Focus groups

I  carried  out  five  focus  groups  with  international  students  and  four  focus   groups  with  university  staff  including  lecturers  and  student  union  staff  –  see   Tables  4.1,  4.2  and  4.3  and  Appendices  D  and  E  for  topic  guide  questions.                

Table  4.1  Focus  groups  

Focus  Groups   Number  of  Focus  Groups   Number  of  participants  

PGR  International  students   1  x  7     1  x  7     1  x  3     1  x  6     1  x  4   27  students  

PGR  home  students   0   0  students   Lecturers   1  x  3   1  x  3   1  x  6   12  lecturers   Student  Union   Representatives   1  x  2   2  SU  Representatives   TOTAL   41                          

Table  4.2  Focus  Groups  participants  in  this  project  -­‐  students       Number   FG   no nu m nu m be r   Pseudonym   (real  names   were   changed)  

Country   Course  subject   Subject  

1   1a   Jin   Taiwan   Animation  

2   Abus   China   Animation  

3   Lima   China   Product  Design   4   Mari   Bulgaria   Animation  

5   Ha   China   Photography  

6   Yukasu   Japan   Ceramics   7   Jam   Taiwan   Product  Design    

8   2a   Aya   Japan   Creative  Arts  Management   9   Wei   Taiwan   Innovation,  Brand  

Management  

10   Gela   Iran   Creative  Arts  Management   11   Samson   Iran   Creative  Arts  Management   12   Elvin   Taiwan   Graphic  Design  

13   Ton   Thailand   Graphic  Design   14   Yun   Taiwan   Graphic  Design    

15   3a   Innar   Russia   Creative  Arts  Management   16   Ansan   Taiwan   Creative  Arts  Management   17   Kei   Japan   Creative  Arts  Management    

18   4a   Lele   Taiwan   Fine  Art   19   Masa   Japan   Fine  Art  

20   Gina   Hong  Kong   Graphic  Design   21   Annabelle   Russia   Graphic  Design   22   Toshia   Japan   Architecture   23   Ke   Taiwan   Architecture    

24   5a   Hui   Malaysia   Innovation,  Brand   Management   25   Sho   Japan   Architecture   26   So   China   Fine  Art   27   Beanie   China   Glass  

Table  4.3  Focus  groups  participants  in  this  project  -­‐  staff   Number  

Number  

FG   Pseudonym  

(real  names  were   changed)  

Subject/area  taught  

1   1b   Helen   Learning  Development  Tutor  

2   Niki   Learning  Development  Tutor  

3   Lisa   Learning  Development  Tutor  

4   2b   Stefan   Learning  Development  Tutor   5   Trisha   Learning  Development  Tutor   6   Lucinda   Learning  Development  Tutor    

7   3b   Gareth   Head  of  Pathway  Programmes   8   Heather   Design  Senior  Lecturer  

9   Mary   Fine  Art,  Senior  Lecturer   10   Sabrina   Fine  Art,  Lecturer  

11   Sandra   Creative  Writing,  EAP  Lecturer  

12   Annie   EAP  Tutor  

13   4b   Salvador   Student  Union  Co-­‐ordinator   14   Janet   Student  Union  President      

As  Macnaghten  and  Myers  (2007,  67)  point  out  that  “often  focus  group   research  takes  place  in  a  context  of  several  layers  of  argument,  where  people   have  conflicting  beliefs,  and  where  social  researchers  present  different   framings  of  those  beliefs”.  Thus,  for  the  purposes  of  this  project,  staff,  

international  students  and  home  students  were  positioned  in  separate  focus   groups,  to  encourage  open  expression  of  views  and  to  avoid  conflicts.  In  all   focus  groups,  I  laid  out  clear  guidelines  about  the  rules  during  the  focus   group  and  made  sure  that  no  one  dominated  taking  away  opportunity  for   others  to  contribute  to  the  discussion.  

Focus  groups  supported  me  in  selecting  ‘real’  profiles  of  international  

students  to  investigate  their  experience  further.  Table  4.2  includes  additional   information  on  the  countries  of  origin  of  the  students  and  the  names  of  the   courses  they  were  doing  at  the  time  of  data  collection.  The  research  aimed  to   consider  the  social  context  of  HE  through  the  perception  of  the  international   students  themselves,  and  thus  follow-­‐up  interviews  were  originally  planned   as  a  method  to  collect  the  views  and  interpretations  of  the  students  after  the  

focus  groups.  However,  the  focus  groups  narratives  turned  out  to  be  rich   enough.    

