Qualitative Analysis of The Students and Faculty Member's Experiences Regarding the Concept of Academic Rigor

The present study aimed at investigating the students’ and faculty members’ perceptions and experiences regarding the concept of academic rigor and identification of its descriptive categories and exploring the relationships among them. The qualitative phenomenography method was applied in this interpretive research. Potential research participants were full-time faculty members and students of University of Kurdistan during the academic year 2016. Purposive, criterion-based and snowball sampling procedures were used. With maximum diversity and theoretical saturation of data, semi-structured interviews were done with 51 participants (20 students and 31 faculty members). Data were analyzed inductively, by theoretical coding method. The results demonstrated five different methods by which faculty members and students realized and experienced academic rigor. Descriptive categories of academic rigor including, fulfilling the expectations of the university system, swimming upstream, maintaining the proper social distance, and providing an appropriate situation for active learning were categorized as fluid concepts. In general, students and faculty members reported academic rigor as a set of duties, meeting the standards, difficulty, attraction, and trying for the future objectives.