From a theoretical point of view, the researcher was integral to the research process; through the interaction with participants and her own professional experience and role. The researcher engaged in the role of a constructivist grounded theorist. In other words, she entered the field of study with her own histories, theories, and experiences which needed to be acknowledged, while at the same time analysing and constructing meaning in which the experiences and voices of the participants emerged (Charmaz, 2000; Mills, Birks, & Hoare, 2014). A close professional relationship existed between researcher and some participants which required self-monitoring and reflexivity to ensure the findings were not exposed to undue, unintended interference by the researcher.
From a practical point of view, the researcher engaged in a range of roles and activities: initial approach to staff sample, seeking ethical approval from several of the institutions, interviewer, data collector and analyser, and reporter. Throughout these undertakings the researcher also remained a member of the survey community. All these activities included the potential for disruption through bias and it was important to ensure that the influence of bias be minimised as much as possible. To this end, full details of the study were made available to potential participants when invited to participate. Participants were, therefore, aware the interviewer was a manager of a VET library. This did not appear to constitute any problem and none of the participants approached for inclusion in the study declined.
The researcher acknowledged the many contexts and processes of which the participants were part; that they were culturally-situated, they did not exist as a theoretical or abstract entity outside their constructed experiences and interpretations of their particular environment. The relationship of participants to their environment was a key ontological concern of this investigation. The researcher was also a component of this environment; both professionally and from the angle of taking a vantage point within it. Therefore, the design and methods of the research formed an integral part of the way in which reality was construed. As discussed earlier, the researcher engaged in self-reflection throughout the various stages of the investigation and, particularly, when engaging directly with the participants during the interview process and during the data analysis stage. The relationship between participant and interviewer carries the potential for power differentiation in that the interviewer has greater opportunity to control the manner in which the interview is
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conducted. The researcher consciously sort to resolve this influence through endeavouring to put the participants at ease throughout the interview, checking whether they were comfortable and relaxed at the commencement, explaining the process and gaining their agreement before moving onto the questioning stage.
One of the benefits of the researcher conducting the interviews was the level of prior knowledge and also the ability to communicate and interact with professional colleagues. This enabled any additional information sought by participants before the interviews to be answered directly and to allow the interviews to develop through the use of probing or prompting. It was also important the interviewer maintained an attitude of being non- judgmental, refraining from offering personal comments and creating an atmosphere where the respondents felt relaxed and in control of the interview. The interviewer was conscious of the need to maintain neutrality, to avoid making unrequired comments on responses and to listen rather than to converse. The topic being investigated was not identified by any participants as containing sensitive issues.
4.7.2 Interview Timetabling
The forty-two interviews were scheduled and conducted over the space of three weeks in October/November with the exception of one which required rescheduling to January. The intention was to complete this phase of the data collection process in one block at a time convenient to the sample. The months October/November comprise the end of the academic year in Australia and New Zealand and many staff have a brief opportunity then to catch up on matters outside routine demands. The researcher identified this as an appropriate period for busy staff to undertake an interview and any preparation involved.
Immediately following the Skype interview all participants were requested to complete the short online questionnaire. More importantly to the data collection phase, the library managers were also requested to add the SurveyMonkey link for the student online survey to their library websites while the student body was still on campus. The survey was to remain open for three weeks, by which time (end of November) the majority of students would have departed for the year. In all cases this action was undertaken by the participating libraries.
4.7.3 Interview Process
The research interview was designed to collect a corpus of rich information on the competence and confidence of library staff in developing mobile library service delivery. The interviews were conducted, directly on a one-to-one basis by the researcher using an appropriate communication technology, Skype, both computer to computer and computer to
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telephone. The use of technology was chosen for a logistical reason, to eliminate both time constraints and travel costs. The type of technology deployed was chosen to increase participation rates and reduce telecommunication charges. The information collected addressed several levels of investigation: the individual point of view, a social, collective viewpoint and a management planning perspective.
The duration of interviews ranged from 45 to 90 minutes, with the majority lasting about one hour. The interviewer considered it important to ensure the on-going engagement of the respondents, more of an issue when interviews are not taking place face-to-face and the respondent has a ready termination option. Issues associated with the use of technology in interviews are discussed more fully in the following section. Each interview was captured in two formats, both through the interviewer’s notes and by the digital recording device. At the end of each interview the participant was thanked for his or her contribution and the subsequent two online survey steps were explained.
