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1. "For Me, Data is Ammunition": Metaphors and Community Organizers' Data Imaginaries

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3678884.3681878  

   Pei, Lucy; Serrano, Uriel; Crooks, Roderic (November 2024, ACM)

   This article bridges theories and insights from critical data scholarship by asking how community organizers from minoritized communities conceptualize data. Prior research has defined these socially and culturally constructed definitions about what data are and what data do as “data imaginaries.” This study draws on 40 qualitative interviews with community organizers involved in issues like immigration, reproductive justice, education, and policing. Our study takes metaphors given to us by community organizers (i.e., ammunition, teeth, receipts, compass) to reveal their data imaginaries. Particularly, their data imaginaries define what data means to them and what purpose it serves in their organizing. We find that community organizers also shared critiques of the ways data has been used to oppress minoritized groups. Given these findings, we conclude by encouraging future work that explores how community organizers experience and articulate epistemic burdens. 

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2. Cultivating Qualitative Researchers: Lessons Learned During a Pandemic

   https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069231157705  

   Parsons, Cristina C.; Hehn, Matthew T.; Loudenback, Andrea J.; Burke, Hannah K.; Fox, Aimee L.; Spratt, Laura M.; Brazile, Mollie; Alarawi, Rana; Zarestky, Jill (December 2023, International Journal of Qualitative Methods)

   Under the best of circumstances, learning to conduct qualitative research is challenging, both intellectually and emotionally. Engaging in such learning in difficult situations, such as a global pandemic, may heighten challenges while creating opportunities for truly deep learning. The purpose of this paper is to provide methodological insights to guide the growth of new qualitative researchers and inform the design of introductory methods courses based on the learning experiences of a group of graduate students conducting their first qualitative research projects. We present students’ experiences with choosing and planning a project, navigating relationships with study participants, and conducting observations and interviews. Explicit connections to qualitative methodology are offered for every stage of student research engagement. An analysis of the student authors’ experiences highlights the associated learning and innovation necessary to adapt to adversity when conducting qualitative research. Advancements in research reciprocity and human connection are presented, as experienced by the student authors. We conclude with implications and insights for teaching and learning qualitative research and ethical considerations that transcend pandemic circumstances. It is the intent of this manuscript to support the development of deep reflexive practice for new qualitative researchers, effective instructional approaches for those who teach research methods, and an insight into the power of diverse student researchers learning new skills together for the global research community. 

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3. Modeling students’ epistemic cognition in undergraduate chemistry courses: a review

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D3RP00348E  

   DeGlopper, Kimberly S; Stowe, Ryan L (June 2024, Chemistry Education Research and Practice)

   Thinking about knowledge and knowing (i.e., epistemic cognition) is an important part of student learning and has implications for how they apply their knowledge in future courses, careers, and other aspects of their lives. Three classes of models have emerged from research on epistemic cognition: developmental models, dimensional models, and resources models. These models can be distinguished by how value is assigned to particular epistemic ideas (hierarchy), how consistent epistemic ideas are across time and/or context (stability), and the degree to which people are consciously aware of their own epistemic ideas (explicitness). To determine the extent to which these models inform research on epistemic cognition in chemistry education specifically, we reviewed 54 articles on undergraduate chemistry students’ epistemologies. First, we sought to describe the articles in terms of the courses and unit of study sampled, the methods and study designs implemented, and the means of data collection utilized. We found that most studies focused on the epistemic cognition of individual students enrolled in introductory chemistry courses. The majority were qualitative and employed exploratory or quasi-experimental designs, but a variety of data collection methods were represented. We then coded each article for how it treated epistemic cognition in terms of hierarchy, stability, and explicitness. The overwhelming majority of articles performed a hierarchical analysis of students’ epistemic ideas. An equal number of articles treated epistemic cognition as stableversusunstable across time and/or context. Likewise, about half of the studies asked students directly about their epistemic cognition while approximately half of the studies inferred it from students’ responses, course observations, or written artifacts. These codes were then used to infer the models of epistemic cognition underlying these studies. Eighteen studies were mostly consistent with a developmental or dimensional model, ten were mostly aligned with a resources model, and twenty-six did not provide enough information to reasonably infer a model. We advocate for considering how models of epistemic cognition—and their assumptions about hierarchy, stability, and explicitness—influence the design of studies on students’ epistemic cognition and the conclusions that can be reasonably drawn from them. 

