An early excellence centre in a northern town was approached and agreed to become the second site. It will be known as Skies Lane. The nursery is recognised for its high standard of provision. It is in an economically deprived community, and provided a different socio-economic profile from High Trees. However both nurseries are publically funded and are associated with training establishments set in the context of a larger institution. Skies Lane is used predominantly by local families and students attending for training. Staffing was enhanced to enable the inclusion of children with additional needs. Skies Lane had a more socially and ethnically diverse intake than High Trees.
Table 3.1 sets out the periods of fieldwork, with details of time spent at the respective sites.
Table 3.1 The three fieldwork periods
Period of fieldwork
First period of fieldwork: At High Trees (Phase1)
Second period of fieldwork: At Skies Lane (Single phase )
Third period of fieldwork: At High Trees (Phase2)
Dates Jun – July 2004/Sept – Nov 2004 with additional days to February 2005
January- February 2005 (returned July 2005 for two days )
May – July 2005, with additional days August- November 2005
Number of visits
Two or three days a week for 12 weeks, with an additional eleven days Total: 42 days
Three days a week for four weeks; two additional days Total: 14 days
Average of three days a week over 9 weeks, with an additional four days Total: 30 days
The research sample
Qualitative research tends not to use statistical sampling (Delamont,1993), however it is considered orthodox to identify a purposive sample as part of the research design, providing explicit reasons for sampling which can be
demonstrated to be necessary to fulfil the research aims. Within ethnographic studies it is usual to identify key informants who will contribute significant
information or data to the research. For these reasons, two sample groups were identified, one securing „core information‟ and the other one providing data from an „opportunistic‟ sample.
At High Trees, the researcher sought a purposive core sample of six children, three boys and three girls, who would be aged three at the start of the fieldwork. Each child would be using funded early education and childcare. The research design specified working with the same group of children in the first and second periods of fieldwork, over consecutive years. The longitudinal element coincided with the two years of funded education core sample children were entitled to as a result of government policies. Potentially children‟s perspectives might change over the two periods of research with maturity and familiarity in the setting.
In the event it proved impossible to recruit a balanced group of girls and boys to fulfil the criteria according to the original research design. Initially it was only possible to identify six boys and one girl who would still attend nursery the following year. Two of these children (who were twins) were under three at the start of the first fieldwork period and attended one day a week. All the children attended on a part-time basis, for up to three days a week; no children attended High Trees full-time.
The difficulty recruiting children to match the criteria of the research design reflects attendance patterns in the pre-school sector, including turnover of children on roll. This effect is exacerbated in a college nursery where students may only require a place for the duration of their course. Staff using the nursery also leave to change jobs. Children occupying community places sometimes left to attend their local preschool provision before starting full-time school. These factors affected the composition of the core sample over the research period and were problematic. The details of the final core sample children of four boys and two girls is summarised in Table 3.2. The children‟s names are ‟research‟ names that they chose themselves for their research stories.
Table 3.2 Core sample at High Trees (HT) Core child Sex Age at start of field work Phase 1 Age at start of field work Phase 2 Category of place -Student -Staff -Community/ parents‟ working status Number of half day sessions and days attended per week Phase 1 Number of half day sessions and days attended per week Phase 2
Siblings and details of any other pre-school attendance
Alan Tracy
boy 3.10 4.9 Grandparent non-teaching staff/ mother single parent working part time (PT)
5 Mon, Thurs ½ day, Fri 5 Mon, Thurs ½ day, Fri Singleton
Batman boy 3.4 4.3 Community place/ both parents work. One full time (FT) one PT 6 Mon Tues Thurs 6 Mon Tues Thurs Younger brother, Robin, in nursery.
Carl boy 3.4 4.3 Parent non-teaching staff PT/ other working FT
4 Tues Wed
4 Tues Wed
Younger sister, Alice, in nursery; attended his local playgroup for 1 session
Lauren girl 2.10 3.9 Community place/ both
Tues Tues brother Ben at HT; attended school nursery for 4 sessions Ben boy 2.10 3.9 Community place/ both
parents working – one PT 2
Tues
2
Tues
Older brother and twin sister Lauren at HT; attended school nursery for 4 sessions Zoë girl 3.8**
joined Sept 04
4.5 Student/ other parent working FT 6 Mon, Tues, Thurs 4 Mon, Fri
Older sister at school
Problems of attrition
The initial period of field work started in mid-summer. Within the first weeks notice was given that two of the boys would be leaving as they had been offered places in school nursery classes. Following a break in fieldwork during August 2004 (the college holiday) two more girls were recruited, one of whom had attended the previous term but had not been identified within the initial group, and one who was new to the nursery, who left High Trees before the start of the second period of fieldwork when her father changed his job. The initial period of field work was extended from eight to twelve weeks to accommodate the new members of the core sample, with some additional days to complete data collection. Table 3.3 summarises the affect of sample attrition at High Trees.
