Graduate students present findings at Qualitative Report Conference
Mar 11, 2019
Photo, from left to right: Karen Campbell, Liz Orr, Susan Jack, Michela Luciani (visiting PhD Student in Nursing and Public Health, Università degli Studi Roma "Tor Vergata", Italy), Pamela Durepos
A peer group of graduate students using qualitative research methods facilitated by Dr. Susan Jack attended the Qualitative Report Conference in Florida in January and presented an abstract describing their exploration of the qualitative peer group using art-based research methods.
At the conference, three PhD students from the Graduate Nursing Program, Karen Campbell, Elizabeth Orr, and Pamela Durepos, presented on strategies to enhance graduate student learning experiences related to qualitative health research. The theme of the conference was "Teaching and Learning Qualitative Research".
Graduate student Elizabeth Orr remarked that “attending The Qualitative Report Annual Conference was a fantastic learning opportunity. At this conference I had the opportunity to both present my own work (receiving valuable feedback from a broad audience of qualitative researchers, educators and learners) and to attend presentations and workshops that furthered my knowledge of teaching and learning qualitative methods. Additionally, attending this conference with my graduate student peers and my supervisor allowed for learning to continue even after the official conference time was over, through our conversations and sharing experiences of different presentations.” Michele Luciani, a PhD student visiting from Rome, Italy felt similarly stating, “I had the opportunity to listen to presentations and attend workshops by great researchers and teachers around the theme of teaching and learning qualitative research. It is also very interesting to participate in, and observe how the peer group is helpful for those conducting qualitative research”.
Karen Campbell and Pamela Durepos also noted that particular highlights from the trip included: attending presentations by leading researchers in qualitative research like Johnny Saldana, who described innovative methods for using media to teach qualitative research methods; workshops on vicarious trauma experienced by students and researchers conducting research; practical tips and tools for conducting group coding; and workshops on using arts-based approaches in the classroom.
For faculty, the opportunity to attend a conference with graduate students creates opportunities to strengthen the supervisor-student collaboration and support students to expand their professional networks. “As a supervisor, it is such a great moment at a conference, to see and hear the graduate students you work with -be able to present their research so eloquently,” says Jack. Furthermore, being able to have these students attend this specific conference focused on teaching strategies, “created an opportunity also for us to support these future academics develop their knowledge and skills related to how to teach others about research methods.”
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