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The Reference Librarian

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Training Librarians as Qualitative Researchers:Developing Skills and Knowledge

Catherine A. Hansman

To cite this article: Catherine A. Hansman (2015) Training Librarians as QualitativeResearchers: Developing Skills and Knowledge, The Reference Librarian, 56:4, 274-294, DOI:10.1080/02763877.2015.1057683

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The Reference Librarian, 56:274–294, 2015Published with license by Taylor & FrancisISSN: 0276-3877 print/1541-1117 onlineDOI: 10.1080/02763877.2015.1057683

Training Librarians as Qualitative Researchers:Developing Skills and Knowledge

CATHERINE A. HANSMANCleveland State University, Cleveland, OH

Preparing library and information science (LIS) professionals forthe changing contexts in which they work requires them to under-stand qualitative research methods. Finding appropriate theoriesand approaches to teaching qualitative research methods is essen-tial to develop librarians and other graduate students as qualitativeresearchers. The purpose of this article is to examine and discussthese and other learning theories as well as additional strate-gies and methods for teaching qualitative research methodology tolibrarians and novice researchers.

KEYWORDS explore, knowledge, novice, qualitative researchers,skills, strengths, training

INTRODUCTION

Liebscher (1998) contended that “to prepare future information profession-als for the rapidly changing environment in which they work, library andinformation science (LIS) educators have an obligation to ensure that theirgraduates understand, conceptually and pragmatically, the major method-ological paradigms of research” (p. 668). He went on to further argue thatalthough many library and information science (LIS) programs only offer oneresearch course that typically focuses on quantitative methodologies, librar-ians in training should also be trained in qualitative methods to “exploreresearch problems from multiple perspectives and to evaluate critically thestrengths and weaknesses of each methodology” (p. 668).

© Catherine A. HansmanAddress correspondence to Catherine A. Hansman, Graduate Programs in Adult Learning

& Development (ALD), CASAL Department, Julka Hall 270, 2121 Euclid Avenue, ClevelandState University, Cleveland, OH 44115. E-mail: c.hansman@csuohio.edu

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Teaching librarians or other novice scholars to become qualitativeresearchers is a “developmental process involving both the theory andphilosophies of qualitative research and skills development” (Hill, 2007,p. 26). There are many possible approaches to teach novice researchersto think qualitatively and engage in qualitative research. Some of theseapproaches are directed toward helping students understand and embracequalitative theories and philosophies, whereas others are designed tohelp novice researchers develop important interviewing and analysis skills.Training librarians as qualitative researchers requires teachers to “train themind, the eye, and the soul together” (Janesick, 2004, p. 2), a formidablejob for even the most experienced faculty members and researchers who areengaged in helping develop qualitative researchers.

Although finding successful approaches to teaching qualitative researchmethods is essential to develop librarians and students as researchers, fewresearch articles, book chapters, books or other materials focus on “howto” teach qualitative research theoretical frameworks or interviewing andanalysis skills to beginning and more experienced researchers so that theylearn the qualitative research process (Hansman, 2014b; Sorrell, Cangelosi,& Dinkins, 2014). Some research studies and “how-to” discussions concern-ing teaching qualitative research method courses have appeared in researchjournals and books in recent years (i.e., Carawan, Knight, Wittman, Pokorny,& Velde, 2011; DeLyser, 2008; DeLyser et al., 2013; Denzin & Lincoln, 2011;Gair, 2012; Guillemin & Heggen, 2012; Hansman, 2014b; Henderson et al.,2008; Hsiung, 2008; McAllister & Rowe, 2003; Poulin, 2007; Silverman, 2010;Stark & Watson, 1999; Suarex, 2010; Waite, 2011, 2014). However, find-ing appropriate theories and approaches to teaching qualitative researchmethods is essential to develop librarians and other graduate students asresearchers. There is typically little “training” for faculty members who teachqualitative research courses (Hansman, 2014b), and in the few existingresources for qualitative instruction, little is said about appropriate learn-ing theories as frameworks to become qualitative researchers, such as adultlearning theories and strategies that encompass concepts of critical reflec-tion, experiential learning, learning communities, transformative learning,and mentoring. The purpose of this article is to examine and discuss theseand other learning theories as well as additional strategies for teaching qual-itative research methodology to librarians and novice researchers. Practicalqualitative research methods, teaching strategies, and techniques employedin beginning or advanced qualitative research classrooms are discussed andanalyzed, along with appropriate learning theories to further understand-ings of teaching qualitative research design and methodology. Qualitativemethodology instructors must always deal with the delicate questions ofhow to emphasize ontological and epistemological concepts while provid-ing contexts for students to practice skills in data collection and analysis. This

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article provides a literature review of some adult learning theories and suc-cessful methods and for teaching qualitative research paradigms and skillsto librarians and novice researchers, providing examples and discussionto further develop teaching methodologies for qualitative research in thefuture.

