There is a longstanding divide between qualitative and quantitative research methods. In the field of teaching research methods, this divide has also been found (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2005) almost 20 years ago. With a mixed methods approach this thesis asks and aims to answer whether this divide prevails on a structural and content level. Specifically, the research question is: "Are there structural and content differences between the research landscape on teaching quantitative research methods and teaching qualitative research methods indicating that these two are seen as separate fields or are both part of the same overarching research domain?" Firstly, the research landscape for teaching qualitative research methods of the last 10 years was analyzed quantitatively (i.e. descriptive statistics, word frequencies in abstracts, citation measures). Citation measures identified the most relevant authors and documents. A rudimentary form of content analysis, consisting of deeply reading the documents and summarizing their content, was conducted on the identified documents. Subsequently, the same procedure was repeated on the research landscape for teaching quantitative research methods. While there is an overlap between the document corpora regarding relevant articles and the most cited references, there are also discrepancies. Specifically, there are structural differences such that the literature on teaching qualitative methods seems more disjunct. Furthermore, the dataset on teaching quantitative methods had a large emphasis on integrating qualitative methods and moving towards mixed methods compared to the literature on teaching qualitative methods focusing more on the actual topic of qualitative methods.

No / Recent initiatives to modernise the National Health Service describe how improving pay structures and staff working lives can be achieved in the form of advanced practitioner and consultant posts. Role development in Radiography represents a fundamental change to professional practice of radiographers and is subject to the provisions of the statutory and professional codes of conduct which govern such practice. In Diagnostic Radiography the response to Government initiatives has led to a change in practice so that radiographers in these new posts provide reports for a variety of imaging modalities. At the same time as there have been changes in the practice of Radiography, the discipline of evidence-based medicine has emerged. Changes in clinical practice should be underpinned by evidence from research. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the methodological approaches used to conduct research that evaluates one of the most salient areas of development in Radiography practice, that is the role of radiographers as advanced or consultant practitioners when interpreting plain radiographs. We begin by discussing what an evaluation is and two broad approaches for conducting health services research, and then appraise the evidence about radiographer reporting in the context of these methods of evaluation. We then suggest future considerations about the methodological approaches to evaluating radiographer reporting practice and identify where there are evidence gaps and the need for further research to inform evidence-based Radiography.

Indigenous (Métis, First Nation, and Inuit) peoples and communities in Canada, especially in the prairies, continue to experience disproportionate levels of tuberculosis (TB) compared to the rest of the Canadian born population. This inequitable distribution of TB disease burden demands effective policy, program, and practice responses. These have so far failed to materialize, perhaps in part because of limitations in the approaches we have taken to understanding the issue. As well, these responses have largely been grounded in western scientific paradigms. Science is the search and the re-search for knowledge and this varies according to the perspectives and paradigms of the researcher(s) and stakeholders. In this project, the student researcher collaborated with the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan (MN-S) and two volunteer health researchers to adapt and ground a western paradigm and methodology (System Dynamics and Group Model Building) to a Métis research paradigm to understand experiences of tuberculosis (TB) among Métis people. Data collection took place in a 2-day Métis-adapted group model building (GMB) workshop. The outcome is a causal loop diagram with associated stories co-created by the team and the workshop participants. The workshop was evaluated using a storytelling and story listening method that explored the appropriateness of adapting GMB within a Métis research context. The approach was determined to be successful methodologically, and substantively new knowledge was created in our Métis community about the determinants of TB. This research was a journey of diversity, working at the intersection of knowledge systems to produce a new understanding of a health issue as complex as TB.

