What Type of Presentations Occur at EQRC?
Generally, presentations fall into one of three strands: (a) Research presentations, (b) Scholarship presentations, (c) Application of scholarship to teaching qualitative research. In this context, “research” refers to generating new information of some type, such as an empirical study involving data collection and the presenter shares the findings with the EQRC audience. "Scholarship" is the integration of previous research findings, such as might occur in a literature review or the potential influence or application of a qualitative research method. The value exists as the author shares new insights, turning points, or perspectives on a topic of interest to qualitative researchers. EQRC historically has also welcomed presentations that involve effectively teaching qualitative methods in classroom contexts. While EQRC peer-reviewers value the role of authors’ own experiences, the conference is not the right venue to merely present “personal tips,” as the mainstay of a presentation; rather the conclusions should be contextualized in some type of scholarship and grounded in the overarching research literature.
Qualitative research is the common thread to all EQRC presentations. Ethnography, phenomenological, grounded theory, case studies, autoethnography, and narrative inquiry serve as examples of common qualitative research presented at EQRC. The purpose of the juried EQRC review process is to ensure the presentation’s applicability to the conference and that sufficient rigor is evident as is expected in a national research conference—not to rank the proposals or allow only a limited quota of submissions for presentation. We view a conference presentation as the first step toward potential journal publication—at which stage a second level of more stringent screening is applied. Most potential topics deserve a plenary hearing before peers as part of the overall evaluation process.