UNDERSTANDING QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Everyday life is messy, and our experiences and solutions to life prob-lems do not always fit into neat black-and-white explanations or solutions.Qualitative researchers embrace and try to make sense of this “messiness”of everyday life, seeking to examine the phenomenon of living. Merriam(2009) asserted that qualitative researchers are “interested in uncoveringthe meaning of a phenomenon for those involved . . . understanding howpeople interpret their experiences, how they construct their worlds, andwhat meaning they attribute to their experiences” (p. 5). In short, qualitativeresearchers attempt to deconstruct and understand these multiple interpreta-tions of reality by studying participants in their own particular contexts andtimeframes.

Marshall and Rossman (2011) defined qualitative research as “a broadapproach to the study of social phenomena . . . various genres are naturalis-tic, interpretive, and increasingly critical, and they typically draw on multiplemethods of inquiry (p. 3). Denzin and Lincoln (2008) described qualitativeresearchers produce a bricolage—“a pieced-together set of representationsthat is fitted to the specifics of a complex situation” (p. 5).

The methodological approaches or strategies a qualitative researchermay employ for a research study is highly dependent on the problem,purpose, and research questions in which the researcher is interested.Different researchers describe various strategies or “approaches” to quali-tative study, such as Creswell (2013), whose qualitative research text focuseson five approaches: narrative research, grounded theory, phenomenology,ethnography, and case study. Merriam and Associates (2002) expandedCreswell’s approaches to eight research designs: basic interpretive, phe-nomenology, grounded theory, case study, ethnography, narrative analysis,critical, and postmodern/poststructural. Denzin and Lincoln (2005) increasedthe list of approaches further describing ethnography, performance ethnog-raphy, life history and testimonio, phenomenology, ethnomethodology,grounded theory, case studies, historical method, action research, and clinicalresearch.

Qualitative methodologies allow researchers to focus on “the natureof the research, the definition of and relationship with those with whomresearch is done, the characteristics and location of the researcher, and thecreation and presentation of knowledges” (Olesen, 2008, p. 315). Qualitative

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research studies may employ social justice frameworks or theoretical lensesto illuminate questions of whose knowledge is “privileged” and how knowl-edge is found and recognized, giving “voice” to those, who because ofrace, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and/or ethnicity may have been his-torically “silenced” by positivist research paradigms and methodologies(Creswell, 2013; Kincheloe & McLaren, 2008; Marshall & Rossman, 2011;Merriam, 2002, 2009; Olesen, 2008). Lather (2006) further defined four epis-temological perspectives: positivist/postpositivist; interpretive/constructivist;critical; and postmodern/poststructural. Researchers operating out of crit-ical perspectives view reality as being multifaceted and shaped by thesocial, political, and cultural milieu in which individuals reside; whereaspostmodern/poststructural researchers problematize, question, and disruptdichotomies and assumptions about reality.

Through understanding the meaning made by participants in qualita-tive studies, qualitative researchers become the “instrument” of the researchin that they collect data “through examining documents, observing behav-ior, and interviewing participants” (Creswell, 2013, p. 45). Thus qualitativeresearchers must be reflective and cognizant of “who” they themselves asresearchers are, what their “stories” (autobiographies) are, and the meaningthey make of the world, understanding that these are the lenses throughwhich they, as researchers, will view their research participants and interpretthe phenomena being studied.

THE COMPLEX CHALLENGES OF TEACHING QUALITATIVERESEARCH CLASSES

Teachers of qualitative research face many challenges in helping their stu-dents understand the complexities and research intricacies that encompassqualitative research studies. However, Sorrell et al. (2014) emphasized thatthough teaching content and research approaches in qualitative researchclasses are important, a “mechanical” approach that is “void of passion”(p. 296) should be avoided, and instead, teachers should focus on help-ing students to “dance with a text and develop a passion for and aboutthe phenomenon under investigation” (Stark & Watson, 1999, p. 721). So inshort, teachers of qualitative methodology must do more than assist studentsto understand and gain skills in an assortment of methodologies.

Supporting students to develop a “passion” for qualitative researchdoes not preclude also focusing on ontological, epistemological and axi-ological paradigms, reflexivity, theoretical frameworks, qualitative methodapproaches, data analysis, and ethical considerations. Indeed, as Wolcott(1994) contended, designing and teaching an effective qualitative researchclasses may be equal to the effort it takes to conduct a qualitative researchstudy. Confirming this statement, Hurworth (2008) conducted a qualitative

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research study that explored the challenges described by faculty memberswho teach qualitative methods classes. She found that there were issuesrelated to the level of preparedness of instructors, the number of studentsin the classes, the prior training of students in quantitative methodologies,ideological differences among faculty members who teach research method-ology classes, and course content, pedagogy, and difficulties with helpingstudents design and carry out qualitative research projects.

