Extracting and
116 6.7.1 Data collection
The data collection phase consisted of two stages; the preparation and piloting was the first stage, and the field work was the second stage. Each stage will be discussed as follows:
6.7.1.1 Preparation
There were five steps for preparation before starting the fieldwork. These were:
1- Recruitment of universities that fit the sampling criteria. I e-mailed all Higher Education institutions that taught interior design as a Bachelor’s degree and got acceptance from three institutions. As discussed in the sampling section, three interior design schools were targeted as it was the minimum number for triangulation, to realistically accomplish the research requirements.
2- I visited the institutions that agreed to participate in my research. I met the tutors face to face to discuss the research phases and what they expected of me, and I checked the natural settings of the studios. It was important to build a sense of trust and understanding with the tutors, and to give them a chance to ask questions to further understand what I intended to do, in addition to giving the information sheet. The significance of developing this trust afforded a greater chance of access to data that would be beneficial to the research.
3- I created a schedule of the academic term for each institution, depending on the timeline and dates of the chosen project for the research. Each institution was considered to be one case study and I intended to investigate one project at each institution. In all three cases, one interior design project lasted one academic term, from the first step to the last. This meant that in order to meet all three targets, three academic terms were needed. The first case was during the first academic term of 2013/2014; the second case was during the second academic term of 2013/2014 and the third case was during the first academic term of 2014/ 2015. This is considered a long period of time for fieldwork, however, it was the minimum logical number of cases for triangulation. This point will be discussed further in the
117 section on limitations.
4- Preliminary observation at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) took place in order to improve my observation skills. It was a part of the pilot process. It helped me to clarify the huge amount of data available and stay focused on the research question. I created a note-taking template that helped me to stay focused and to note down the necessary data. As attached in the appendix, the observation templates are divided.
5- Arranged train bookings, hotel reservations and audio tools as a last step of preparation to start the fieldwork. This was a crucial step that could dramatically influence the research.
6- The pilot process, the research methods, and the research design should be tested and verified scientifically before the actual field work begins (Creswell, 2014). For this research, I tested my methods in two institutions; a college of art in London (the name is anonymised for ethical reasons), and a school of art in England. After getting the e-mail approval from the course directors, I conducted three interviews and two days of observations at each institution. The piloting process aimed to ensure the validity of the MBTI test in relation to the
supplementary questions and the Six Thinking Hats activity, and the interview responses in relation to the observation. The first positive thing was the timing, as three days of observations were sufficient to capture the necessary data and dynamics needed for this research. The interview responses showed
homogeneous and promising data consisting of the three sections. The data revealed strong reflection between the implicit personal thoughts and attitudes in the outer behaviours, verbal communication, and actions.
6.7.1.2 Starting the Field Work
As discussed, the field work constituted six steps and the same process was applied in the three institutions that participated in the research. Moreover, the six steps were intended to be conducted in one academic semester. Those six steps were: introductory observation, active observation, documenting the observations, individual observation,
118 interviewing and data documentation.
1- Introductory observation: on the first day of the observation, there was a transition from the unknown to the known. As I had no idea of the place, educators, students, projects or any other information it was important to become familiar with the situation. The course leader (educator) introduced me to the students and other educators, as a first step towards creating a direct relationship between the students and myself. 2- Active observation: usually, I would revisit the institution on three more occasions during the academic semester, mainly to attend presentation days, a normal day in the middle of the semester, and the final critique. On a normal studio day, I observed the general setting of the studio and the relationship between students, educators and their surroundings. At this step, the focus was on documenting the dynamic of the interior design studio culture, which revealed the studio as a culture and as a place. 3- Documenting the observations: taking notes on my main observations was an important step, since small details could matter later on. Writing down these small details completed the puzzle of the studio. Later on, when the observation of the three institutions had been completed, the differences and similarities were compared. Then, I was able to see repetitive themes and phases which helped me to make saturated statements with regard to similarities.
4- Individual observation: individual observation of students was a verification
process that supported the data from the interviews. This also helped me to be familiar with students’ personalities through their attitudes and behaviours. On presentation days, the focus was on observing students’ behaviour during their mid-term and final presentations and their responses to educators’ feedback.
5- Interviewing: I conducted interviews of students in the middle of the term (after the mid-term presentations). The rationale behind conducting interviews at this time was to give the students a chance to settle down and become more familiar with the process, avoiding the early weeks when there might be confusion, and the final weeks when they are under additional pressure. Additionally, by this time students would
119
have an initial idea of their working structure or thinking process. Educators’ interviews could be conducted any time as it would not make a difference; the most important thing was choosing a time convenient for them.
6- Data documentation: in this research, there were two actions: transcribing the interviews from audio to a text-based format, and transforming the observation notes into lengthy descriptive observations, then preparing all documents and organising them for the analysis phase. This step could be considered as the in-between phase, as it was the last phase of data collection and the first phase of data analysis.
