1st Cycle Concept 2nd Cycle Patterns Quick Memos
My Notes transcript

Website Source

Subject matter/topic

1st cycle 2nd cycle Memos

transcript

Type of Page/Source	Web page/report content	1st Cycle CMC: CMC: Cell alignment differs from the Video 2 tab. Suggest uniform alignment.
DELETE THE RED CONTENT AND PUT IN YOUR OWN
URL: [insert here]	E.g., home page,
EXAMPLE	https://www.waldenu.edu/about/social-change/global-day-of-service	Global Days of Service	Describes 2015 Global Days of Service	Global Days of Service, celebrated October 12–18, inspired more than 20,500 faculty, staff, students, and alumni, as well as their friends and family, to participate in community service projects around the world.
Members of the Walden and Laureate communities in more than 15 countries contributed more than 125,000 volunteer hours in more than 240 service projects. Projects included:
Cleaning and organizing the Minneapolis American Indian Center in the U.S.
Building houses for hedgehogs and performing general cleaning and maintenance at a nature reserve in Gdansk, Poland.
Painting, assembling furniture, beautifying a courtyard, and organizing a food pantry at a middle school in Baltimore, Maryland, in the U.S.
Launching a program to engage with and provide physical and artistic outlets to refugee children and their families in Germany.
Serving orphans in Saudi Arabia.
Thank you to all of our volunteers for helping make a positive impact in communities around the globe.

Sheet 2

Interview Guide Example

Date:
Time:
Interviewee Code #:
Location of Interview:

Parts of the Interview Interview Questions

Introduction  Hi, this is _____. Thank you very much for helping
me practice my interview skills. As you know, the
purpose of this interview is to talk about what
social change means to you as a Walden student.
This should last about 10 minutes. After the
interview, I will be examining your answers to
practice data analysis, and some of your answers
will be shared with my Instructor and classmates.
However, I will not identify you in my documents,
and no one will be able to identify you with your
answers. You can choose to stop this interview at
any time. Also, I need to let you know that this
interview will be recorded for transcription
purposes.

 Do you have any questions?

 Are you ready to begin?

Question 1:

1. Can you tell me what program you are in at

Walden?
a. And what year did you start?

Parts of the Interview Interview Questions

Question 2: 2. Was working for social change important to you
before you came to Walden?

a. Can you give me an example of what
you did?

Question 3:

3. Was the social change mission important to you in
making your choice to come to Walden?

a. Please describe how it was important/not
important to you.

Question 4: 4. From your perspective, what is social change?

a. Can you give me some examples of what
you mean by that?

Close 1. Thank you for your answers. Do you have anything
else you’d like to share?

Parts of the Interview Interview Questions

2. Do you have any questions for me?

3. Thank you for your time. Goodbye.

Interview Guide Instructions

1. Prepare!

a. Choose a recording device to capture your voice and your
interviewee’s voice. Smartphones have a variety of apps for recording
and downloading calls. Several are free. Some charge an additional fee
for downloading the file. Some also have a transcribing service, but there
is an extra charge. You can also use a simple handheld recording device.
Conduct the interview using the speakerphone so both voices will be
distinctly heard.

b. Decide how you want to create the transcription. As indicated above,
you can use a transcription service; they will charge anywhere between $1
and $3 a minute. Alternatively, you can transcribe the interview yourself by
typing the text into MS Word. This is free, but time consuming—about 1–2
hours, as you need to record the contents of the interview verbatim. Be
sure to identify when the interviewee is speaking, and highlight the
questions you ask.

c. Create an Interview Guide Form. An example is provided in the course,
or you can create your own. If you use this one or another, be sure to
leave space for your notes.

d. Prepare a brief introduction. There is an example in the Interview Guide
Example.

e. Practice your interview with a friend to get comfortable with the questions
and the recording device.

f. Set up your appointment.

