Teaching Qalitative Methodologies as Praxis: Five Tales from South Korea

Young Chun Kim,Seongho Choi,Jung-Hoon Jung 아시아질적탐구학회 2022 아시아질적탐구 Vol.1 No.1

Informed by Patti Lather’s notion of ‘research as praxis,’ the purpose of this article is to provide the meaning of teaching qualitative research in South Korea wherein whose academic culture has been highly influenced, if not dominated, by the West. In this respect, the authors conceptualize the experiences of teaching qualitative research to undergraduate and graduate students in South Korea. For this study, we employed a critical incident technique that summarizes and describes the data in a useful manner, while at the same time sacrificing as little as possible of their comprehensiveness, specificity, and validity. Three authors have collected stories, experiences, and reflections on teaching qualitative methodologies, and then categorized their reflections of these experiences. The stories the authors tell entail five themes as follows; teaching qualitative research as (a) dangerous practice, (b) painful practice, (c) horrifying practice, (d) educative practice, and (e) brave practice. Each practice, as a metaphor, illuminate the meanings of the practices of teaching qualitative research in South Korea. The authors conclude the article with questions to provoke Korean researchers to rethink and reflect on their practices of teaching and conducting qualitative research in the Korean context and beyond. In doing so, the authors intend to contribute to the international discourse of teaching qualitative research which embraces various experiences and interpretations within different contexts.

Exploring Photographic Writing about Korean Mothers’ Educational Strategies

Minyoung Yang(Minyoung Yang) 아시아질적탐구학회 2022 아시아질적탐구 Vol.1 No.2

Photography has been continuously attempted as a research tool in social science research. Photo-based qualitative research continues to this day while branching out into various methods such as the visual methodology (Rose, 2016), photovoice (Wang, 1999), and photo essay (Quinn et al., 2006). The purpose of this study is to present a case of reconstructing the research results presented in the existing text as photo-based qualitative research. The subject of the study is 'A Qualitative Case Study on the Educational Practice of Mothers for Their Children's Academic Success: Korean Bear Moms,' a study by Kyung-ri Kim, Young Chun Kim, and Jae-seong Jo (2022). The four significant subjects presented as the study's main results were converted into visual data, including photos, to reconstruct the existing results differently. The research methodology was participatory observation and in-depth interviews using photographs. The research participants were parents who actively supported their children's academic achievement. Data were analyzed using a comprehensive data analysis procedure among about 100 photos taken in 2022. One or two photos most suitable for the four areas of the research topic were presented. First, the participants turned their homes into places suitable for their children’s study. Second, parents become learning experts to teach their children effective learning methods. Third, parents make an intensive financial investment in children’s shadow education. Fourth, mothers use the coffee gathering to collect useful information for their children’s academic success. This study exemplifies how photography transcends the limits of text, delivering intuitive and implicit messages, including the symbolic expression of the inner feelings of the participants, which might not have been revealed in the written text.

Exploring the Hidden Meaning of Care through the Life History of a 53-year-old Woman

Myungin Kyeon(Myungin Kyeon),Seungnam Son(Seungnam Son) 아시아질적탐구학회 2022 아시아질적탐구 Vol.1 No.2

This study is based on the story of a woman who has been caring for children and the elderly for a living. As a mother of three children she supported her mother-in-law with Alzheimer's for over 20 years. This paper tried to explore the meaning of care through the life history of a 53-year-old woman and discover its implications for pedagogy. As results, first, the meaning that 'life is a period of vulnerability(Donna J. Haraway)' came to light through the characters surrounding this woman's family history; Second, the fact that the relationship between the caregiver and the person being cared for is the core of a good care relationship became clear; Third, since care is already a relationship in itself, care work is a labor of love and relationships that cannot be standardized or objectified. Finally, the meaning of care work illuminated that self-care and care for others are constantly interacting. The family discord experienced by the participant due to solitary care work gave social, political and economic suggestions that care work was passed entirely on to women. This life history research with a participant K suggested also possibilities of inventing a new viewpoint of humanity and a new mode of human relationship through care work. So this study presented a new task for pedagogy in that care is the knowledge that anyone should and can learn.

