Evolución previsible del grupo

In Section 4.1 of this chapter the researcher’s professional interest and involvement in ROSETE that inspired this research was discussed. Establishing ROSETE as a local knowledge case was acknowledgement of the close connection between researcher and case study subject. As a representative of the NSW Department of Education (Department), the researcher was part of the ROSETE leadership team from the commencement of the Ningbo Student Volunteer Program to December 2013. During those years the researcher developed professional relationships with successive cohorts of ROSETE participants through weekly seminars focusing on teaching in western Sydney schools and in the latter years, intercultural language teaching and learning. Establishing ROSETE in the early years was an experience the Department, University and ROSETE participants shared intimately; the Model was built collaboratively.

This shared knowledge and the professional relationships between interviewer and interviewees situated the researcher as an embodied participant in this research. Alby and Fatigante (2014) argue that within such situated research practice, collaboration and mutual trust are grounded, not only in the formal agreement of the interview, but also in the commonality, enabling the interviewer to see things in the ways the interviewees see them. They further argue that “the latter conceptualisation matches the literal meaning of inter-view as an interchange between two persons in which both make their perspectives mutually accessible” (Alby & Fatigante, 2014, p. 251). Table 4.2.2 provides examples from interview transcripts that demonstrated the interviewer as embodied research participant, emphasised through the use of italics.

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96 Table 4.2.2 Extracts from interview transcripts that demonstrate shared knowledge and understandings between interviewer and interviewee

Participant Extract from transcript Chun Zhen

(R1)

Interviewer

OK. … Tell me how you managed students’ learning and their behaviour.

Female

Mmm. At the beginning, student behaviour is, like, my headache! (Laughter).

Interviewer

Yes. It was, wasn’t it! I remember that! (Laughter) Guang

(R2)

Interviewer

Tell me about your development and the significant milestones or turning points.

Female

Well, I feel every time I attended the class is a turning point for me, because I always learning new knowledge and skills, through every class. It’s really hard to say which one is most important. I described fifteen narratives in my dissertation and these fifteen narratives are critical instance or moment for me. I feel emotionally shocked in mainly three aspects - the are classroom management and organisations; teaching preparations and knowledge of students; and pedagogical content knowledge. These three aspects are the main area I feel I developed more and more professional in teaching Mandarin.

Interviewer

I remember your thesis and those narratives and they were extremely powerful … powerful accounts, I think, of your development, so well done!

Ya Fu (R6)

Interviewer

OK. After you arrived in Sydney and before you started volunteering in schools, how did you prepare for participating in the program? So think about those couple of weeks between when you arrived and when you went into schools. Do you remember that?

Female

Yeah. We had workshop and well, I think that helps a lot…at least gives us some idea how school would be like, what we probably would expect and also, because remember at that point, you are here as well. We actually covered the intercultural thing and also Sam’s scaffolding theory - the thing he is working on - and at least for me personally, that gave me some idea what I will probably...the direction I will probably head into and also honestly that make me feel less stressful. Because, at the beginning, I’ve got no idea what I’m going to face ... what the school is probably like...

Tu Liang (R6)

Interviewer

How do you decide what to teach each week? Female

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97 Participant Extract from transcript

Like you said, you are asked to have the broad topic, but sometimes I just … sometimes we have … how do you say it … in Kalilia Public School we have the scope - according to the scope, I will choose …

Interviewer … a topic … Female

… yes, a topic … different from … it depends on their studying level and their stage year.

The familiarity between interviewer and interviewees enabled interviews to be conducted using a conversational tone, in which shared knowledge and understandings were acknowledged and intimacy built on the norm of reciprocity in relationships (Alby & Fatigante, 2014). Rather than exposing data to the negative threat of mutual influence, the perspective of the interviewer influencing the interviewee’s responses, and the interviewee’s responses influencing the interviewer’s line of inquiry, resulting in “colouring of data” (Yin, 2014, p. 112), this methodological style enabled interviewees’ insights and experiences to be actively constructed in collaboration with the interviewer. The insights researchers bring to the design and conduct of research has been acknowledged by many scholars as a positive influence. Abductive reasoning acknowledges the processes researchers engage in when they bring their intellectual, theoretical and tacit knowledge and imagination to find useful explanations for observed facts (Mowbray, 2010). Gubrium and Holstein (2012) conceptualise the interview process as an active, narrative project in which interviewer and interviewee jointly formulate and shape the accounts that emerge. Within this conceptualisation, interview subjectivity is transformed from a traditional approach in which participants are passive, the interviewer “prospecting” for true facts without shaping the information received and the respondent taking the role of the “vessel of answers” (Gubrium & Holstein, 2012, p. 32), to an active approach in which interviewer and respondent are constructive practitioners who work together, the respondent “a wellspring of narrative knowledge” who generates detailed accounts and the interviewer a “narrative partner in the co-production of accounts” (Gubrium & Holstein, 2012, p. 33). According to Gubrium and Holstein (2012) the complexities of active interviewing require attention to the contingencies of whats and hows. The whats relate to the circumstances of the research project, in particular the interview environment. Analysis must take the environment into account so that results are not

Chapter 4: Research Design and Methodology

98 coded without regard for context but are considered for circumstantial and cultural resonances. The hows refer to the development of interview narratives, which is not incidental but a constitutive part of the meanings that emerge from the interaction between interviewer and interviewee as partners in the interview conversation. Consideration of the hows requires reflection on whether the emerging accounts belong to the individuals telling them or the institutions to which those individuals are aligned (Gubrium & Holstein, 2012). The issue of interviewer reflexivity in this study can be partly addressed through a discussion of the whats and hows, including the specific strategies employed during and following interviews of ROSETE participants.

Whilst the physical environments within which interviews were conducted varied across the 15 interviews, the contextual environment, ROSETE was constant. Within this contextual environment, the shared knowledge and professional relationship between interviewer and interviewees were common to all 15 participants. To reduce threats to reliability of process and validity of data, specific strategies were implemented to manage the interview process. The semi-structured nature of the interviews, using one set of 18 scripted interview questions (Appendix 5), established a consistent focus and direction for all interviews. The script did not constrict participants’ responses however, as the open-endedness of questions allowed for responses which captured the individuality of participants’ perspectives and experiences. Audio recording enabled verbatim records of both interviewer and interviewee contributions, which were later transcribed and repeatedly interrogated. The collaboration of a Chinese national with no relationship to ROSETE, listening to all audio tapes and checking transcripts, allowed for cultural nuances to be identified and considered in analysis. The use of discourse analysis applied to excerpts of interview transcripts provided a deeper level of analysis to complement and triangulate with the condensed data from the entire corpus (see Section 4.4).

Recognition of the researcher’s involvement in this research underscored the importance of ethical conduct. Despite strategies to reduce risks to the validity of this study, Weber points out that “all research is contaminated to some extent by the values of the researcher” (Weber, 1946, cited by Silverman, 2005, p. 257). This solemn reminder of the interconnectedness of researcher and research emphasises the

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99 importance of ethical conduct, discussed with reference to this case study in the next section.