Other challenges qualitative instructors may face include helping stu-dents in:

developing the technical skills involved with gathering data, negotiat-ing relationships with research participants in the field, coming to termswith one’s subjectivities, solving ethical dilemmas, and complying withinstitutional review board (IRB) requirements that do not always seemto recognize the realities of the social worlds that qualitative researcherstravel. (Cox, 2012, p. 130)

Cox (2012) also discussed the difficulties faced by teachers of qualitativeresearch and qualitative researchers themselves when educational poli-cies and requirements for grants and government funding in the UnitedStates and elsewhere privileges certain types of evidence and research asscientific knowledge while discounting the validity and importance of qual-itative research. Ryan and Hood (2004) and Denzin and Lincoln (2008)expressed concerns that positivist evidence-based epistemology causes qual-itative research methodology to be regarded as suspicious and not “real”or second-class research. This policy, “privileging quantitative methods andthe underlying positivist worldview, can very easily subordinate qualitativeresearch to a marginal role” (Cox, 2012, p. 130). In a similar theme, Booker(2009) described “resistance” subtle and overt, in students in her qualita-tive classroom, particularly if they “come from fields that are traditionallycharacterized with positivist orientation” (p. 390).

As Cox (2012), Booker (2009), and others contended, assisting stu-dents to understand and critically examine their own notions concerningwhat counts as knowledge is an essential task for teachers of qualitativeresearch classes. Students must understand the differing assumptions under-lying quantitative and qualitative research and the types of “knowledge”they produce to engage in qualitative research projects. Habermas’ concep-tualized knowledge as “originating in human interests and means of socialorganization . . . in terms of technical control, communication, and emanci-pation relating to the respective social media of work, language, and power”(Ewert, 1991, p. 347). Technical or instrumental knowledge reflects a needto “control and manipulate our environment” (Cranton, 2001, p. 12) andis reflected in positivist approaches to research. Practical or communicative

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knowledge is learned through language and communication among peo-ple through which understandings and customs that undergird cultures orsocieties are conveyed. Emancipatory knowledge allows us to “criticallyquestion assumptions, values, beliefs, norms and perspectives” (Cranton,2001, p. 12).

As Waite (2014) asserted, there are many “ideational dynamics andphilosophical issues swirling around qualitative research pedagogy” (p. 268).Teachers of qualitative research must always weigh how much time to devoteto teaching the theoretical concepts related to qualitative research versusfocusing on the necessary “technical” skills to conduct a research study andanalyze qualitative data (Merriam, 2009). This constant balancing may leadto further tensions among students as they struggle to understand differentparadigms and lenses for research and theories while acquiring the necessaryskills to conduct qualitative research.

Another obstacle to student learning may be the approaches used byteachers of qualitative research classes, namely, adhering to didactic lectureformats with little opportunities for students to gain experiential knowledgeof research methodologies. Although many students in qualitative researchclasses could be considered adult learners, learning theories that may reachadult learners are not always known by qualitative research instructors,and indeed, they may favor prescriptive and didactic teaching method-ologies and materials that preclude using adult learning theories, such astransformative learning, critical reflection, experiential learning practices andsituated cognition.

Waite (2014) contended that qualitative research courses have threecomponents: “the fieldwork, the thinking, and the writing” (p. 278). Liebscher(1998) argued that librarians in particular must gain the essentials in thefollowing areas: “defining and justifying purposive samples; data collectionthrough interviews and observation; data analysis simultaneous with datacollection; and data analysis through reduction and interpretation” (p. 673).Liebscher further said that librarians should become well versed in interviewmethods for individual and focus groups. In my own experiences teachingqualitative research classes I have encountered many of the issues discussedabove, but like Waite and Liebscher, understand that teaching qualitativeresearch requires me to address multiple skill components in the class-room while designing strategies to help students examine, write, discuss,analyze, and critique their basic assumptions of the research paradigmsand qualitative inquiry. Teachers of qualitative research classes must facethe challenges discussed in this section and embrace multiple levels oflearning theories and applications throughout their curriculum to help librar-ians and novice researchers develop as qualitative researchers. The nextsection addresses many of these challenges and offers some recommenda-tions from research and practical experiences to improve qualitative researchpedagogy.

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FACING THE CHALLENGES OF TEACHING QUALITATIVERESEARCH

Adult Learners in Qualitative Classrooms: Addressing the LearningNeeds of Librarians

Most librarians and graduate students who enter qualitative research courseshave experienced the psychological, social, and economic roles of adults,so they should be considered adult learners by faculty members who planand teach classes for them. Adults are those who have “taken on the social,psychological, and/or economic roles typically expected of adults in theircultures and collective societies” (Hansman & Mott, 2010, p. 14). Yet manytimes only didactic methods are utilized in classes and little attention ispaid to concepts of adult learning when designing qualitative research cur-ricula (Hansman, 2014b). Theories and concepts such as critical reflection(Brookfield, 2012, 2013) and transformative learning theory (TLT) (Cranton &Taylor, 2012; Mezirow, 1990; Mezirow & Associates, 2000; Taylor, 1998, 2009),experiential learning (Kolb, 1984), communities of practice (CoPs) (Wenger,1998) and situated learning (Brown & Duguid, 1996; Hansman & Wilson,2002), and mentoring (Hansman, 2012, 2013, 2014a) can be used as teachingframeworks by teachers of qualitative research to plan curricula and coursesand are the focus of the discussion in this section.

