Conventional content analysis

In this section I will explain how the data was analysed. First, a ‘conventional content analysis’ (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005 in Mann, 2016) was conducted in each teaching cycle to identify emerging themes without imposing any theoretical concepts. As a result, 5 themes emerged in the first cycle; 9 themes, in the second cycle; and 5 themes, in the third cycle (See Table 3). These themes are developed and exemplified in chapter 4, 5 and 6, respectively. Following Hsieh and Shannon (2005, in Mann, 2016: 210), this would constitute conventional content analysis as it derives codes directly from the data instead of imposing categories based on previous readings or theory. Braun and Clarke (2006) and Clarke and Brown’s (2013) six-phase model for thematic analysis (in Mann, 2016: 2012) has informed and guided this analysis. Its six phases consist of: familiarisation with the data; coding, searching for themes; reviewing themes; defining and naming themes; and writing up. Below I present the specificities of the analysis in each phase:

3.12.1.1 Content analysis in Phase One

When I approached the analysis of Phase One, I analysed each data type separately first, for fear that analysing all the data as a whole would be unmanageable, and then I selected the themes in common in the four data types. Only the analysis of the data as a whole will be presented in chapter 4. Below are details of how each data type was first analysed and at the end what themes emerged across all the data types.

Teacher-researcher reflective diary: In order to do a content analysis of my diary, first I selected the 13 entries I wrote during the first teaching experience or cycle, and copied them into a new document. Secondly, using the Comment tool within the Review application on Word, I annotated and labelled the text mostly sentence by sentence. Thirdly, in a printed version, as I was reading the labels and notes again, I highlighted those which were similar with the same colour and wrote possible category names for each colour. Fourthly, I copied all the same-colour comments from the electronic version and pasted them together under different categories in a new document. The resulting 15 categories were refined to 9 themes (Richards, 2003; Mann, 2016:211) which are: 1) learner-centred pedagogy; 2) trying to

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understand a different societal and cultural context; 3) students’ and teacher’s contentment with practice; 4) concern not to impose a research burden; 5) focusing on developing criticality: voicing alternatives to mainstream marketised views of the world; 6) dissatisfaction with pre-packaged material; 7) uncertainty about appropriateness of learner-centred pedagogy; 8) improving my practice; and 9) requesting articulated understanding.

Students’ drawings and their talk about them: During this 4-week course, 3 drawing sessions were organised and 16 drawings have been collected and analysed thematically. Both transcribed students’ talk about the drawings, and the words and graphic elements in them were annotated, and 14 themes emerged which were refined and defined into 6 themes (Mann, 2016): 1) identifying and defending one’s own societal and cultural habits; 2) resisting and facing resistance; 3) drive to learn; 4) positive evaluation of pedagogy; 5) voicing one’s interests and asking one’s questions; and 6) developing self-awareness. These will be developed with examples below.

Semi-structured interviews with students: Towards the end of the course, precisely at the end of week 3, I decided to use tutorial time to ask each of the 8 students their views of their learning experience in this course for 10 minutes each. I asked them 5 questions regarding their perceptions about 1) making decisions about their learning in class, or to put it in other words, choosing what is best for them; 2) the meaning of criticality, whether they have been critical, and whether they have chosen not to be critical at some point and why; 3) the role of universities; 4) reflecting about their learning, that is whether reflexivity (Mann, 2016) is of any benefit for them; and 5) using art (painting) to express their feelings and thoughts about this learning experience.

Mann (2016) has highlighted the importance of acknowledging the influence the interviewer’s talk and questions exert on the data obtained. This is particularly important in this case in question two in which the interviewer changes from asking an open question regarding the meaning of ‘criticality’ to providing the interviewee with a narrow meaning of this term and asking them whether they have been ‘critical’ in that particular sense. This reveals the interviewer’s uncertainty about the meaning of this term at the outset of her research project and her not knowing how to

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deal with the interviewees’ not knowing the word, with their thinking time and silence.

Responses to each question were analysed one at a time, all responses to question one first, responses to question two second, and so on. A ‘summative thematic analysis’ (ibid.) was conducted by which the same responses have been grouped together under the same theme.