2. Conduct your interview.

a. Test to make sure your recording equipment is working.

b. Have your interview guide with you and a pen to take notes.
Immediately after:

i. Make detailed notes of your experience. Include how you were
feeling during the interview, and your unspoken reactions to the
interviewee’s comments.

ii. Check to make sure the recording worked

c. As soon as possible, transcribe the interview.

Questions:

1. Can you tell me what program are you in at Walden?

a. And what year did you start?

2. How was working for social change important to you before you came to Walden?

a. Can you give me an example of what you did?

3. How was the social change mission important to you in making your choice to
come to Walden?

a. Please describe how it was important/not important to you.

4. From your perspective, what is social change?

a. Can you give me some examples of what you mean by that?

Working Toward the Common Good:

An Online University’s Perspectives on Social Change

Many institutions of higher education in the United States and indeed around the world

are reaching out to their neighborhoods as a member of the community to contribute to the

common good through research, service, and educational opportunities. In this descriptive study,

the understandings and practices around this kind of activity by one university with a mission of

creating positive social change is explored. While current literature indicates that researchers are

examining campus-community engagements, very little research has been done on community

engagement when the institution works primarily online and the communities involved are

geographically dispersed and dependent on individual choices and preferences. The goal of the

study was to discover how members of one such online university currently understand and

practice the mission to provide a baseline of understandings for curriculum planning and

mentoring student research projects and service activities. Through a series of interviews

conducted with faculty members, students, and alumni, several themes were identified. These

results give rise to several implications for the university in developing its community outreach,

along with some suggestions for further research. The discussion of findings for this university

might have applicability to other institutions of higher education, both online and traditional,

with a similar commitment to the community.

Background to the Study

With the advances in online education and the significant numbers of institutions that

have campuses in multiple locations, the ease with which colleges and universities can

demonstrate mission fulfillment is more challenged. The reach of the university is broader in

such programs and mission efficacy relies on more than confirmed relationships with

constituency groups that are often local to the institution. For online education providers in

particular, the strength of mission fulfillment must rely upon intentional promotion within

curricular structures, student services, and philosophical expectations that allow university

members to carry out the institution’s mission in their own communities. Finding references that

speak to mission fulfillment in online and geographically dispersed programs is made

particularly difficult given the limited number of writings that deal with this topic. In fact, a

review of the literature for mission and online learning finds a greater focus on how the decision

to deliver online instruction can become part of the institution’s mission, not upon how the

existing mission can be assured through online delivery (Checkoway, 2001; Johnson, et al.,

2014; Levy, 2003). The complexity of understanding what is meant by “positive social change”,

the mission for the university in this study, adds to the difficulty of using traditional images of

“community” within mission fulfillment.

Defining and Describing Social Change

The term “social change” has been defined and analyzed across the academic disciplines,

reflecting the particular perspective of that discipline and its research agenda. In one study, a

proposal for social change in schools (Jean-Marie, Normore, & Brooks, 2009), the authors

reported that their literature review was aided by such identifiers and organizers as equity,

diversity, social justice, liberatory education, race, gender, ethics, urban school, global

education, critical pedagogy, oppression, social change, social development, and social order,

among others. From the review of the literature around these key terms, Jean-Marie, Normore,

and Brooks see social change as bringing about a “new social order” in which marginalized

peoples would have the same educational and social opportunities as those more privileged.

As the list of identifiers above suggests, the concepts of social justice and equity have

been significant in discussions of social change in education, psychology, and social and cultural

studies (see also Curry-Stevens, 2007; Drury & Reicher, 2009; Moely, Furco, & Reed, 2008; and

Peterson, 2009). The writing and advocacy of Paulo Freire, Ivan Illich, civil rights leaders, and

feminists during the last half of the 20th century influenced these understandings and helped

shape the particular emphases of social change in recent decades.

