Data collection techniques

Whereas the communicative methodology contemplates different methods and techniques that combine both qualitative as well as quantitative measures to gather data, for the purpose of the present research only qualitative data collection techniques are employed to explore in depth how the communicative acts among the people belonging to the university community influence gender violence at Spanish higher education institutions. In that sense, the techniques employed follow the example of the pioneer research on gender violence at Spanish universities (Valls, 2005-2008). Thus two techniques are developed: communicative daily life stories and in-depth interviews with communicative orientation.

In-depth interviews

Semi-structured in-depth interviews with different profiles of people belonging to the community composing the public universities in Spain were carried out. On the one hand, interviews were conducted with institutional representatives and especially those representatives of gender-related university bodies; on the other hand, interviews with faculty that has been supportive of victims of gender violence at universities and has a trajectory of actively participating in the struggle against gender violence at the higher education institutions were conducted. These interviews have been carried out following the communicative orientation. In that vein, the conversation was not only directed at obtaining answers to specific questions but to engaging in an egalitarian dialogue on the problem of gender violence at Spanish universities, and how the analysis of communicative acts can contribute to preventing these kind of situations.

Therefore, the interviews with the representatives of institutional bodies attempt to shed light on the communicative acts that take place in the more institutional relations to handle and address gender violence resolution and prevention. This perspective will help to provide insights to the barriers held up by the institutions and the pathways to introduce changes in the university structures in order to respond to the social need of providing safe environments in Spanish higher education institutions. The interviews with the faculty that took a stand for the victims and against gender violence and its perpetrators is crucial in order to identify both the communicative acts that represent the difficulty to bring this issue forward and those communicative acts that make it possible to overcome violent situations and contribute to changing the hostile environment that perpetuates this problem.

Communicative daily life stories

This data collection technique consists of conversations held among the researcher and the person belonging to the collective involved in the research. It has a narrative orientation, in which the researcher and the participant interpret together the participant’s life story in relation to the issue analyzed. Thus, in the present research the communicative daily life stories are conducted with victims of gender violence at Spanish universities as well as with institutional representatives. In the dialogue of the

participants and the researcher, both contribute to the interpretation of the situations experienced by the victim in order to identify those elements that indicate communicative acts that promote gender violence and those communicative acts that help to overcome these situations. Whereas the participant contributes with his or her life experience, the researcher introduces the knowledge of the scientific community. This means that the data found and explained in previous sections is taken into account in these dialogues, both by the researcher as well as by the participant who can then reflect on the experiences and contrast them with the scientific evidences and together interpret the reality discussed. This procedure is crucial to obtain a less biased interpretation of the situations and to contribute to identifying elements for the prevention of gender violence at Spanish universities. These dialogues are the spaces that make it possible to go beyond the dichotomy of subjective or objective interpretation of life experience, but makes an intersubjective interpretation possible. Since this intersubjective interpretation is based on scientific knowledge the possibility to go beyond this existing knowledge is the opportunity to contribute to the gaps in science. Additionally, elements that have proven to be successful in other social contexts to overcoming gender violence at higher education institutions, can be brought into the conversation and their recreation in the present social reality can be discussed (Gomez et al., 2006).

The delicacy of the issue dealt with in this research implies that the participants in these communicative daily life stories, and especially the victims, need to feel free to explain only those experiences they feel comfortable with and only if the conversation about these issues contribute to a greater well-being of the participants, rather than being detrimental to them. Therefore, confidentiality and an egalitarian environment were attempted to provide an atmosphere in which participants were enabled to openly talk about the situations they had experienced. In order to reassure that this dialogue is contributing to their well-being, the participants were informed about the content of the dialogue and the reflections that might come up previous to their consent to participate. Only those participants who felt comfortable to participate and were willing to recall the violent situations they had experienced were included in the present study. Vidu and her colleagues (Vidu et al., 2014) have emphasized that the success of the communicative methodology used in the pioneer research on gender violence at Spanish universities

lies, among other elements, in the creation of a safe environment where students felt comfortable to disclose their experience.