The purpose of this study was to listen to educators’ voices regarding their cyber harassment experiences in order to develop a deeper understanding of this phenomenon, its effects, and its impact on those who have experienced it. This chapter outlines the methodology employed to carry out this transcendental phenomenological study, including design rationale, research questions, participant information, setting, research procedures, researcher’s role, and a description of data collection and data analysis procedures.
Design
It is appropriate to conduct qualitative research when there is a problem or issue that needs further explanation in an effort to hear “silenced voices” and lived experiences of study participants (Creswell, 2007, p. 40). Qualitative research is sometimes called naturalistic inquiry, and its aim is not verification of a predetermined idea, but discovery that leads to new insights (Creswell, 2007; Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2003; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Moustakas, 1990; Patton, 2002; Stake, 1994). This qualitative study employed a transcendental phenomenological research design that portrayed a phenomenon in its natural setting, gave voice and relayed meaning through interaction with the participants in the study.
The nature of the research questions in this study indicated that a phenomenological approach was most appropriate. Phenomenology is the study of lived experiences and is used to capture the voices of the participants (Cohen, Kahn, & Steeves, 2000; Creswell, 2007).
Phenomenology began in Germany in the 1890s with the philosophical reflections of Edmund Husserl and was later refined by Clark Moustakas (Creswell, 2007; Moustakas, 1990). Gall, Gall, and Borg (2007) described phenomenology as being “intimately connected” with the phenomena being studied and as the “antithesis of quantitative research,” in which researchers
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“detach themselves from the phenomena being studied” through objective methods of data collection and analysis (p. 495). Researchers are themselves the instrument for data collection and analysis through observing, participating, and interviewing. Phenomenological research, as Van Manen (1990) suggested, is an immersion into others’ phenomenon as they interpret it:
The point of phenomenological research is to borrow other people’s experiences and their reflections on their experiences in order to better be able to come to an understanding of the deeper meaning or significance of an aspect of human experience, in the context of the whole of human experience. (p. 62)
Several approaches to phenomenology exist, but the one chosen for this research study was transcendental phenomenology. Transcendental phenomenology, also known as empirical or psychological phenomenology, emphasizes meaning, “explicates the essences of human experience” (Moerer-Urdahl & Creswell, 2004, p. 2), and focuses on the wholeness of experience. This method is a process of research that seeks to arrive at the meaning of a phenomenon after putting aside, or bracketing, any bias or preconceived notions and
suppositions related to the phenomenon being studied (Moustakas, 1994). Moustakas referred to this process of a researcher putting aside assumptions as epoche and described the necessity of him/her seeing the phenomenon “freshly, as for the first time” (p. 34). The transcendental approach was appropriate because I was seeking to understand how educators had experienced cyber harassment.
Through this methodology, I captured, as accurately as possible, the voices of educators who had experienced cyber harassment. The only way that one person can possibly understand the experience of another person is to experience a phenomenon as directly as possible for him or herself When this is not possible, a direct immersion into the phenomenon with the participant
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through data collection procedures is warranted. Van Manen (1990) asserted that
phenomenology “does not problem solve” (p. 23). Therefore, there is no right or wrong, winning or losing, correct or incorrect answers to the research questions in this study. In-depth individual interviews, a focus group interview, and guided journal reflections were as close as I could come to sharing this lived experience of cyber harassment with the educator participants in this study.
Research Questions
The following research questions guided this qualitative phenomenological study. Research Question One: According to affected rural North Georgia school district educators, what were the contexts in which the cyber harassment occurred?
Research Question Two: What course of action did the rural North Georgia educators take in response to their experience(s) with cyber harassment?
Research Question Three: How do rural North Georgia educators who have been cyber harassed describe the effects of the phenomenon on them?
Research Question Four: How, if at all, do rural North Georgia educators achieve resolution after experiencing cyber harassment?
Setting
Rural areas are often perceived to be idyllic places, untouched by the challenges
commonly associated with schools in urban settings. North Georgia, in particular, is commonly portrayed as being socially and geographically isolated. The Appalachian Region Commission (ARC) describes the North Georgia geographic area as following the Appalachian Mountain chain. Georgia is one of the 13 eastern states to have counties in the Appalachian region. However, rural schools are not immune to potentially harmful circumstances. Technology has permitted many aspects of communication that have historically been bound by geographical and
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cultural factors (Cole, 2010; Collins & Halverson, 2009; Coloroso, 2008; Hancock, 2001; Myers et al., 2011). In fact, technological advances have equalized the chances that educators in rural schools will experience an additional source of stress in the form of cyber harassment.
Electronic harassment aimed at any educator via a cell phone or computer is an unfamiliar stressor that can be shocking and discomforting and can happen anywhere and at any time (Belsey, 2008; Coloroso, 2007; Hinduji & Patchin, 2011, Myers et al., 2011; Shariff, 2009).