Researchers have taken a particular interest in children’s drawings as a means of representing and communicating knowledge and perspectives but a review of literature reveals that researchers routinely use drawings as a way of obtaining data without considering their function or value. This ESRC-funded research aims to explore drawing as a method of accessing children's perspectives and has three central research objectives which consider methodological and analytical factors relating to the use of children’s drawings as a research tool. These are: to develop a principled approach to analysing and interpreting children’s drawings, to create guidelines for the use of drawing as a research tool, and to gather children’s perspectives on play through the method of drawing. The research objectives were achieved by asking the following three questions: How can children’s drawings be analysed using a principled approach? What are the major factors to be considered when using drawing as a research tool? What can drawings reveal about children's perspectives on play? The study involved two visits to the homes of eight preschool children aged four. The sample included four girls and four boys from central and north-east Scotland with half of the families being categorised as being of low socioeconomic status. Visits were flexible and unstructured allowing the child autonomy regarding our level of interaction and the types of activities (such as free play and conversation) with which they wished to engage. The second visit included a prompted drawing activity in which I invited children to express their perspectives on play. The topic of play was chosen (i) to offer children a meaningful research activity to investigate the issues surrounding the method, (ii) to explore the task of representing an abstract, yet familiar, concept and how this may influence children’s drawings and representations of play, and (iii) as an extension of the ESRC project Young Children Learning with Toys and Technology at Home (Plowman et al., 2012) by giving greater emphasis to children's own perspectives on play and exploring the ways in which this can be achieved. My theoretical approach is not to consider drawings as reproductions of reality, but to value and attempt to understand children’s drawings as a semiotic vehicle in which messages are created and conveyed during the drawing process through representation and signification. Informed by social semiotics (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996) the research presents an innovative four-step approach to analysing children's drawings (4-SASA). The protocol, a key contribution of the research, was developed to promote a more systematic analysis, involving (i) isolating signs within drawings through manual annotation, (ii) documenting the child’s understanding of signs and the significance attributed to them, (iii) organising signs using specific categories of social semiotic analysis (mode, size, colour, salience) and identifying the child’s motivation and interest for specific sign production, and (iv) synthesis of the child’s perspectives from steps 1-3. Post hoc methodological examinations elucidated the following four key factors to be considered when using young children’s drawings: (i) contextual sensitivity of the drawing process, (ii) children’s perceptions of the research task, (iii) the complex task of representing an abstract and elusive concept such as play, and (iv) whether there is a fundamental difference between drawing spontaneously (non-commissioned) and drawing on request. Evidence from the study supports previous literature in demonstrating the potential of drawing as a method of accessing children’s perspectives. However, findings suggest that rather than routinely selecting drawing as a method for representing children’s perspectives, researchers need to be more thoughtful about the ways in which factors such as the social and contextual framing of drawing and approaches to data collection can affect research outcomes. The thesis concludes by discussing how these emerging issues impact research outcomes, along with implications for future implementation and analysis of drawings.

Full weighted least squares (full WLS) and robust weighted least squares (robust WLS) are currently the two primary estimation methods designed for structural equation modeling with ordinal observed variables. These methods assume that continuous latent variables were coarsely categorized by the measurement process to yield the observed ordinal variables, and that the model proposed by the researcher pertains to these latent variables rather than to their ordinal manifestations. Previous research has strongly suggested that robust WLS is superior to full WLS when models are correctly specified. Given the realities of applied research, it was critical to examine these methods with misspecified models. This Monte Carlo simulation study examined the performance of full and robust WLS for two-factor, eight-indicator confirmatory factor analytic models that were either correctly specified, overspecified, or misspecified in one of two ways. Seven conditions of five-category indicator distribution shape at four sample sizes were simulated. These design factors were completely crossed for a total of 224 cells. Previously findings of the relative superiority of robust WLS with correctly specified models were replicated, and robust WLS was also found to perform better than full WLS given overspecification or misspecification. Robust WLS parameter estimates were usually more accurate for correct and overspecified models, especially at the smaller sample sizes. In the face of misspecification, full WLS better approximated the correct loading values whereas robust estimates better approximated the correct factor correlation. Robust WLS chi-square values discriminated between correct and misspecified models much better than full WLS values at the two smaller sample sizes. For all four model specifications, robust parameter estimates usually showed lower variability and robust standard errors usually showed lower bias. These findings suggest that robust WLS should likely remain the estimator of choice for applied researchers. Additionally, highly leptokurtic distributions should be avoided when possible. It should also be noted that robust WLS performance was arguably adequate at the sample size of 100 when the indicators were not highly leptokurtic. / text