Photosartorial Elicitation and the Bukae of Korean Instagram

Michael Hurt(Michael Hurt) 아시아질적탐구학회 2022 아시아질적탐구 Vol.1 No.2

Korean Instagram is in the midst of a phenomenon involving the creation and self-marketing of alter ego identities — 'bu-kae'— that create a culture in which more specific, digital subcultures lead to the formation of real communities offline, which are a thriving part of youth culture today. The 'sub'(부) 'character'(캐) is nowadays a major mode of interacting online in South Korean social media and a clear result of digital media cultures that nowadays house different parts of identities for specific kinds of social uses through identity separation. This research uses 'photo-sartorial elicitation', a structured interaction and means of gathering social data by having a model and photographer interact around clothing in a way that reveals previously hidden or non-obvious social facts about that person or even a community. I am able to engender participation around a photographic project since photographs on Instagram are the prime social currency within digital subcultures on Instagram, with 'exchange rates'for participation in front of the camera far higher than even direct payments of fiscal currency might provide. In the end, it is only by being able to answer the questions, 'Why are you here?'and 'What do I get out of participation as a subject?'that one can gain the ability to reach into the depths of social phenomena that are otherwise largely impenetrable to the researcher’s gaze.

Colwyn, Age 5 1/2, “Protecting Mom and Dad”

Klaus G. Witz,Sung Ah Bae,Hyunju Lee,Youngcook Jun,Yongsock Chang 아시아질적탐구학회 2022 아시아질적탐구 Vol.1 No.1

The present paper is part of a larger case study of a 5 1/2 year old Korean boy, Colwyn, with his mother, Dr. Bae. Dr. Bae interviewed Colwyn twice, about 2 months apart; the first interview was audiotaped, the second videotaped. The present paper is based primarily on the second interview where Colwyn tells several wildly imaginative stories of himself like a superhero “protecting mom and dad.” Our aim is to communicate a sense of Colwyn’s “feeling, consciousness, state” when he is telling these “stories”, using the portraiture philosophy of Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis and the “Participant-as-ally - Essentialist portraiture” approach of Witz and his students. The paper suggests that Colwyn’s “telling stories” in that Interview involves a highly self-actualized way of “being involved with his ‘I’”, which was apparently prompted by Interview 1 and is expressed in the drawing in Fig. 1. (In Interview 2 he constantly comes back to this drawing and uses it as a jumping off point for ideas in the stories). In addition, when he is telling a story, his whole being (feeling and mind) is “as if flowing in a direct channel,” manifesting as a constant stream of inspiration (creativity), ideas and diverse kinds of energy which is coming from within him, and that is carried on a powerful undercurrent of moral feeling of “being good.” At the same time telling the story represents a state of “subjectively being in a unity with” his mother’s feelings of appreciation and love. These things represent intense genuine spiritual engagement that at the same time manifests itself as creative expression in painting and in verbal interaction, already at this young age. This conclusion is supported by various additional data available.

A Portrait of Korean Won-Buddhist’s Mind Practice Experiences: Focusing on Higher Aspects from the Ways of Evolving to Inner Maturity

Youngcook Jun(Youngcook Jun),Klaus G. Witz(Klaus G. Witz ) 아시아질적탐구학회 2022 아시아질적탐구 Vol.1 No.2

This paper presents a portrait of a Korean woman Wonmahn (pseudonym) who engaged in Won Buddhist religious life including Mind Practice. Mind Practice allows the participant to reflect on one’s own state of mind and observe how it triggers other emotions, feelings, or effects in human relationships and in relation to facing troubles in everyday life. We try to understand how her Mind Practice affected her inner states of mind, feelings, attitudes etc. more deeply based on the “Participant as Ally - Essentialist Portraiture” approach. The in-depth interviews were conducted 6 times between the fall of 2011 and 2013. We tried to find out significant passages of transcripts and then articulate them on her ways of evolving to inner maturity through Mind Practice activities. This portrait illustrates her nature and impression with some alive passages and a timeline for grasping unity or oneness of the whole person. Also she repeatedly tried to be aware of her own mind states whenever she encounter troublesome situations in order to become a better person revealing higher aspects. In this portrait, we explore that such “higher aspects” are related with her values, commitments or inner changes as a whole person. Further we try to understand that her higher aspects are manifested as a “subtle and pervasive inner consciousness” in a person.