Hoff and Hickling-Hudson (2011) sought descriptors of social change that would be

appropriate for education and noted that Farley, writing in 1990, offered an understanding of

social change as “alterations in behaviour patterns, social relationships, institutions, and social

structure over time” (Hoff & Hickling-Hudson, 2011, 189). However, Hoff and Hickling-Hudson

found this inadequate from an educational point of view because of its value-neutral stance. They

preferred a definition that would give social change a “connotation of social progress or social

development beneficial to society” (189). For this reason, they chose the definition proposed by

Aloni in 2002, which places social change as challenging “trends of discrimination, exploitation,

oppression, and subjugation displayed by groups who regard themselves as favored and, thus,

take privileges for themselves and deprive other groups of the right to a dignified life” (Hoff &

Hickling-Hudson, 2011, 189). In other words, the change in social change is defined here in

positive and value-laden terms that relate more particularly to the agents of social change than to

others they might want to change. They were careful to add that this cannot be cast in universal

or absolute terms, but it is dependent on particular contexts and circumstances (see also Itay,

2008, writing in political science).

and Miller (2006), working in continuing education and innovation studies, respectively,

identified influences on the meaning of social change arising from new political and social

realities. For instance, during the economic recession of the late 1970s and early 1980s,

education was seen to be increasingly determined by the needs and forces of the market and less

by concerns for equity and social justice, a conclusion suggested also by Atkinson (2010) in

adult education and Feldman (2001) in economic history. However, we witness today a

movement again toward social justice and equity issues (Ryan & Ruddy, 2015), brought about in

part by Occupy activism (e.g., Cortez, 2013), current political debates, experience in campus

outreach programs (e.g., Patterson, Cronley, West, & Lantz, 2014), social media (e.g., Taha,

Hastings, & Minei, 2015), and exposure to other cultures in a globalized world (e.g., Bossaller,

Frasher, Norris, Marks, & Trott, 2015).

Armstrong and Miller also noted that increasing global and international contact has led

to revisions in the meaning of social purpose narrowly defined in Western terms and contexts

and the “grand narrative” of modernism being replaced by less absolute and dogmatic post-

modern discourses, an idea echoed also in adult education by Holst (2007). As a consequence,

projects with a social change purpose are considered to be more effective when local community

partners participate in determining needs and shaping the outcomes collaboratively (Bahng,

2015; Lees, 2007; Lewis, 2004; Nichols, Gaetz, & Phipps, 2015; Silverman & Xiaoming, 2015).

Brennan (2008) added that the social context in which higher education operates today

calls for universities to be responsive in a number of ways to their constituent societies. One of

these responses, playing “a role in constructing the ‘just and stable’ society”, returns the social

change mission to the goals of equity, which he suggested includes equitable access to the

credentials needed to participate as equals in the new societal realities and guarantees of

autonomy and freedom. Furman and Gruenewald (2004), working in educational administration,

described yet another new influence on understandings of social change: ecological concerns.

Their argument was that “environmental crises are inseparable from social crises” (48), primarily

because they usually have to do with the misuse of racial and economic power.

Overall, it is apparent that social change and social purpose have been focused primarily

on equity issues, although their working definitions, both implicit and explicit, reflect a spectrum

of meanings ranging from simple activism around race, gender, and poverty, for instance, to

more nuanced understandings of the impact of technology developments, diversity,

globalization, as well as the ecological environment. More recently, this focus has received

renewed attention as the gap between rich and poor is seen to be widening and the middle class

to be diminishing (Gillis & McLellan, 2013; Goldberg, 2012; Guy, 2012).

It is important to keep in mind that “social change” can be either an action or a result,

product or process, noun or verb. While educators need a clear end-in-view for their work with

students, processural understandings of social change may serve them better in planning for the

kinds of learning experiences that will bring about the desired results. The central concept of

“conscientization” in Freire’s writings on social change speaks as much to process as product

(Hickling-Hudson, 2014) and using the concept of “transformation” rather than “results” in

reporting on social change projects (e.g., Sewell, 2005; Silverman & Xiaoming, 2015) further

supports this.