CRITICAL REFLECTION AND TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING

Brookfield (2012, 2013) is proponent of infusing critical reflection into thelearning design or curriculum for adult learners to allow learners to examinethe assumptions that guide them. “Assumptions are guides to truth embed-ded in our mental outlooks,” Brookfield (2012, p. 7) asserted, and further,he contended that adult learners must first “hunt” their assumptions (discov-ering the assumptions that influence thinking and actions) to foster criticalthinking, “checking” if their assumptions are “valid and reliable guides foraction” (p. 12). Next, Brookfield (2012) suggested that learners attempt toadopt a multiview focus so that assumptions can be examined from multipleand diverse perspectives to understand how others may interpret contextsor situations differently. Finally, after engaging in the first three processes,taking informed action assists adult learners to move to new understandingsof what they are studying.

Critical reflection is an essential component of TLT, defined by Mezirow(2000) as a learning process in which persons engage in critical reflectionthat

transform our taken for granted frames of reference (problematic mean-ing schemes, habits of mind, mindsets) to make them more inclusive,

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discriminating, open, emotionally capable of change and reflective sothat they may generate beliefs and opinions that will prove more true orjustified in guiding actions. (p. 8)

People may experience a single event that may provoke transformative learn-ing, what Mezirow (1990; Mezirow and Associates, 1990, 2000) referred toas a “disorienting dilemma,” or they may be affected by cumulative eventsor experiences over time that may require them to consider alternative per-spectives of themselves or other people, situations, and/or events. However,as Cranton (2006) emphasized, “Discourse is central to the process. We needto engage in conversation with others in order to better consider alternativeperspectives and determine their validity” (p. 36).

Mezirow (1990; Mezirow & Associates, 2000) specified ten phases forlearning, beginning when learners experience a disorienting dilemma ormultiple dilemmas. Critical reflections on the assumptions that are broughtabout by the dilemma or dilemmas drive learners to explore possibilities fornew roles, relationships and actions. Further planning and skills acquisitionsmaybe be required to put the plans into action while learners practice newroles and build the necessary confidence to take on these fresh roles. At theend of the process, learners reintegrate their new perspectives and roles.The process may produce anxiety by participants who engage in it as theystruggle to change their perspectives and worldviews.

As described above, critical reflections are essential to any of the phasesin the transformative learning process, and Cranton (2006) detailed threedifferent types of reflection: (a) Content reflection, examining the contentor description of the problem; (b) Process reflection, where the learnermay reflect on the problem solving strategies in connection with processof understanding the problem; and (c) Premise reflection, when the problemitself is questioned for importance and significance. Through probing, per-sons engaged in reflection may experience transformation of what Mezirow(1990; Mezirow & Associates, 2000) referred to as habits of minds, whichincludes their philosophical lenses or worldviews.

Two frameworks described by Cranton (2006) may be especially helpfulto beginning qualitative researchers as they examine and question researchparadigms that may be unfamiliar to them: “Reflective Questions for Habitsof Mind” (p. 36) and “Reflective Questions for Kinds of Knowledge” (p. 37).These frameworks may be used to encourage students to question whatthey believe, what knowledge they hold, how they gained this knowl-edge, and why it is valued and by whom. These types of questions,when asked about research methodologies in qualitative research class-rooms, may help librarians and novice researchers to question dominatepositivist paradigms concerning research to be open to competing conceptsof research. TLT stresses the importance of relationships in learning contexts(Cranton & Taylor, 2012), and the relationships constructed among students

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and instructors in the context of qualitative research classes while engagingin critical reflection and transformative learning may provide comfortablerelationships that provide opportunities for perspectives to be examined andlearning to occur.

