Caracterización del perfil genético de EAEC, DAEC y de las cepas comensales de E

All of the above factors have resulted in the adoption in this thesis of what Blaikie (2007) refers to as a critical realist approach to social enquiry. This is the concept used by Archer, in her wide analysis of the ‘Social Origins of Educational Systems’ (2013). By adopting this critical realist perspective, in addition to the phenomenological perspective, the validity and utility of a mixed method approach has been successfully maintained, as is evidenced in Table 8:

Research Methods – mapping, approaches, and data sources, below. Critical

realism in this case means adopting and arguing for their relevance, a set of related ‘sociological’ or ‘socio-psychological’ concepts which have in terms of the RS and RQs here demonstrated real analytical power, as was depicted above in Table 4 on page 66: Educational and Analytical Key Themes.

This framework of concepts, as a diagram, which indicate where in the thesis the relevant empirical data is vis-à-vis each of the linked concepts, and also where the key themes and theoretical insights are to be found, is depicted below in Table 8: Research Methods: mapping, approach and data sources. However, it is necessary to also justify this positioning of use of a critical realist stance because of the number of alternative research paradigms that are available to the social researcher, as opposed to the scientific researcher. As Scott (2005) argues:

Education researchers have in general a more difficult task: the objects with which they are dealing - individual behaviour, relations between individuals and structural properties of systems - are more likely to change across time and be different in different settings, and those external conditions that allow those powers and capabilities to be manifested do not remain constant.

Scott, 2005: 643.

This difference between open and closed systems is therefore important to the critical realist as social relations take place in open systems. Researching in such open systems is fraught with difficulty because of the nature of the variables that can occur. This research process has been meticulous to ensure that codes were followed: consent forms were written and distributed before every interaction, information letters were written and given out, interviews recorded and

Page 90 of 255

transcribed before coding processes took place, sent back to staff for checking and verification, debrief information given out and access to final study given and explained (Mason, 2002: 44). But that does not mean that the interviews were ‘truthful’ or ‘accurate’ (in any absolute sense), if they had been done in a different week, or month, or financial cycle, they would have potentially elicited different responses, as they are a product of a changing education system (and a fluid ‘phenomenological’ and situational context). As Scott argues:

Our constructs and categories are, therefore, implicated in the nature of that social world. Any descriptions we make about the way social life is constructed refer to a world that has been constructed in part by other descriptions that have been made of that social world in the past and are presently being made. Furthermore, any statements we make, including statements about the relationship between ontology and epistemology, fall into this category and are, therefore, to some extent relative to previous attempts to make sense of the world.

Scott, 2005: 644.

So, bearing this critical realist perspective in mind, a critical realist position accepts a number of foundational principles:

a) that philosophical concerns need to be addressed prior to making decisions about strategies and methods; b) that it is not possible to describe the world in an infinite number of ways because reality acts as a constraint to how it can be described; c) that there are objects in the world that exist whether they are known by anyone or not; d) that there is a need to focus on social practices that are not predetermined by social structures since human beings are knowledgeable agents with powers to make a difference and thus have the capacity to monitor their actions and change the practical setting of action (cf. Giddens, 1984); and e) that a notion of error is accepted in relation to the possibility of providing a correct view of reality.’

Scott, 2005:645.

Critical realism, then, is believed to be the most appropriate RP for this study as it takes the elements of the background of hermeneutics, and places emphasis on the ability of social science to use some of the methods of science to give rigour to social objects and patterns (Outhwaite, 1978). Bhaskar (1978) paid close attention to the views of causal laws (in positivism) as constant conjunctions. Blaikie (2007) has described Bhaskar’s argument that distinction exists between a causal law and a pattern of events:

A constant conjunction must be backed up by a theory that provides an explanation of the link between the two events, a theory that provides a conception or picture of the mechanisms or structure at work. These structures and mechanisms are nothing more than the tendencies or powers that things have to act in particular way in particular

Page 91 of 255 circumstances. Therefore, critical realism is ultimately a search for generative structures and mechanisms.

Blaikie, 2007:147.

