Interview

The interviews were undertaken with 32 Saudi student-teachers. Eight student- teachers were selected from each study year. First the researcher obtained permission to meet student-teachers in all four years by entering their lectures/classrooms. I asked for their voluntary cooperation in the detailed case study, resulting in 16 volunteers. This was followed by direct contact between me and the student-teachers, and our discussions resulted in finding a further 16 student-teachers who desired to participate in this study; as will be explained later in the pilot study section. This was an opportunity sample based on the student-teachers’ willingness and interest to participate. They were representative of the cohort in each year of study (with regard to gender and age range). Student-teachers were interviewed three times – once a term over three terms/levels; each interview was conducted at the end of the term/level. For example, the researcher met those eight student-teachers (A1, B1, C1, D1, E1, F1, G1,

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H1) for the first time to conduct the interviews when they were at the end of level one,

and a few weeks before their final examination in this level. They were interviewed for the second time at the end of level two, then again at the end of level three. This enabled investigation of how student-teachers’ knowledge and beliefs developed over the programme as a whole.

Alzaydi (2010) and Alebaikan (2010) observed that culturally, Saudi people are not familiar with some research data collection methods such as interviews. This is, especially pertinent when researchers use audio recording during each interview with participants or use videotape inside school classrooms to record lessons. However, aaccording to Kvale (1996) the interview is the best method of investigating interviewees’ opinions, feelings and perceptions. The researcher can “see things from the perspective of the participants” (Crotty, 2003, p. 7). Although interviewing is an appropriate method of interpretive research, the researcher must take into account the protection of participants’ right to privacy through the use of confidentiality (BERA, 2004). The interview questions for this study, therefore, were prepared carefully after extensive reading of relevant literature and studies. Also, the data collected from the questionnaire responses were important in preparation of these questions.

In this study, the interviews were used as the main method of data collection. The purpose of the interviews was to engage in dialogue with student-teachers to elicit their perceptions of the professional preparation, knowledge and beliefs of kindergarten teachers at COE in KSA. Data was collected through in-depth semi- structured interviews with the participants and the interviews, each lasting for approximately one hour to one hour and 15 minutes. In this respect, Robson (2002) made the observation that a semi-structured interview:

Has predefined questions, but the order can be changed based upon the interviewer’s perspectives of what seems most appropriate. Question wording can be modified and explanations given; specific questions which seem inappropriate with a particular interviewee can be omitted, or additional ones can be included (Robson, 2002, as cited in Alzaydi, 2010, p. 112).

The interviews with student-teachers were conducted by face to face interaction in a colleague’s office at the COE. A copy of interview questions was provided for each interviewee at least four days before the actual interview’s appointment. This was to enable the interviewees to have a clear idea about the nature of these questions, and to

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consider their responses. Also, at the beginning of the interviews, there was a brief discussion of about ten to fifteen minutes on all the necessary information for participants, including the purpose and objectives of the study, and the ethical issues that would be taken into account while conducting the research. For example, it was stressed that their participation would be kept completely confidential, their identity anonymous and their answers would be used only for qualitative and statistical analysis (BERA, 2004). In addition, it was explained and illustrated for the participants that the researcher would use audio recording during the interview process. Fortunately, all participants consented to the procedure; just one student- teacher was hesitant at the beginning but then gave her consent. Prior to the interview process I asked the participants if they had any questions. It was greatly appreciated and helpful that some of professors/supervisors (lecturers) provided written documents of their own work that addressed some of their evaluations of student- teachers’ performance during teaching practice. All interviews were conducted in Arabic and then translated into English by the researcher for the purpose of analysis.

The interview questions for the student-teachers (see Appendix D, p. 323) consisted of five parts. Part 1 concerned general information about the student-teachers. This part included two questions: the first was about student-teachers’ study year and their level of study; and the second question was about student-teachers’ reasons for joining the kindergarten programme at the COE. Part 2 was about programme content (subject matter and pedagogical strategies), part 3 concerned teaching styles and their effectiveness, part 4 addressed the teaching/learning environment, and part 5 concerned the influences on the educational process. There were 16 interview questions concerning specifically the teaching practice, which asked the participants about their practice in year four/level 8 (see Appendix E, p. 326). These questions prompted student-teachers to reflect on the knowledge they had gained in the programme, and the ways in which they had been able to use that in their practice. In other words, the questions probed the ways in which they had been able to make connections between the taught programme (theory) and their practice, and how they thought they were progressing in their development as teachers.

Teaching practice consists of a school experience, where a student-teacher works in the classroom and the teaching is observed by a supervisor of student-teachers

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(Bennett, 1993). According to Hargreaves (1995, p. 49), “observation gives information about what actually happens in the classroom”. These observations assess student-teachers’ teaching practices in the classroom, which are affected by their knowledge and beliefs (Drever, 2003; Bell, 1993). In this study, teaching practice took place in the last term (term 8) and happened over fourteen weeks in total. The student-teachers were in kindergartens for four days per week, where they were taking responsibility for the planning and implementation of the activities, environmental instructional preparation, and interactions with the children, all under the aegis of the educational framework and the scholastic administration (COE, 2004). This means that I had to meet eight student-teachers who were in year four to conduct the interviews two times. One of them was in level 7 and another in level eight (in teaching practice).

A positive relationship was established before the teaching practice between the researcher and each student-teacher, because it is considered an important element in a successful data collection stage (Bennett et al., 1997, p. 29). I met those student- teachers before the beginning of their teaching practice to discuss with them for approximately fifteen minutes the nature of their knowledge and beliefs required in this stage. A copy of interview questions was provided for each student-teacher in this meeting to have a clear idea about these questions. It was stated in the interview schedule for the participants that the researcher would ask them to describe verbally (or in writing) one or two episodes of their teaching that they think were successful, and one or two that were less successful. They were also asked to bring some samples of their written evaluations of lessons. Moreover, student-teachers knew that they had permission from the MOE/kindergarten to take photos of their activities which they believed to be successful, and those that were less so. The researcher used photographs as evidence to support the interview data, as an aide memoire for recall and illustration. They were used to capture real-life scenes that supplemented the real stories of their practice that were narrated by the participants. Therefore, the researcher chose discrete events to be used as visual data for the reader to support what student-teachers said about their teaching and how they put their theoretical knowledge into practice. The photographs also familiarise the reader with the contexts in which the student-teachers were working in KSA kindergartens. At the end of the teaching practice, there was an arrangement between the researcher and the student-

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teacher for an interview appointment at the COE. The student-teachers were interviewed to ascertain their perceptions and reflections on their teaching and their expectations of teaching competences (Bennett, 1993).