Focus Group Schedule

The topic guide (Appendix VI) was developed in conjunction with the survey. The main points focused on experience as opposed to just whether or not a topic was discussed in the classroom. There were eight questions with additional prompts in the event that participants did not understand a question correctly. Each question focused on an aspect of sex education, starting with general experiences and then moving onto topics covered in lessons, ultimately discussing sexual orientation and sexuality. The final two questions were reflective in nature, asking the participants to recount whether they thought that their school was effective in its teaching and whether they recall what they learned at any point now in life. All of the questions used in the focus groups were developed in order to best understand the complete sex education experience of these young people.

3.4.1.5 Analysis

Upon completion of the focus groups, the audio files were transferred to a programme called Transcriber 1.5.1 in which they were fully transcribed. Care was taken to ensure the transcriptions were correct, although on occasion it was difficult to accurately understand what was being said. In these cases, brackets were used in the transcript to indicate that something was missing or unclear (Creswell 2011, p. 239). I also chose to exclude excess ‘buts, ums, and yeahs’, as nothing was lost in the transcription of the responses to the questions (partial intelligent verbatim transcription). Finally, emotions were coded within the transcript based on the audio file as well as my recollection and any personal notes that I took to indicate when a participant became emotional, as the capacity for the recommended two staff members was not attainable (Bernard 2000, p. 211). There was one clear example of this, where a participant started to sob during a response, but this was difficult to hear on the audio file.

Once the transcripts were complete, thematic analysis was employed and each statement was carefully critiqued and coded to what appeared to be the underlying meaning

(Braun and Clarke 2006), if it was not explicit (Bernard 2000, p. 444). A second coder was not utilised in this process, however, a random section of two of the focus groups were reviewed by my supervisor. Upon coding the three focus groups, I had established ov er 100 different codes. To make sense of these codes, they were grouped into three overarching themes (Creswell 2011, p. 244). These themes formed the basis of my critique of the sex education culture towards LGBT identified young people and the perceptions that LGBT young people have of sex education, as well as the education system.

3.4.2 Interviews

Of the three methods used with participants, the semi-structured interviews were designed to be the most flexible, as the list of questions was not used with everyone, but rather a selection to expand on previous thoughts that I felt warranted more information for this research (Mertens 2014, p. 20). Thus, they were used to generate a more in-depth understanding of themes that directly arose during the focus groups (Bryman 2008, p. 196).

3.4.2.1 Design

After completion of the initial review of the focus groups, several themes became apparent. However, what seemed to be lacking was an in-depth account of the emotions that were experienced. This became a major focus for the interviews, along with clarification of other topics such as teaching materials and perceptions of the schools and teachers towards heteronormativity or in some cases homophobia. From these topics, a list of themes was devised (Appendix VII) that I wanted to address with the participants in the short time slots (approximately 15-20 minutes) that I was afforded per individual in the youth group. This was due to time constraints with the young people’s participation in the youth group event that evening.

3.4.2.2 Sample

The sample population was identical to that of the focus groups, thus there was potential overlap with those who had taken part in the focus groups several months prior to the interviews. However, since this was approximately six months after completing the focus

groups, there was a new cohort of young people that started attending the youth group. This increased the likelihood that I would obtain information from new participants, therefore, I aimed for approximately five to ten additional participants.

After attending the youth group session for an additional two weeks, I obtained a sample of seven young people17, with two being participants in the focus groups and the other five being new to this research. Of these seven young people, five identified as LGB and two as transgendered. Finally, while it may not have been ideal to have this overlap, it provided interesting supplemental information to the focus groups, as well as confirmation of findings.

3.4.2.3 Procedure

Prospective participants in this research were approached at the beginning of the evening youth group meeting and those who wished to take part registered their interest with the staff member. The staff member coordinated the interviews to assist in managing the sessions efficiently.

On commencing the interview, each individual was welcomed and given a brief synopsis of what my research was about and how the youth group had been involved in the past, as all but one were not regular attendees at the youth group at the time of the focus groups. After the introduction, I set out the framework for the interview explaining that I wanted to gain more insight into specific topics that had been broached in the focus groups. It was during this time that I distributed the information sheet (Appendix IV) and requested that the participants sign consent forms, in which they consented to both the interview and the audio recording of the interview. Each session lasted approximately 20 to 30 minutes and contained questions to assess the type of sex education that participants had experienced themselves followed by the questions devised after preliminary analysis of the focus group data. On conclusion of the interviews, I asked if there was anything that the participant wished to add that I had not discussed with them and most participants closed with a final remark.

17

Considering that two individuals were the same as in the focus group sample, the total number of participants questioned in the focus groups and interviews totalled 20.

3.4.2.4 Analysis

All interviews were transcribed using the intelligent verbatim style and then twice coded in the same manner as the focus groups to allow for thematic analysis as well as providing a more coherent set of data that could be used in ‘between method’ triangulation with the focus groups and questionnaires to corroborate the data (Denzin 1970). This thematic analysis complemented the themes that were apparent in the focus group data, while adding additional insight into areas that were only superficially discussed in the focus groups. It must also be noted that even though the data supported the use of triangulation, the method was employed solely for validity in the policy sphere.

3.5 Ethics

The implications of ethics for methodology are pertinent to understanding how the methodology evolves in a research project. Equally important is the idea of access. As this research involves the topic of sexuality and a sample of young people, this leads to thoughts on whether strictly controlled access to young people in schools is conducive to allowing them to shape their own future through research. Thus, this section will discuss access to young people, the utility of gatekeepers, my personal account of the ethics process in this research and the implications of practitioner research.