Data Collection Procedures

A quantitative data collection was carried out by using a questionnaire completed by 105 PSTs (5 printed surveys and 100 online surveys shared via e-mail, “WhatsApp”, and Twitter). The questionnaires were complemented with interviews with a volunteer sample who indicated willingness to participate on the survey form. Sixteen PSTs were interviewed, two of them via face-to-face interviews and the others via telephone.

The data collection was carried out over 4 months, first in December 2015 for 1 month, during Semester A in Saudi Arabia, then during a second period from March to May 2016 (Semester B in Saudi Arabia). Originally, the goal was to have a 3-month data collection process (March– May 2016 only). However, during the pilot phase of the study carried out in Al-Jubail College

76

of Education, it became clear that the number of PSTs studying in each College of Education in Saudi Arabia was less than anticipated. Previously, the expected cohort size within colleges of education was much higher, with some colleges reaching as high as 200 PSTs per year. In addition, some universities had stopped offering ITE courses. This decrease in the size of PSTs cohorts has occurred because of the problem of a high unemployment rate for recently graduated PSTs, with universities reducing their intake of education students as a solution to this problem. For this reason, I chose to interview some potential participants in December 2015 (the final month of Semester A and the practicum) before the final examinations, thus providing an additional pool of participants. In this initial phase, 35 PSTs from three Colleges of Education (Al-Jubail College of Education, College of Sciences and Humanities at Al-Aflaj, and College of Sciences and Humanities at Hotat Bani Tamim) were surveyed plus five PSTs from Al-Jubail College of Education were interviewed. The other two colleges surveyed during Semester A (December) were excluded from the data obtained during the second period (Semester A), as one had temporarily discontinued the mathematics education course (College of Sciences and Humanities at Al-Aflaj) and the other (College of Sciences and Humanities at Hotat Bani Tamim) had only one female mathematics PST who had had experienced a practicum. All other surveys and interviews were carried out during March–May 2016, when the PSTs had spent approximately 1 month in their practicum (during their final semester of university study). These participants were drawn from 14 Colleges of Education across Saudi Arabia, including Al-Jubail College of Education (see Table 4.2).

4.5.1 Quantitative phase

Originally, the intention was to carry out paper-based surveys followed by interviews with PSTs on their university campus. It was felt that printed surveys presented directly to respondents would be preferable because they are more personal and the data collection could be controlled more easily by the researcher. However, the distribution of printed surveys was limited by the cost and time constraints of travelling to the survey location and similar geographic constraints. For example, at the outset of the study, I was able to visit King Faisal University and Al-Jubail College of Education several times, as these were located close to my home location. Nevertheless, even with the convenient geographical location, I was not able to meet with the entire PST cohort. I was, however, able to meet two PSTs from Al-Jubail College of Education during the first day of the data collection phase and three others the following week. At King Faisal University, only six mathematics PSTs were enrolled and I was not able to meet with any of them, as they were away from the college campus on their practicum.

77

Thus, to facilitate the collection of the quantitative data, I created an online survey using the Google Drive platform and sent the survey’s information sheet (Appendix A) and a link to the survey via the PSTs’ contact emails (from Al-Jubail College of Education). Out of 100 emails, I only received one response! It is possible that some of the PSTs may not have checked their email or that their email addressed may have been changed. However, an alternative contact approach using the social media online chat app WhatsApp allowed me to access PSTs in distant locations, while also providing for automatic data collection. In contrast to the 1% response rate from the email invitation, 105 PSTs – from 138 WhatsApp invitation—expressed an interest to participate in this study. Three of the mathematics PSTs were excluded because they only taught statistics, rather than mathematics during their practicum. In addition, 10 of the PSTs who agreed to participate failed to complete the survey (despite of three reminder messages). In total, the WhatsApp invitation (with reminder requests) resulted in 92 (67%) completed responses out of 138 initial invitation messages.

The higher response rate suggested that participants found the online survey easy to use, visually interesting, and flexible. This is in line with previous findings in the literature that have noted that time-poor and educated people who are unwilling to participate in face-to-face surveys may be more willing to answer questions posted directly to them via mobile devices (Duffy, Smith, Terhanian, & Bremer, 2005; Kellner, 2004). WhatsApp is popular among the target demographic (young Saudi females), who frequently use this app on their mobile devices.

