Sistematización de los Inventarios con Base en Herramienta Computacional

Several further criteria of quality were borne in mind during this research. One of them, trustworthiness, emphasises an ethical demand for responsibility to and for all constituents of a research study (Barrett and Stauffer, 2012) from its initial planning stages to dissemination and beyond. Lincoln and Guba (1985) cite trustworthiness and its dimensions of dependability, confirmability and credibility as useful and appropriate in assessing the quality of qualitative research, replacing ‘scientific’ notions of generalisability and objectivity. This study’s confirmability was enhanced by an audit trail (Flick, 2009) and clear explication of the protocols and rationales underpinning data collection and analysis. Methodological and analytical decisions made and the reasons for making them were recorded chronologically in NVivo10, while the inclusion of coding lists and transcript excerpts in the appendices enhanced transparency, another indicator of research quality (Hakim, 2000).

Wherever possible, findings were corroborated using at least two sources to validate and increase confidence in them (Newby, 2010). My interpretations were augmented and triangulated through the use of multiple methods and informal conversations with staff members likely to hold informed views about each pupil (Beresford et al., 2004). During data collection, research and coding procedures were discussed with fellow doctoral researchers so that weaknesses might be identified or minimised, increasing credibility of the findings and helping to reduce bias (Flick, 2009; Odena, 2013). Following initial data analysis, two researcher colleagues reviewed coding structures and emerging themes independently; this was useful as no two qualitative researchers are likely to think or code

alike (Saldaña, 2009). They later discussed these with me, providing invaluable additional interpretation in a strongly qualitative study. This discussion was audio-recorded with their consent. Appendix 5.3 contains the protocols used, and an excerpt from the discussion.

A study’s internal validity, which seeks to ensure that the explanations it provides can be supported by the data (Cohen et al., 2011), may be threatened by researcher bias. I worked to minimise this by being reflexive and ethical throughout the research from its inception to the completion of writing. I returned part of the data to the lead teachers for their comments (respondent validation) in an effort to assess the degree of match of the study’s findings with their ‘reality’. Respondent validation is not universally accepted as enhancing validity, being variously described as ‘…the single most critical technique for establishing credibility’ (Guba and Lincoln, 1989: 239), or, as involving ‘forced or artificial consensus…conformity in the analysis of the data…usually at the expense of the validity or meaningfulness of the findings’ (Rolfe, 2006: 305). However, although uncomfortable and challenging, it is ‘…an important potential corrective’ (Torrance, 2012: 10). Implicitly, it enhanced reflexivity, a concept running, thread-like, through qualitative research quality.

The lead teachers, other staff and I all carried professional agendas and personal assumptions. As reality was viewed as multiple and constructed in this study, congruent themes and categories were not always reached by everyone. While my views were perhaps more complete, they may not have held true for every participant. Although respondent validation was demanding of participants’ time that was already scarce, it was important to make this time available. Divergent opinions potentially enriched the study’s findings, and

congruent results helped to reduce factual errors (Stake, 2010). The process also increased my understanding of each lead teacher’s perspective, as seen through their eyes:

... if the scholar wishes to understand the action of people it is necessary for him [sic] to see their objects as they see them…people act towards things on the basis of the meaning that these things have for them, not on the basis of the meaning that these things have for the outside scholar (Blumer, 1969: 51).

Involving the lead teachers in this way enabled their views concerning the accuracy of their accounts to feature in the co-construction of the findings: a negotiated interpretation (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). It also reflected Barrett and Stauffer’s call for responsibility and respect in researchers, mentioned on p.75. Summaries of lead teachers’ interview responses were therefore sent to them with a request for comments (see Appendix 3.2.7).30 Any perceived misinterpretations in teachers’ summaries were discussed at a further meeting, but there was no veto given over the final report, as my interpretations were also shaped by others’ views. Moreover, disregarding my own interpretations in favour of accepting their comments at face value was tantamount to a degree of collusion (Barbour, 2001).

In this study, large-scale generalisation and replicability were neither sought nor possible. Instead, every effort was made to provide comprehensiveness, attention to detail, and transparency in data collection, analysis and reporting. Lincoln and Guba (1985: 40) have called for the ‘legitimation of tacit (intuitive, felt) knowledge in addition to propositional knowledge’ in order to enable the multiple realities present in studies such as this one to be fully appreciated and represented. I hope that readers are able to draw inferences regarding their own situations and reach their own conclusions from the detail within this thesis,

30 _{I considered the reading through and checking of full interview transcripts (40-60 pages long) by teachers to}

making what Stake (1995) has called ‘naturalistic generalisations’. This study’s transferability may then be based on a similarity of situations ‘intuitively weighted as to what is important and unimportant in the match’ (Bresler and Stake, 2006: 298).

In aiming to produce a credible and concise research account (Lincoln and Guba, 1985), I have aimed to omit anything that readers might find distracting and to include much of what they might have seen had they ‘been there’. Wherever research quality may be enhanced during the research process, it is stated alongside the relevant approach or method in the hope that readers will perceive the research as persuasive, not only because of its potential usefulness in secondary school music contexts, but also because of its quality.