6.7.2 Data analysis
As this research adopts qualitative Grounded Theory, the code comes directly from the data. This is called “inductive coding” (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Strauss and Corbin, 1998; Charmaz, 2014). The research intended to fulfil two primary aims: understanding the interior design studio, and defining creativity in relation to other variables in interior design pedagogy. Thus, there was a different analysis approach followed for each aim. Although the coding and analysing steps in Grounded Theory were considered
controversial, currently there are much clear explanations of the different types of coding and analysis (Gibbs, 2002; Miles, 1994: Bazeley, 2013).
6.7.2.1 Preparation and Reflection
1) Familiarisation: becoming familiar with the data of the three institutions; studio observations, individual observations of students, student interviews, and educator interviews.
2) Substantive thematic coding: after reading the observation material, alongside the interviews and findings themes that repeat across the data and answer the
research question. From the data of the studio, the data has been coded according to the main phases of the pedagogical process applied in the studio. These
thematic codes have been repeated across the three institutions, and the data accumulated around these themes.
3) Theoretical coding: the data related to creativity was coded theoretically,
120
under themes. The analysis of MBTI Personality tests for each student was analysed following the procedures from David Hogson book, and the six thinking hats activity were ordered for each student. Regarding the definition of creativity, a second phase of axial coding was completed. Axial coding in Grounded Theory is
“the process of relating codes (categories and concepts) to each other, via a
combination of inductive and deductive thinking” (Charmaz, 2014 p. 62). As codes
and categories of creativity definitions coded in relation to personality types and thinking styles emerged from the first coding phase. To analyse the data properly, I created tables that simplify the process of linking, bridging and finding
relationships between themes and variables. All student and educator interviews were organised into tables to find out what themes the data became saturated under, or to find the links between perceptions, thoughts and ideas.
4) Cross-case analysis: Analysing the studio observations took another form after coding and categorising the phases of the three projects. The cross-case analysis means to carefully read the same phase or step across the three institutions in order to reveal any similarities or differences across those institutions. The findings should reveal any significant pattern in the pedagogical process of the studio, which could be used to develop the practice. For example, project briefs were given to students at the beginning of a project in all three institutions, however the content and guidance in the briefs were different. These kinds of differences were analysed in relation to the student perceptions of these briefs, and by comparing the results of student interpretation of the briefs.
5) Constant comparative analysis: students were the focal point of the research. Constant comparison between the variables surrounding students took two phases; the first one compared the students’ definitions of creativity in relation to personality type, thinking style, and educator definitions of creativity to reveal any correspondences which could represent similarities, differences, contradictions, influences and so on. This contributed to answering the research questions and enhancing the understanding of the context. This step was significant in the
121
analysis phase, as it generated the grounded theory from the data that made up the theoretical foundation of the research.
The second phase analysed individual students by constant comparison of the five variables; students MBTI personality type, supplementary questions (verification of MBTI test), thinking style, definition of creativity, and individual observation. This step rendered a direct, simple and logical theoretical framework. By completing this analytical phase, the extraction and writing-up phase could begin.
6.7.2.2 Extracting and Writing
The first step in discussing the findings (categories and themes), was in relation to the literature by synthesising my findings to the existing body of knowledge. The substantive domains related to this research are interior design pedagogy, the interior design studio, and creativity. By answering the research questions, the data was examined in relation to the views from these three domains in order to fill the gap within the interior design field, thus directly addressing the research aim.
The second step was grounding the theory of creativity saturated from the student and educator definitions of creativity. This theory is the theoretical foundation for the
contribution to knowledge in this research. As each coded category represents a theme in the underlying theory, these concepts then construct the theoretical framework resulting from the study. Finally, I extracted the conclusion, my contribution to knowledge, and recommendations.
6.8 Ethical Considerations
Social science research has embraced ethical considerations, in order to prevent harm coming to anyone involved in research, either researchers or participants (Laine, 2000; Denzin and Lincoln, 2011). This section is concerned with: consent, confidentiality and verification. The second section covers the value of trustworthiness and the obligation to ensure truth value, applicability, consistency and neutrality in order to ensure
trustworthiness. The third section explains the triangulation process from an ethical perspective in relation to credibility value.
122 6.8.1 The Ethical Values Discussion
Consent, according to the contemporary standard of social research (Charmaz, 2014), means that members of society have the absolute right to choose what they want to do and what they do not want to do (De Laine, 2000). There was a procedure to ensure personal agreement and full acceptance to participate in the research (Denzin and
Lincoln, 2011). Educators and students were officially informed via information sheets that they were under no obligation to participate and that they had the right to withdraw from the research at any time. They were informed of their rights and the process for the research before any interviews or observations were conducted. Ensuring the consent of participants was necessary to avoid pressurising individuals. Moreover, it was essential to prove that all participants were aware of their rights, the research context, what they were expected to do, data protection compliance, and confidentiality.
