Meta-ethnography of autoethnographies: a worked example of the method using educational studies

ABSTRACT

Despite questions about autoethnography in the ethnography and education research family, autoethnography is published in selective peer-reviewed journals in education and in the social and health sciences. Even critics of autoethnographic studies note their ‘rising acceptance in the past 15 years’ [Delamont, S. 2009. “The Only Honest Thing: Autoethnography, Reflexivity and Small Crises in Fieldwork.” Ethnography and Education 4 (1): 51–63]. However, there has been less effort towards qualitative meta-synthesis to learn what other insights might be gained from collections of studies. With the advent of meta-autoethnography [Ellis, C. 2009. Revision: Autoethnographic Reflections of Life and Work. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press], each author can find a way to synthesise her/his own autoethnographic works, however, synthesising autoethnographies of different authors has received no attention. This article examines a critical, systematic approach to the meta-ethnography of autoethnographies and offers a worked example of the method using educational studies.     

Voices of donors: Case reports of body donation in Hong Kong

Body donation is important for medical education and academic research. However, it is relatively rare in Hong Kong when compared with many Western countries. Comprehensive research has been performed on the motivation for body donation in Western countries; however, there is still insufficient research on body donation in Hong Kong to provide information on how to increase the body‐donation rate. To understand the factors involved in the decision to donate one's body, the authors interviewed a registered donor and the daughter of another donor in Hong Kong. The authors interpreted the information collected in light of the available published reports, which mostly focus on body donation in Western countries. Despite the consistency of some demographic factors and motivations between the participants in our study and those investigated in the published reports from Western countries, there are differences in education level and socioeconomic status between the donors in our study and those from Western studies. The authors also suggest that Confucianism and Buddhism in Chinese culture may motivate potential body donors in Hong Kong. Other important factors that influence the body‐donation decision may include family members' body donation, registration as organ donors, and good doctor–patient relationships. Although case report studies have their limitations, this study allows us to explore the complexity of events and establish the interconnectivity of factors involved in body donation, which could not be achieved in previous survey‐based studies. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

A model of intellectual capital management capability in the dynamic business environment

This paper discusses the way in which intellectual capital (IC) can be managed to assist organization to overcome dynamic challenges. An intellectual capital management capability (ICMC) model is developed which permits the management of an organization to realize the potential of IC by measuring the maturity level of its IC. The model is consistent with dynamic capability theory, which suggests leveraging internal and external resources in response to environment changes to sustain competitive advantage. By utilizing in-depth interviews with 25 chief executive officers from firms possessing high IC, this study seeks to inform the readers of the preliminary work and the way in which the maturity level of ICMC can be measured through the development and deployment of dynamic capabilities. The verification and enhancement of the proposed model has also clarified our understanding on the evolutionary path of management capabilities of IC.     

The Effect Teaching Experience Has on Perceived Effectiveness of Interactive Television as a Distance Education Model for Elementary School Science Teacher’s Professional Development: Another Digital Divide?

The first year of a 5 year professional development project for elementary teachers in two mid-western states integrated a bridge of two distinctly different distance education networks (T-1 and fiber optics) to provide science professional development for elementary school teachers in rural communities. Interactive television (ITV), the title given to the distance component, consisted of a series of twenty-four, 2 h presentations by scientists and content specialists. It provided expansion to the science pedagogical content knowledge of the elementary teachers involved. Eighty-five teachers in 38 school districts from the two states completed individual surveys following the final ITV session. Analysis of variance of participants post-session survey scores yielded differences (p < 0.05) on the subscales measuring perceived effectiveness of using distance education for professional development purposes and years of teaching experience. Teachers with over 20 years of classroom experience perceived the use of distance education technologies for science professional development to be more effective than teachers with 16–20 years of classroom experience. These results might suggest another digital divide.     

Privatization And Vouchers In Colombia And Chile

The voucher model of financing schooling is becoming increasingly common throughout Latin America, with at least 12 countries using vouchers or voucher-like schemes. The present study focuses on the voucher models of Colombia and Chile, which have the most extensive programs of this type and those of the longest standing in the region. Using empirical evidence, the author compares the two models along four evaluative dimensions: educational quality, segregation, choice and socialization. After weighing the successes and weaknesses of each system, he concludes that, among other characteristics, the most effective and equitable voucher model features: (a) a flexible interpretation of educational quality; (b) financial grants which target solely the poor; (c) vouchers which cover the entire cost of tuition; (d) open enrolment at participating schools; (e) the participation of both secular and religious private schools; (f) accessible and meaningful information to parents; and (g) strong systems of accountability.     

