Documentary Evidence

The final data collection method that was used was documentary analysis. Duffy (1999:106) points out that documentary analysis can be used in educational projects to supplement information obtained by other methods or it can be the central method for collecting data. In this research, documentary analysis is used to gather crucial information to deepen my understanding of the children’s responses. It is divided into two parts: young children’s writting and art work and the researcher’s field notes and reflection journal. The former was used as part of a central method of data collection for enabling me to understand how young children expressed their responses through writing and art. The latter was used to supplement information obtained from observation, and discussion and from the research conversations.

In this research, the children were invited and encouraged to work on their reflective writing, drawing and creative craft work to express their responses, based on the follow-up activities designed by me according to each story. The children were invited to write five reflective pieces, to make two creative craft designs and to draw a picture to illustrate their reflective writing three times. The whole class was invited to create one shared poem at the end of the whole project. The detailed timeline can be found in 3.2.8.

The reflective writing was designed to help the children to express more in- depth reflective responses, insights, experiences and feelings after whole-class discussion (France, Bendelow and Williams, 2000:153). In Jones and Tannock’s research (2000), one of the teachers used young children’s writing as a means of obtaining data rather than asking them questions. In her diary, she explains why:

I planned to gather the data as part of the normal classroom situation without the extraneous paraphernalia of a tape recorder or the structure of a questionnaire. Also, it would have been difficult to find time to talk to the children individually in any depth. Writing ‘en masse’ avoided the problem of children influencing each other’s responses, such as may be the case in group or individual interviews over a period of time…asking them to write seemed a

logical and natural way forward as writing is one of the main features of children’s primary school experience (2000:89).

In this study, children were invited to work on their first thoughts through writing in order to express their thinking, reflection and understanding of the selected issues and texts. Their writing was not judged, graded or assessed but simply there to be read in order to understand their interpretation of experience and imagination, responses and viewpoints on the particular issues and other relevant experiences. Britton (1982:20) argues that “By using words the child orders his responses to the world, arranges them, and in doing so reaps the benefit of grasping more of their meaning.” What is valued in children’s reflective and expressive writing is the sense they make of each sensitive issue. In working on their reflective writing, children were in the role of spectator as they “generate(d) and refine(d)” information, understanding and feelings, and brought their own knowledge, experiences, judgement and morality to the issues and stories shared (ibid, 51). I analysed the children’s reflective writing, to understand their response, to explore how they coped with similar experiences and to analyse the key points and attitudes relating to human experiences that were reflected in their writing.

Young children’s drawings may reveal what is hidden in their minds and it may be easier for them to present their experiences and thinking through drawing (Greig and Taylor, 1999:79; Nieuwenhuys, 1996:54-55). Similarly, Sapkota and Sharma (1996:61) state in their own research that drawing or art work allowed young children “the freedom to express views, imagination, and interpretation of the surrounding world in their own terms.” They also maintained that “the adult-child power imbalance was relatively reduced by giving full control to the child; this in turn enhanced their confidence.” I have encouraged the children in this study to express themselves through drawing, writing and imaginative role play rather than by ‘just talking’ (Steiner, 1993:64). According to Gay (1996:249), “descriptive research involves collecting data in order to test hypotheses or to answer questions concerning the current status of the subjects of the study.” My own “descriptive research” has included evidence from children’s writing, drawing and creative craft

work. My criteria for analysis of this creative response can be found in 3.4 below.

Additional documentary evidence has been drawn from the researcher’s field notes and reflection journal. I made field notes on class proceedings whilst each lesson was in progress or immediately afterwards. These field notes comprised my on-site observation of the children’s responses and emotions, their interaction with the stories and any particular situations or events that were relevant to the research questions. An example of my field notes can be found in Appendix IV.

I made detailed notes in my reflection journal after every lesson to assist the analysis of my teaching practice in order to improve my teaching or create a more interesting dialogue for the next lesson. My feelings, impressions, questions and thoughts about the children’s learning and responses were also included in the reflection journal. The disadvantage of note-taking after each lesson is that the status of the data noted might be inaccurate, for my notes might be fragmentary or else I could not remember the details of events, and my own subjective bias might have influenced my selection of data. However, I used audio-visual recording to refresh my memory and to double check what I had noted down. An example of notes from my reflection journal can be found in Appendix V.