Conducting the main study

Once the pilot studies had been conducted, I reflected on the entire process and referred to my journal notes to plan the way forward to the main study. Table 3.2 outlined the data production plan that was followed. The data sources and methods were aligned to the critical questions of the study.

As mentioned previously, the plan for data production was developed in line with the critical questions for the study. The tools were chosen with the intention of how best to produce the data. The data collection tools were revised for the main study based on the outcomes of the pilot study.

The phenomenon of the study was the negotiation of communication strategies in the world of work of the speech-language therapist. The speech-language therapy sessions were video recorded, and were later viewed. This formed the observation component of the study. In addition, interviews were conducted before and after the videoed therapy sessions. The videos were used as a stimulus to help participants recall particular incidents in the therapy session that they wanted to discuss or on which they wanted to elaborate (Mackey & Gass, 2005). Field notes in the form of my research journal were also used to augment the data. Thus several data sources were helpful for triangulation purposes and in generating the narratives for each participant, which will be discussed later in the chapter (see section 3.3.7.1.2).

3.3.4.2.1 The pre-observation interview schedule (Appendices K and L)

This interview was the first contact that I had with the participants for the purposes of data production. Although discussed telephonically and via email, we still briefly discussed the purpose of the study and the amount of time that we needed to collect the data (Creswell, 2007). Although I was familiar with all participants, time was still spent on building rapport and developing a trusting relationship.

The pre-observation interview took an average of 45 minutes. A few participants were comfortable to speak for longer periods. However, some appeared anxious about the upcoming video recorded (observation) session with their clients and seemed more

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comfortable in the post-observation interview. The interviews were audio and video recorded, which would have also affected their feelings of uneasiness, even though they gave their permission for this to happen. As discussed earlier, the interview schedule was refined and reorganised after the pilot study to be more illustrative and diagrammatic so that I could visualise it and navigate through the conversation without being dependent on the schedule. A complete pre-observation transcript can be found as Appendix M.

3.3.4.2.2 The observation (Appendix N)

Non-participant observations were carried out in the typical workspaces of the participants within each context. Each participant needed a 30–45-minute time slot for his or her therapy session with the client.

Jacob (1988) states that human ethology is one of the distinct traditions of qualitative research. Human ethology involves the detailed observations and descriptions of behaviour in natural settings (Jacob, 1988). The term originated in the study of animal behaviour. In the current study, qualitative ethology was used for exploring the interactions between the practitioners and the clients using the video-recorded (observation) data (Bottorff & Varcoe, 1995). This ethological approach involved the study of the participants’ behaviour in their natural environments. The opportunity of watching the participants in their professional role and in their natural environments gave me insight into how they communicated during therapy.

The observation data added another lens on communication, especially non-verbal communication. It provided depth and evidence of the sentiments expressed in the pre-observation interview and it gave me insight into what to probe for in the post- observation interview. The conversation between the SLT and the client was transcribed to augment the observational data. In cases where the language used in the session was different from English, an interpreter was employed. The data was transcribed in the language spoken and then translated into English so that I could read and code the data.

The following information was recorded on the observation schedules:  observer information;

 participant characteristics;  client characteristics;

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 verbal characteristics of the clinician-client interaction;

 nonverbal characteristics of the clinician-client interaction; and  instructional artefacts and/or stimuli used.

The observation schedule was developed using the speech acts theory (Searle, Kiefer & Bierwisch, 1980) which includes the illocutionary, perlocutionary and locutionary speech acts). This was used to address the verbal clinician-client interaction. Nonverbal communication or the paralinguistic features of the interaction were coded using the elements of kinesics (body movements), haptics (touch) and proxemics (spatial boundaries) (Duck & McMahan, 2010), as well as my experience as a clinician in the field of speech-language therapy (type of instructional method, types of elicitation methods and instructional artefacts or stimuli used). The raw data was processed through an inductive process of coding the transcripts and incorporating notes made in my researcher’s journal. Categories were then established. Themes that were developed underwent several revisions. The themes were then aggregated to generate the building blocks for establishing the analysis of the raw data. See Appendix N for the observation schedule used in the study. For the analysis, the raw data was processed through an inductive process of coding the transcripts and incorporating notes made in my researcher’s journal. Categories were then established. Themes that were developed underwent several revisions. The themes were then aggregated to generate the building blocks for establishing the analysis of the raw data. See Appendix O for an example of a completed observation schedule and see Appendix P for a completed observation transcript of the clinical session as it was coded according to the observation schedule.

3.3.4.2.3 The post-observation interview (Appendices Q and R)

Stimulated recall interviews, or the post-observation interviews (as I have referred to it in the study) can be viewed as a subset of introspective research methods, which access participants’ reflections on mental processes, which have their origins in philosophy and psychology (Rowe, 2009). One advantage of this approach is that stimulated recall data allows participants to explain their decision-making (Fox- Turnbull, 2009). One limitation to stimulated recall is that recall procedures should occur as soon as possible after the task has been completed (Fox-Turnbull, 2009). Most of the stimulated recall interviews were conducted on the same day of the video observations to mitigate this limitation. I found it useful to conduct the post-observation

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interview on the same day of the observation but after a short break. In some cases, due to time constraints on the part of the participants, I had to conduct the post- observation interview on another day. This gave the participants and myself time to reflect on what had happened during the session. Unfortunately, the time that elapsed between the observations and the post-observation interview sometimes affected participant recall in terms of reasons behind decisions made in the session. The video stimuli were useful in this recall. At the time of the post-observation interview, participants were more relaxed and comfortable with the research process. I briefed the participants on the purpose of this interview and we set a time frame of how long the interview would take, bearing in mind that it was almost at the end of the day in some cases. For most participants, the interview lasted approximately 30 minutes. The interview was again audio and video recorded. The participants reported that this interview was less stressful for them due to their prior experience in the pre- observation interview. The post-observation interview schedule was developed as a mind map to facilitate better flow of the conversation (see Appendix R). This interview gave me a good understanding of the world of work issues that the participants faced. Refer to Appendix S for an example of a completed post-observation schedule. 3.3.2.4 Data management and storage

The data collected during the fieldwork was organised by transcribing verbal data and recording observation data onto the observation schedule (Appendix N). All electronic data was stored on my external hard drive in password-protected files with no access allowed to anyone other than myself. Each participant was allocated a different folder where all data pertinent to that individual was indexed and stored. This made for easier management of individual participants’ data when constructing the narratives. All printed and written records were filed and stored in a secure and locked cabinet on the UKZN Westville Campus, in the Discipline of Speech-Language Therapy, in my office. These written records will be kept for a minimum of five years. All non-essential documents will be destroyed and discarded after the five years of storage.