One of the most frequently made distinctions in social change is that between charity and

helping on the one hand and change and justice on the other. In many cases, the distinction is

assumed (e.g., Moely, Furco, & Reed, 2008); in other cases, it is elaborated. In simplest terms,

charity work sets out to help someone; change efforts aim to modify social arrangements toward

equity (Mitchell, 2008). In cultural and social studies, charity has been identified as

“transactional” service; change and social justice as “transformational” (Peterson, 2009, 541,

545). From a social work perspective, charity seeks to discover the immediate elements of a

particular individual’s needs and deal with them; change investigates the wider picture of all

those with similar needs and how the whole group might be helped by systemic change (Allen-

Meares, 2008). In effect, charity addresses the symptoms of a social injustice; change seeks to

remove the root causes (Allen-Meares, Mitchell, 2008, Peterson, 2009). The former participants

can usually see immediate results for their efforts; the latter work for the long term and may

actually never see final results, or at least they will discover that results are usually not

immediately apparent (Mitchell, 2008). At its worst, charity may be patronizing, perpetuating

rather than overcoming the differential in power—the “us versus them” dichotomy—which may

have brought about the need in the first place. At its best, change may not only amend the

situation of the needy but also strengthen authentic relationships among all those involved as it

redistributes and shares power more equally between those who are privileged and those who are

not. In the reciprocity between the needy and change agents, each benefits although in different

ways

(Peterson, 2009).

Writing within the context of human services, Netting, O’Connor, & Fauri (2007) picked

up on many of the distinctions between charity and change but put them in an entirely different

light. They replaced charity with focused or peripheral change; that is, advocacy for individuals

providing “relatively short-term interventions designed to gain access to, utilization of, or

improve the existing service delivery system” (60). These interventions are critical in

operationalizing an organization’s mission in that they focus on implementing and achieving the

intent of particular policies and processes. They are usually manifested as case advocacy—

working for “individual clients whose rights have been violated and/or whose access to benefits

have been denied” (p. 63). Netting, O’Connor, and Fauri also substituted “change” with

“transformation” described as “long-term, structural interventions designed to change the status

quo at broad community, state, regional, or even national level” (60). These kinds of

interventions may involve “social movement organizations, campaigns for social justice . . . and

coalitions with system reform goals” (60). They may threaten the status quo and are usually

manifested as cause advocacy—working in “an arena, locus of change, or target,” which may be

“an organization . . . legislation, law, and/or community or other large system” (63).

While the literature in general clearly weighs in on the side of change over charity, some

writers have raised points in favor of taking a more holistic view of social change that includes

both charity and change. Netting, O’Connor, and Fauri (2007), for instance, proposed that

because both case advocacy and cause advocacy fall within the professional roles of human

services providers, both must be planned for and their success evaluated. One argument in favor

of a more holistic view is that charity may be needed as a necessary first step to improve

immediate and pressing conditions. Change can then subsequently address the policies and social

institutions that need reform and/or revitalization (Hoff & Hickling-Hudson, 2011). This

argument takes on merit when one considers that change may take time whereas charity may

bring some immediate relief. In a similar vein, charity may also be considered an important first

step to build trust between social change activists and those for whom they work, which, once

established, can be a basis on which to take later steps collectively toward political change

(Peterson, 2009).

Over two decades ago, Boyer claimed, “At no time in our history has the need been

greater for connecting the work of the academy to the social and environmental challenges

beyond the campus (1990, xii).” Duderstadt, a decade later, noting some of the pitfalls to an

institution of higher learning that arise from the expectation that it will “address social needs and

concerns”, nevertheless declares that “it is clear that public service must continue to be an

important responsibility of the American university” (2000, 2003, 146). For the purpose of this

study, when individuals associated with colleges and universities find ways to serve their local

communities and contribute to the common good, their efforts are identified as contributing to

positive social change.

Research Method

The goal of this study was to explore and analyze the current state of understanding and

practice around social change at one online university with geographically dispersed students and

faculty. We selected a qualitative research design for this study in an effort to get at the

understandings of faculty members, students, and alumni in their experience of social change

processes and how they make meaning out of those experiences (see Creswell, 2003). The site

selected for the project is a comprehensive, regionally accredited, for-profit institution originally

founded in 1970 as a distance learning institution. It currently enrolls approximately 60,000

students. The institution is an appropriate site for this research in that creating positive social

change was the university’s mission from its founding. The mission statement is prominently

displayed in university publications, shared widely with new faculty members and students, and

frequently discussed in online forums and other venues.