In similarity with Giddens (1990), then, Bhaskar (1978) thought that the generative structures (as developed in this research study through coding systems), ‘considered it important to distinguish the knowledge (meanings) used in action, from the beliefs (motives) that prompt or rationalize it’ (Blaikie, 2007:148). So in terms of the research process carried out, the critical realist research paradigm adopted has developed a theory showing that the declining use of the IBDP in the state sector both adds to the decline of social mobility in the wider society and acts as a form of social closure for state school students attempting to access more elite HE institutions in England. Effectively, the leadership in the independent sector are able to increasingly ‘colonise’ this qualification in order to develop a ‘globally mobile transnational political elite’ (Savage et al, 2015:243) who have greater accumulated capitals and thus form part of a new structure in society. The accumulation aspect of capitals (or what sociologists term the CARs approach: capitals, assets, and resources (Savage et al, 2005) is particularly important, as the ability of a social group to be a ‘class for itself’ (i.e. class as composed of people who are class conscious), (Savage et al, 2015:3) means that they share similar tastes and social networks, and – arguably – choice of educational qualifications for their children.

The nature of reality for what social networks can exist, is addressed through a realist ontology, and an accompanying epistemology of knowing why these networks have developed , leads to the neo-realist epistemology (Blaikie: 146), both of which are compatible with a critical realist perspective. Bhaskar himself gave priority to ontology over epistemology: he was ‘committed to the reality of social structures, viewed as the relations between social agents in social positions. These structures have an influence on social activity, in that they both enable and constrain actions’ (Blaikie, 2007:148). However, Benton and Craib (2001) have taken this idea further, arguing that it is only by the behaviours of social agents that social structures are not only reproduced but transformed, even if the empirical transformation is in a regressive direction (Benton and Craib, 2001:132). The ontological issue is concerned with uncovering the attitudes,

Page 92 of 255

feelings, and insights of the active agents in the process under scrutiny. These have been given validity in the structure of the empirical research programme undertaken in the thesis, as evidenced in the Empirical Research Data, Table 1, on page 15.

The argument put forward is that the education system facilitated access to the IBDP by introducing a policy that made access fairer, but following the financial collapse of 2008 withdrew that additional access, and as a result the state sector centres that are currently managing to maintain the IBDP at the expense of other forms of provision, as it is more expensive to deliver and now draws down no additional funding. The SLTs who choose to keep this curriculum choice going in their centres are making this decision based on access of groups to it, and the additional social mobility (or lack of social closure) that they can see gives to their student body. The debate is on who produces this knowledge of the IBDP, and who therefore makes it an epistemic subject (Blaikie, 2007: 181).

As Mason (2002) argues, flexibility is the key when trying to research qualitative data of this nature, as decision-making needs to take place as the research proceeds:

when working with an ontological and epistemological model where theory is generated from empirical data, and data generation and sampling decisions are made in the light of the evolving theoretical analysis, then you cannot – and will not want to – specify in advance all the details of your research design, numbers,...

Mason, 2002:45.

The fact that these SLT interviews have come later on in the research design is not particularly unusual in this type of research process, particularly a longer term piece of doctoral research. The following Table 8 explains where the research methods are mapped out throughout the thesis, alongside their corresponding relevant approaches and data sources.

Page 93 of 255 Table 8 - Research Methods – mapping, approaches, and data sources

Research Paradigm/ Approach Research Method Rationale for data source

Activity and action Key themes and focus Location in thesis

Reflexive Constructionist Qualitative Research notes Semi-Structured Questionnaires Focus groups Interviews semi-longitudinal focus group concept development piloting data

collection of data, coding and condensation of data analysis and interpretation

- why have leadership teams made the decision to implement the IBDP?

-what have SLT’s learnt from implementing non- mandatory policy?

- has the IBDP led to any social mobility or social closure?

- how are ‘capitals’ deployed in those who access the IBDP?

Intro, aims and objectives Sections: 2.1/ 2.4/ 2.8/2.9 and 2.12

Sections 3.5 and 3.6 Sections 4.2 and 4.3

Inductive content analysis SLT interviews feelings and experiences captured as data

inductive category development

Challenge/Curriculum/Learning Curve/Beliefs Section 3.6

Critical Realist concepts SLT interviews meanings versus motives

Critical insight applied to findings

Learning processes Sections 2.12 /3.6/and 4.3

External textual evidence IBO and government documentation School/College visits & websites

externally verifiable evidence textual objectivity collection of documents assessment of relevance analysis

verification of research context(s): 8 centres

Validity tests: themes in context

Sections 1.2/1.4/1.6/1.7/ 1.10./2.10 and Appendix 12 (pages 18-36) Tables 5 and 9 Section 4.2 Critical reflexivity Reflective accounts professional

judgments on achieving implementation processes evaluated self-reflection Self-evaluation and critique

social and educational reasoning transformation and changes

Table 4

Sections 5.1/5.2/5.3/5.4/ 5.5/5.6/5.7 and 5.10.

Page 94 of 255