All in all, five questions were asked to each of my students during a tutorial session. Responses were thematically analysed and in total 12 themes emerged. These are: 1) Choosing what to learn is useful; 2a) Criticality is sharing our views, ideas and understandings with others; 2b) Being critical is deep and difficult; 2c) Being critical is welcoming all views; 2d) Being critical is dealing with disagreement; 3a) Instrumental views of the university; 3b) Formative views of the university; 4a) Reflecting is being in charge of our own learning; 4b) Reflecting is becoming aware; 4c) Reflecting helps us improve; 5a) Using art is a good way of remembering what was learned; and 5b) Using art is an exciting way of expressing and explaining one’s thoughts.

Student-teacher communication and student written work via email: The analysis of the students’ written work will be important, especially since the main focus in the debate on developing critical thinking in EAP is on examining the students’ essays for signs of critical thinking understood as identifying and connecting different voices and developing their own voice by including ‘critical thinking’ in the assessment criteria. This study aims at not only examining the students’ written work but the educative practice as a whole in order to develop a more educational approach to EAP as opposed to an instrumental education. A more educational approach to EAP consists of developing students’ criticality more broadly, not only by examining their written final product but especially along their educative experience, by exercising social critique, reflecting on their own development, developing a sceptical attitude towards discourse that is presented as the only truth, sharing, articulating their ideas, views and understandings, working together to develop deeper understandings, as so on. All of these are constitutive aspects of conceptualisations of criticality. It is expected that developing students’ criticality more holistically will contribute to a more educational and less instrumental approach to EAP.

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By comparing all the themes emerging from each of the data types presented above, six main recurrent themes emerged across all the data sets: (1) Contentment with learner-centred practice; (2) Developing awareness of self; (3) Developing sociological and cultural awareness; (4) Sharing and communicating articulated understanding with others; (5) Drive to learn and become better; and (6) That which is deep and difficult. Each of these themes will be developed with examples in Chapter 4.

3.12.1.2 Content Analysis in Phase Two

In the second phase the following five data sets were thematically analysed: 18 student reflections via drawings; 34 (24 small and 10 big) student posters of work done in class; 9 weekly written reflections from 4 students on their learning via email; 14 pages of the teacher/ researcher diary and one extra page of a transcribed voice-recorded entry; and 19 pages of notes from listening to 7 video-recorded records of different lessons of a total of 2 hours and 19 minutes. Firstly, each significant piece of text was labelled and categorised using different colours; this was done manually and intuitively, attempting not to impose any pre-conceived ideas. Secondly, these categories and their respective examples were listed in a word file, data type by data type. A different colour was used to differentiate each data type. Thirdly, all the categories/ labels emerging from all the data types were re- categorised into 48 themes in a chart, which in turn became sub-themes of 9 major themes. These are: 1) student-centred pedagogy; 2) culture, the social, habits; 3) articulating and formalising thought; 4) expanding understanding of both the individual and the social being; 5) imaginative thinking and thirst for change; 6) working with others; 7) working with sources; 8) what we already know; and 9) research. Fourthly, all the categories/ examples within each data type, distinguishable for their same colour, were read one at a time and one example of each data type was selected as representing the theme the most accurately. This will be presented in Chapter 5.

85 3.12.1.3 Content analysis in Phase Three

In this phase, three data types were analysed: the students’ reflective writing, their reflective drawings, and my own diary. First, notes were made and names were given to each piece of data. Secondly, these notes were numbered and typed in a Word file. This was done with each type of data separately. Thirdly, these notes were organised and grouped into categories or themes. Fourthly, the notes and categories/ themes emerging from the three types of data were compared and further refined by highlighting with different coloured pencils the notes and categories which were similar across all the data types. The first three steps will be subsequently detailed. Regarding the students’ reflective written accounts, 142 notes were made which were organised into 23 initial categories which were grouped together into 4 main categories; regarding the students’ drawings and their explanation of them, both orally and in writing, 20 notes were organised into 10 initial categories which were further refined into 5 categories; and regarding my teacher-researcher diary, 72 notes were grouped into 7 main categories. In the fourth step, after comparing all the notes and categories emerging from all the data types, five main themes emerged across the data types, which will be developed in Chapter 6.