One outcome of The Belfast Agreement (1998), also known as the ‘Good Friday
Agreement’, was the concept of equality in all aspects of provision in NI. This section discusses the impact of equality in terms of the research where it was necessary to take account of NI’s segregated schooling system and the NI Executive Government’s Shared Education Act (2016). The collection of data was undertaken on the basis of critical realism, namely the existence of different forms of social reality through which an individual interprets his/her world (Kvale, 2007; Cohen et al., 2011). At the time of planning for data collection in early 2015, there were approximately 200 post-primary schools in NI, mostly designated as ‘secondary’ or ‘grammar’, with entrance to the grammar schools dependent on selection tests. A small number of ‘integrated’ schools catered for pupils of Protestant, Catholic and other religions. Since all post-primary music teachers were required to teach the same programme of study for music, I used a simple random sampling procedure (Cohen et al., 2011) that would encompass views from across NI. It was based on school locations in areas which, for research purposes, I designated as being located in the North (N), South (S), East (E) and West (W) of the jurisdiction. My intention was to include equal numbers of teachers from schools recognised generally as serving a Primarily Protestant (PP) community, a Primarily Catholic (PC) community and to include integrated schools which serve all communities. See Figure 2.1 below for a map of NI with the designated N/S/E/W research areas.
My work as music officer in CCEA (until 2010) meant that I was familiar with the names of post-primary schools across NI. I selected sixty-seven schools and checked online for updates, for example, in relation to school titles and Principals’ names. I sent letters to the sixty-seven principals requesting permission to contact their music teachers.
Twenty-five positive responses from school principals included names of their school’s head of music. I then sent a letter of invitation setting out ethical aspects of the research to the twenty-five music teachers nominated by their school Principal. In return, I received twenty-four positive responses, but ended up with twenty-two committed research participants. Of the schools involved, eleven were grammar schools serving Primarily Protestant (PP) or Primarily Catholic (PC) communities, ten were PP or PC secondary schools and one was an all-ability integrated school. In order to protect confidentiality, participant teachers were identified by the use of
pseudonyms. Teacher pseudonyms, types of school and location of schools are set out in Table 2.2 below.
North South East West
John: PC Sec. Linda: PP Sec. Beth: PC Sec. Elaine: PC Sec. Helen: PP Sec. Paul: PP Gram. Sharon: PC Sec. Jayne: PC Gram. Gail: PC Gram. Dorothy: PP Gram. James: PC Sec. Philip: PP Gram. Cathy: PC Gram. Carol: PP Gram. Louise: PP Sec. Nora: PP Gram. Olive: Integrated. Peter: PC Gram. Alan: PP Sec. Anna: PP Gram. Joan: PC Sec. Rose: PP Gram.
Table 2.2: Teacher pseudonyms, school types and locations
Chapter 1 set out the particular circumstances of educational provision in NI and its impact on the size of schools. For example, pupil enrolments in the secondary schools which participated in the study ranged from 319 pupils in a rural school to 928 pupils in a town school. The grammar schools, located in towns, ranged from 544 pupils to 1,312 pupils. In terms of Entitlement Framework requirements, these figures suggested
potential problems in the breadth of curriculum provision in both small rural schools and some grammar schools. During fieldwork for this investigation I was aware that post- graduate music students were undertaking teaching practice in the different types of schools as part of their teacher-education year at Ulster University. I believed that
their school-based experiences would provide an extra dimension to the research and, on that basis, contacted their education tutor and arranged to meet ten of them as a focus group of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) in the university. This is discussed in Chapter 6.
It was important for me to recognise that all research participants had a social reality based on classroom interaction within the contextual reality of the school which, in turn, existed within a wider community and a cultural social reality (Kvale, 2007 p. 11). Each also had a private personal reality of lived emotional experience, underpinned by feelings. It was, therefore, important to note Ezzy’s views (2010, p.164) of qualitative interviewing as “Embodied Emotional Performance” and as “a communion rather than a conquest”. Considering teachers’ multiple dimensions of experienced realities, the research interviews raised the issue of teachers’ emotional state at the time of the interview, for example, perhaps after a difficult day’s teaching or the anxiety of
participating in the interview between timetabled lessons. Although they were advised by the letter of invitation that their personal viewpoints were very important, there could be no guarantee that views expressed were not influenced by both the teacher’s lived experience and the interview conversation. Whilst assuming the role of objective researcher within the conversations, my awareness that some participants might have known me as a CCEA music officer called for conscious reflexivity throughout the data- collection activities (Banister et al., 1994, p. 13; Cruz, 2015). Also, given the NI Executive Government’s focus on bridging the community divide through its Shared Education Act (2016) and Sharing Education policy (DENI, 2015) it was important that while answering questions, participants would have the freedom to elaborate upon their responses and introduce additional items of content and/or comment. Self-awareness of personal bias within the research process (Banister et al., 1994, p. 51), namely, a belief that music education can create a bridge across community division, was an important factor in devising the content and conduct of the interview.
Fundamental to the proposed semi-structured interview methodology was the need to address, fully, the ethical dimensions of the proposal. These needed to be underpinned by three sets of principles, namely, the Nolan Committee’s ‘Standards in Public Life’ (1995), the Universities UK ‘Concordat to Support Research Integrity’ (2012) and the University of Glasgow’s (UOG) ‘Code of Good Practice in Research’ (2016); all of which ensure that behaviour is consistent with moral judgement. In terms of research, they require honesty, rigour, transparency, good communication and care and respect. My
research integrity was dependent on meeting a number of requirements set by the UOG’s Ethics Committee (UOGEC) before the commencement of external research. I had to convince the UOGEC of the benefits of the research to NI communities; obtain agreement on methodology (methods of data collection, retention, storage and disposal); get permission to access participants and agreement on my means of maintaining confidentiality and protecting their privacy. My integrity training at UOG supported the ethical requirements of the research by stressing the need for respect for participants, honesty, accuracy and confidentiality in reporting research outcomes. Protection of privacy, addressed through anonymity across all aspects of the research, is maintained throughout the thesis. Teacher participants are identified by pseudonyms and the schools (secondary, grammar or integrated) are identified only by the
community they serve (PP or PC) and an indication of their location across NI (see Table 2.2 above). The UOGEC’s research approval letter is included as Appendix 1 and the letter to the music teachers as Appendix 2.