Chapter 5 – Research Design
Introduction and rationale
THE RESEARCH DESIGN arises from the key research questions as outlined in Chapter One, and from the theoretical and conceptual frameworks as presented. The complexity of the concept relating to relationship, participation, children’s rights, democracy, citizenship, power and motivation have been presented and critiqued through the lenses of student voice research literature and educational policy, particularly on the Irish educational stage. The primary aim of this study was to explore student voice as a drama played out in classrooms, where no policy provision, motivation or experience of student voice exists, and at the student council that is loosely bounded by policy.
The research poses a key question: how is student voice currently manifest in the students’ experience of Irish post-primary schools? Deeper exploration of this question brought the following into sharp focus:
How are the voices of students heard in the current pedagogical experience of students in their daily classroom interaction with their teachers?
What is the students’ experience of student voice when afforded in the classroom?
Does the student council construct reflect an expression of prefigurative democracy that facilitates students to have a voice and a say in decision making at whole-school level? If afforded by right as meaningful and democratic participation, engagement and
consultation in the context of school and classroom experiences, how would student voice find expression and how would it impact on students’ and teachers’ experiences in these classrooms and in the whole school?
This research explored these questions through engaging with the voices of students in nine classrooms and with nine teachers in three Irish post-primary case-study schools. The participant teachers engaged with the voices of their students through dialogic consultation on their learning and on their experiences in the classroom in two phases during one school year. These teachers were interviewed at the initial stages of the research period and on completion of the two phases of the student voice project. Initially, the teachers engaged students in a discussion on their classroom practices and the students’ experience in their classroom. Teachers then reflected on their classroom practice based on the views of the students as expressed through the discussion and in their written responses to a questionnaire. They then taught units of work from their planned programmes taking account of the students’ commentary. Following this series of lessons the
students completed a further questionnaire and a written reflection. A focus group of students from each classroom was also interviewed on completion of each phase of the study period. Written reflective diaries were completed by each participating teacher on their experience of pedagogy based on student voice.
In the same study period, student voice as expressed through the student council in these three post-primary schools was explored. As the council developed its programme of work for the school year, the role, structure and positioning of the council as a representative voice for students within decision-making processes in the school was explored throughout the full academic year. In each school, meetings of the council were observed and a focus group of student council members completed reflective sheets and was interviewed at the beginning and towards the end of the school year. The voices of the student council liaison teacher and the school principal were also heard through interview.
Student voice, beyond the student council construct, does not have visibility in the educational script that informs school and classroom practice in Irish post-primary schools though the term and concept has begun to find its position on the stage through external evaluation and more particularly from its inclusion in school self-evaluation guidelines published by the Inspectorate (Inspectorate, 2012a). Research literature, particularly from England, outlines both the complexity and initial challenge to schools and classrooms relating to student voice initiatives. These challenges emerge particularly though the perceived external imposition of student voice as an instrument of school improvement, accountability and control. Such concerns could come to the fore in Ireland following the embedding of school self-evaluation. In this context, a research design that explored the concept of student voice in Irish post-primary schools focusing on the classroom context and on the pedagogical relationship between student and teacher in tandem with a focus on the particular experiences of students in the student council was chosen. A qualitative research design centred on case-study research with a number of data sources was therefore chosen to explore the drama of student voice in post-primary schools.
Grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) was used as the framework for data analysis to explore this concept in schools. Grounded theory reflects the constructivist framing of this research in that theory was not deductively tested in schools but emerged inductively from interactions with the participants (Bryant and Charmaz, 2007), from the rich data sources that were engaged, and from their close analysis and interrogation (Charmaz, 2006).
Constructivist grounded theory emphasises the situated relationships, interactions and experiences of the participants and the alertness of the researcher to contextual patterns, temporal changes, the complexity of
positions and the emergence of difference in behaviour, action and consequence
(Richards and Morse, 2007). The close and reflexive relationship with the participants is emphasised in a grounded theory research framing. Equally, the significance of the situated nature of that research, and the action and interaction in engagement with or in response to a particular process or phenomenon, in this case student voice, is an on going focus (Creswell, 1998).
Students’ voices were therefore listened to in the context of dialogic consultation with their teachers and through their engagement with the student council. The voices of the teacher, that of the school principal and the student council liaison teacher were also engaged within the context of the overall engagement with, and experience of, student voice in each school. To achieve depth, meaning and understanding, qualitative research combining a number of data sources was used within a case-study research design. Three case-study school settings were identified.
This research design represents an initial step towards engaging with student voice in Irish post- primary classrooms and is, as such, cautious in its initiation of this contested and sometimes challenging process for teachers particularly in the absence of any policy or practice motivation.
