Perfil de Proyecto Social en Villa Chagüitillo

4.1 Ethics

My research officially began with approval from the Ethics committee at Murdoch University, the Principal of HKPS, and the individual participants themselves. I placed emphasis on creating a confidential environment in which participants had the opportunity to access their own data and to leave the research group at any time. I assured them of anonymity and that their input would remain confidential at all times. I followed up, after the interviews, by giving them transcripts of their interview responses for their checking and approval. Thus gaining the trust of the participants was a vital part of this investigation.

4.2 Introduction to participants

In August 2006 I announced at a staff meeting that I was undertaking research and asked teachers to volunteer to become participants. Six teachers from a variety of subject areas approached me over the next month and offered to participate in the research study. I gratefully accepted their offer and assured them individually of the confidentiality of the research process, and informed them that I would conceal their identity from each other. Each participant signed a permission letter and received a copy of the questions to be used during the formal interviews. Due to the physical layout of HKPS’s buildings, there was a physical separation process in place. Apart from a bi-weekly morning meeting lasting 15 minutes, most teachers did not meet each other unless they taught on the same corridor.

Of the six teachers, three were Heads of Department (HODs) and the others were classroom teachers. All of these teachers were experienced and well qualified in their subject area and had lived in Hong Kong for three years or more. Their

positions, nationalities, subject areas and teaching backgrounds are shown in Figure: 3 .2

Name Nationality Position/subject Prior experience Experience in Hong Kong Jane UK Teacher/science ‘A’ level, 5 years UK

schools

‘A’ level, 3 years Paul Australasia Teacher/creative

arts

Australian

curriculum, 14 years

‘A’ level, 4 years Jeffrey UK Teacher/English ‘A’ level, 10 years

UK schools

‘A’ level, 4 years

Ron UK HOD/creative

arts

‘A’ level. 18 years UK & International schools

‘A’ level, 7 years Marion Australasia HOD/physical

education

‘A’ level 13 years, international schools

‘A’ level, 5 years Vivian UK HOD/science ‘A’ level 15 years,

UK schools

‘A’ level, 4 years, IBD, 2 years

Figure: 3.2 Description of participants

Jane was a British teacher, confident, highly qualified and with a Masters in

Physics from a prestigious English university. She was proud of her packaged modules and glad to have an opportunity to express her views on the mandatory change and its impact on her teaching. She saw the interview process as an opportunity to have a voice. Jane left Hong Kong Port School two years after the research was conducted and continued to teach elsewhere.

Paul was an experienced Australasian creative arts teacher. He had concerns

about the demands of the IBD curriculum for many of his students, for whom English was their second or third language; his subject had a new component, an oral examination, in the IBD curriculum. He was also concerned about the impact the IBD would have on examination results. Paul left the school five years later to return home.

Jeffrey was an English teacher from Britain. He asked to join the research

study because he felt very concerned about the IBD and wanted to express his feelings. He appreciated the literature elements of the IBD course; however, he felt that the students’ language would make it difficult for them to do well. Jeffrey left the school three years later for a promotional position at another school in Hong Kong.

Ron was a British HOD of creative arts and since there were significant

changes to his subject he was concerned about the new curriculum. The A-Levels focused on the production of art pieces; however, the IBD required a lengthy reflexive process and a final oral examination with an external examiner. His concern about the change in focus from European Art to Asian Art and his students’ language abilities drove him to express his concerns about the IBD. Ron is still teaching at the school.

Marion was an Australasian physical education (PE) teacher who wanted to

take part in the research process as a way to have a voice and be heard. The A-Level curriculum included physical education studies as a course of study for tertiary entrance. However, the IBD did not acknowledge physical education as a science course at that time. This had an ongoing impact for her because she would no longer have senior students and feared some physical education teachers might lose their jobs. Three years later Marion left the school for a promotional position elsewhere.

Vivian was a highly confident and qualified British science teacher who had

taught for fifteen years in international schools, including teaching the IBD for two years, and was comfortable with her presentation and preparation for the A-Levels. Vivian left the school two years later 2009, after implementing the IBD, to teach at

To ensure confidentiality, I assured teachers that anything they said to me would not be repeated to anyone else at HKPS. In addition, all participants were given a pseudonym and, in reporting participants’ conversations, I changed personal details, such as name and gender. I observed that over time participants realised that there were no repercussions from talking to me in this study. I tried to be a ‘safe’ colleague or ‘critical friend’ (Costa & Kallick, 1993).

5.

Conclusion

As a participant observer, embedded in HKPS, I was in a position to watch, listen, absorb, reflect and describe the responses and changing attitudes of the participants. I asked participants questions in a formal interview situation, and followed this with a series of informal meetings or chats throughout the transition year. Observation of the participants’ actions and comments led me to build a description of their responses to events and eventually to an identification of themes.

Note that so far my summary has referred only to the ‘nuts and bolts’ of my research enterprise. Like the body of this research, it errs on giving more emphasis to the methods than to the other elements of epistemology, theoretical frameworks and methodology. Note too, that at the beginning of the chapter I badmouthed

quantitative researchers for that very same failing! My only claim to redemption is that at least I provided a brief account of the other elements, and some indication of how crucial they are for the methods one chooses and the manner in which those methods are operationalised.

I began this research with some presuppositions about the topic of curriculum change, but no set expectations for how the participants would respond to that change. And I certainly did not set out to prove anything, measure anything, or

conclude anything. Ethnography offered me the prospect for exploring, sharing and describing what and how participants faced the exigencies of impending curriculum change during this transition period. In the next chapter I begin to chronicle ‘what happened’.

Chapter Four: Contexts for change

1.

Introduction

In Chapter Three I described the ethnographic methodology and constructionist epistemology I am using to examine the participants’ responses to changes at HKPS. In this chapter I sketch the context of the research setting by outlining the main events that occurred in HKPS during the transition year 2006-2007. This will provide both a backdrop and a tentative commencement for displaying data and ‘bringing to life’ the six teachers’ experiences in group interactions, (this chapter) and one-to-one conversations with myself (Chapters Five and Six).

Here is what happens in the remainder of this chapter. In section 2, I describe the school’s context over the school year 2006-07, and outline the school’s plan. I then go on to briefly describe key events in the year as a snapshot of how the year evolved and of the various conflicts and tensions that emerged as organisational changes were made as a preamble to the new curriculum. In section 3 I provide brief descriptions of participants’ interactions in group situations and touch on their strategies for dealing with the massive changes taking place at HKPS. (The participants’ individual responses to events are detailed in Chapters Five and Six). In section 4 I present an auto-ethnographic sketch of these events, describing my experience as a participant and accounting for how I juggled the dual roles of participant and researcher. And I conclude the chapter in section 5.