Full time adult credential students’ instructional preferences at California State University,Long Beach: pedagogy or andragogy?

This study investigated the instructional preferences of full time adult credential students after they took a live course called Principles of Adult Education at California State University, Long Beach, (CSULB) in the fall semester of 2002. These full time adult credential students had been working on their adult teaching credentials to meet the competencies specified by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The course introduced students to Andragogy developed by Malcolm Knowles out of the andragogical model, developed by Lindeman (1926). The study used Principles of Adult Learning Scales (PALS), advanced by Gary Conti in 1983 to measure instructional preferences. Data were collected from 30 (100% of 30) full time adult credential students enrolled in a live course to, determine their instructional preferences of helping adults learn. The results of the study showed in most cases these adult learning professionals taught adult students andragogically: in some cases they taught adult students pedagogically.     

Privatisation,Decentralisation and Education in the United Kingdom: The Role of the State

Since the early 1950s, the axis centralisation–decentralisation, especially as thematised in the work of Isaac Kandel, has represented a major focus of comparative studies in education. Kandel argued that issues relating to the internal conduct of the classroom (interna) should, so far as possible, be decentralised, while issues relating to administration, school structure and organisation of the educational system (externa) might safely be centralised. After 1988, successive governments in the United Kingdom have undertaken reforms which have placed more central control on the curriculum and even methods of teaching (interna), while school finance and administration (externa) have been devolved to the school level. The present essay argues that a simplistic approach to centralisation and decentralisation is not likely to be fruitful. Instead, we should acknowledge the role of the State in creating a permissive framework for educational systems. Local action can then be seen as part of a policy accommodating or resisting the implications of that framework.     

Surprise and change: Variations in the strength of present and absent cues in causal learning

It is said that “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” But, when and why does an absent event become salient to the heart or to the brain? An absent event may become salient when its nonoccurrence is surprising. Van Hamme and Wasserman (1994) found that a nonpresented but expected stimulus can actually change its associative status—and in the opposite direction from a presented stimulus. Associative models like that of Rescorla and Wagner (1972) focus only on presented cues; so, they cannot explain this result. However, absent cues can be permitted to change their value by assigning different learning parameters to present and absent cues. Van Hamme and Wasserman revised the Rescorla-Wagner model so that the α parameter is positive for present cues, but negative for absent cues; now, changes in the associative strength of absent cues move in the opposite direction as presented ones. This revised Rescorla-Wagner model can thus explain such otherwise vexing empirical findings as backward blocking, recovery from overshadowing, and backward conditioned inhibition. Moreover, the revised model predicts new effects. For example, explicit information about the absence of nonpresented cues should increase their salience (that is, their negative α value should be larger), leading to stronger associative changes than when no explicit mention is made of cue absence. Support for this prediction is detailed in a new causal judgment experiment in which participants rated the effectiveness of different foods’ triggering a patient’s allergic reaction. Overall, these and other findings encourage us to view human causal learning from an associative perspective.     

Response rate is not an effective mediator of learned stimulus equivalence in pigeons

We explored response rate as a possible mediator of learned stimulus equivalence. Five pigeons were trained to discriminate four clip art pictures presented during a 10-sec discrete-trial fixed interval (FI) schedule: two paired with a one-pellet reinforcer, which supported a low rate of responding, and two paired with a nine-pellet reinforcer, which supported a high rate of responding. After subjects associated one stimulus from each of these pairs with a discriminative choice response, researchers presented two new clip art stimuli during a 10-sec FI: one trained with a differential reinforcement of low rate schedule (DRL) after the FI and the other trained with a differential reinforcement of high rate schedule (DRH) after the FI. Each of the stimuli that were withheld during choice training was later shown to see if the choice responses would transfer to these stimuli. The results suggest that response rate alone does not mediate learned stimulus equivalence.