Although participation was voluntary, it is possible that some PSTs may have felt pressure to participate in the survey, as they were nearing the end of their course and the invitation to participate was originally set up via contact between the researcher and the PSTs’ mentors. Equally, however, the pressure of exams and course work at this time may have negatively affected some participants’ willingness to participate. This can be illustrated by what happened in an approach to 10 PSTs studying at the College of Education at Al-Zulfi, where one PST who sent me her mobile number and showed an interest in participating in the study, and also volunteered to share the survey link with her peers opted out. In response to reminder messages, she explained that she and her colleagues were in the middle of mid-term exams and they also had to prepare lessons for their practicum experience. In an alternative way to increase the number of responses, I distributed the link to the survey via the universities’ websites on

78

exclusive pages for PSTs, and via Twitter. The Twitter invitations resulted in a further seven responses.

4.5.2 Qualitative phase

The invitation to participate in the interviews was presented as an addendum attached to the questionnaires (Appendix C). This invitation asked interested participants to provide their contact details. In moving to the WhatsApp platform, further invitations were sent separately via WhatsApp once the survey was completed.

However, despite many expressions of interest, completing the interviews was challenging. For example, during my first visit to Al-Jubail College of Education, one of the two PSTs I met agreed to participate in the interviews; the other stated that she did not have the time but later (the following week) agreed to participate. Another three PSTs agreed to participate in the survey but declined to participate in the face-to-face interviews because their drivers were waiting to deliver them home2 and they did not have time to participate in the interviews.

To overcome some of the constraints around face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews were suggested as an alternative. Telephone interviews give the researcher the opportunities to interview individuals who are widely geographically distributed (O’Connor, 2006) and allow the interviewer and the interviewee to choose a wide range of sites and have the comfort of familiar surroundings (Carr & Worth, 2001). Telephone interviews also enable researchers to take notes discreetly and can also help protect the anonymity and privacy of the interviewee, decrease any social pressure caused by a formal interview setting and the physical presence of the interviewer, and increase rapport (Novick, 2008). However, there are some limitations in using the telephone interviews compared to face-to-face interviews. Specifically, telephone interviews make it more difficult for the interviewer to establish a rapport with the interviewee, being limited to the use of voice and words only (O’Connor, 2006) and the interviewer cannot see or respond to non-verbal cues (e.g., facial expressions, gestures, body language, etc.); neither can the interviewee pick up similar cues from the interviewer.

In the present study, 16 respondents completed interviews. Two of the interviews were carried out face-to-face and 14 were conducted via telephone. The time taken for the interviews, both by phone and face to face was 30–40 minutes. The semi-structured interviews followed a pre-

2 _{In Saudi Arabia, women could not drive a vehicle legally at the time when the surveys were carried out; this}

79

planned interview protocol (Appendix D) that included the name of the participant and her college, and the questions were asked during the interview. Using the protocol as a guideline (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2011), I was able to reword, reorder, and adapt the questions as needed throughout the interview to stimulate PSTs to describe their experiences and opinions. During the interview, I was careful to let the individual’s experiences drive the direction of the questions and probes, prompting the PSTs only when necessary.

The interviews took place at times or sites that were comfortable and convenient for participants. At the beginning of each interview, I outlined the aims of the study and reminded the participants that their responses would be kept confidential, and that the conversation would be recorded for later analysis. Throughout the interview, I made an effort to listen carefully and to monitor the interviewees closely (for example, providing an example to assist understanding), to show interest in the responses, and to thank the interviewees for their time and contribution. This is because the interviewer’s responses, general demeanour, tone of voice and attentiveness all affect the interviewees’ responses (Cohen et al., 2011). I was also careful to allow time for respondents to think about their answers, and paused to consider the interviewee’s response and possibly probe for further detail before moving to the next question. Later, the recorded interviews were transcribed in Arabic. These interview transcripts were then translated into English in preparation for analysis.