Qualitative researcher earns UFRF Professorship
Posted May 19, 2010
Mirka Koro-Ljungberg, an expert in qualitative research at UF’s College of Education, has been named a University of Florida Research Foundation (UFRF) Professor for 2010-2013.
Koro-Ljungberg, an associate professor in research and evaluation methods, is one of 33 UF faculty researchers selected. UF’s research foundation awards the professorships to faculty who have made recent contributions in research and a have a strong research agenda likely to lead to continuing distinction in their fields. The three-year award includes a $5,000 annual salary supplement and a one-time $3,000 grant.
As the college’s resident expert on qualitative research, Koro-Ljungberg teaches young scholars how to look beyond the numbers to the human element of science. Her approach relies on analysis of personal and narrative accounts—such as interviews, focus groups, think-aloud interactions and oral histories.
“Qualitative research, in many instances, can reveal what numbers and statistics can't,” said Koro-Ljungberg, who joined UF’s education faculty in 2001 after earning her doctorate in education from the University of Helsinki.
Over the past five years alone, she has published a book chapter and 24 refereed articles and presented more than 40 research reports at international and national conferences. She is the only UF faculty member this decade to have published reports in the Educational Researcher, the flagship journal of the American Educational Research Association.
Koro-Ljungberg and co-researcher Regina Bussing, a UF child psychiatrist, recently completed a five-year, $2.6 million National Institutes of Mental Health study on the detection and treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The study relied on both quantitative and qualitative research. Among other things, they found that African-American children and girls of any race with ADHD are less likely than white boys to get proper intervention for their problem. They also observed that parents' perceptions of their child's ADHD-related behavior may be influenced by their child's gender and race.
In a National Science Foundation-funded study, Koro-Ljungberg is working with UF researchers in engineering and education on ways to increase participation and skill in problem-solving processes among students in engineering and, ultimately, other science and technology fields.
“Qualitative investigation is a vital and illuminative research approach in social sciences and other fields that are interested in participants’ experiences and perspectives,” Koro-Ljungberg said. “With a more researcher-guided approach, the voice and perspectives of the individual can get lost.”
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