Entrevistas de profundidad

Research design refers to the arrangements and plans the researcher makes or how they intend to generate and analyse data in line with the study objectives (Ahmed et al., 2016). It can be understood as the main plan of any study that outlines the strategy of carrying out a research. A research design determines the methods and techniques of producing and analysing data. All major components of the research (the groups or samples, measures, programmes or treatments, and more) are seen to work collectively in an effort to answer the questions of the research (Yin, 2003). A research design is like a designer’s outline. It represents logic in a set of measures that enhance the soundness of data for any research. According to Yin (2003), a research design is an action strategy “for getting from here to there; here may be the initial set of questions to be answered, and there is defined as some set of conclusions”.

There are five specific qualitative research designs, namely, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, biographical (historical), and case study (Cresswell, 1998). Phenomenology examines the distinctiveness of the lived experiences of individuals and each person’s own subjective truth. Grounded theory discovers the challenges that occur in society and how individuals handle them. It includes formulating, testing and redeveloping proposals until a theory is established. Biographical studies permit researchers to collect archival documents like speeches, interviews, and other writings. It makes use of various media including audio and video footage, and pictures, to present a comprehensive story about the phenomena under study. Ethnographic studies recognise culture, the variables for study, and literature review. It permits the researcher to obtain informants and gather data through interaction with subjects and direct observation. It also allows them to enter into the culture and immerse self in culture. Lastly, the case study is the most characteristic application of qualitative research in instructional technology,

which is adopted as the research design strategy for this research.

This research investigated the academic use of smartphones among secondary school students at Harare High School in Zimbabwe, using a case study as a research design. The research focused on fifteen students who engaged in semi-structured in-depth interviews. Fifteen parents of the fifteen students and five teachers who teach the fifteen students were requested to complete the questionnaires. The findings from the parents and teachers’ questionnaires were intended to augment the interviews of the students. Parents and teachers contributed their perceptions and views on the use of smartphones by their children and students, respectively for academic purposes.

3.4.1 The case study design

A case study aims at understanding the people in a society by inferring their activities as a single event, a single group, or community (Thomas, 2010). According to Gillham (2000), it is an investigation aimed at answering particular research questions that pursue a variety of indications from the event settings. According to Yin (2003), a case study is an investigation that explores a modern occurrence within its natural setting, particularly when the margins between context and phenomenon cannot be visibly outlined. This design is appropriate in circumstances where the background settings of the phenomenon under study are key, and the researchers have no control over the occurrences as they happen (Lewis & Ritchie, 2003). Ritchie and Lewis (2003) state that the key feature of a case study is that it allows for a diversity of perceptions which are entrenched in an exact context.

The case study design can be an event, activity, or a programme confined to a particular place and time. A case study explores in detail a case or bounded system over time, and employs various sources of data available in that set-up (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001). All the pieces of evidence gathered are collated to reach the feasible answers to the research questions. Assuming the interpretive approach implemented in this study and the type of the research questions, the case study design is well thought-out as the most suitable method to engage as it offers a systematic way of gathering information, analysing it and reporting the outcomes. This will ensure that the study comprehends in great depth the phenomenon being investigated (Thomas, 2010). More precisely, it (i) offers a diversity of views from the participant (Seppälä & Alamäki); it uses multiple techniques for generating data; and (iii) it explores the combination of learning and instructional approaches inside a technology-rich setting.

When I adopted the single-case study strategy as the research design of this research, I gained a sharpened understanding of why the students at Harare High School used smartphones in the way they did. The design raised some important areas that required more extensive examination in future research. A single-case study is significant in the psychology and education as a discipline and is effective when researchers use it to test instructional strategies that are specific. Different from many other research designs, the case study can use any methods of data generation methods or data analysis and is not restricted to specific methods (Merriam, 1998). As a result, combinations of data-generation techniques were chosen in this research in the hope of providing a comprehensive representation. Therefore, the approach uses multiple methods of data generation such as semi-structured in-depth interviews, questionnaires, document or records reviews, and subsequently direct participant observations of the phenomena being studied (Yin, 2003).

While data generation in an exploratory case study can often be less structured, this does not mean that there is no structure, but a question of its extent (Thomas, 2010). Normally, the focus group entails less structure, and this may often be because of: the fact that information arises from interacting with the group. This is typical of focus groups, and it is difficult to impose structure on a group discussion (Seppälä & Alamäki); (Lewis & Ritchie, 2003). While unstructured interviews may often involve a comprehensive agenda they can be directed through management and questioning techniques (Merriam, 1998).

A case study has four basic characteristics namely; descriptive, particularistic, inductive, and heuristic (Thomas, 2010). Descriptive denotes the extensive and rich set of facts relating to a phenomenon. Particularistic represents one event process or circumstance that the study focuses on. These two characteristics are heuristic because each of them advances the appreciation of the issue under study, and inductive represents the perceptive used to govern concepts or generalisations which arise from the data (Merriam, 1998).

It should be noted that research methods and paradigms are not dependent upon each other. Although researchers may use them to support their studies, it must be noted that the qualitative methods are not synonymous with the philosophical approach of interpretivists adopted in this study (Yin, 2003). Depending on the researcher’s underlying philosophical assumptions, qualitative research and designs may or may not be interpretive. It may also be critical or positivist. It also implies that the selection of a particular research design in qualitative studies (such as action research or a case study) does not depend on the underlying philosophical stance

adopted (Myers, 2013). This research has used the interpretive paradigm.

