Disciplined Imagination and Other Oxymorons, Part 2: Exploring the Continuing Vagaries of Teaching Qualitative Data Analysis

• In Event: Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: Interrogating Data Analysis

Abstract

In this paper two co-authors revisit past work and focus upon new thinking designed to address the challenges of teaching data analysis as an ongoing, thoughtful process of meaning-making. Webb and Glesne (1992) discuss the importance of cultivating what they call “disciplined imagination,” a concept that captures well the kind of data analysis practices and habits of mind we try to foster in our students. In the paper we theorize (a) the theoretical underpinnings of our pedagogical challenges, (b) methods of teaching meaning-making and their relation to four different theoretical frames, and (c) how framing students’ orientations toward qualitative data analysis through these theories has revolutionized both our teaching of qualitative methods courses and student outcomes.

Authors

• Stacy Otto, Illinois State University

• Michael G. Gunzenhauser, University of Pittsburgh