Although the researchers considered both focus and group interviews as data collection

methods, we ultimately decided that individual interviews would provide the richest information

and would also permit comparisons among interview groups. Informed by both the literature

review and the goal for the study, the researchers prepared an interview guide, utilizing cross

referencing between the goals for the research and the interview questions. (The interview

questions are provided in Appendix A.) A research team, consisting of six faculty members,

completed inter-rater reliability training and piloted the interview guide. The study was approved

by the university’s Institutional Review Board and appropriate measures were taken to preserve

confidentiality of responses with interviewers signing confidentiality agreements and the

substitution of pseudonyms for real names in any reporting of the study. A small gift card ($50

for Amazon.com) was sent to participants in appreciation for their time and willingness to be

interviewed.

Working in pairs, the researchers interviewed three groups of participants selected via

purposeful, referral sampling from the institution’s faculty, students, and alumni. Interviewees

were identified by their colleagues, teachers, or mentors as active participants in social change

activities and possessing an ability and willingness to articulate their understandings in a

considered way. Eight current students, ten faculty members, and 12 graduates including five

very recent graduates made up the pool of interviewees.

Interviews were conducted via telephone and transcribed verbatim using digital

recordings. For each pair of researchers, there was a lead interviewer and an observer who

debriefed after each interview. The observer also kept interview notes and verified interview

transcripts; member checks were also used to confirm the accuracy of the transcripts. Two

analyses of the responses were undertaken, concurrently but independently, to provide different

perspectives for comparison. The analysis began with the interview transcripts, looking for

recurring ideas and common themes. The initial and open coding identified key participant

responses, followed by a second coding that labeled the nature of the emerging theme. Following

the second coding, the researcher developed working definitions for each theme. The interviews

were coded a third and final time, during which the working definitions provided a framework

for confirming the code, and illustrative quotes were noted.

Coded Analysis

Significant Common Themes

When interviewees were asked to define social change and provide examples from their

own experiences, their answers and the responses to follow-up probes yielded richly nuanced and

diverse concepts, spanning a wide spectrum of ideas, reflecting the broad sweep of the

university’s official definition. Themes emerged about the focus on others, the charitable nature

of social change, the way small actions in social change could expand from one or a few to

many, and about the central role of education in changing perspectives and bringing about social

change.

Focus on the “Other”

Most participants gave definitions of social change that were “other”-focused; that is,

social change was seen as an important goal in order to improve some aspect of life for other

people, but not necessarily for themselves. Others might need to benefit from social change, but

the participants in this study did not typically include themselves in the change population. For

instance, Brian, a faculty member, stated that social change “is anything and everything an

individual does to improve the life or lives of others.” In some cases, those “others” had unmet

personal needs: their quality of life was seen as insufficient or their wellbeing was somehow in

question.

Few participants first thought of social systems or community-at-large initiatives as they

discussed social change, but they often added the larger community in an expansion of their

definition. In some cases, this seemed to be added almost as an after-thought. Ray, an

undergraduate faculty member, defined social change “as a group of people who are getting

involved, who are giving of themselves, whether it be in terms of time or money or effort or all

of the above, to make an impact on both individual people’s lives and society as a whole”. Other

respondents took in the larger community immediately. Arsi, for instance, an alumna whose

work focused on the intergenerational transfer of learning, spoke of that expansion to the wider

community in these terms: “[S]ocial change has a lot to do with making a contribution to society

that will not only improve individuals’ lives but will collectively improve the environments in

which they live, and that can expand beyond just personal agendas.” Only a few respondents

spoke specifically of social change within the boundaries of democracy and related political

principles, but the possible expansive nature of social change was a clear theme: “Social

change,” stated faculty member Christine, “is tinkering with the world.”

