Methodology
Introduction
This chapter discusses the methodology that was used for this research project. It will include a rationale behind the research methods selected and the main tenets of the methodology. There will be an explanation of how this research project employed the chosen methodology, including a discussion of the ethical stance which informed the data collection and analysis. Finally a discussion of validity and trustworthiness is included.
To enable a theoretical underpinning for this research to be established, it was important to consider the research aims, how they could be explored and what data needed to be collected to understand this area. Also required was a valid system for analysing the data and being able to discover what this added to the understanding of the complex processes in the selection of teachers. The research study aimed to explore the processes that selectors (tutors and teachers) used to establish that potential teachers possess the appropriate personal qualities for teaching. This study is an interpretative one and as such the methodology would need to be qualitative. Hitchcock and Hughes (1995) qualify the qualitative method further:
By qualitative methodology, we mean approaches that enable researchers to learn at first hand, about the social world they are investigating by means of involvement and participation in that world through a focus upon what individuals say and do. (p.12)
Researching the complexity of phenomena that humans engage in, necessitates the research being placed in a specific time and context. With society rapidly changing in the present technological age, insights gained will help inform further the
complexity of these phenomena but not create definitive theories. With this
complexity in mind it is important to use a methodology which is sensitive to these changes but will enable the context to be studied with validity.
Qualitative methodologies, whilst not having the same established history as the more positivistic methodologies, still do have rigour. Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was amongst philosophers who argued against the imposition of rigid inflexible rules on human behaviour. The qualitative methodologies became more established in academic research following the work of sociologists in Chicago during the 1920s and 1930s. Qualitative research methods have gained more credibility in recent years but there are still interesting debates as to their rigour in some academic circles. This is discussed by Cutcliffe and McKenna (1999) and Cutcliffe (2000). However Khun (1970) suggested that qualitative research had achieved the status of ‘paradigmatic normal science’ and was felt to be acceptable for this research project. The use of a positivistic research stance has been rejected in favour of a qualitative methodology. Primarily the research is studying human interactions, which need a flexible
methodology that allows these interpretive studies to be undertaken.
The overriding research perspective in which this research is positioned is that of the tradition of Symbolic Interactionism. This tradition involves the study of how
individuals engage in social transactions and how these then contribute to the maintenance of social structures (Charon 2001). Within this research study the subject tutors, practising teachers and potential teachers are the individuals engaged in a social transaction. The tutors and teachers are all practising professionals who are selecting potential teachers to join a programme which will subsequently lead to Qualified Teacher Status. This qualification aims to enable the potential teachers to become effective practitioners in the profession -secondary education system. The selection of teachers into the profession, although having evolved over the years, has a long tradition as described in chapter one. Symbolic Interactionism is a paradigm which enables situations, (where people construct their realities from the symbols around them and through the interaction with others), to be described; therefore the individuals are active participants in creating meaning in a situation. In this social transaction studied all the participants have an active role in creating meaning from this selection process.
Within this qualitative perspective the methodology that appeared the most useful and ‘fit for purpose’ was that of ‘grounded theory’. The rationale was based on the following premise. At the onset of the research there were no assumptions or expectations as to what the outcomes would be- there were no theories to test. It is understood that the selection process occurred and that potential teachers were admitted onto the course. How this happened was not understood and as data is analysed it is hoped these processes become transparent and give greater insights into this area. Grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss 1967) provides a model which has a flexible approach with academic rigour. Grounded theory enables the researcher to
search for social processes in human interaction (Hutchinson 1993) and to discover patterns and processes to understand how a group of people define, via their social interactions, their sense of reality (Stern et al 1982). As a methodology it enables the researcher to collect data using data collection tools that have academic rigour and have a clear framework. It also provided a system for analysing and then
constructing theories from the emerging results, by again using a model that has an academic precedence. As a methodology it has been employed in social science research since the 1970s (Backman and Kyngäs 1999). It has been:
…claimed that grounded theory is the most widely used qualitative method in social science research. (Locke 2001)
There have also been precedents in educational studies both in schools and initial teacher education (Taber 2000 and Hayes 2003). It is a methodology that has also been seen as useful in generating theory in areas where there is little known or a paucity of integrated theory in the literature (Goulding 1998, 2002), the context within which this research study is in. It also, through analysis, discovers basic social processes that are of direct interest and relevance to practitioners (Jones 2002).