The setting for this study included three geographically and demographically similar rural school districts in Northeast Georgia. In 2013, the districts’ 15 individual public schools had a total of 795 educators serving a student population of approximately 10,000 students in grades K-12 (Georgia Department of Education, 2012; Wolfram|Alpha knowledgebase, 2012). These school districts are primarily rural, all with high poverty rates and are located in North Georgia in the southeastern United States (Wolfram|Alpha knowledgebase, 2012). For the purpose of this study, the three demographically similar districts are labeled District A, District B, and District C. The primary reason for choosing three school districts was to increase the sampling frame, thus ensuring the recruitment of participants possessing in depth personal experience with the phenomenon being studied. The overall purpose of qualitative sampling is to describe a particular phenomenon in detail, not to generalize to a particular population or setting. According to Gay, Mills, and Airasian (2006), “representativeness is secondary to the participants’ ability to provide the desired information about self and setting” (p. 114).
Purposive sampling was the mode of sampling used in this study. The three school districts were chosen because I was made aware of numerous incidents of cyber harassment that had occurred in these districts through professional networking at various regional meetings.
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District A is comprised of 5 schools, 235 educators (Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, 2011), and approximately 2,600 students (Georgia Dept. of Education, 2012). District A consists of one primary, one elementary, one middle, and one high school, as well as one small K-12 consolidated school. District A has a total county population of 21,356 people with ethnicity percentages as follows: White, 97.3; African American, 1.5; Other, 0.3; Two or more races, 0.6; Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 0.1; Asian, 0.1; Hispanic 2.7 (Wolfram|Alpha knowledgebase, 2013). District A has an estimated yearly county population growth of 2.35% (Wolfram|Alpha knowledgebase, 2013).
District B
District B is comprised of 4 schools, 93 educators (Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, 2011) and approximately 1,250 students (Georgia Dept. of Education, 2012). District B consists of one elementary, one middle, and one high school. District B has a total county population of 10,471 people with ethnicity percentages as follows: White, 96.8; African American, 1.0; Other, 1.0; Two or more races, 0.7; Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 0; Asian, 0.2; Hispanic 1.7 (Wolfram|Alpha knowledgebase, 2013). District B has an estimated yearly county population growth of 1.24% (Wolfram|Alpha knowledgebase, 2013).
District C
District C is comprised of 5 schools, 232 educators (Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, 2011), and approximately 3,450 students (Georgia Dept. of Education, 2012). District C consists of three elementary, one middle, and one high school. District C has a total county population of 23,682 people with ethnicity percentages as follows: White, 96.8; African American, 0.6; Other, 0.5; Two or more races, 0.9; Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 0.04; Asian, 0.2; Hispanic 1.7 (Wolfram|Alpha knowledgebase, 2013). School C has an estimated yearly county
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population growth of 1.96% (Wolfram|Alpha knowledgebase, 2013). Table 1 shows a summary of the three Northeast Georgia schools used in this study.
Table 1
County and School Demographics County Demographics
Population Growth
County Population
White Hispanic African American Asian Other 2 or More Races Hawaiian or Pacific District A 2.35 21,356 96.7 2.7 1.5 0.1 0.3 0.6 0.1 District B 1.24 10,471 96.8 1.7 1.0 0.2 1.7 1.2 0 District C 1.96 23,682 96.8 1.7 0.06 0.2 0.5 0.9 0.04
(Wolfram/Alpha Knowledge Base, 2013) School Demographics
District Schools Educators Students
A 5 235 2600
B 4 93 1250
C 5 232 3018
(Georgia Department of Education, 2012)
(Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, 2011) Participants
In phenomenological studies, researchers and participants are so dependent on one another that Moustakas (1994) posited that the “researcher and participants are to be co- researchers” (p.110). Co-researchers provide a rich description of their experiences while the researcher engages in epoche and seeks to understand and report the lived experience. The shared position of co-researchers is mutually advantageous to the participant and the researcher because both are necessary, but neither is sufficient without the other (Moustakas, 1994).
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identify primary participants in a phenomenological study. According to Gay (1996), the final sampling in a qualitative study can be small and not necessarily representative “in order to acquire an in-depth understanding” (p. 214). In a phenomenological study Creswell (2009) suggests interviewing between five and 25 participants in order to achieve data saturation. Quantitative research seeks to establish a commonality of findings through random selections. In a qualitative study, participants are chosen from specific groups who have experienced the same phenomenon, but experiences may vary from person to person.
Participants for the initial stage of this study included 560 educators employed in three public K-12 school districts in northeast Georgia who received an invitation to complete the electronic survey (Georgia Department of Education, 2012a). A total of 139 educators
completed the survey. Of that number, 20 educators indicated that they had experienced cyber harassment. Finally, 10 participants agreed to participate further in the focus group, individual interviews, and guided journal reflection activity that comprised the major part of this study. Table two illustrates a demographic profile for each of the ten participants.
Table 2
Final Sample Profiles Participants (Pseudonyms)
Age Range
Gender Ethnicity Teaching Experience
School Level Penelope 61-70 Female Caucasian 25 Years Elementary
Wayne 31-49 Male Caucasian 12 Years High School