Helping and Altering

Consistent with the focus on “the other” and with a framework that centers on individual

needs, most participants used language associated with helping to describe the actions that

support social change. Typical definitions included words such as “contribute”, “serve”, “give”,

or “provide”, reinforcing the idea that social change is something that participants initiated for

another individual or set of individuals with specific needs. Pam, an alumna who works in

mental health, spoke of “project(s) that will kind of better the populations that they’re serving,”

while Brian spoke of disadvantaged people and the need to “give them the dignity” of a job.

Marg, another alumna, took up the idea of service: “You have something that you see you can

start off with service projects or volunteering and charity work and all of that,” but she extended

this to include a larger context: “I recognize(d) the social injustices taking place everywhere, in

many communities . . .” And Diane, an MBA alumna, stated that “social change is about helping

every individual achieve their potential so that they can reach down and help the next one up.”

In addition to using language that anchored social change within the concept of helping,

many interviewees described their own social change actions in terms of the desired effect on

others. They used terms such as “(re)build”, “develop”, “empower”, “improve”, and “modify” to

describe the outcomes of their work for social change. Tom, a faculty member with philosophical

groundings in the quality movement, strives to encourage people to build on the positive. “Social

change is making something better” and encouraging that movement forward.

The Ripple Effect

The vast majority of respondents noted that a single person can be responsible for social

change: only two of the 30 respondents indicated that a “critical mass” (Eileen’s term, further

arbitrarily defined as 30% of a population by Diane) was necessary to effect significant social

change. However, most participants acknowledged that social change can begin with a single

individual but his or her efforts require expansion. Many participants used the term “ripple” to

note the movement from the single person to a group of people, and then to a larger impact. Kim,

a student who came to the university precisely because of the social change mission, is a teacher.

She instructs her own students that “whatever they do should be important to them and make

some kind of ripple.” Alumnus Charlie called it a “gravitational wave,” as in physics, that

ultimately impacts the farthest reaches of the universe.

For the most part, social change was seen in terms of making progress. Paige noted the

idea of “paying it forward” and other interviewees used the concept of moving forward in a

positive way as part of their social change definition. Over half the interviewees thought that

both accentuating the positive and removing the negative were involved in social change, but

nearly as many indicated that a focus on the positive was crucial for social change. Only one

respondent indicated that the single goal of social change was to remove a negative. The notion

of social change by an individual, often for the benefit of another individual, was prevalent.

Changing Perspectives and the Role of Education

Participants in each interview group identified education as an important feature of how

they understand and approach social change. Alice, an alumna who had a successful military

career and now focuses her efforts on teaching, put it this way: “Social change to me is being

able to, I guess, implement or work hand-in-hand with students to help them further their

education so that we help our community become a better community. It’s making sure that

education is the priority as well as being concerned about the community and the economic

status of the community and the children in the schools.”

Moreover, each group had representatives who spoke of “transformations” in perspective

as a key feature of social change. Brenda, an alumna who studied aging women, linked social

change to changing perspectives: “Social change is taking the norms, the mindset, the

expectations, the assumptions of a society and beginning to shift them, hopefully in a positive

way.” Wendy, an alumna who has started her own school, acknowledged that her hope and her

goal “is that kind of the change that the school is in our community–that it goes beyond just the

children and the families here, but actually that we start this new conversation of what education

can be.” Margaret, a faculty member in human services, spoke of beginning social change at a

“very grassroots level, where you can shape a person’s values, or maybe their attitude, maybe

their beliefs . . . which in turn, basically diffuses out to other aspects of society.”

Secondary Themes

Reliance on Context

The task of articulating a definition of social change was not simple for most participants.

In terms of elaborating on social change definitions and examples, some participants noted the

importance of context. Becky, a doctoral student in Public Policy and Administration, focused on

context: “Let’s see. Well, that depends on the project. It can be an individual that’s changed

something in their life or it could be a process that’s changed or it could be a policy. That’s hard

without knowing an example.”

