Difficulties Encountered during Interviewing

The researcher as interviewer encountered a number of problems both prior to and during the study at KAU, but these were the most important:

(1) Certain steps had to be followed in order to gain permission to conduct research in the King Abdulaziz University, the first of which was making a request via the internet to carry out the study in the women’s section. The researcher waited for one month until the board of the Institute of Educational Graduate Studies considered, Vice Presidency for Graduate Studies and Scientific Research, approved this request. This was forwarded to all the other university departments and schools involved, who also gave their approval. Their decision was then communicated to the cultural attaché of Saudi Arabia in Britain to authorise the researcher’s study trip to Saudi Arabia. This application process took one month and a half, which delayed the start of the field work.

(2) By the time the researcher was eventually able to begin this study, it was the end of the academic year in KSA. This meant that many faculty members were on leave, and those who were there were busy collating students’ assessment results. However, the researcher was able to convince the participants to complete the interviews.

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(3) There were several instances when the time arranged for an interview was not respected. For example, one interview with the head of a school that was scheduled for 11 a.m only began at 2:00 p.m. As time was limited, these delays were, to say the least, inconvenient.

(4) As the researcher had worked at KAU in the Institute of Educational Graduate Studies as a faculty member, she felt that she knew how to deal with other faculty members. Although the year working there before travelling to the UK to do post-graduate studies was short, it allowed the researcher to understand the university's sense of teaching to some extent. Something that the researcher had noticed was the fact that the faculty members did not like to use their free time to do any extra work. Therefore, as the interviews that would provide the data for the research had to be done during their free time, the researcher asked the participants in to choose the dates and times that were most convenient for them. However, as mentioned above, this was not always successful. (5) Another aspect the researcher felt could have been a sensitive issue was the way in which she would introduce herself to participants. The researcher preferred to say “I am a graduate student carrying out research at King Abdulaziz University”, as the researcher presumed it would make the participants feel more comfortable with participating in the interviews. This was because the first occasions when the researcher introduced herself as a researcher, there were some unexpected reactions from faculty members and other academics. This may be due to the impact of the term ‘researcher’ in some parts of Saudi society. From its meaning in Arabic, the term ‘researcher’ would seem more appropriate to refer to individuals who have at least three degrees, working either in the private or public sector. Moreover, the term seems to have a special meaning among Saudis in the field of education as it is assumed that a researcher will be either a foreigner or a person of middle age with much information to impart. This is illustrated by the researcher’s experience with a secretary in the School of Arts and Humanities at KAU, where a meeting was scheduled. In the first instance, the participant considered the interviewer to be a student at the university and thus the researcher was asked to wait a significantly long period of time. Once the participant realised from the form that the researcher had been asked to fill in, that the researcher was, in fact, a faculty member, and also a post- graduate student in the UK carrying out research, the participant welcomed the researcher and took her contact information to schedule interviews, which had been the original

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purpose of the visit. This might reflect the fact that written information carries more weight when it comes to getting others to believe what one says.

(6) Furthermore, the researcher noticed that many of the participants were not familiar with the culture of interviews, resulting in reluctance, and in some cases a refusal, to participate. For example, one of the participants stated: “I prefer the questionnaire than the interviews” (Interviewee 4), while another said: “I feel that you are like a police woman” (Interviewee 16).

(7) Another factor which affected the researcher’s identity in the field is the fact that she is studying abroad. Before making the trip to KAU to conduct the research, this was not a consideration. It was only through fieldwork that the researcher realised how important it was to the participants. The researcher herself having to share her personal experience and answer numerous questions regarding study abroad, such as whether it was easier to study in the UK or within Saudi Arabia, how to get admission, how long was required to study English. For example, when one of the lecturers on the Diploma Programme in Education asked if the researcher advised her to study abroad, the researcher told her that being in a foreign country was not easy and that, once a student decides to go abroad, they have to pay attention to the fact that many things happen in a different way than in KSA.

(8) Moreover, assumptions were made regarding what living and studying in the UK qualified one to do. For example, a colleague currently studying in one of the English institutes in Saudi Arabia asked whether her English was at a suitable level for studying abroad; the researcher answered that it was very difficult to assess, as the researcher’s expertise concerns Educational Evaluation, and not the English language, and that the researcher did not go to the UK to study how to judge the level of English.

(9) The researcher had to draw up a consent form to be signed by all the participants in the present study, informing them that their anonymity would be guaranteed. This meant that anonymity had to be preserved under all circumstances. For example, the Vice-Dean inquired about the way in which a specific faculty member had addressed the role of evaluation. Although the researcher had knowledge of this aspect, she did not make any comments because she felt that, as an impartial researcher, she could not scrutinise or inform on the faculty member’s work. In addition, every time the researcher entered an office to meet a faculty member to hold an interview with her, the researcher explained

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the purpose of the interview and title of the research. Therefore, the researcher could not give the Vice-Dean a report on how the faculty members saw the role of evaluation as it was not part of the researcher’s mission at KAU. Consequently, the researcher found herself stating that the faculty members were doing their best in terms of evaluation.

3.8. Conclusion

To meet the aim of the present study, which was to analyse the QA practices currently employed at KAU in the KSA, the researcher conducted a case study on the SE processes and the impact of SE procedures on institutional policies and on the stakeholders of the women’s section of KAU. The researcher aimed to understand the unique perspectives of individuals in relation to said objects.

The data collected consists of qualitative primary and qualitative secondary data, the primary data consisting of both interviews and document analysis. The researcher conducted forty-two interviews with individuals employed in the women’s section of KAU, including senior staff members, lecturers and members of the support staff. The researcher employed purposive sampling in determining the interview participants, as this means of sampling allowed the use of comprehensive inclusion and exclusion criteria. Documents were collected from various institutions, including the KAU, the NCAAA and the MoHE, and were utilised to triangulate the findings from the interviews. In order to analyse the data, thematic analysis was used, which employs exhaustive coding and allowed the emergence of several relevant themes.

The main limitations of the study were identified as research bias due to it being insider research, the choice to conduct a case study and the data collection methods associated with it, especially the collection of relevant documentation, as well as the translation of the findings and the possibility of loss of meaning due to the language duality. However, the researcher took appropriate measures to guarantee that all possible limitations were minimised or avoided altogether.

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