There has been some criticism of case study research that is based on its lack of generalisability using statistical parameters, and its non-representativeness. It should be noted that outcomes of a case studies are non-representative and they do not claim to be, instead, researchers using case studies emphasise on what may be acquired from a single case study (Tellis, 1997). Single case studies advance essential facts in the relevant areas of knowledge. Accordingly, the basic idea of a single case study is not to prove but to expand knowledge about a phenomenon (Stufflebeam, Madaus, & Kellaghan, 2000). This study, therefore, seeks to improve knowledge of the use of smartphones for academic purposes among students in secondary schools, a study that has not been conducted in the Zimbabwean context. Denzin and Lincoln (2000) still claim generalisability of case studies to be in existence despite the non-existence of a clear and detailed data analysis procedure of case study, and the challenge of being unable to provide generalisability in a statistical sense data (Miles & Huberman, 1994). They maintain that generalisability can be enhanced by observing many actors in several set-ups. Yin (2003), also states that case studies can be used for generalisations that are analytical, in which the aim of the investigator is to take a broad view a specific set of the results to some wider theoretical intentions.

Some researchers also criticise case studies, citing that the complexity and richness of the data gathered imply that the data are regularly exposed to potential researcher bias and various interpretations (Comford & Smithson, 1996). However, those supporting and those against these views agree that there is no perfect research methodology. Consequently, researchers may have to utilise data from various procedures (Thomas, 2010). Basing on the kind of the research questions and the interpretive approach adopted in this research, I have confidence that the case study is the right approach for this research. The advantages of this approach include the fact that it reveals the unique concerns and perceptions of different participants in a research in real-life situation in great detail. This could have been missing if experimental or quantitative methods were used. Case studies are appropriate to situations where it is very hard to detach variables of an occurrence from its natural settings (Yin, 2003); and this research is one such situation.

3.4.2 Sampling

Questionnaires have been used as a sampling strategy in choosing the students to participate in the research. Sampling is to select a small set from the general public for the purpose of making

observations in a study (Dube, 2013). Convenience and purposive sampling techniques were used for this research. Convenience sampling is also entitled opportunity or accidental sampling. It includes picking the nearest person to become a respondent and repeating that procedure till the sample size required has been attained, or pick from those who are accessible or available at that given time (Cohen et al., 2007). In this research, convenience sampling was applied to secondary school students who completed the questionnaires as a strategy for selecting the fifteen participants. Researchers in purposive sampling select the subjects or objects to be incorporated into the sample based on their judgement of their characteristics. By doing so, they produce a sample that meets their particular requirements. Purposive sampling is also called purposeful sampling (Teddlie, Tashakkori, & Johnson, 2008). This sampling was applied to the teachers and parents of the selected students. It is an ordered sampling method in which the investigator picks cases that are information-rich in order to carry out an in-depth study (Patton, 2002). In purposeful sampling, the researcher chooses a sample from subjects or objects where most data may be obtained (Merriam, 1998). This sampling strategy is commonly used in qualitative research. It searches for some cases that are loaded with data which may be examined in greater detail about matters that are fundamental to the purpose of the study. Benefits of purposeful sampling can be described as any common patterns that are a result of great variation, and are of particular value and interest in apprehending the essential, shared dimensions and core experience of a phenomenon (Patton, 2002).

In this study, students who had smartphones and were able to use the devices for learning purposes have been selected to participate in the in-depth interviews. In this respect, I administered the questionnaires to all available senior students (Forms 5 and 6) for the sake of addressing them to 15 students. The selection was achieved by assessing the students’ level of smartphone utilisation. This was a convenience sampling technique to select the required fifteen (15) students. All parents/guardians of the 15 students and five teachers from the teaching staff who teach the 15 students were selected purposively to participate in the questionnaire survey. Questionnaires for parents/guardian and teachers were not labelled and had no field that required respondents to indicate their identity in terms of identification number and/or name. To ensure the retrieval of all the questionnaires administered to the students, I ensured that the questionnaires were collected immediately after completion. The style of the research generally dictates the size of the sample. In qualitative research the sample size should be small for effective analysis (Cohen et al., 2007), therefore in this research, the sample size of fifteen was adequate.

Thirty-five participants are involved in this research. This comprises fifteen student participants, who are secondary school students at Harare High School using smartphones for their ‘A’ level academic studies, five teachers who teach these students, and fifteen parents or guardians of the participating students. The students are the primary source of information, while the teachers and the parents provide information to augment the data generated from the students’ semi-structured in-depth interviews.

3.4.2

Before embarking on the main data-production exercise, I first conducted a pilot study for a week with students in the Form Four classes. A pilot study tests and refines the aspects of a final study. These aspects include; fieldwork procedures, its design, data production instruments, and data analysis plans (Yin, 2015). I, therefore, conducted the pilot study with the aim of pre-testing or ‘trying out’ the research, and to identify any challenges related to the proposed research strategy and its full implementation. I then used the outcomes of this pilot study to modify the research programme accordingly. In other words, the pilot study was intended to sharpen the instruments. However, data obtained from this pilot study was not combined or mixed with the data generated from the real study. After I had completed the pilot study and refined the research design adequately, in liaison with the teacher in charge of the students, we agreed that the research should be carried out with the intended group. I scheduled the interviews in such a way that they would be conducted without disrupting the smooth running of the school lessons and programmes. A timetable was drawn up; each student was allocated time when he or she had no lessons or other commitments.