Estructura de la guía de implementación de un sistema integrado de gestión

3.2.1 Qualitative Research Design

Qualitative research employs a holistic approach to the investigation of social issues. Qualitative research is a flexible approach of inquiry that allows for analysis of social research sites such as educational contexts including in schools, and through education stakeholder perspectives (Charmaz, 2000, 2003, 2006; Hesse-Biber & Johnson, 2015; Mertens, 2014). A qualitative research paradigm, as used in this research, best suits this educational research. Qualitative research provides the opportunity for a rich description of a set of studied events, including relevant philosophical approaches through interpretive discussion (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) around professional practice (Merriam, 2009). The qualitative research approach used in this research includes the selection of an authentic context, which involves teacher participants engaged in employment during curriculum reform. This research provides a rich ethnographic account of the AC: E reform, with the researcher engaged in data collection and synthesis throughout the duration of the project.

This qualitative research project uses the specific data collection

strategies and data analysis processes of constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2000, 2006) and application of a critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2013b),

which are defined in section 3.6. However, constructivist grounded theory processes (Charmaz, 2006) are also used to provide some quantitative measures. The codes and categories that are identified by the researcher, make transparent the identification and significance of occurring and recurring ideas. This process assists in the organisation and construction of dominant themes. This

methodological approach enables a rigorous and flexible approach through a thorough interpretation and analysis of the data (Creswell, 2003; Glaser & Strauss, 1967).

3.2.2 Case Study

Case study approaches in qualitative research impact students and teachers, as they explore:

mindsets that underpin new ways of thinking about the purposes and processes of schooling. They provide insights into a diverse range of modestly ambitious practices that respect a commitment to positioning students as active producers of knowledge that is meaningful to and for them in their present and their futures (Rowan, 2012b, p. 13).

A case study (Roller & Lavrakas, 2015; Stake, 2006) approach is used in this study to examine a bounded or specific system (Burns, 2000; Creswell, 2003, 2012) such as a collection of teachers.

This study involved the participation of 12 voluntary southern Tasmanian secondary school English teachers. The participants’ perspectives of, and

professional needs for, the implementation of the Australian Curriculum: English, from 2012 to 2015 are explored. Teacher responses are examined to add to broader national research into teacher needs for reform and reform

implementation processes. This case study approach delivers pertinent perspectives from teachers in their practice of education reform from within a

unique context or point in educational history, “not normally accessible to researchers” (Yin, 2014, p. 215). The research involves stakeholders from across

the education sectors of southern Tasmania. This case study approach is not concerned with the discovery of a universal or generalisable truth but rather the exploration of teacher perspectives of reform in Tasmanian education sectors. Whilst Abercrombie and colleagues (2006) believe that case studies cannot be generalised, the methods used can be applied to similar or larger research contexts.

The case study approach is highly flexible and interpretive and allows for authentic representation of the education context during social change (Charmaz, 2006; Denzin & Lincoln, 2011; Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Case studies are highly descriptive accounts of particular contexts and offer detailed observation of relevant issues found in genuine and specific milieus (Yin, 2003, 2012). According to Burns (2000), case studies are appropriate for educational settings as they present detail about specific experiences in context and the opportunity to interrogate organisational processes. Inclusion of teacher participant perspectives from across the Tasmanian education sectors allows for representation of the Tasmanian teaching context during education reform. The cross-sectoral sampling through a case study approach elucidates detailed aspects or layers of “complex social phenomena” (Yin, 2003, p. 2) of professional perspective

otherwise lost in broader or less descriptive approaches. Case studies are exploratory, focusing on “process [and] discovery rather than confirmation”

(Burns, 2000, p. 460), which allows for the story of curriculum implementation experience and perspective to be articulated accurately by the researcher via teacher participants.

Case study research sites are bounded systems where the place, time, or the event being inspected is “an entity in itself” (Burns, 2000, p. 460). Burns

approach, which “can be usefully employed in most areas of education” (p. 459).

Case study research is “used to gain in-depth understanding replete with meaning for the subject, focusing on process rather than outcome, on discovery rather than confirmation” (Burns, 2000, p. 460). Because this study is specific to the

particular AC: E implementation in Tasmanian secondary schools, multiple and rich data sources are necessary so as to develop a deeper understanding of that site (Creswell, 2012). Deeper understanding of context is recognised as a vital aspect in case study research design, since it allows the researcher to collate a more reliable body or chain of evidence to extract and create meaning, themes, and discourses from the data (Burns, 2000; Creswell, 2012; Smulyan, 2000; Yin, 2003).

There are five main steps involved in case study research (Burns, 2000; Creswell, 2012; Yin, 2003, 2012), which follow the same general order. The first step is to formulate, define, and clarify the intent of the research, how it relates to the research problem, and identifies the type of case study that it is. The second step is to discuss ethical considerations, such as how the researcher gains ethical approval and access to the research site or subject, including the type and number of participants, and guarantees of participant confidentiality and safety. The third step describes the types of data and how they are to be collected. A range of data sources are used for triangulation. The fourth step is to analyse the data within a suitable analytical framework for overall understanding and description. This step develops the themes as located in the data for analysis. The final step is to develop the research findings or conclusions with the research design based on the researcher’s description, analysis and interpretation of the data.

In this case study research, constructivist grounded theory informs these five steps in case study design. The processes develop, refine and redefine the research project’s direction, including how and where data sources are used.

Using a constructivist grounded theory approach allows for the “findings [to be] literally created as the investigation proceeds” (Guba & Lincoln, 1994, p. 111).

This qualitative interpretive (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) research uses a poststructural feminist position to “gain in-depth understanding replete with meaning for the subject” (Burns, 2000, p. 460). Through this theoretical position,

the data gathered to explore the research aims, are exposed and “made available for scrutiny, comment and (re)negotiation, as part of the process” (Maynard,

2013, p. 25) by the researcher for analysis and possible further research.