This section will discuss the specifics involved in the research design. The design was guided by the philosophical approach and research theory discussed above.
3.5.1 Selection of Group – Entering the Field
The first step in any research design is the identification and selection of the field in which the study will be conducted. A researcher with an interpretivist philosophical underpinning needs to identify the best way to reach the participants in the field (Flick, 1998) and also to ensure the selected group is appropriate. The quality of the analysis and outcomes are highly dependent on where the data originates (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Arcury and Quandt (1999) identify that selection of participants needs to be considered especially in situations where collecting data from the entire field is not a possibility.
In undertaking research that examines a group of students, the researcher needed to investigate how the students formed social relationships, how they maintained them, and the influence that social media had on these relationships/interactions. In order to do this, access to a suitable representative group was needed. As previously discussed in Section 2.3.4, the social relationships and interactions of people can be wide ranging and complex and therefore offer challenges around how best to investigate them. This research aimed to investigate a smaller social group in more detail in order to overcome the lack of detail that can be found in broader studies researching larger groups or data sets. To this end, an educational setting was chosen as this environment allowed the selection of a research participant group that was accessible while having an identifiable boundary (King, 2004). The selected site for the study is the University of Tasmania.
In selecting an environment from which to draw participants, The University of Tasmania’s English Language Centre (ELC) was chosen. The ELC has a wide range of classes of varying duration and socio-cultural mix. Classes range from small single cultural classes of 4-8 students to broad ranging classes with 20 – 30 students. The researcher’s role as a teacher within the ELC allowed them to enter the field and
Page | 58 access a suitable participant group. The Foundation Studies Program (FSP) course was selected as the site for the participant recruitment.
The approach used for this research was to select a contained group of participant students that were studying within the ELC. This offered not only a culturally diverse group of participants but also allowed a complete ‘social group’ to be selected and examined. As mentioned briefly in Section 3.4.5, the students studying the FSP course are separated from the wider university community due to the isolated nature of the course and thus the environment provided a pre-determined social boundary from which to study the group.
The investigation of social relationships and social interactions can be difficult due to the large number of connections that any one individual can have with other people. Therefore the selection and use of a smaller and relatively self-contained group of research participants allowed them to be examined in detail and their participation in the Foundation Studies Program (FSP) course acted as the boundary for the research. The research participants themselves were naturally selected through their choice to undertake the FSP course. The researcher had access to the participant group but was not responsible for the demographic make-up of this course. In addition, the participant group could be considered as being a small representative snapshot of the type of international students who study at the University of Tasmania (University of Tasmania, 2013) as well as universities across Australia (Universities Australia, 2013). Participants were selected using a purposeful sampling approach. A purposeful sampling approach is used to identify and select participants that are suitable in order to meet the aims of the undertaken research (Maxwell, 2005). Since the aims of this research were to examine the role that social media plays in the social interactions and relationships of international students, the selection of a contained class of international students offered an ideal location in which to undertake the broader survey based data collection. As stated in the above paragraph, this sample of a class of international students allowed a boundary to be identified so as to not get lost in the complex nature of their relationships. Further selection of a sub-group of participants for interviewing used a judgment sampling approach where participants were selected based on the analysis of the previous stages of the research, the descriptive statistics and social network analysis approaches (Marshall, 1996). The participants identified for interview were selected to be a representative sub-sample of differing cultural backgrounds, having different relationship types and from different countries.
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3.5.2 Participant Scope
When examining social connections that exist between people there are difficulties that arise relating to the complex nature of the social connections that any one individual has; social connections that can include relationships with and interactions between family members, relatives, close friends, work colleagues, social acquaintances and neighbours. These social connections can be spread both temporally and physically and therefore present a number of challenges which are outlined below:
1. The resources and access required to identify and track these connections; 2. How these social connections can be identified and how social interactions are
undertaken, for example face-to-face or via a particular technological based means;
3. The dynamic nature of social relationships that change over time;
4. The level of understanding that an individual participant has of their own social interactions and connections;
5. The ethical and privacy issues present in obtaining data concerning social connections and interactions; and
6. The range of methods and technologies used to undertake communication and reinforce these social connections.
This study used international students who had come together to study a foundation course in preparation for further tertiary study. In this kind of environment, where many of the students would not already know most other members of their class groups, there is an important need for students to develop a sense of connection and community with their fellow classmates if they are to be successful (Eberhardt, 2007) The participant group used for this research was considered to be culturally diverse with the students originally coming from thirteen different countries. Although they are studying in Australia, a majority of the participants come from Asian and Middle- Eastern backgrounds. While western countries tend to focus on ‘individualism’ as the method for understanding social identities (Dalsgaard, 2008), Asian and Middle- Eastern societies have a greater focus on the ‘group’ (Hill, 2010).
