RETOS Y OPORTUNIDADES PARA LA INTEGRACIÓN DEL CONVENIO Y SUS PROTOCOLOS EN MÉXICO

Creswell (2013, p. 21) posits ‘Certain types of social research problems call for specific approaches’. Having committed myself to a constructivist ontology and interpretivist epistemology, I adopt a qualitative methodology for my research, case study, and make use of qualitative data collection methods for gathering data.

Qualitative research is subjective and is concerned with understanding participants’ perspectives rather than seeking to arrive at facts. The aim of the researcher who embraces qualitative research is to achieve depth instead of

breadth. It places significant focus on individuals and the context, and is more

concerned with relatability/trustworthiness or transferability of research findings to similar social settings rather than aiming to arrive at generalizations, hence, those involved in qualitative research attempt to make their research rigorous (Blaxter, Hughes, & Tight, 2006; Burton & Bartlett, 2005; Creswell, 2013). The aim of the present study is not to achieve generalisability but transferability and

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trustworthiness. Qualitative studies do not intend to hypothesize or aim at a single truth but instead arrive at a deep understanding in a specific context and offer perspective with the hope that the findings will be relatable to similar contexts (Patton & Patton, 2002). As Fraenkel and Wallen (2006, p. 277) note ‘the problem of quality in qualitative studies deserves attention in its own terms, not just as a justification device’, the main reason behind this being the fact that qualitative studies take place in real social worlds and have authentic consequences with reality being socially constructed.

As the research design, case study within the qualitative paradigm has been utilised in this study. A case can be just one individual, a classroom, a school, a programme or an ongoing process which is contemporary and on which the researcher has little or no control, and where the manipulation of actions is out of question since the ultimate aim is to deeply explore what actually is the reality (Burton & Bartlett, 2005; Cohen et al., 2007; Creswell, 2013; Fraenkel & Wallen, 2006; Patton & Patton, 2002; Yin, 1994). Case studies are therefore context sensitive and holistic. In case study research design, the researcher explores a case in depth in its real context which is unique and dynamic. With their unique and dynamic nature, case studies have the potential to portray the complex interactions between events, persons and the context. Data is collected by using various data collection methods where the case is identified by clearly defined boundaries such as time and activity, and is narrow in focus (Creswell, 2013; Scott & Usher, 2011). Using various data resources enables the exploration of phenomenon through a variety of lenses and thus revealing multiple facets of the issue under investigation (Baxter & Jack, 2008).

Rich and vivid descriptions are essential to be able to produce a naturalistic account of everyday life and the intention is to understand the perceptions of actors through these descriptions (Cohen et al., 2007; Mays & Pope, 1995). Through thick descriptions, the researcher helps the readers to feel as if they had been active participants in the study and so are able to identify if the research findings apply to their own contexts (Baxter & Jack, 2008). Case studies aim for analytic and not statistical generalisation, so that the results give the researcher the opportunity to understand similar cases (Cohen et al., 2007), which is the purpose of the present study, where insights into similar cases can be obtained.

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Although case studies have sometimes been criticised for being ‘unsystematic and illustrative’ (Cohen et al., 2007), I consider this can be eliminated by adopting a systematic approach and making the study rigorous through verifying the credibility and the dependability of the findings as will be elaborated on page 99.

This is an instrumental case study where the purpose goes beyond understanding a specific case and intends to understand a phenomenon/similar cases through providing insight into an issue where the case is scrutinized and detailed because it is a means to reach a broader understanding (Baxter & Jack, 2008; Cohen et al., 2007; Fraenkel & Wallen, 2006; Stake, 1995). This is a single case study and the study was carried out in a Faculty of Education in a higher education setting in North Cyprus where the focus is on TEs’ support for LA and STs’ autonomy in practice. Rich descriptions of perceptions, an element of case studies, were generated through in-depth interviews and document analysis.

In the study, I established and maintained collaboration with the participants (details can be found under 3.5 Ethical Considerations) which enabled me as the researcher to capture stories of the participants from first hand with details and to portray their experiences as vividly as possible with an attempt to better understand their actions and the logics behind their actions under the specific contextual conditions since it is not possible to delineate boundaries between actions and context in case studies (Yin, 2015). Learners’ practice of autonomy and teacher support provided to them cannot be considered separate from the context because the context is influential in achieving the goal. This gave deeper meanings to how participants behaved and why they behaved in that specific way. I consider that it would not have been possible for me to explore and arrive at the essence of the teacher support provided and the autonomous behaviours of students in the Faculty of Education if I had not taken into consideration the context in which it occurred.