SITUATED COGNITION

Jean Lave (1988), in her work with adult learners, described learning froma situated cognition framework as a reoccurring process in which adultsact and interact within their social situations. Hansman and Wilson (2002)contended that learning is social in nature, and situated cognition is “learn-ing outside the mind” (p. 44), and fashioned by the “context, culture, andtools in a learning situation” (p. 45) The context in which learning occurs,whether it be a classroom or someplace else, structures the learning processthrough the “interactions among learners, the tools they use within theseinteractions, the activity itself, and the social context in which the activitytakes place” (Hansman, 2001, p. 45). Merriam and Bierema (2014) discussedthat learning contexts and experiences for adult learners, viewed througha situated/contextual lens, should be as “‘authentic’ as possible” (Merriam& Bierema, 2014, p. 119), meaning that classroom activities should utilizereal-world problems and situations for students to address and practice solv-ing, using methods that may include role play, case studies, simulations, orother activities. In a qualitative research classroom, to help foster skill devel-opment, instructors can employ a situated cognition framework for learningby giving librarians and novice researchers opportunities to practice theirqualitative interviewing or observation skills in real world contexts with thetools they will use in the field. Students can be given “research problems”to address and work through the research steps and qualitative approachesthat may help them analyze the issues raised by the research problem.

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

The concept of CoPs grew out of the situated cognition framework, andthe CoPs members are people who share a common sense of purpose anddesire to learn and know from and with each other (Brown & Duguid,1996; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). Sometimes self-organized by theCoPs members themselves, these groups may be informal in nature. Thereare several phases and dimensions of the relationships within CoPs, amongthem are mutual engagement, where participants do what they need to do toapproach the problem or tasks; communal activities, when participants forminto a social group; and joint enterprise, when participants negotiate andcreate a shared repertoire of “routines, words, tools, ways of doing things,stories, gestures, symbols, genres, actions, or concepts that the communityhas produced or adopted in the course of its existence, and which havebecome part of its practice” (Wenger, 1998, p. 83).

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Wenger (1998) contended that learning cannot be designed by othersoutside of the community, but instead, occurs through the experiences andsharing of the members of the CoP. CoPs can be a useful framework to helpengage beginning and advanced qualitative researchers to work together tolearn qualitative research methodologies with and from each other. CoPs thatare made up of novice researchers can provide the support and “safe space”to experiment with new paradigms and research methodologies. Throughsharing research problems and experiences in the field, novice researcherscan learn from and with each other. As an example of this, Henrich andAttebury (2010) described librarians forming CoPs to mentor each in peer-mentoring groups to address research projects and writing for publication.

MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS

Mentors can serve as navigators to their mentees in many different contexts(Hansman, 2003, 2012, 2013, 2014a), and mentoring librarians and novicequalitative researchers are important purposes and functions of experiencedresearchers. Many types of mentoring relationships may characterize faculty–student mentoring. Mentoring relationships for novice qualitative researchersmay improve the novices’ self-esteem through giving them opportunities towork with more experienced researchers as mentors that helps them gainimportant qualitative skills. Additionally, librarians in qualitative classroomsmay form peer-to-peer or cohort mentoring relationships to assist them asthey struggle with learning qualitative research skills. Faculty to student andpeer or student cohort mentoring groups may all provide support and suste-nance to members and psychosocial as well as career support and assistance(Hansman, 2012, 2013).

Experienced research faculty mentors should build a climate of trust andrespect in their mentoring relationships and guide and help direct librariansand novice researchers through learning experiences that will build theirself-confidence as researchers. Mentors should challenge their students toreflect upon their assumptions and to question their current understandingsof research or theoretical paradigms to develop deeper levels of knowledgeand understanding. Mentoring relationships can provide opportunities forstudents to engage in activities to achieve their research goals while criticallyself-reflecting on what they have learned, despite the successes or failures oftheir research projects (Hansman, 2012).

In a similar fashion, peer-to-peer or student-to-student mentoring rela-tionships also have the potential to enhance student learning and helpstudents develop their understandings of qualitative research and practicetheir skills as researchers. The more experienced students can mentor lessexperienced members through partnering with them to assist them in plan-ning and possibly carrying out qualitative research studies. The advantages

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of these peer mentoring relationship is that through discussions and actions,they may facilitate powerful developmental and transformative learningsupport for peer mentors.

This discussion of some adult learning theories, concepts, and models isintended to provide a framework for qualitative research classes that mightbe useful for instructors to employ when planning and teaching qualitativeresearch classes. The next section of this article provides some examplesfrom the literature of how teachers of qualitative research methods haveapplied TLT, situated learning and CoPs, and mentoring models in theirclasses to improve qualitative research pedagogy.

Using Adult Learning Theories and Concepts to Plan and TeachQualitative Research

Mason (2002) stated the challenge for teachers of qualitative methods tolibrarians and novice researchers is that “qualitative research methods do notform a ‘how to do’ set of skills that can be applied in the textbook fashion ofquantitative methodologies and statistical analysis” (p. 69). Teachers of qual-itative research must decide how to approach and how deep to delve intothe philosophical, ontological, and epistemological frameworks of qualitativeresearch. Further, the “tools” of qualitative research may only be learned in“real-life” situations and research problems in which the novice researcherhelps format and then carries out the research to respond to the researchproblem and purpose. It is essential that teachers of qualitative research pro-vide a learning context so that students are not only practice their skills asqualitative researchers but also begin to examine and analyze their stanceconcerning qualitative research.