Confidentiality is one of the most significant tools for protecting individual privacy (Glaser, 2002). Keeping names anonymous helped to protect the confidentiality of educators, students, and institutions (De Laine, 2000; Russell and Gregory, 2003). Moreover, the data was treated with consideration, to ensure that no one had access to it apart from my supervisors and myself, and that it was saved on a password protected personal computer. In the analysis phase and the discussion section, each participant was given a reference code to ensure confidentiality at all stages of the process (Russell and Gregory, 2003; Seale, 1999).
The validity of qualitative studies was a contentious issue that caused wide rejection of it as scientific research in the 1980s, therefore developing verification strategies and assessing the trustworthiness of qualitative research was essential (Morse et al., 2002). Verification strategies maintain the power of the researcher over the research data by providing supportive self-correcting data (Morse et al., 2002; Charmaz, 2014). The verification step is an ethical process that can shift the power of the researcher while collecting, interpreting and representing data (Laine, 2000). In order to address this ethical issue, the interviews give the necessary verification to consider educators’ and students’
123 perspectives.
Several ethical issues appeared in the process of collecting the data and as a researcher I had to deal with these situations with a high degree of sensitivity and confidentiality. Researchers should be ready for the unexpected, by responding wisely, ethically and morally (Bazeley, 2013). For example, during the observation procedure, unintentional access to confidential or sensitive information may occur and it is thus crucial to protect this information as this will be significant to the people involved:
[t]he new “activism” calls for social relationships that are intimate and close and requires researchers to demonstrate more authenticity, sensitivity, maturity and integrity than in previous moments of social science (Laine, 2000 p. 2).
6.8.2 Trustworthiness of the Research
The assessment of trustworthiness has different meanings for qualitative and quantitative research, following different models and criteria. This difference is due to the different purposes and traditions of qualitative and quantitative strategies (Krefting, 1991 p. 219). In quantitative research, the value of trustworthiness is assessed by the validity of the
numbers and facts, which are indicated by the ability to generalise theories or findings (Agar, 1986). Whereas in qualitative research, generalisability does not carry the same weight (Payton, 1979) and other terms should be considered, for example credibility, accuracy of representation and the authority of writers (Agar, 1986). Indeed, Leininger (1985) argues that the issue with all these ethical considerations is not the conceptual framework underpinning the assessment, but the definitions of these concepts. Therefore, different models and strategies have been formed to assess the trustworthiness of
qualitative research, depending on the approach that has been adopted. Since each method of qualitative research has to adopt different approaches to achieve their specific purposes (Flick, 2014), the trustworthiness values and concepts are different from one approach to another (Krefting, 1991 p. 219).
124
qualitative research. The concepts of this model are: truth value, applicability, consistency and neutrality. These concepts or values should be defined differently depending on whether the quantitative or the qualitative perspective is dominant.
There are different strategies to assess these values in research based on the type and quality of the research. “These strategies are important to researchers in designing ways of increasing the rigor of their qualitative studies and also for readers to use as a means of assessing the value of the findings of qualitative research” (Krefting, 1991 p. 215). Despite there being several models for evaluating the trustworthiness of qualitative research, Guba’s model has been the one conceptually developed and most widely adopted by qualitative researchers (Krefting, 1991 p. 219). Guba and Lincoln (1982) have reflected their concerns about trustworthiness by proposing four metrics: truth value, applicability, consistency and neutrality.
Truth value is a philosophical principle concerning the meanings and characteristics of the world in order to make judgments about objects as true or false (Kant, 1987). The truth value generally means abstract objects and entity that crucial to identify the identities of objects. In social science, truth value cannot be either true or false, as it deals with human nature that cannot be restricted to these two options of being true or false (Hughes, 1990). As qualitative research following Grounded Theory, this study does not claim to be
generalisable in and of itself, however the applicability discussion presented promising potential. In other words, in this research the consistency of findings led to new saturated outcomes, which represents a high value of truth that can be generalised.
Applicability was a fundamental factor in this research, despite the fact that clarification of the context was the most important aim. I studied interior design at Bachelor’s degree level, then worked as a teaching assistant in an interior design department for one year. I have dedicated my research to achieving the goal of developing pedagogical practice in interior design, and to help myself and my colleagues to teach students using advanced approaches. Teaching students with a clear vision of how to improve their education holistically, and to use all their talents and abilities fully was the target of this research. My
125
goal was to find ways to improve their creative abilities and criticality, and to reach an outstanding level in interior design pedagogy. As both a student and an educator in an interior design department, I believe that both perspectives are important when
constructing an exceptional education experience.
Neutrality may seem like interfering with the subjectivity meaning in this research, however despite the fact that there is a personal opinion in this research, neutrality in documenting, transferring, analysing and stating the findings related to honest neutrality. Thus, neutrality in documentation and interpretation is a must in all research, which is different from neutrality in the research methodology and research approach.
Credibility is defined as the truth value in qualitative research. It is essential to ensure the reliability of the data gathered, especially as in qualitative research there is a high
subjective sense of the researcher. Reflexivity and triangulation are the conceptual values considered to increase the credibility of the research. Reflexivity refers to assessment of the influence of the investigator's own background, perceptions and interests, in the