Having fully considered the ethical implications of my position as a teacher-researcher within my own learning and teaching context prior to receiving the formal permission from the RMIT University Human Ethics Research Committee I resolved that my research activity would not impinge in on my regular approach to establishing a firm professional rapport in my working relationships with all students. In essence, I acknowledged that, “ethics has to do with the application of moral principles to prevent harming or wronging others, to promote good, to be
respectful and to be fair” (Sieber, 1993, p. 14). Likewise, that research questions need to be sensitive and ethical and suit the purpose of the inquiry (e.g., Higgs & Cherry, 2009). Thus, I ensured that the data collection processes did not seek any information that could be misconstrued as being of a personally sensitive nature.
Importantly, the participants were made aware of the ethical protocols that applied, that participation was strictly voluntary, and that they could withdraw their participation at any time.
While I had explained to the students, during the active course time that I would be seeking their participation, the questionnaire, together with the Plain Language Statement was made available for collection from my office after the all course work had been assessed. All participants were assured that rather than identifying them in any way, pseudonyms would be used (e.g., Berg, 2004). At the stage when students gave consent for aspects of their work to be included in the collective data, they were asked to sign the appropriate Consent Form, which was duly stored along with all collected data as stipulated by ethics guidelines. As a means of maintaining anonymity, participants’ names were entered in code form, which also distinguished the data according to the relative course (e.g., Glesne, 2006). Three more points follow:
1. As some of the data provided by the participants includes general comments about their experiences in their professional practice schools, I resolved that the schools, or teachers, would not be identified at any time or in any way.
2. At times, the participants included photographs of themselves or their peers in their visual journals, hence, I purposefully excluded use of these in the thesis even though they were often interesting representations of digitally manipulated imagery and almost beyond recognition.
3. In selecting pieces of the participants’ artwork as part of the data collection, I focused on collecting a cross section of approaches to ICT integration rather than extremes of what I might have perceived as being favourable or otherwise.
In addition to the above, I did not anticipate any sense of compromising the integrity of the data collection process on the following basis:
1. While the study was concerned with gaining insights into the various ways students respond to opportunities to use ICT and the factors which influence their responses, their actual attitudes were totally irrelevant to the assessment processes of the visual arts courses at the time of the research.
2. As noted before, the visual arts courses within this research period were the first to offer students opportunities for ICT integration, and thereby of particular relevance to the
research. But, the students’ choice of traditional or digital media, or combination of both, was optional.
3. The overall assessment requirements of the course did not include a specific ICT component. Thus again, I expected that students would freely choose either traditional or digital media or a combination of both, for their art project purposes, and their presentation sessions.
4. Apart from the introduction of ICT related learning opportunities, the philosophy and general structure of the courses during the research period was consistent with all preceding semester courses that centred on the traditional practice where students are encouraged to self-select media, techniques and learning approaches within a collaborative learning environment.
With respect to the observation unit of the data collection, during the presentation sessions I acknowledge that this did require communication between the participants and myself and that my presence would have effected the overall class interactions to some degree. However, I considered myself as a non-participant observer in this instance as my purpose was to absorb the stream of the events in an unobtrusive manner (e.g., Burns, 2000). Within these sessions, collaboration involves groups sharing what each student knows and constructing new knowledge in the process. This leads to a networked learning community where learning together accelerates the whole community’s learning through inquiry rather than that of the individual. The concern with reciprocity and reactivity is at the centre of the inquiry as the students share their observations, reflections, responses, and questions, and engage in an ongoing reflexivity to highlight “biases, values, and experiences” (Creswell, 1998, p. 248).
2.16 Conclusion
This chapter has explored the basic reasoning, assumptions, and considerations involved in determining the most appropriate research method. It includes a discussion of the selected paradigm and the theoretical position that underpinned the study. The groundwork to the research, as outlined in the introductory chapter, served as the starting point for establishing the methodological approach to meeting the research goal and the questions. The considerations relative to devising the most appropriate data generation and collection methods were discussed. The latter sections of the chapter explained the rationale for selecting the particular study context, the basic characteristics of the context. Allied to this was an account of each of the data collection units, as was an overview of the various facets of the data collation and analysis. Issues in relation to researcher subjectivity and bias, as well as the ethics considerations have also been presented. In all, the chapter has shown that the combination of
paradigm, methodology, method and perspective choices constituting this study design exemplify the arts-based inquiry characteristics set to “expand, possibilities, enabling educators to see more of the things that need to be seen … to improve educational policy and practice”
(Barone & Eisner, 1997, p. 116).
Chapter 3
The impact of computer technology advancements on education
3.1 Introduction
The premise of this chapter is the long-standing view within the national and international discourse of visual arts education, that the discipline does not exist in a vacuum, separate from the current cultural epoch emanating from the overwhelming impact of the rapid advancements in ICT on society and the broad sphere of education, including preservice teacher education.
Accordingly, it provides an overview of the increasing focus on computer technology in education as it emerged during the 1980s and grew exponentially from that time. Allied to this are some references to new learning concepts, elements of the Australian state and federal governments funding priorities for school computers and the associated media reinforcement, namely from the 1990s to 2008. A summary of successive curriculum perspectives on ICT integration particularly in the field of visual arts education and an outline of the more recent curriculum move towards a first-time national curriculum follow. The close of the chapter touches on the relatively recent calls for more concerted approaches to ICT inclusive pedagogy in relation to the ‘digital native’ characteristics of the current student population (e.g., Betcher &
Lee, 2009; Facer, 2011).