CRITICAL REFLECTION

As discussed previously in this article, many librarians and graduate studentsenter qualitative classrooms with “fixed” notions of what “real” researchis—namely, quantitative. Booker (2009) described her beginning qualita-tive students as resistant to qualitative research, and she uses a two-stepprocess to overcome students’ resistance, beginning with recognizing thesource of students’ discomfort with qualitative research as coming from theirbackgrounds in social sciences, which in many cases privileges positivismand provides them familiarity with statistical and quantitative methodologies.Teachers who are sensitive to the “existing comfort level” (p. 393) of theirstudents with quantitative methodologies as the source of their resistancemay then move onto providing students with an equally strong founda-tion of qualitative theories, methodologies, and approaches. Booker thendescribed offering students “solid training in interpretist philosophy and

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designing the class as an interactive and reflective process” (p. 393), meaningthat much time is devoted to challenging students’ long-held notions of pos-itivist research while providing a “safe” classroom setting to explore differentparadigms for research.

Besides challenging students’ views of research in classroom discus-sions, asking students to write in journals is another way to encouragetheir critical reflection. Librarians and novice researchers may be required todocument their work as they are conducting fieldwork interviews and obser-vations to verify events and provide validity to data. But student journals canbe used for more than recording fieldwork, as Young and Freeman (2008)argued. They contended that the individual journey of the researcher is valu-able to understanding qualitative research, and in their work with novicequalitative researchers, they require students to keep detailed documenta-tion of the decisions they make regarding research approaches, fieldwork,observations, and data analysis. Through keeping their journals, students andinstructors can see the critical reflection that encourages “the development ofqualitative thinking and enables students to reflect on their own progress asresearchers” (p. 299). Journals may also provide opportunities for students tocritically reflect upon their understandings of the epistemological, ontologi-cal, and philosophical underpinnings of qualitative research design as wellas the data analysis processes. They may articulate the reasons behind thechoices they make when using interpretive methodologies and approaches,allowing them to review validity and reliability claims when they begin towrite their research findings.

TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING

Booker’s (2009) and Young and Freeman’s (2008) ideas highlight the impor-tance of using critical reflection as a teaching and learning method in theclassroom to further librarians’ and novice researchers’ understandings ofqualitative research. Critical reflection is an essential element of TLT (Cranton& Taylor, 2012; Mezirow, 1990; Mezirow & Associates, 2000; Taylor, 1998,2009). As librarians and novice researchers approach qualitative researchclasses, they may reveal their bias toward unquestioning acceptance ofthe positivist paradigms as the “only” true and valid method to conductresearch. Students experience an event or series of experiences, resultingin a “disorienting dilemma” (Mezirow & Associates, 2000) that may pro-voke transformative learning concerning their understandings of qualitativeresearch. This “dilemma” requires them to consider alternative perspectivesof themselves or other people, and situations, generally through discourseand conversations, which are essential to the process (Cranton, 2006).

As an example of transformative learning beginning with a disorientingevent or situation, Cox (2012) described her method of challenging her qual-itative students concerning their preconceptions about methodologies and

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legitimate research topics and methods. She helps students to “make theirthinking visible to others” (p. 133) through providing a safe space for stu-dents to explore their research problems, purposes, theoretical frameworks,and continuing these discussions through their data collection and analy-sis. In this way, peers give feedback also to other students throughout theresearch process, supporting each other to engage in qualitative research.Cox, as the instructor, also provides constant feedback to students, push-ing them to re-examine pre-conceived notions of “legitimate” research toembrace new paradigms concerning qualitative research.

Cox (2012), Poulin (2007), and Maxwell (2005) promoted reflection andcritical self-reflection in their students by asking them to write memos, pro-viding another way for novice qualitative researchers to make their thinkingand development as researchers visible. Cox asked students to write threememos while engaging in their qualitative research projects. First, studentswrite a “researcher identity memo,” in which they identify “how prior expe-riences and assumptions about the topic may affect their approach to thetopic” (Cox, 2012, p. 134). This is similar to the “disorienting dilemma” inTLT. As the teacher, Cox then reads the memo and monitors the student’sresearch plans to see if the student is acting on preconceived notions orassumptions, and if so, challenge the student to move beyond these. Studentsare next asked to write “professional identity memos” to help them under-stand how their professional experiences may influence the perspectivesand lenses through which they view the world, allowing them to “questionaspects of their work that are typically taken for granted truths” (p. 134). Coxprovides feedback to students to help challenge them and encourage theirself-reflection as they adopt qualitative lenses for their research projects. Thethird memo Cox suggests new qualitative researchers write is a “graduate-student researcher” memo, in which students can reflect on what they havelearned in their graduate programs, what research topics they believe aresuitable to study, and what constitutes “good” research. Cox contends thatinstructors can gain understandings of students’ preconceived notions ofresearch paradigms through reading these memos and challenge them asnecessary to foster their growth as qualitative researchers.