In  keeping  with  the  developing  approach  to  the  research,  the  first  focus   group  aimed  to  refine  the  methodology  of  the  study  itself  and  informed  the   further  data  collection  phase.  According  to  Laws  et  al.  (2003:  298),  a  focus   group  is  a  group  interview,  where  6  to  12  people  are  brought  together  for  a   discussion  and  the  interaction  between  group  members  is  part  of  the  process,   and  should  be  encouraged.  The  method  has  been  used  increasingly  in  

educational  research  and  shown  to  be  a  useful  tool  to  generate  data  in  the   form  of  facts,  opinions,  experiences  and  feelings  (Chioncel,  Van  Der  Veen,   Wildemeersch  &  Jarvis,  2003).  This  technique  can  be  a  crucial  tool  in   exploring  the  collective  understanding  of  an  issue,  as  well  as  the  range  of   views  among  a  particular  category  of  people.  

The  rapid  spread  of  focus  groups  corresponds  to  a  new  interest,   in  many  social  science  fields,  in  shared  and  tacit  beliefs,  and  in   the  way  these  beliefs  emerge  in  interaction  with  others  in  a   local  setting”  (Macnaghten  and  Myers  (date)  in  Seale  et  al.,  2007:   65).    

Because  I  had  not  been  entirely  sure  what  categories,  links  and  perspectives   were  relevant  for  internationalisation  in  my  target  groups,  focus  groups  with   international  students  enabled  me  as  a  researcher  to  gain  in-­‐depth  

information  on  what  people  thought,  in  their  own  words  as  part  of  the   process  of  developing  a  larger  scale  piece  of  research.  The  narratives  of   international  students  collected  from  the  focus  groups  guided  me  in  pursuing   further  data  collection  with  staff,  including  more  focus  groups  and  other   techniques,  such  as  interviews,  elite  interviews  and  questionnaires.  The  focus   group  turned  out  to  be  a  useful  technique  as  a  starting  point  in  my  research   as  they  enabled  participants  to  engage  in  discussion  in  which  prompts,  and   responses  to  others  stimulated  memories  and  debates  (Wilkinson,  2003).      

There  are  many  advantages  of  focus  groups:  they  are  relatively  easy  to   assemble,  inexpensive  and  flexible  in  terms  of  format,  types  of  questions  and   desired  outcomes;  they  provide  rich  data  through  direct  interaction  between   researcher  and  participants;  they  are  spontaneous  as  participants  not  

required  to  answer  every  question  and  able  to  build  on  one  another's   responses;  and  finally,  they  help  people  build  new  connections.  However,   there  are  also  possible  limitations:  findings  may  not  represent  the  views  of   larger  segments  of  the  population;  they  require  good  facilitation  skills,   including  ability  to  handle  the  various  roles  people  may  play;  they  produce   thick  data  which  may  be  difficult  to  analyse  because  it  is  unstructured;  and  in   the  worse-­‐case  scenario,  there  might  be  possible  conformity,  censoring,   conflict  avoidance,  or  other  unintended  outcomes  which  need  to  be   addressed  as  part  of  the  data  analysis  (Carey,  1995).  

The  focus  groups  were  advertised  on  various  university  network  groups,   Virtual  Learning  Environment  (VLE),  emails  and,  as  already  explained,  using   the  ‘friend  of  a  friend’  technique,  with  the  aim  of  exploring  viewpoints  on   internationalisation  in  HE  and  ideas  of  enhancing  the  PG  student  experience   from  student  and  staff  perspectives.  Participants  were  invited  to  attend  the   focus  group  most  relevant  to  them  dependent  on  whether  they  regarded   themselves  as  an  international  student,  home  student  or  member  of  staff.  No   payments  were  offered,  however,  each  event  included  snacks  and  free  hot   and  cold  beverages.  

My  main  role  as  the  facilitator  was  to  explain  that  the  aim  of  focus  groups   was  to  encourage  participants  to  talk  to  each  other  rather  than  to  address   themselves  to  me  as  a  researcher.  I  took  a  back  seat  at  first,  allowing  for  a   type  of  "structured  eavesdropping."  Later  on  in  the  sessions,  however,  I   adapted  a  more  interventionist  style  –  if  disagreements  occurred,  I  used  the   opportunity  to  encourage  participants  to  elucidate  their  point  of  view  and  to   clarify  their  opinions.  Additionally,  I  used  vignettes,  which  explained  the   more  challenging  terms  and  provided  students  with  short  case  examples  of   what  internationalisation  might  mean.  

The  focus  group  discussions  were  recorded  digitally  and  then  transcribed.  I   used  recording  equipment  and  made  notes  of  the  non-­‐verbal  behaviour  of   participants  as  well  as  writing  down  the  more  interesting  points  of  the   debate.