Chapter 4 Research design
4.7 Data analysis/presentation
Analysis was informed by existing ideas that are prevalent in career scholarship as presented in chapter two. Added to this, it was guided by thinking tools associated with Figured Worlds as explained in chapter three. Analysis required a deep immersion in data which was influenced by established practices in thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2008) and inductive research (Eisenhardt et al., 2016). A systematic process of
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coding and re-coding occurred, culminating in a theoretically-sensitised presentation of data. NVIVO acted as a useful organisational vehicle for this coding. A Figured Worlds analysis plays close attention to elements of language, e.g., the imagery, tropes and repetitions that are used by participants.
Usefully, an initial content analysis of a section of the data which focused on Arts, Creative Arts and Humanities was undertaken as a report for my funder (Christie, 2017c). However, this was not a theoretically sensitised analysis which is the intention here. The undertaking of that initial analysis was a valuable activity in identifying key themes and issues across the data that could be built upon theoretically. Analysis of a small amount of quantitative data from the survey data has been conducted for this thesis which primarily acts to set the scene empirically, and is included as it offers a useful descriptive account of the population and to compare responses against different variables such as social background and subject discipline. This is in chapter five.
An important stage in analysis of the twenty interview participants was writing a summary of each participant (essentially their story) which sought to focus on important themes which could be illuminated by Figured Worlds thinking tools. Four stand-out foci slowly emerged to be of particular value to the final analysis and subsequent presentation of data. These were voices, figures, characters and narratives which have been utilised to provide a framework for chapters in this thesis. Data was scrutinised to consider what if any of the established discourses about careers, participants draw upon. The literature explored in chapter two revealed how many assumptions about employability and careers are individualist in orientation, so analysis sought to consider how participants respond to such dominant ideas. In addition, the richness of the careers literature, which is full of typologies, some of which are comparable to the cultural models that Holland et al. focus on in their theory, acted to influence analysis. Notably, career construction theory (Savickas, 2013) has argued for the role of stories in how people narrate themselves, and Pryor & Bright (2008) identified common plots that exist. This categorisation of plots provided a fertile territory for analysis of narratives. Other Figured Worlds tools guided a search for elements such as “heteroglossia” and “ruptures” as useful ways to examine data.
Data presentation and discussion sections on voices (chapter six), figures (chapter seven), characters (chapter eight) and narratives (chapter nine) have been developed drawing specific examples in order to interpret and illustrate the application of thinking tools from Figured Worlds. In so doing, I do not suggest that participants themselves can be uniformly categorised or closed off but that some of what they said could be used to
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illustrate certain points. In fact, participants often drew upon multiple voices, figures and narratives in how they self-author. Data from all twenty respondents is used, in depicting how the theoretical analysis could be applied in creating a shared landscape of recent graduates. This approach extends the usage of how Figured Worlds has been typically utilised by others in in-depth analysis of individuals.
Included in Tables 4.3 and 4.4 are details of all twenty participants. These include comprehensive information about subject studied, location, gender, social background, ethnicity as well as career activity at approximately six months, 16 months, and 18-22 months. Throughout the remainder of the thesis, the name of a person quoted will be used and these tables act to allow the reader to refer back to details of an individual rather than having to continually repeat the detail of an individual participant. This method of presentation has been deliberately chosen in order to allow writing to flow and not be cluttered with extraneous footnotes.
4.8 Summary
Questions can be raised regarding the generalisability of my findings as the project is located in one university, focusing on two broad groups. It has also relied upon volunteers to participate, which narrows the sample to those who have the personal organisation skills and motivation to check emails from their university. The claims made will be limited by the narrowness of the eventual sample used. However, an advantage of having such a sample is that is allows for a more in depth analysis which adds value to this topic. The more random way participants were reached via a call-out for volunteers, arguably adds to their representativeness.
A number of writers have successfully used limited samples in research about similar topics. They are careful not to make grand claims of generalisability but to argue that their research raises questions and implications that have wider value (Burke, 2015; Finn, 2015; Moreau & Leathwood, 2006; Tomlinson, 2008; Tymon, 2013). They also contextualise their research in a wider body of literature and research that has used bigger samples. I follow a similar approach and have sought to situate the study in literature that addresses the career trajectories of UK graduates as a whole as discussed in chapter one and two. The characteristics of my sample groups from an urban northern university with a high number of non-traditional students is comparable to other such universities; and I would argue that a focus on this limited sample allows for the illumination of local experience with the scope to influence practice in the spirit of action research.
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I am closely connected to the research topic as the core purpose of my own career for the last 18 years has been to support students/graduates in how they set out for their future. A belief in the potential significance of career development support activities is fundamental to such professional practice. Therefore I already have opinions about how graduates may experience transition, although the systematic investigation into graduate experiences which this project aims to do is new for me. My relationship to the topic has required me to be alert to potential blind spots in my thinking and a consideration of how my biography impacts on the project (Roberts, 2002), which I discussed in chapter one. Aiming to be a reflexive researcher (Alvesson, 2009) and honestly acknowledging my position in relation to the topic is important in ensuring that my own story does not unduly blinker my ability to research the topic.
The project has been designed in order to maximise its rigour and subsequent credibility, albeit with the limitations just discussed. Its design was a mixed methods approach which allows for the use of different parts of the data to be used for varied audiences. The entire design from timing to sampling to survey design and interview questions have been carefully decided upon to maximise the rigour integral to this project.
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