3.5.3 Access to the Research Location
The data collection site for this research was the University of Tasmania’s English Language Centre. Within this program are a number of different courses that are designed around teaching internationals students. The chosen course, the Foundation
Page | 60 Studies Program, is one that operates from March to November each year. This course offered an environment where students would be studying together for an extended period of time as well as having opportunities to interact with each other outside of class time. As the student participants are relatively isolated from others undertaking other university courses, their fellow classmates offer one of a limited number of opportunities from which to develop social connections.
The researcher was able to obtain access to this research participant group through their work as a teacher within this FSP course. This access presented an opportunity for the researcher to be able to undertake the data collection. Ethical restrictions are discussed previously in Section 3.2.1.
At the time this research study was undertaken, the researcher had taught the ‘Computing Skills and Research Management’ unit within the Foundation Studies Program for 5 years. This had involved six classes and approximately 175 students who had successfully completed the course.
3.5.3.1 The Foundation Studies Program
The ‘Foundation Studies Program’ (FSP) is a 32-week intensive study course offered to International students who wish to study at the University of Tasmania (or other Australian undergraduate institution). International students, who have not met the minimum entry requirements for the course they wish to enter, commonly do this course before starting their formal university study. Only international students are able to undertake this course.
The program consists of a number of units that the students undertake focused towards gaining the skills and knowledge to succeed in their course of study. Some units are optional but ‘Academic English’, ‘Australian Studies’ and ‘Computing Skills’ are compulsory units that all students must undertake.
3.5.4 Facebook
Digital social networks are extremely popular social tools that allow people to digitally formalise their social connections. This mixed with the value that the data these networks contain mean that online social networks are well supported and there are many different types available to users. Digital social networks are discussed further in the literature review Section 2.4. The most popular digital social network currently in use in Australian universities is Facebook (Experian, 2012). The popularity and wide scale usage of Facebook in Australian universities made it a suitable choice for use in this research study as it was considered to be the more likely used DSN within the research participant group.
Page | 61 Popularity and likelihood of use were key factors in deciding to use Facebook as the digital social network of focus for the research. ‘Facebook’ stood out as being the most widely used and popular digital social network (TopTenReviews.com, 2011; DigitalMarketingLab, 2011) and therefore the most likely to be used by the research participant group. Whilst Facebook is an English based social network, it is available for use in over 65 languages (Facebook, 2011) making the English language ability of the research participant less of a potential barrier to use. This popularity and flexibility is important if it is to be able to be used as a common social networking platform for the student participants who were involved in the research.
3.5.5 Self-Reported Surveys
In an attempt to gain an in-depth understanding of how the social relationships and interactions of the research participant group changed over time, three self-reported surveys were undertaken. This approach aimed to identify the use of Facebook by the research participants and to examine both their social relationships and interactions over time. The surveys aimed to collect general participant data as well as time specific data relating to the research participants before, during and after the FSP course.
Survey questionnaires were used for collecting this data. This method is usually accepted as being primarily a positivist approach however this method has also been identified as appropriate for interpretivist research. The choice of method should be based on the objectives of the research and not on pre-conceived ideas about what is appropriate based on philosophical perspective (Charmaz, 2006; Gable, 1994).
The three self-reported surveys were undertaken at three different time points over the course of the 15 month case study. The first survey was undertaken at the commencement of the FSP; the second approximately half-way through the FSP; and the final was after the FSP had concluded. This allowed the collection of a range of data both about the research participants and the changes in their relationships, interactions and uses of Facebook over time. The data obtained from the surveys was analysed using descriptive statistics and social network analysis.
3.5.6 Semi-Structured Interviews
Following completion of the collection of data via the self-reported surveys, the final stage of data collection involved a series of interviews. As the objectives of the research required an in-depth understanding of the social relationships, behaviours and Facebook usage of the participants, more probing of these factors was required beyond that obtained via the survey questionnaires.
Page | 62 The objectives of this stage of the research were to examine the factors and participants in more detail. The use of semi-structured interviews is one method that allows more data to be collected on specific identified factors and to understand the reasons and thinking behind them (Seidman, 2006; Rubin & Rubin, 2005; Flick, 1998). These interviews were designed around the results from the analysis of the survey data and aimed to further expand in more specific detail on the initial findings. They were used primarily to gain additional understanding regarding the social interactions of the participant group. These findings were then used to generate the interview themes and to identify suitable participants to take part in the interviews. The interview participants were selected to represent a cross-section of the research participant group which would allow the findings from the survey analysis to be filtered back via the interviews and additional data able to be collected for analysis (Ruane, 2005). By filtering the findings back through a select group of interviewees, a greater understanding and a more in depth perspective was achieved.
3.5.7 Summary of Research Design
This section discussed the design of the research project. A contained class of international students studying within a foundation course at the University of Tasmania was examined and Facebook was the selected digital social network that was investigated. Two data collection techniques were used: surveys and semi- structured interviews. The surveys were designed to collect general data regarding the research participants along with the changes in their social relationships, social interactions and use of Facebook over the 15 month case study. The semi-structured interviews aimed to gain more detail regarding these social relationships, social interactions and uses of Facebook.