Procesamiento y análisis de datos

Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggested four criteria for judging the trustworthiness of qualitative research: credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability. Credibility is defined as the confidence that can be placed in the truth of the research findings (Holloway & Wheeler, 2002; Macnee & McCabe, 2008) Qualitative researcher can adopt different strategies to secure the correct interpretation of findings such as: peer debriefing, triangulation, member checks and progressive subjectivity longitudes of the and negative case analysis.

a) Prolonged engagement in research site

I have been engaged in this research project for four academic semesters. During training and class time (120 hours per semester, 480 hours in total during this project) I had the opportunity to effectively capture individual views

112 of writing through class observation, interviews, focus group discussions and informal discussions.

Prolonged engagement and persistent observation can enhance trust between the researcher and the participants (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2007). Also, establishing a good rapport with participants is essential for a smooth collaboration. Krefting (1991) observed that “extended time period is important because as rapport increases, informants may volunteer different and often more sensitive information than they do at the beginning of a research project” (p. 217-218). As a Director of the Writing Center in the College, I had the opportunity to further discuss students’ concerns about writing as well as their research skills during one to one tutorials that I offer them. Finally, researcher’s self-immersion is crucial for the deep understanding of context and for minimizing bias (Bitsch, 2005). I can argue that I have a holistic view of students’ academic profile in English since I have been monitoring students’ progress in the same field for almost two years.

b) All research is subject to researcher bias. The researcher has to find a balance between his/her own views and participants’ views that emerge from data so as to carefully interpret their joint data that represent their reality. To minimize bias during this longitudinal study I kept a reflective journal and I also used video to record my thoughts to document changes in my assumptions and identify emotional changes. Rallis (2003) recommended using the “community of practice” made up of knowledgeable colleagues to engage in “critical and sustained discussion” (p. 69) and enhance reflexivity. Peer debriefing is a crucial factor concerning credibility as it helps the researcher to critically reflect on his research design and his role during the inquiry (Creswell, 2013; Houghton et al., 2013 Creswell & Miller, 2000; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Merriam, 1998; Weiss, 1994). Also as researcher, I presented this project to 2 International Conferences for Education and Language Learning in Greece, an International Summit on Innovative Technology in Istanbul, an international SIG Conference on Technology and Autonomous Learning in Dublin, and a European Researchers Summit in Greece. I

113 received valuable feedback from colleagues on background information, data collection methods and process, data management, transcripts, data analysis procedure and research findings (Pitney & Parker, 2009)and I had the chance to continuously reflect on my methodology and the interpretation of data with the aim to minimize personal bias.

b) Member checking

Additionally, member checks can enhance the credibility of the study (Bloomberg and Volpe, 2012, Merriam, 2009, Yin, 2014). I had the opportunity to share and discuss the interpretation of the data with participants after the end of Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 to ensure that there is a consistency between what participants said during the interview and how accurately as a researcher I reported these data. I invited the participants to make further comments on their interviews and reject interpretations made by the researcher that might be inaccurate (Schwandt et al., 2007).

c) Polyangulation

Triangulation refers to the use of multiple methods of data or source collections to ensure the validity of the study. Patton (1999) suggests that there are four distinct types of triangulation: theory triangulation, data source triangulation, investigator triangulation and method triangulation. This study puts forward the method of polyangulation (Mertler, 2016), which has emerged in social research as an alternative to triangulation and focuses on the perception that social reality exists in multiple layers and requires multiple dimensions of analysis. Specifically, the researcher investigated the complex concept of autonomy in the same educational setting, but in two different ESL classes and in two different cohorts of students. Also, different sources of data have been used to capture participants multiple reality: wikis, blogs, audio- recorded interviews, Google Drive, vlogs, video recorder interviews, researcher’ reflection journal. The richness of our data sources bring together synchronous and asynchronous online writing tools while data collection methods capture participants perceptions from multiple language

114 perspectives, written language (blogs, wikis, Google Drive), oral language and visual language (videos) and achieve a better approximation of reality.

d) Dependability

Dependability in interpretative inquiry is an equivalent of reliability in positivist methodologies. Guba and Lincoln (1989) point out that data stability over time is an integral part of the inquiry process. Contrary to the positivist paradigm, methodological shifts are not considered a flaw in interpretative research design but are a sign of maturation of the inquiry, provided that these changes can be “tracked and trackable” (Guba and Lincoln, 1989, p.242). The researcher ensured that data of this this study can be accessed for peer reviewing since this is a project that has been completed online and all students’ and instructor’s interactions (emails, feedback, students’ reflections instructor’s reflections, interviews) are saved and secured in Google drive and iCloud. Dedendability has been established in this study using the strategy or peer examination (Chilisa & Preece, 2005; Krefting, 1991; Schwandt et al., 2007). An expert in autonomy, Dr. Mynard was invited to validate and comment on the data coding process (See Appendix XIX).

e) Confirmability

Confirmability in interpretative inquiry seeks to ensure that researcher's own assumptions or personal bias has not determined the interpretation of the data. Ensuring objectivity in qualitative approaches means that data such as interviews, transcripts, audio or visual material should be available to the reader (Patton, 1990; Richards, 2005). A further key issue is that the researcher may select the sample or the data that support his prior assumptions and thus inevitably to allow his personal bias to influence the coding of the thematic analysis of data (Costa, 1992).

Finally, Angen (2000) suggests that ethical and substantive validity should be addressed in an interpretative research. Ethical validity is related to researcher’s recognition and responsibility regarding the impact of his work on

115 the target population. Researchers need to self-reflect on their own maturation and transformation over the lifespan of their study, so as to enhance substantive validity. Particularly, during the 2 cycles of this project the researcher kept a reflection journal in cycle 1 and video reflection in cycle 2. Using research journals is ―one of the most effective research tools to mine the rich personal experiences and emotions of participants‘ inner lives‖ (Smith-Sullivan, 2008, p. 214).

f) Transferability

Transferability involved the capability of the research findings to be transferred to another context or situation (Bloomberg & Volpe, 2012; Creswell, 2013; Houghton et al., 2013; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Marshall & Rossman, 2006; Merriam, 2009; Yin, 2014). This longitudinal action research study provides a detailed and thick description of autonomy through field notes, audio and video interviews, online archived data, and questionnaires. Both the field of inquiry and participants’ background is being analytically presented and further illustrated by member checks. Research design is clearly presented and thus it can be argued that this study helps other researchers and policy makers in the field of SLA to translate and apply the findings and the philosophy of this study to other contexts (Marshall and Rossman, 2006; Merriam, 2009).