Table 3.3 Core sample changes at High Trees
Core sample history at High Trees and effect of attrition
Phase 1 Yr 1 Phase 2 Yr 2 Other factors affecting data collection from core and opportunistic samples June 2004 six boys and
one girl:
Loss through attrition of two boys by July 2004 Recruit two more girls September 2004
May 2005 retain four boys and one girl from original group, and one of the girls recruited in September 2004, creating a stable final core sample of 6 children
The attendance of children of students typically decreased as courses came to an end in June/July
The effect of attendance pattern of the core sample
Data collection was also affected by the pattern of attendance of the core sample (see Table 3.2). The research design employed a range of methods and a
systematic approach was used to record the data sets for each child (Appendix xii). Fieldwork visits were arranged to fit round the attendance pattern (see Table3.2) in order to involve all the children with each method. It took the length of the fieldwork period to gather the required data due to the need to
accommodate the children‟s desire to take part, the number of children present on any day and general nursery routines. A skewing of the quantity of data collected per child occurred over time on account of a „bunching‟ effect of attendance on Tuesdays. The core sample children who attended for fewer sessions but alongside others in the core sample were relatively less researched. Correspondingly those children who attended most frequently and on days when
they were part of a smaller core sample were the most researched. Additional days were added to every phase of fieldwork to include children who had not completed certain research activities. In spite of these efforts two children did not complete every research activity during the first phase of fieldwork. This will be explained as part of the research stories in Chapter Four.
Recruitment of the core sample at Skies Lane
The decision to include a second research site into the study, where data collection would take place within a shorter time frame, had implications for the criteria for selecting the core sample. Contact with these children would be
restricted to just four weeks. Experience from the pilot study and the first phase of field work led the researcher to realise that with the constraints of time both a smaller core sample and selecting older, potentially more confident and fluent children would be a necessary requirement when deciding criteria. At Skies Lane four children, aged four years, each attending fulltime and funded partly through nursery grant, were sought to make up the core sample. Only three children met all the criteria, with a child aged three years nine months making up the sample. Each child attended fulltime therefore the researcher could see the children and work with some of them every day over the four weeks. One purpose of arranging two additional days at Skies Lane (see Table 3.1) was to approach the youngest child to complete research activities that had not been achieved earlier. Table 3.4 summarises the Skies Lane core sample.
Table 3.4 Core sample at Skies Lane
Core child
Sex Age at start of fieldwork
Category of place Number of half day sessions attended each week
Siblings
Tom boy 4.1 Community/respite due to health of one parent/ partner working
10 singleton
Rose girl 4.1 Student/ partner working 10 older brother at school
Bill boy 4.1 Community/both parents working 10 singleton Pascal boy 3.9 Community/both parents working 10 older brother at
school.
A total of ten children from both sites comprised the combined core sample. Criteria for inclusion in the core sample are summarised below in Table 3.5.
Table 3.5 Core sample criteria
1 Children aged three in Yr 1, qualifying for nursery education grant
2 Using nursery for early education and childcare
3 Parents planning for child to attend for further year ie Yr2
1 Children aged four, qualifying for nursery education grant
2 Using nursery for early education and childcare 3 Attending fulltime ie ten sessions a week
The opportunistic sample
A further sample grouping was designated an opportunistic sample, defined as any child who presented him or herself to be part of the research during the data collection period. From the pilot study it was realised it was necessary to balance the demands made upon the core sample with interest from and contact with other children. The ethnographic approach enabled all children to say or show something to the researcher that might become data. Children were considered to be part of the opportunistic sample if they wished to be involved and if their parents had consented to their participation.
This dual approach to sampling aimed to facilitate respectful relationships with all the children in both nurseries. It was ethically fair, as it did not discriminate between children, enabling all to contribute to the research. In doing so it placed agency to in the hands of children to influence the research but also allowed the researcher to gather in depth material from particular children.