HOSPITAL SON DURETA, DE PALMA DE MALLORCA

The final theme of ‘Qualities of the technique’ explores the adult participants’ perception of the Ideal Teacher Drawing technique throughout the semi-structured interview and their response to the Likert scale (Likert, 1932) as part of questions four and five of the semi-structured interview (see Appendix L). A separate theme outlying the adult participants’ perceived qualities of the technique was chosen to draw out all responses provided by the adult participants throughout the interview and thereby offer a comprehensive sample of their responses. The theme was separated into two subordinate themes of 1) Rating and 2) Unique approach.

4.6.4.1 Rating.

Using a one to ten Likert scale (Likert, 1932), with ten being the highest, five of the seven participants rated the Ideal Teacher Drawing technique on a seven or higher when asked about the usefulness of the technique in gaining children’s views. Of the five participants who offered a score, two gave the technique a score of eight, two a score of nine and a fifth participant

differentiated between the usefulness of the technique for the current setting and other schools. When differentiating the scores, the participant reported the following:

‘I’d say how useful it is for us at X; I would say it’s about erm a seven, just because the children are so open here.’ The participant followed this up by saying: ‘But in terms of what this can equally do, and outside in schools, I would say like nine borderline ten’ (AP1, p. 283, line 173).

The remaining two participants chose not to use the scale and instead provided qualitative answers to express their thoughts about the technique. The comments of those participants included:

‘But no, I’m saying Christ, I love it. I really love it’ (AP2, p. 295, line 165)

While the second participant commented that:

‘I think it's very high on the scale because, and like I said to you, I think, letting the children just say, rather than asking them specific questions, just kind of giving their ideas, it's given you so much more.’ (AP7, p. 333, line 85).

When rating the usefulness of the technique in gaining an understanding of how to best support teacher-pupil relationships, again on a scale of one to ten, three of the seven participants rated the technique on an eight or higher, with two participants giving it a score of eight and one a score of nine. The remaining four participants offered complimentary qualitative answers, including responses such as:

‘Well, because it gives you such an insight into what they want and what they need and how they perceive things. So, you could then adapt to what they need, is that an expression? So, I think it's incredibly useful and it's definitely, would give you more insights into your kids. And then you would understand better, the relationship, I think.’ (AP2, p. 295, line 172).

4.6.4.2 Unique approach.

Three of the seven adult participants spoke of the Ideal Teacher Drawing technique to offer them a unique understanding of the children’s views. In particular, two participants reported the use of drawings as a useful and non-intrusive method of gaining children’s views, as discussed in the following extract:

‘… I think actually if you, if you just question the child on stuff like this, it’s quite hard for some children to just explain how they feel, whereas if they get the opportunity to draw and the sort of facial expressions’…‘tells you a lot more than say: ‘my teacher wasn’t very nice’’(AP6, p. 319, line 51).

Similar comments were also provided by another participant, as shown in this extract: ‘I think it’s a really non-intrusive way of doing it; because I hate questionnaires and they (the children) don’t always answer truthfully. Whereas I think with this, after a while, they begin to just be able to comfortably talk about what something looks like’ (AP5, p. 312, line 112).

One participant also considered the advantage of an external professional seeking these views from the children, rather than a member of staff who has daily interactions with the children.

‘…it’s interesting to see what they’ve kind of picked up on. So, you, you probably wouldn’t get this stuff, even from a teacher asking a child, just because it’s, it’s that relationship. And it’s that barrier. But from an outsider asking ‘in’, I think it could definitely be really useful.’ (AP1, p. 281, line 118).

4.7 Conclusion

On the whole, adult participants at the PRU at which the child participants data collection was conducted, responded positively to the Ideal Teacher Drawing technique. While some staff considered the data to be somewhat stereotypical, all believed it to give them a greater

understanding of the child participants’ point of view and some explored how the findings offered them a greater insight into the child participants’ previous school experiences. All adult participants discussed ways in which the findings could influence their professional practice; in particular, participants spoke of the importance of being a reflective practitioner to maintain positive teacher-pupil relationships. Additionally, participants reflected on the relevance of the findings to the teaching profession and how the Ideal Teacher Drawing technique might be perceived by different professionals in the field. Commenting on the techniques, all participants spoke positively of its usefulness in gaining an understanding of the child participants’ views on teacher-pupil relationships, with some adult participants commenting on the use of drawings being a unique approach to gaining children’s views.