Perfil de consumidor

“Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.” (1

Corinthians 13:13, GNB).

I. Coding the qualitative data

a) Introduction

Chapter 7 presented the data in such a way as to give the reader a ‘feel’ for the case-study school in a structured way covering each of the different areas that are relevant to my research. This raw data was also combined in a way to be able to address the three research questions posed at the start. In addition to this, however, it was also fundamental to my research to analyse the data in more depth and to examine what underlying themes lay behind what was seen, heard and felt. This preliminary coding had to be developed in a systematic and rigorous way. This ongoing process of coding is explained in more detail below.

The first stage was to re-read through all the transcripts and field notes and reflect on what had been said and what had been written. After this, I highlighted all comments, phrases which related to the broad research area of ethos. In the early stages of data analysis, I didn’t want to be too exclusive in what was relevant. I was keen to capture not only the written words but the feelings and emotions that were expressed including the pauses and the emphases. This is in accordance with the integral inquiry approach to research that I adopted. Accordingly, and where my memory allowed, I annotated the transcripts with comments on facial expression as quickly as possible after the interview took place. Pauses were recorded in the transcripts and

I was sensitive to those parts of the transcripts which used stronger language such as “this is

really important.”

A standard biographical interview proforma was used to code all the interview transcripts that were obtained from the Bishop Pritchard School. The structure of the proforma followed the work of West (see Merrill and West, 2009, pp.137-140). This proforma was used for the auto/biographical interviews as well as the unstructured interviews and documentary sources. Two examples of the proformas used are shown in appendix J and K. These are the proformas used to code the interviews with the deputy headteacher and the executive headteacher respectively. These two are chosen because they represent two styles of interview. The first, appendix J, with the deputy headteacher, follows the style of a lengthy informal conversation and tells the story of the school as a biography – a biographical conversation. The second, Appendix K, with the executive headteacher, tells the story of the headteacher himself which became the school’s story. In this sense it is more autobiographical. In addition, although my background, words and body language had a significant influence on what was said (chapter 3

168

section I; section II), the form of the interview was more of a monologue and might best be described as an autobiographical narrative or story.

The intention behind the proforma was to develop a way of recording and reflexively considering the key issues in the interviews, in relation to research questions 2 and 3, in a standardised and consistent format which allowed for comparisons. It was crucial for me to immerse myself in the material and to allow it to work on me as I worked on it. The idea was to explore, iteratively, the key themes and conceptual issues raised in relation to the relationship between ethos, learning habits and educational outcomes. In doing this, I sought to always bring alongside other literature and other data from the case-study school, the Bishop Pritchard School. For example, notes from my daily journal could be woven into the narrative. It was important for me to include issues that I did not understand so that I could re-visit them, either with the interviewee or another interviewee at a later date. In line with the integral inquiry approach, the proforma was designed to be all-encompassing as well as capable of adaptation. The idea was to create an understanding of the material as a whole by joining up the different parts of the narrative.

The proforma was divided into four main aspects (see also chapter 5 section VIII). The first of these were the themes emerging from the interview(s). These were the key moments of the biography which may have caused a change in direction of the interviewee’s life or understanding. These were generally the areas which had a deep and profound influence on the interviewee such that the interviewee was able to recall them easily and felt them worthy of sharing with the interviewer. The fact that they were easy to recall may stem from the fact that the interviewee may have told this story many times. If this narrative was highly significant, it may have evolved as something of a legend within the school. In this way it might have influenced generations of staff at the school. An example of this was the reputation that the (now) executive headteacher earned in the early days of arriving at the school and turning it around. The local paper and radio station referred to him as Harvey Jones and this name began to stick in the eyes of the parents and staff (see chapter 9 section II part c). There was often an interesting interplay between the past and the present. Within this, I was particularly keen to find broad themes that would contribute to an understanding of Christian ethos, learning habits and educational outcomes. In this process I also sought to cross-reference the material with other data from the school or, indeed, other schools, including my own.

The next aspect of coding the interviews concerned the recording of the process. This noted the nature of the interaction, including issues of power and the possibility of unconscious processes. Frequently it was important to reflect on what was not said as opposed to what was said. Understandably perhaps, members of staff never said anything negative about the school. As a result some of the answers were formulaic but, within that, some members of staff were very open, frank, and honest. For example, as previously mentioned, the head of year was very direct with me in telling the story of the school and her part within it (chapter 6 section III part c). It was important for me to reflect on why this was and what this meant in the context of managing and interpreting all the material. In this case she wanted to pour out her passion for

169

her job to someone who both understood and had the time to listen. This is perhaps a natural human emotional need. In term of my research it proved to be a very rich source of data.

Thirdly, the proforma recorded what was termed the ‘ethnographics’ of the interview. This was

the environment around the interview. It could be the immediate environment in terms of the room or building or the local geographical area in which the building is situated. Here I noted the physical spaces as well as any interruptions, together with the reasons, as far as I could discern. For example, as already noted, in one interview with the Deputy Head, the secretary informed him of an ‘incident’ which meant that he had to leave the interview immediately and return later. This clearly had an impact on the interview by making it more rushed and therefore more formal than it otherwise might have been. In contrast another interview with a member of staff involved a conversation in a quiet office in a remote part of the building. The member of staff had a pupil with them who needed ‘time out’ from lessons. The pupil was asked to put the kettle on and make us all a drink. The fact that the pupil did this without further questioning suggested to me that this was quite a common occurrence. In the event the conversation was

very informal and open and the pupil, when she did eventually return, didn’t appear to impact on

what the member of staff said in any way. Perhaps the pupil had such intense problems herself that she wasn’t interested in listening to anything else. All this information was recorded on my proforma to both add to the data and enable me to make sense of it.

Finally the proforma recorded any sense of gestalt or overall form and patterning in the material. Here, I tried to piece together possible interconnections as a basis for further reflection. Often when the bigger picture was seen, the reasons for the responses began to make sense. This

was the case with both the interview with the parent who didn’t mention Christian ethos despite

its importance to her (chapter 5 section VIII) and also with the head of year 7 wanting someone to listen to her story (chapter 6 section III part c). Here, the distinction on the proforma between a ‘gestalt’ and a ‘process’ became blurred as the two overlapped. This was not seen as a problem as the proforma was always viewed as a tool and not an end in itself. With regard to the overall patterns and themes, a small number began to emerge from the data. However these were somewhat tentative and not overly strong. I discuss these below.