Qualitative research
This research is qualitative and is grounded in understanding human actions, activities and behaviours. Qualitative research allows for engagement, and in this research, through a socio- cultural theoretical lens, allows the researcher to gain an insight into the complexity and dynamics of student voice. This research explores the multiple social realities or constructions that emerge through the engagement of student voice in these schools and classrooms. Reality for these students and their teachers is not definible in advance but emerges as socially constructed in the study context. Qualitative research methods were chosen therefore to allow for the understanding of these constructions within the culture or context of each particular school and classroom. Qualitative research concerns the study of empirical realities in terms of case studies, real life experiences, behaviours and texts, to understand both their complexities and meanings. Definitions of qualitative research focus on the gathering of non-numeric data to understand and analyse behaviour in natural human or social settings. Definitions reference complexity, exploration, discovery and induction (Creswell, 1998; Merriam, 1998; Mertens, 2005) as qualitative research attempts to understand a pattern, situation or behaviour in its totality. Patterns are observed and from their analysis a study of the situation or the behaviour emerges (Mertens, 2005).
The researcher builds a complex, holistic picture, analyses words, reports detailed views of informants, and conducts the study in a natural setting
(Creswell, 1998, p. 15). The central ontological assumption of qualitative research is that reality, knowledge and meaning are constructed by individuals interacting in their own social contexts. Qualitative research therefore attempts to understand the experiences, feelings, realities and reactions of the participants in these cultural contexts. Unlike quantitative research methods, it seeks to research and understand the totality and complexity of this world without its deconstruction, or without statistically abstracting its variables to test their significance.
Epistemologically, qualitative research looks at the world from the lived experience of the participant rather than objectively from the researcher standpoint. The researcher is the main instrument of the research (Bryman, 2008; Merriam,1998). This lived experience is mediated through the eyes and ears of the researcher with a keen and careful eye on the risk of bias. Qualitative research also engages the researcher in fieldwork which involves working with the participants in their own setting, to observe how they behave in that context. This type of research therefore involves an inductive rather than a deductive research strategy. Concepts, abatractions, generalisations and theories build from the ground up (Merriam,1998). They build toward theory or generalisation that may emerge from the findings in the field.
Validity in qualitative research is addressed through the use of a wide range of sources and through engagement with these sources over a prolonged period. Validity and authenticity is also addressed though the ongoing review and analysis of findings and by triangulation (Mertens, 2005). While validity, authenticity, trustworthiness or relevance (Bryman, 2008) are a concern for qualitative researchers and a challenge or criticism from the quantitative research community, the search for consistency between sites or cases does exclude the existence of multiple realities (Mertens, 2005). Qualitative research allows for the understanding of these realities, as they exist in particular sites and situations. Triangulation of sources provides internal validity and the use of multiple methods on multiple groups over a prolonged period of time ensures the validity of the research in that setting.
External reliability represents the extent to which research findings will be replicated in other settings. The primary source for reliability is the use of multiple settings or cases researched using standardised methods of data gathering. Rich and detailed descriptions of reality, research of several settings, and triangulation relating to the multiple methods of data collection combine to enhance transferability (Merriam, 1998).
Underpinning qualitative research design, data collection methods and subsequent data analysis is the positioning and identity of the researcher. Reflexivity refers to the effect of the researcher’(s) background, identity and position on the research design and interpretation of findings (Malterud, 2001). It concerns the effect of the researcher on the research and focuses on the awareness of different approaches and positions taken by researchers and an on-going discussion as to whether these approaches signify bias or, once stated and positioned, add to the wholeness and richness of the qualitative research. A reflexive approach accepts and acknowledges the positioning and influence of the researcher on the research design and data gathering processes. It also refers to an awareness and acknowledgement of the potential for bias and the willingness to forefront and to address these issues in both the gathering and analysis of the data. Thus, reflexivity within qualitative research reflects openness and an acceptance of the values that the researcher brings to the process (Creswell, 2003).
Throughout the research design, data gathering and analysis of data, the positioning of this researcher was appropriately identified and recognised by participants. The analysis of questionnaires and the interpretation of interview transcripts required an awareness of that positioning and reflection on its potential impact on the emerging research findings. Reflexivity in this context requires an awareness of the standpoint of the researcher and willingness to:
Seek to show a sensitivity to a range of interpretations and voices in your data, and a willingness to critique and question your own as well as those of others…including understanding the shaping role of our own gaze
(Mason, 2002, p. 177). Qualitative reseach provides a full and detailed description of the topic, issue or situation. Reseach questions are broad and wide reaching and, as knowledge and meaning emerge, these questions, the direction of the study and the design of the research can be refocused. The researcher is centrally engaged in the gathering. Observation, interview or primary documentary sources are key among the data sources. The reseacher is connected to the research as a participant, an observer, or both, but is reflexive in the context of that positioning. What emerges is a narrative based on the reality of one or a number of cases from which conclusions are drawn based on the specific contexts. The data is detailed, complex, and is nuanced by the context from which the generalisations emerge.