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4. “WE JUST WANNA READ THE SCROLLS!” COLLABORATION AND COMPETITION IN THE VESUVIUS CHALLENGE— A STUDY OF VESUVIUS CHALLENGE DISCORD CHATS

   https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2025.429  

   Yarbrough_Chapman, Christy (August 2025, University of Kentucky Libraries)

   This dissertation investigates the knowledge sharing that occurred in the Vesuvius Challenge, a $1 million dollar innovation contest designed to advance the research of Professor Brent Seales to virtually unwrap and read carbonized papyrus scrolls from Herculaneum. Through a content analysis of the Discord channel chats posted by Vesuvius Challenge contestants and stakeholders, the study reveals the existence of several aspects of a community of practice and the operation of the Vesuvius Challenge as a boundary practice. It also presents findings regarding how that development impacted the level of knowledge sharing that occurred in the highly competitive environment. Finally, it suggests that communities of practice operate as effectively in virtual spaces as they do in face-to-face environments, although computer mediated communities of practice manifest some additional features not delineated in traditional communities of practice literature. Discord chats from two channels, #papyrology and #general, were examined qualitatively using deductive qualitative analysis and thematic content analysis approaches. Previously identified concepts from communities of practice theory were used as a theoretical framework and, along with concepts from other virtual community participation and knowledge sharing literature, served as sensitizing constructs for the deductive and inductive coding analysis of the chats. This dissertation work adds to the literature regarding communities of practice by describing the qualities of a purely online community of practice and by proposing a coding scheme for measuring the existence of a community of practice. It is also the first study to examine the effectiveness of innovation contests in a new environment, that of academic research, and to explore how the typical features of communities of practice may encourage collaboration in such competitive environments. 

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5. Discourse Moves and Engineering Epistemic Practices in a Virtual Laboratory

   Gavitte, Samuel B; Koretsky, Milo D; Nason, Jeffrey A (June 2024, ASEE annual conference exposition)

   We use qualitative methods to investigate students’ engagement in an upper-division laboratory. Laboratory activities are recognized as key curricular elements in engineering education. These activities have traditionally been delivered in person, but new laboratory modalities (such as virtual laboratories) have been gaining popularity, boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding how laboratory modality influences student learning is important to be able to design and implement effective laboratories. While some educators have investigated if virtual laboratories can replace their analogous physical laboratory counterparts, others have looked at using virtual laboratories in combination with physical laboratories. Taking this latter approach, they argue the two modes have different affordances and therefore could be complementary - meaning that each mode may lend itself to more effectively engaging students in certain productive practices. We have previously reported on the development of two environmental engineering laboratories, one physical and one virtual. Both laboratories address the topic of jar testing, an important process in drinking water treatment, with the design of each mode being based on that mode's affordances. These laboratories were implemented in an upper-level chemical engineering course. Twelve students split into four groups consented to be audio and video recorded during their time in the laboratory and have the work they turn in collected, with most also volunteering to be interviewed about their experiences. A first pass of this data has been completed in which we viewed learning from the lens of participation in disciplinary practice. We applied the theory of engineering epistemic practices, which are the socially organized and interactionally accomplished ways engineers develop, justify, and communicate ideas when completing engineering work. Transcripts of the laboratory observations were coded to identify students’ engagement with specific epistemic practices, which were categorized as either conceptual, material, or social. These codes were then counted and cross-validated with interview responses to draw conclusions about how student's engagement differed in each mode. This prior research has indicated that students engage with each design using different epistemic practices. While the first pass analysis showed differences in counts of epistemic practices between modes, it provided limited insight into how and why the epistemic practices are elicited and coordinated among students. In this paper, we extend the discourse analysis by illustrating our developing methodology for a second pass analysis of the video recordings. We seek to develop a thick description by identifying how particular epistemic practices fit together temporally and serve to promote or hinder students’ progress. Engagement in epistemic practices does not happen in a vacuum and instead happens contextually, influenced by students' previous engagement and the laboratory environment and their social and academic history. This analysis allows a deeper understanding of how students engage in engineering practice while completing laboratories, knowledge that can be applied to enhance engineering physical and virtual laboratory instruction and design. Additionally, this work contributes to the methodological conversation of ways to use interaction analyses to extract understanding from a rich set of qualitative data. 

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