Social Change and Benefit to the Initiator

“Who is social change for?” As respondents considered the beneficiaries of social

change, some admitted that social change action promotes benefit for the change initiator.

Paige noted that the first thing that changes in social change is often the self: “Well, I hope first,

before anything, we’re changing our lives, who we are, what we believe, and what we think. You

have to do that first before you can actually make a difference in the community.” Charlie, an

alumnus who has founded a business to promote cross-cultural communications, spoke similarly

of the need to build the “self” in order to effect social change: “And by doing that I enrolled

[here] and hoped to develop those strengths in myself, which gets back to the Gandhi point that

you become the change you want to see by empowering myself, educating myself, engaging

myself . . .” Arsi proposed that social change serves a dual purpose. “I think it’s not only for the

person that initiates the social change but I think it’s for a broader audience and it can include the

community.” Ray stated that this is a “central truth to the human experience. When you help

people, you personally benefit, and when you help enough people or you get together a large

enough group, you can help society benefit.” Christine admitted, “I think very selfishly. It’s

definitely for myself because of all the things that go with it, but I think the goal is that there will

be some value or benefit for us universally.”

Discussion and Implications

The participants in this study were focused on others. an admirable quality, enacting the

“servant-leadership model” (Greenleaf, 1977, among others) for improving organizational

effectiveness and creating change. A few of the participants acknowledged benefit to themselves

in engaging in social change activity, usually in the form of personal satisfaction that can come

about by doing something good for others. One interviewee expressed the even more cynical

view that all we do is tainted by a level of self-serving. Social justice and equity were seen by

some to be objectives for social change action but in the form of bringing about for others what

they themselves already possesses. A few spoke of supporting democracy by their actions, where

all work together for the common good.

The enthusiasm and momentum around helping others was very notable in this group of

interviews. By itself, however, a focus on improving conditions for another may not be

sufficient for thorough-going social change. Under some conditions, especially when root causes

are not addressed, it can be experienced as disempowering and patronizing by the recipients,

creating two levels in a community—the helpers operating from a privileged position and the

helped operating from a position of need and deficit—and neither level is transformed by the

activity. Importantly, it may not always reveal that one might be implicated as a member of a

group that could very well be the source of the problem being addressed.

As indicated, one of the persistent themes in the scholarly discussion of social change is

the clear distinction between charity and helping on the one hand and change and justice on the

other. In the coded analysis made of the definitions and descriptions of social change, the theme

“charity and alteration” was one of the most prominent. It was described as serving or helping

others so that their lives and possibly the lives of an ever widening circle will be changed. The

analysis found that the participants in this study tended to speak more often in terms of “charity”

than “change”.

Real-life examples of social change activity, however, are seldom as clear cut as

descriptions of charity and change in the literature suggest. While charity predominates in the

descriptions and actions of the participants, and social change activity was conducted by

individuals or small groups engaged in the same effort and focused on a specific needy group,

and even though most of the change was seen as making a difference in the lives of individuals

being served rather than in the systemic structures that make up society and its institutions, many

nevertheless saw their activities contributing to change in a larger context. Much of this change

was envisaged in terms of hopeful thinking about the long-term potential and “ripple effect” of

their efforts, rather than in terms of the impact of deliberately planned or collaborative action.

The larger changes were considered post hoc effects rather than outcomes planned from the

beginning. Not apparent were strategies based on an analysis of systemic flaws and developed to

address root causes, bringing all players into the planning, and being deliberate about making

long-term and sustainable changes.

The analysis which looked for common themes in the responses produced encouraging

news for those who work in higher education. Both faculty members and students spoke of the

transformative power of education to change perspectives and attitudes. They spoke of the

power of class discussion forums, learning from different others in classes, curricular topics that

specifically addressed needs and opportunities for social change activity, practical projects

undertaken as class assignments, and the example of faculty members and other students who

were engaged in social change activity. Faculty members also spoke of the importance of one-

on-one mentoring of students who were in the process of developing a change project.

