A Qualitative Follow-up of the Maguire Fellows Program

Abstract

This qualitative follow up study sought the impressions of students after a two year program. The analysis of this data involved grounded theory qualitative methods. The primary means of data collection for the qualitative portion of this study was through digitally-recording and transcribing of participants’ voices in response to individual interview prompts. Seven themes emerged from the first interviews which included: Perceptions of leadership; changing perceptions of the Jesuit ideas of Magis/cura personalis; changing perceptions of social justice; perceptions of motivation or desire to lead; Catholic identification; theory to practice; and suggested changes to the program. These themes were reinforced and refined in the second interviews, but a few new themes emerged from the additional data. Specifically, the value of the cohort was strongly expanded in the data from the second interviews. Other new themes included special education, the action research project, and some systems issues.