The case study
At the centre of this qualitative research study are three case studies. A case study refers to the study of a specific issue, pattern or behaviour in a specific setting.
A case study is an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a single entity, phenomenon or social unit
(Merriam, 1998, p. 34). A case study method is best applied when research addresses descriptive or explanatory questions and aims to produce a first-hand understanding of people and events (Yin, 2006). The case in this research is the school, specific class groups within that school and the student council. The study does not venture outside of the boundaries that the case-study schools provide. The subjects of the case are the students, teachers and the school principal identified as a limited and identifiable groups of participants.
In this research, three cases were used to provide a comparative analysis of different school cultures, which allowed the study to benefit from evidence from a number of cases, and further allowed for comparison or contrasts, and identification of particular themes and variables across the cases. Multiple case studies, in this situation, three schools, created more robust research. Following the gathering phase, the data was related and compared, emergent themes were identified and these were referenced against the key research questions, student voice research and policy literature, and then triangulated and validated across the range of sources and gathering methods. This form of triangulation allowed for a comparison with existing knowledge towards a deeper understanding and the identification of patterns within the cases (Yin, 2006).
Case-study research focuses on particularisation. It references particular details of individual experiences from which generalisations can then be drawn (Merriam, 1998). Cases are therefore studied in great depth:
The general lies in the particular; that is what we learn in a particular situation we can transfer or generalise to similar situations subsequently encountered
(ibid., p. 210). As with qualitative research methods in general, case studies can also be challenged in the context of validity and reliability since understanding a concept, behaviour or pattern in context is the primary purpose of case-study research. Careful conceptualisation and ethical practice are required to address issues of validity. However, the proximity of the researcher to reality in the context of case-study research, and an acceptance that reality, meaning and understanding as ever changing, are central to ensuring validity in qualitative research (ibid.). It is the presence of the researcher, within or in close proximity to the case, that can ensure validity. Internal validity within the case can be achieved through the close engagement and participation of the researcher, an extended research period, continual self-reflection, questioning of the data, and re-evaluation of the fieldwork processes (LeCompte, Preissle and Tesch, 1993). Equally, reliability is secured through
consistent data gathering in a number of settings. This, combined with detailed analysis based on triangulation arising from data gathered using a range of methods, will assure the reliability of the findings from case-study research.
The complexity of student voice and its relative absence in Irish schools facilitates a case study that allows for a holistic and deep examination of the concept in the classroom and the school. To this end, the case study was ‘particular, descriptive and heuristic’ (Merriam, 1998, p. 29). It focused on a particular setting yet is descriptive in that it provides a detailed and deep description of the action, interaction and process as it operates in the particular setting. It is heuristic in that it explains and contains the range of actions, interactions and reactions to student voice in those settings. New knowledge and understanding can therefore emerge from these actions as described in that particular setting that ‘can bring about the discovery of new meaning, extend the readers’ experience, or confirm what is known’ (Merriam, 1998, p. 30).
A case study in the context of this research is therefore robust in that meanings that emerge are based on the reality of the setting. Meanings are set in context and are mediated through the experience of the researcher either as participant or as external observer (Merriam, 1998). This referencing of the findings contributes to generalisation, validity and reliable application to other settings.
Data collection methods
A range of data collection methods based on case-study schools was used in this research. These included questionnaires, interviews and reflections. Questionnaires containing open-ended questions were administered to students in each participating classroom. Students from each class group were then interviewed as a focus group. Participating teachers were interviewed on two occasions. At whole-school level, the members of the student council were interviewed at the outset and on completion of the research period. The principal and the student council liaison teacher were also interviewed in relation to the working and role of the student council in each case-study school.
Students were also asked to complete a reflection sheet to elicit their responses to their experiences of student voice while their teachers completed a reflective diary that traced their engagement with the student voice process through phase one and two of the research.
The questionnaire
The questionnaire gave all of the students in each of the case-study classrooms a voice through their written responses to prompt questions. The questionnaires were designed with the specific purpose of consulting with students to elicit their responses and reactions to their experience of pedagogy in the context of a specific class group, teacher and subject. Data from these questionnaires was not quantified but used as written narrative by both the teacher and this researcher to elicit the voices of these students.
Students were asked to respond to their pre-existing experiences in the school and classroom through an initial student questionnaire. They then addressed similar questions at the end of the research phase to capture their experiences of student voice in the classroom as their teachers responded in their pedagogical practices to the views expressed by the students (see Appendix 1). The students were asked to respond in writing relating to their experience of pedagogy and to their experiences following the dialogic consultation. The questions also sought to explore the affective domain relating to students’ reaction to their classroom experience and also, to identify recognition of resultant actions or changes in the classroom following the consultation. No sampling was required as all the students in the lessons were asked to respond to the questionnaire by their teachers in the context of their classroom.