Suggestions for Further Research

This study opens up several questions that suggest areas for additional research, some

that arise from expanding and strengthening the original study, and others to follow-up on leads

from this study. Among the first set of questions is how wide-spread these views and

understandings of social change are within the context of this university. So, this interview study

with its referral sampling approach might usefully be expanded to the whole university

community for a more thorough-going data set, perhaps employing a survey to provide

quantitative measures of the strengths of the many responses represented by the sample in the

original study. Then too, given that this study was conducted in one institution whose mission is

to create positive social change, what would other institutions, traditional and online, find if they

were to conduct similar investigations? This question is important if the institution wants to more

fully realize its social responsibility in community outreach by providing an initial sense of some

of the common themes , with their strengths and weaknesses, that might exist already in the

institution.

In follow-up on leads from this study, studies of teaching and learning strategies might

help determine the most effective for expanding ideas of charity to include a change dimension,

and to prepare students in the skills needed for social change as efforts toward justice and equity

and/or empowerment and agency.

Limitations of the Study

This was an exploratory study whose purpose was to discover the understanding and

practice of positive social change as a component of the mission of a large U.S. online

university. The sample size was small and purposefully selected for the participants’

involvement in social change activities. As a result, it was comprised of a majority of

participants who live and study in the United States. There was a general intent to include

participants with diverse racial and ethnic background and gender. The end result is a range of

values along with diversity in culture, gender, and ethnicity in this group of participants and an

equally wide ranging number and kinds of contexts and opportunities for social action being

addressed by them. While this is a limitation of the study, it also is representative of the

complexity of understanding social change and those who are active within it.

Missing from the research design is the involvement of a designated external community

in the project. Our identified “community” includes the faculty, students, and alumni of the

institution. As faculty members, the researchers are part of this community and we relied upon

other faculty, our students, and our alumni to help identify participants, perfect the interview

guide, provide a debriefing after each interview, and support member checks. The University’s

external communities, less well defined, are all the communities in which our students, faculty,

and alumni practice positive social change. The difficulty of creating touch points with all

external community constituency groups, challenging even for land-based institutions, would

have been prohibitive for a study of this size.

Conclusion

The findings of this study indicate that faculty, alumni, and students at this particular

institution show strong passion to make changes for “the greater good.” It also shows that for

those who are actively involved, some of the distinctions made in the literature do not hold in

their understandings and practice of social change. Activities that at first glance might seem to

fall into the category of charity were also undertaken with the expectation of a “ripple effect”

that would manifest itself as change in the broader society. “Helping” and “altering” concepts

were used together to describe the purpose of an activity. In other words, service activities were

often understood to be aiming for social justice or self-efficacy which takes them out of the realm

of simply helping (a potentially disempowering relationship) and into the domain of real change;

from a focus on a single individual or group of individuals toward creating an impact through

these individuals on the wider community. This move from charity to change was not always

fully understood by participants and could be strengthened even further by preparing students in

the skills and knowledge to turn their scholarly understandings and personal commitment into

even more effective community engagement and long-lasting impact that more deliberately looks

to creating systemic change.

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APPENDIX A

Interview Questions

Was working for social change important to you before you came to [this institution?]

If yes, how were you involved?

Was the social change mission important to you in making your choice to come to [institution]?

From your perspective, what is “social change”?

From your own observations, can you give some examples of what you mean?

What is changed by social change?

Who is social change for, primarily? [Me? Others? The whole planet?]

How many individuals need to be engaged in order to call it social change? Is one enough or

does it need to be more? How many more?

How important is it for social change to focus on policy and policy-makers?

What do you think of when you think about political activism? How important is political

activism in social change? What kind of political activism would you engage in? (or encourage

your students to engage in)

Is social change more about removing something negative or nurturing something positive?

How do you feel about having social change as a goal of your teaching, learning, or professional

work?

How important is the goal of fostering social change in understanding your role as a faculty

member, or planning and undertaking your studies as a learner, or developing your career as a

graduate?

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