<p>This manuscript is comprised of three papers that examine the far-reaching and often invisible political outcomes of gender role socialization in the United States. These papers focus primarily on two areas: political confidence amongst girls and women, and the effects of gender on survey measurement and data quality.</p><p>Chapter one focuses on political confidence, and the likelihood that women will run for political office. Women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership, and their lack of political ambition, relative to men, has been identified as a primary cause. In this paper, I explore the relationship between an individual's masculinity and femininity and her development of political ambition. Using original survey data from the 2012 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), I first empirically demonstrate that gender (masculinity/femininity) and sex (male/female) are unique elements of identity and, moreover, are both independently related to political ambition. I then explore the relevance of gender for the study of candidate emergence, testing whether and how masculinity and femininity might be related to political ambition are supported empirically. While the results suggest that masculinity is positively associated with the development of political ambition, the relationship between femininity and candidate emergence seems to be more complicated and not what prevailing stereotypes might lead us to expect. Moreover, while the relationship between masculinity and political ambition is the same for men and women, the relationship between femininity and political ambition is very different for women than it is for men. This study suggests that gender role socialization is highly related with both men's and women's desire to seek positions of political leadership.</p><p>Chapter two continues this exploration of gendered differences in the development of political ambition, this time exploring how social attractiveness and gendered perceptions of political leadership impact the desire to hold political office.Women are persistently underrepresented as candidates for public office and remain underrepresented at all levels of government in the United States. Previous literature suggests that the gendered ambition gap, gender socialization, insufficient recruitment, media scrutiny, family responsibilities, modern campaign strategies, and political opportunity structures all contribute to the gender imbalance in pools of officeholders and candidates. To explain women's reticence to run, scholars have offered explanations addressing structural, institutional, and individual-level factors that deter women from becoming candidates, especially for high positions in the U.S. government. This paper examines a previously unexplored factor: how dating and socialized norms of sexual attraction affect political ambition. This study investigates whether young, single, and heterosexual women's desire for male attention and fear of being perceived as unattractive or "too ambitious" present obstacles to running for office. The results of these experiments suggest that social expectations about gender, attraction and sexuality, and political office-holding may contribute to women's reticence to pursue political leadership. Chapter two is a co-authored work and represents the joint efforts of Laura Lazarus Frankel, Shauna Shames, and Nadia Farjood.</p><p>Chapter 3 bridges survey methodology and gender socialization, focusing on how interviewer sex affects survey measurement and data quality. Specifically, this paper examines whether and how matching interviewer and respondent sex affects panel attrition--respondents dropping out of the study after participating in the first wave. While the majority of research on interviewer effects suggests that matching interviewer and respondent characteristics (homophily) yields higher quality data, little work has examined whether this pattern holds true in the area of panel attrition. Using paradata from the General Social Survey (GSS), I explore this question. My analysis reveals that, despite its broader positive effects on data quality, matching interviewer and respondent sex increases likelihood to attrit. Interestingly, this phenomenon only emerges amongst male respondents. However, while assigning female interviewers to male respondents decreases their propensity to attrit, it also increases the likelihood of biased responses on gender related items. These conflicting outcomes represent a tradeoff for scholars and survey researchers, requiring careful consideration of mode, content, and study goals when designing surveys and/or analyzing survey data. The implications of these patterns and areas for further research are discussed.</p><p>Together, these papers illustrate two ways that gender norms are related to political outcomes: they contribute to patterns of candidate emergence and affect the measurement of political attitudes and behaviors.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis presents an empirical investigation into substance use, situational characteristics and sexual outcomes in men who have sex with men (MSM) motivated by the high rates of substance use in MSM; the association between substance use and sexual risk behaviours in MSM; the lack of specific theory addressing relationships between substance use, sexual interactions and social interactions between MSM; and the need for clearer understandings of encounter-level associations with sexual risk. Qualitative metasynthesis. This thesis begins with laying the methodological groundwork for a qualitative metasynthesis that theorises the relationship between substance use and social spaces in MSM, with a particular focus on sexual outcomes. The qualitative metasynthesis derives the key organising perspective of ‘littoral spaces’ in which substance use is associated with a pre-planned, though temporary, escape from the boundaries of everyday life to engage in maximal sensory exploration, including through sexual contact. <b>Systematic review of multiple-event analyses. The thesis then turns to a systematic review of previous quantitative multiple-event analyses examining associations between situational characteristics and sexual outcomes, which establishes the need for additional multiple-event analyses addressing specific substance use, location of sex, partner serodiscordance and partner type. Multiple-event analyses. Finally, informed by the qualitative metasynthesis and the systematic review of event-level analyses, this thesis presents multiple-event analyses addressing unprotected anal intercourse (UAI), pleasure and control as sexual outcomes in MSM in England. These analyses found that substance use was associated with greater odds of UAI and pleasure, but not with control, and that non-private locations of sex were associated with decreased odds of UAI and pleasure, but not control. Furthermore, there was sparse evidence of interactions between respondent and partner substance use and between respondent substance use and location of sex in associations with sexual outcomes. These analyses contribute to understandings of associations between substance use, situational characteristics and sexual risk behaviour by presenting the first known analyses on MSM in England and by examining sexual outcomes besides UAI.

No description available.

The objective of the study was to map the structure of the construction engineering and management (CEM) discipline and its contents, trace its evolution, and to identify the most prevailing research areas in the discipline. The study entailed a review of the literature in construction engineering and management as well as two of the leading academic journals in the discipline, particularly a bibliometric study of the contents of the ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering (JME), as a case study of the CEM refereed journals. The JME's contents were investigated from its onset in 1985 until 2002. The results of the analysis show that 70% of the published papers focused on four main subjects: management and organization of the firm, project management, industry structure and environment, and management of personnel. Considerable changes occurred within the subjects with the emergence of new topics and the decline of others over the eighteen years of publication. The study also analyzed the use of keywords, research methods, and identified authors, and the concentration of knowledge. The JME is mainly concerned with the managerial aspects of engineering, while ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management (JCEM) focuses more on construction and technical issues. Additional studies of the JCEM's contents should be conducted for a complete mapping of the discipline in the USA.

<p>This was a descriptive qualitative study. Eight people living with HIV, four of which had disclosed their status, were individually interviewed. Two focus group discussions (each comprising 6 participants) were also conducted with health workers. The study was based at an urban TB hospital which is currently providing a range of HIV-related services including HIV Voluntary Counselling and Testing, case management and treatment.</p>