In another approach to use the framework of TLT in the qualitativeclassroom, Carawan et al. (2011) described a qualitative research coursethey designed and conducted. It was their experience as faculty membersthat beginning qualitative research students found qualitative epistemology,ontology, and methods as disorienting, similar to the description Mezirow(1990; 2000) used in TLT when describing disorientating dilemmas, soCarawan et al. tried to find ways to help students work through theseuncomfortable dilemmas and embrace qualitative perspectives for research.Because most of the students entered the qualitative classroom with a stronggrounding in positivist research, her instructional team began with the “pre-sentation of qualitative research as a world view that challenges students’

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fundamental research assumptions and values” (p. 391). Students took partin assignments that were disorientating in nature to encourage them to con-sider other worldviews and perspectives. Class discussions, assignments,active learning strategies, and journals were all incorporated into regularclassroom activities to challenge students to expand their understandings ofresearch paradigms. Instructors gave consistent feedback in all activities thatchallenged students to analyze the congruence of their own beliefs aboutquantitative and qualitative research. What fueled the transformative learningprocess for the students was the support of the instructors, along with a “asafe, learner-centered environment,” (p. 393) which was nonthreatening andallowed students to voice their concerns and share their perspectives hon-estly with each other while building relationships with each other. Carawanet al. also used arts-based activities to promote understanding and criticalthinking. Among the artistic activities were “drawing, body sculpture, sculpt-ing with clay, photography, collage making, storytelling, haiku writing andbaking” (p. 395). Through creative assignments designed to develop criti-cal thinking, Carawan et al. found evidence that students were “becomingmore attuned to nuances of language and were more likely to discover prob-lems associated with ambiguity reasoning, and assumptions in themselves”(p. 395). By the end of the qualitative class, most students provided feed-back that showed that they had experienced a shift in their perspectives “to agreater appreciation of all methods of inquiry. Their growth in critical reflec-tion allowed them to begin to recognize their own biases and assumptions”(p. 397).

SITUATED COGNITION AND COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Carawan et al. (2011) discussed using situated cognition as a frameworkfor working with novice qualitative researcher, what they called “situatingcognition in the research process” (p. 394). Using Hansman and Wilson’s(2002) description of situated learning as “shaped by the context, culture,and tools in a learning situation” (p. 45), they related course assignments tostudents’ research projects and connected literature to the individual researchwork of students. Through helping students make the connections with theirresearch and encouraging them to practice what they learned about researchin their real-world research projects, students began to learn the skills to helpthem conduct qualitative research projects.

Creating authentic contexts for learning in qualitative classrooms isimportant to many instructors of qualitative research methods. Many instruc-tors assign student researchers projects in which the novice researchers mustspend time in the field interviewing and/or observing research participantsin their studies. However, as many of the previous examples of classroomactivities demonstrate, preparing students to enter the field through class-room exercises and activities can be helpful to the students. While teaching

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my own beginning and advanced qualitative research classes with noviceresearchers, I ask students to role-play and interview each other regard-ing current events, or we as a class, acting as a CoPs formed to queryqualitative research methodologies, create a research problem to addressas a group. Students then typically work in the CoPs group to formulatequalitative research problems, purposes, and research questions along withmethodological approaches that seem to match their posed research prob-lem, purpose, and questions. CoPs members write interview questions thatwill address and answer each research question, using graphic representationto line up interview questions with the corresponding research question thatthey answer. Through their participation as a CoPs group in this exercise,students can “shape” a research study and carry it out through interviewingeach other, making notes, or recording the interviews. Students may thentranscribe the interviews and, as a group, can analyze the data for emergingthemes. When presenting their “study” to the class, students must show the“evidence” they found in the data to support the themes, again frequentlythrough charts or graphs. The classroom presentations allow for profounddiscussions regarding qualitative research techniques and methods and thedecisions made by students during their data analysis.

Another way of helping students gain experience in the classroom ishaving them “work backwards” through research projects. For instance, Igive students a copy of a qualitative research study that I or one of myresearch colleagues has authored as a reading assignment. Students aredivided into CoPs groups and given copies of transcripts of the interviewsconducted for the project or projects (with names and places changed toprotect privacy), and I then require the CoPs groups to try to find the “evi-dence” that support the themes that were developed by the author of thestudy. This exercise serves many purposes, among them exposing studentsto the reality of transcripts and data analysis, and allowing them to followmy or my colleague’s logic in developing the themes from the data. EachCoPs is encouraged to also use the transcripts to develop “counter” themesto the ones presented in the published research, along with justification forthese “counter” themes. In this way, as a researcher and instructor, I am chal-lenged to reexamine and support my own analysis while allowing studentsto question my logic and offer valid alternative explanations for themes theydeveloped. I believe these experiential exercises situated in research contextsallow everyone, including me as the instructor, to “stretch” and be reflexiveduring data analysis.