Teaching qualitative methodologies as praxis

Young Chun Kim(Young Chun Kim),Seungho Choi(Seungho Choi),Jung-Hoon Jung(Jung-Hoon Jung) 아시아질적탐구학회 2022 아시아질적탐구 Vol.1 No.1

The purpose of this article is to provide the appearance and meaning of teaching qualitative research in South Korea wherein whose academic culture has been highly influenced, if not dominated, by the West. In this respect, the authors conceptualize the experiences of teaching qualitative research to undergraduate and graduate students in South Korea. To do so, three authors have collected stories, experiences, and reflections of teaching qualitative methodologies, and then categorized their reflections of these experiences. The stories the authors tell entail five themes as follows; teaching qualitative research as (a) dangerous practice, (b) painful practice, (c) horrifying practice, (d) educative practice, and (e) brave practice. Each practice, as metaphors, illuminate the meanings of the practices of teaching qualitative research in South Korea. The authors conclude the article with questions to provoke Korean researchers to rethink and reflect on their practices of teaching and conducting qualitative research in the Korean context and beyond.

Ten Years of Tutoring in Shadow Education: A Narrative Inquiry into Industry Features and Evolution in China

Bin Hua,Kevin Wai Ho Yung 아시아질적탐구학회 2022 아시아질적탐구 Vol.1 No.1

The modernized private tutoring in China appeared in the 1990s and then grew at full speed to become one of the world’s most extensive shadow education systems. Since 2010, the industry has entered an era of deepening institutionalization and capitalization. This paper, through the narrative of an expert tutor, illuminates his experiences of tutoring and managing in this industry from 2010 to 2020 in Mainland China. The narrative was constructed through the tutor’s chronological reflection, which was stimulated by various electronic files he produced during the tutoring period and his ongoing conversations with former colleagues. In making sense of his narrative, the researchers have discussed a neglected phenomenon, three shining points, six gray areas, and four developmental stages of shadow education to demonstrate the industry features and evolution. Through discussing these issues, this paper finds its originality in illustrating at a micro level the industry’s operational mechanism, such as tutor training, curriculum, instruction, and after-class management, from a unique perspective of a tutoring practitioner and entrepreneur.

Editing Between the Lines: The Collaborative Writing Process of Two Scholars from Disparate Cultures

Deborah Gilman(Deborah Gilman ),Yongsock Chang(Yongsock Chang) 아시아질적탐구학회 2022 아시아질적탐구 Vol.1 No.2

Collaborative writing and language learning efforts between two graduate students, one a South Korean art educator and the other a retired ESL(English as a Second Language) teacher from the United States, are explored in this autoethnographic and ethnodrama collaborative piece. The authors give candid accounts of their experiences with understanding one another’s perspectives, sharing beliefs and cultural differences, developing respect for each other, and discovering friendship as they worked together in editing and revising Korean ideas into the Americanized English of academia. The tie that binds their collaborative efforts is the authors’ advocacy for social justice education.

A Social Cartographic Mapping of Research Paradigms: Opening up Space for New Directions

Percy Lai Yin Kwok 아시아질적탐구학회 2022 아시아질적탐구 Vol.1 No.1

Since the early 1970s, there have been ongoing debates between realist / postpositivist (quantitative) and interpretivist / naturalist (qualitative) research paradigms in the epistemological and ontological aspects of research methodology. Each camp has its advantages and defects in educational / social research (Howe, 1985; Stallings, 1995). Afterwards, some pragmatic researchers take mixed-methods approach by striking a happy medium between the two paradigms, and others look for emancipatory / transformative research paradigms by paying close attention to indigenous knowledge systems and disadvantaged people. The methodological debate continues onwards due to changing nature and landscape of educational and social phenomena. Notably, this paper endeavors to use Rolland Paulston (1997, 1999) ’s social cartography to map four research paradigms and to open up some new space for further development by ‘decentering’ them. Based on social cartograph, four dimensions are formulated, and some implications are drawn for future methodological development in Asian contexts.