Mark your calendars! SFU Library's first Qualitative Research Showcase: An NVivo User Symposium is happening Friday, April 16th, 2021 from 10:00am to 1:45pm.
The Qualitative Research Showcase is an opportunity for SFU researchers, including graduate students and honours undergraduates, to share their qualitative research projects. The symposium will highlight all of the ways that the SFU NVivo user community is working with NVivo.
Qualitative Research Showcase Program
10:00am to 10:10am: Welcome
Brief introductions & housekeeping items.
10:10am to 10:55am: Session 1, Moderated by Vanja Zdjelar
Why create SciArt? A qualitative investigation into science artists’ goals, values, and professional journeys
Alice Fleerackers, PhD Student, Interdisciplinary Studies; Julia Krolik, Information Designer, Founder: Pixels and Plans | Art the Science & Paige Jarreau, VP of Science Communication, LifeOmic
Science Art (“SciArt”) is a fast-growing and popular form of visual expression. Created by both individual artist and collaborative scientist-artist teams, these artworks draw inspiration and influence from scientific findings or methods, and feature a range of mediums and techniques. Often heralded as a way to make science more accessible, engaging, or socially relevant, SciArt initiatives are increasingly included in science communication and knowledge mobilization plans for major research projects. Yet, despite the growing interest in these artworks from funders, scientists, and science communicators, relatively little is known about science artists themselves. How did these creators first get involved in SciArt? What do they value about the work that they do? What do they hope to achieve through it? This project seeks to address these questions through a qualitative inductive analysis of 131 interviews with practicing science artists drawn from the blog of the Canadian nonprofit, Art the Science. Using NVivo qualitative analysis software, we applied a collaborative approach to analyzing the data, informed by both relevant academic literature and our lived experiences as science artists, science communicators, and professionals working in visual science communication. Preliminary results reveal a wide range of motivations, goals, and values that have inspired creators to make SciArt, from making science accessible to revealing unseen aspects of daily life. The findings have implications for scientists, funders, and research institutions seeking to foster productive and mutually rewarding SciArt collaborations.
Analyzing Social Media Data in NVivo: Hostile Foreign Interference and Fake News in U.S. Politics
Karmvir Padda, Masters Student, School of Criminology
Thinking through research question and design
Elly Habibullah, Masters Student, School of Communication
As I conducted the narrative analysis of a photography exhibition for MA thesis, it became evident that examining a multilayer problem can take a number of different ways. To delve into the exhibition that is concerned with the question of identity, I employed NVivo 12 to navigate my way through the various levels and stay focus on the research questions that I could address in the scope of my MA thesis.
11:00am to 11:45am: Session 2, Moderated by Karmvir Padda
How NVivo helped me untangle the impact of COVID-19 on the death management system
Emily Bozanich, Masters Student, School of Criminology
In summer 2020 I undertook research on the impact of COVID-19 on the death management system both in Canada and intentionally. This was qualitative research comprising of interviews with medical examiners, coroners and others involved in the field. NVivo helped me manage the interview data and highlight the key themes that were evident from the data. Ultimately the data showed there were strong themes that highlighted the cultural effects of how COVID-19 impacted the death management field. Without qualitative software such as NVivo, it may have been a lot more cumbersome to fully analyse the data successfully and to code for the differing associations between COVID-19 and impacts to individuals. The findings showed that there were not consistent impacts, some geographical areas appeared to be more impacted than others, some were more impacted by the actions of others, some were more fearful of the overall pandemic than other. However, one consistent finding was that the attitude of the individual was congruent to the overall impact that the individual experienced due to COVID-19. These kind of findings are nuanced and more intrinsic to the overall data of each interview, meaning software such as NVivo can be invaluable in being able to comb through to determine patterns. In this specific research, NVivo served this exact purpose.
Documenting the Qualitative Research Process with NVivo
Vanja Zdjelar, Masters Student, School of Criminology
A key feature of good qualitative work is a well documented method, one which includes systematic coding. NVivo is a tool that can aid this coding and documentation process. Using a recently completed project, I show one way of conducting a qualitative thematic analysis within NVivo. The presentation will focus on how NVivo was used during the research process, including how the project and coding process changed and how NVivo was able to support these shifts.
Sarah-May Strange, Research Staff, School of Criminology
I used NVivo to analyse Facebook posts from pages created by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian secret intelligence organisation that worked internationally to sow discord, violence, and influence elections. I examined two Facebook pages which were run by the IRA, who pretended to be real members of the American Muslim and queer communities. My analysis showed that the IRA used these pages as propaganda, creating caricatures appealing to right-wing prejudices and fears, in order to incite hostility against marginalised communities. I will discuss some of my experiences with using NVivo to do qualitative content analysis on social media.
11:45am to 12:15pm: Break
12:15pm to 1:15pm: Session 3, Moderated by Ali Moore
"Canada Can Do Better": An Exploration of Canadian News Media's Portrayal of Federal Penitentiaries and Prisoners During a Global Pandemic
Ihsan Hage-Hassan, Honours Undergraduate Student, School of Criminology
COVID-19 has impacted everyone on a global scale and Canada is not immune. Canadian prisoners have faced many challenges and the media have been quick to document COVID-19 in justice facilities. How the media document these events plays a crucial role in our understanding of the criminal justice system. Therefore, it is imperative that researchers understand the media’s depiction of these atrocities because not only does it influences the public’s knowledge and understanding of the criminal justice system, but it has the potential to create policy change. Prior research on this subject matter has found that the media consistently offer an inaccurate and misconstrued image of prisoners, as being extremely violent and dangerous, and prisons being akin to a hotel. The current study adds to the existing literature by examining how online Canadian newspaper articles portray federally sentenced prisoners and the institutions they reside in during the pandemic. Conducting a content analysis of 84 articles published from a March 2020 to January 2021 through NVivo 12, the researcher identified 7 emergent themes. The findings, limitations, suggestions for future research, and policy recommendations will be discussed.
1:15pm to 1:45pm: Thank you, wrap up, questions & open discussion
Click here to register to attend the showcase.