Others examples of situating learning in the qualitative classroominclude one from DeLyser et al. (2013), who designed experiential learningapproaches in which students interviewed one another, transcribed the inter-views, and then shared the materials to create a coding scheme. Input fromthe students in the class indicated that students found that “doing” qualita-tive research was much more helpful than didactic lectures or reading about

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someone else’s research process. Through providing “real world” contextsfor research and opportunities to engage meaningful CoPs with each other,students become active qualitative researchers.

MENTORING QUALITATIVE RESEARCHERS

Qualitative research methods classrooms provide many opportunities forinstructors or other faculty members to mentor students. In addition, peeror cohort mentoring student groups may form in qualitative classrooms tofurther students’ knowledge of and practice in qualitative research studies.Cobb and Hoffart (1999) provided examples of integrating mentoring intotheir work with students in their two course qualitative research sequence.Many of their students entered the qualitative classroom with little to noknowledge of qualitative research, so the two-course sequence allowed themas instructors to challenge student dominantly positivist paradigms in the firstclass, offering various experiential exercises, such as observing and record-ing human behavior in public spaces. In this way they can teach the contentto help students grasp epistemological frameworks and gain the skills andknowledge they needed to conduct a qualitative research study. During thesecond class in the sequence they focus on mentoring students to assistthem in completing research projects. Students were divided into researchgroups that served as peer mentors to each other within the groups. Eachgroup was given different approaches (i.e. narrative analysis, grounded the-ory, and ethnography) to a similar research project. Each group workedindependently but met frequently as a class to reflect upon the differentmethodologies and the challenges each group encountered in data collec-tion, analysis, and reporting their findings. Cobb and Hoffart “supportedstudents at various stages of preparing the proposal, conducting the study,and writing the manuscripts in which they reported their findings” (p. 336),providing mentoring to the novice researchers, and students indicated thatthey benefited from having two faculty members involved and sharing theirresearch experiences with them.

Shelby (2000) discussed mentoring students through a qualitative studyand asserts that “the mentoring relationship with the student is an integralaspect of promoting rigor in qualitative endeavors” (p. 315). He describedvarious ways that faculty mentors can support their students in qualitativeresearch studies, including having students writing memos that become partof the meetings with students; mentors can then read the memos and ques-tion the students about the interviews they conduct and the data codingmethods. A major part of this process is for the faculty mentors to listen totheir students’ experiences in the field and intervene as needed to promotea deep exploration of the data and the phenomenon under study. Throughmentoring qualitative researchers, faculty members and novice researcherscan gain appreciation for the research process and conduct rigorous studies.

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Some studies promote peer and cohort mentoring models forgraduate/doctoral students (i.e., Hansman, 2012, 2013, 2014a; Mullen, 2003;Mullen, Fish, & Hutinger, 2010). One possibility to enhance qualitativeresearch classes is to incorporate elements of Mullen’s (2003) and Mullen,Fish, and Hutinger’s (2010) models, including peer coaching, writing support,and CoPs, in qualitative methods classes. For example, in universities withtwo or more required qualitative research classes, the more experienced stu-dent researchers in the advanced classes may serve as mentors for beginningqualitative researchers. This requires collaboration among faculty memberswho teach the beginning and advanced qualitative methodology classesto plan activities for more experienced qualitative students to share theirresearch with less experienced researchers and provide opportunities forstudents to mentor each other. Through designing classes in this way, moreexperienced qualitative students will gain important teaching experiencesand opportunities to explain their research, whereas beginning qualitativeresearchers will benefit from learning skills from more experienced studentsand to consider their research processes. Faculty members could also supportstudents to form CoPs made up of beginning and more experienced studentresearchers, either in the classroom or outside of it, to further support theirlearning to become competent qualitative researchers.

CONCLUSION

Many ideas for assisting librarians and other novice researchers to embracequalitative inquiry as a research paradigm have been presented. Althoughsome librarians may wish to carry out their own qualitative research projects,others may use their knowledge of qualitative research studies to assist themin evaluating research studies by others. In any case, learning how to conductqualitative research, understanding the epistemological and ontological qual-itative frameworks, and knowing qualitative fieldwork skills are all essentialand will provide many benefits to librarians and the library patrons theyassist.

Adult learning theories and concepts can provide a rich framework forassisting librarians and other novice researchers to learn about and engage inqualitative research. Instructors who challenge their students’ preconceivednotions of research while providing rich experiential approaches to learn-ing will cultivate students’ learning about and participating in qualitativeresearch. Future studies concerning best practices in teaching qualitativeresearch should focus on developing varied and engaging formats andframeworks to enhance the learning process to assist librarians and noviceresearchers to become competent qualitative researchers.

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