LOS TEMPLARIOS, LOS BENEDICTINOS Y HITLER

Prior to this research being undertaken an application for ethical approval was made to the Faculty of Education Research Ethics Committee at the University of Waikato and was accepted. An addition to this, further ethical approval was requested after the data collection period was started as I wanted to include observations as a data collection method. This request was approved. The following ethical issues were considered.

Access to participants

I had an already established relationship with the early childhood education setting as I was previously employed by the umbrella organisation of the ECE setting as a Home-based Childcare Co-ordinator. As the home-based offices are located next door to the ECE setting I was familiar with the layout and teaching philosophy of the setting. With regard to ethics this meant that I already knew most of the teachers at the setting well so there was no need to spend time building trusting relationships between researcher and participants.

73 Informed consent

The participants were asked to sign a consent form (see Appendix Four). For the children this consent was given by their parents or caregivers. When undertaking conversations with the children I verbally invited them to participate, and they were able to choose whether they wanted to take part or not. I explained to those who did want to talk to me that I would be recording the conversation and showed them the device I would be using. They were able to “have a go” with the recording device prior to me recording the conversations about the portfolios. The children were then invited to listen to the conversations if they wanted to.

Confidentiality

To protect the participants against possible harm, the participants were informed of their right to anonymity. Participants were initially asked to choose a pseudonym for themselves, but this proved problematic for subsequent surveys as some had forgotten what name they had chosen. A list of possible pseudonyms was then provided to the participants and from the responses I was able to match responses for the three surveys. I then gave the respondents a new pseudonym. These pseudonyms would replace the real names of the participants in the thesis and any associated publications. All the information and materials produced in the course of this research were treated in a manner that respected the privacy rights of the participants.

The teaching team at the setting included one male participant. To protect his identity I have referred to all of the teachers as “she”.

The digital recordings of interviews were transcribed by a transcriber who was contracted to my workplace, Wintec. This person signed a confidentiality agreement.

Participants were invited to check their transcripts and from this were able to suggest areas for possible omission and/or amendment if they wanted to. No changes or additions were made to the interview transcripts.

74 Potential harm to participants

After receiving information about the project, potential participants were asked to submit an expression of interest indicating whether they would like to be part of the research project. This eliminated any potential harm to potential participants who did not want to be part of the research, as they were not coerced to participate.

Participants were encouraged to be open and to express all their thoughts, positive and negative. All of their input was valued and confidential. If a participant made a negative comment they were assured that it would not be disclosed to the management and employees of the early childhood education setting or its umbrella organisation. The raw data were viewed only by the researcher. Management of the organisation would only see any outputs from the research, such as the completed thesis, journal publications and conference presentations.

Participants were made aware that if they had any concerns that they felt could not be addressed by me, they could raise such concerns with my supervisors. None were received.

Participants’ right to decline to participate and right to withdraw

All parents, whānau and staff of the early childhood education setting were invited to participate in the research project by letter (see Appendix Three). There was no expectation that they participate and they were therefore able to decline involvement. Participants had the right to withdraw from the study up until the end of the data collection phase, being the 30th June 2014. Throughout the project they had the opportunity to amend or withdraw any information they provided, through access to the transcribed interviews. The analysis was ongoing, so once the participants gave approval for data to be used these data became part of the project, even if participants later withdrew. Should participants wish to withdraw they were asked to discuss this with me, and then put their withdrawal in writing. No participants formally withdrew during the data collection period.

75 Conflicts of interest

The early childhood education setting had a professional relationship with The Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec), which was my employer, because students undertaking their Bachelor of Teaching (ECE) complete their practicum or teaching experience there. Therefore a potential conflict of interest could arise from this relationship. As I was regularly observing within the setting for my research it could have been possible that I might witness “bad practice” which could damage this relationship. As my relationship with the supervisor was very strong, and because I knew the teaching team well, I did not expect such a situation to arise.

Regarding student placements, a conflict of interest could arise if I were a Visiting Lecturer for any students completing their practicum or teaching experience at the setting during the data collection period. This is because, as with any initial teacher education provider, sometimes students do not perform well on teaching placements. If a student I was visiting failed or made a complaint against the setting this could have a negative impact on my relationships with the teaching team and management. Accordingly, for the duration of the research I ensured that I was not allocated any students to visit at the ECE setting.

I had previously worked for the umbrella organisation for the early childhood education setting as a Home-based Childcare Co-ordinator, but had not worked at this early childhood education setting.

Procedure for resolution of disputes

Participants were able to contact my supervisors for assistance in resolving disputes. The supervisors’ contact details were provided on the information sheet. No disputes arose.

Cultural and Social considerations

During the research project I acted with sensitivity to any cultural or social issues which arose, as part of my normal practice. Wintec’s School of Education has a Pūkenga Āwhina, Rose Marsters, who provides pastoral care for

76 students and support for staff. She agreed to support me in relation to any cultural issues which might arise. No such issues occured during the research project.

4.8 Summary and looking forward

This chapter has established a case for the use of qualitative methodology, in particular narrative inquiry and case studies, in this study. Both these methodologies are relevant to studies undertaken in education. These methodologies would reveal any changes to adult engagement with portfolios and to teachers’ formative assessment practices over time. The methods by which the data were collected were also introduced in this chapter: surveys, interviews, observations and analysis of portfolios. These methods allowed for a significant amount of relevant data to be collected for analysis. These data were then analysed to provide detailed evidence of changes to engagement and formative assessment practices resulting from the introduction and use of ePortfolios. A discussion on the usefulness of abduction when analysing the data was also included here.

Ethical considerations were discussed within this chapter. There were possible conflicts of interest which could have arisen through my already established relationships with the service because of my employment. Although there was the potential for ethical dilemmas to arise, none occurred.

The following chapter will explore the initial findings of the setting wide case study. It will include data from the Initial Surveys (including relevant data from the Midway Survey where some clarification questions were asked), observations and examples from the paper-based portfolios.

77

Chapter Five: Paper-based Portfolios – The

start of the journey

5.0 Introduction

At the onset of this research, two Initial Surveys were carried out with the participants, one for the teachers and one for the parents and/or whānau. A Midway Survey was carried out half way through the year of data collection. This was also administered to teachers and parents/ whānau. During this early research period, observations of children interacting with their paper-based portfolios were also undertaken. This chapter will present the findings of these surveys and observations. It will also include examples of the formative assessment documentation contained in the nested case study of children’s paper-based portfolios, and an analysis of these.