Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Course Description In this course, we will explore the question of the actual and potential connections between democracy and education. Our focus of attention will be placed on a critical examination of democratic theory and its implications for the civic education roles and contributions of teachers, adult educators, community development practitioners, and community organizers. We will survey and deal critically with a range of competing conceptions of democracy, variously described as classical, republican, liberal, radical, marxist, neomarxist, pragmatist, feminist, populist, pluralist, postmodern, and/or participatory. Using narrative inquiry as a means for illuminating and interpreting contemporary practice, we will analyze the implications of different conceptions of democracy for the practical work of civic education.

Democracy and education.

Speech Genres and Other Late Essays

Research Interviewing: Context and Narrative

This study empirically identifies the dimensions and initiates the development of a measure of emotional labor. Phase 1 of this project generated items for an exploratory questionnaire to which a broad sample of service workers responded (N = 358). Analysis revealed two dimensions of emotional labor: emotive effort, a construct never before identified in the emotional labor literature; and emotive dissonance, an acknowledged dimension that is further validated by this study. Several viable antecedent constructs of emotional labor also were identified and incorporated into an emerging model of emotional labor. In Phase 2, revised scales were administered to a second sample of service workers (N = 427) for reliability and validity purposes. Structural equation modeling also was used to establish relationships among emotional labor’s dimensions and various antecedent variables, facilitating development of a model of emotional labor.

Exploring the Dimensions of Emotional Labor: The Heart of Hochschild’s Work

Although both scholars and practitioners continue to privilege the “rational” aspects of organization, this article demonstrates the centrality of emotion in the organizing process. The case study method combines observation at a 911 center, interviews with dispatchers, and analysis of selected calls. Departing from most treatments of emotional labor, this article features workers who not only suffer through, cope with, and resist emotional labor but sometimes also seek it out. For these 911 dispatchers, emotional labor is a fun, exciting, and rewarding part of their work. In addition to providing a description of these neglected positive functions of emotional labor, this article speaks to a broader issue: the role of emotional labor in the construction of organizational community.

Seeking Emotional Labor: When Managing the Heart Enhances the Work Experience

We detail the experiences of a department of six faculty members in negotiating spirituality in a Jesuit, Catholic University. Grounding our work in “co-constructed narrative” as a method, we utilize narratives gathered through self-reflection, conversation, and interviews to elucidate how contradictory conditions are created through competing discourses of spiritual values and secular practices. These competing discourses create tensions of (a) embracing/resisting, (b) inclusion/exclusion, and (c) proclamation/silence. Faculty narratives revealed the ways they frame and negotiate these tensions in their attempts to construct their identities in relation to the organization and its values. Dialogic theory (Bahktin, 1981 1986 1993) is utilized to interpret faculty narratives as well as offer new directions for organizational communication theorizing.

The Jesuit Difference (?): Narratives of Negotiating Spiritual Values and Secular Practices

Although the Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Services Providers recommend that librarians “welcome the patrons and place them at ease … [and] make the patrons feel comfortable in a situation which may be perceived as intimidating, risky, confusing or overwhelming” (Reference and User Services Association, 2004), our literature provides little exploration of welcoming behavior. To fill this gap, we introduce the concept of emotional labor to the library context, presenting a qualitative analysis of librarians' experiences. In addition, we offer recommendations to help librarians manage the emotional aspects of work and discuss implications of librarianship's changing emotional demands.

Emotional Labor in the Academic Library: When Being Friendly Feels Like Work

In this paper, I planned to describe emotional labor at domestic violence shelter, and to examine how it both hurts and enhances employees. But then I ran into a crisis of representation. How can I tell their stories when I haven't formulated my own? This autoethnography attempts to enact a “loving epistemology” (Laible, 2000) to explore the paradoxes of being a feminist teacher and a scholar and constructing a life, and examines the emotional labor involved in studying emotional labor.

Sherianne Shuler

Papers

Seeking Emotional Labor: When Managing the Heart Enhances the Work Experience

The Jesuit Difference (?): Narratives of Negotiating Spiritual Values and Secular Practices

Emotional Labor in the Academic Library: When Being Friendly Feels Like Work

Autoethnographic Emotion: Studying and Living Emotional Labor in the Scholarly Life

Intersections of feminism and pragmatism: Possibilities for communication theory and research