4.8
Validity
Flick (2009) simplifies the concept of validity as being whether researchers see what they think they see (Flick, 2009, p. 371), in other words, whether the researcher’s specific constructions are empirically grounded in those whom they studied, to what degree this is made clear to others (Flick, 2009, p. 371) and the demonstrated accuracy and appropriateness of the data (Denscombe, 2010, p. 299). A range of checks should be included to minimise threats to validity at all stages of the research process. These may include selecting appropriate resources, methodology that answers the research question, instrumentation, sample, data analysis techniques and data reporting (Cohen et al., 2010, pp. 144-145).
4.8.1 Methodological Validation
The ability to yield rich insights into the phenomena under investigation, to provide in-depth answers to questions, or generate novel theoretical perspectives underpins the research design and the choice of methodology. Utilising an interpretive approach, the desire to obtain a deep understanding of the participants and their social context, indicates that the researcher will be closely involved in the action of research and will need to employ an ongoing attitude of reflexivity (Lincoln & Guba, 2000, p. 183). The reflexive stance required the researcher to take accountability for the research paradigm employed, her own position of authority in relation to the study and participants, and to assume ethical responsibility relative to representation and interpretation of findings (Dutta, 2014, p. 93). A paradigmatic issue pertaining to validity relates to the fusion of method and interpretation. Lincoln and Guba
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(2000) argue for “community consent and a form of rigor … in ascribing salience to one interpretation over another” (p. 178). The methodological criteria deployed in grounded theory are designed to assist the researcher’s best analysis but will not ensure replicability of results. What it will allow though, is the applicability of the theory in a similar situation to interpretation, understanding and predicting of phenomena (Chenitz & Swanson, 1986, p. 13). A quality of balance, or non-bias, should be discernible through the presence of all participants’ perspectives and concerns in resulting texts, this is defined as fairness by Lincoln and Guba (2000, p. 180) and contributes to the rigorousness or validity of a phenomenological enquiry. The present investigation sought to address these methodological issues through the researcher’s engagement in a continuous process of reflexivity and her use of rigorous, tested constructivist grounded theory methodologies.
4.8.2 Validation of Research Instruments
The research concept of content validity, whereby experts evaluate the degree to which items on a test measure the intended objectives (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998, p. 83), was undertaken as described in Section 4.4.6 (Review of Data Collection Tools) using a panel of invited experts, both national and international, to check the three data collection instruments for a range of qualities, including content validity. The instruments were adaptations of surveys and questionnaires which (with one exception) had been field tested on substantial numbers of respondents in the higher education sector.
4.8.3 Sample Validity
Ensuring validity of the chosen samples required addressing the issues of sample size, representativeness, rationale for choice. The purposeful selection of samples can be informed by a number of strategies relating to the research question (Bradley, 1993, p. 440), with the generalisable feature of qualitative studies being the opportunity to obtain richness and depth of information. The staff sample was selected purposively, based upon library type and size, expertise, professional position. Given the sample was to be interviewed exclusively by the researcher, forty-two participants was a manageable number. The size of the sample is relevant to the fundamental processes within the research design. Large amounts of data may overwhelm the researcher and not contribute additionally to the saturation of conceptual categories that form the focus of grounded theory procedures (Stern & Porr, 2011 p. 52). The ITP library sector was more heavily represented, with eight from a total of eighteen libraries involved, while six of a possible sixty-three TAFE libraries took part, however, in both sectors, not all of the VET libraries qualified for inclusion on the basis of staffing threshold. Ideally, one TAFE library from each Australian State would have been involved but this expectation proved impossible to meet. Both the TAFE and ITP library sectors demonstrate
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operational, philosophical and cultural homogeneity. There is variation in size but commonality in most of their other distinguishing features. This situation suggested the findings from this investigation would find common interest across the sector.
4.8.4 Telecommunications
The particular problems associated with conducting telephone interviews, such as lack of access, lack of cues other than auditory, and memory capability of interviewees, impact upon the relationship between interviewer and respondent (Cohen et al., 2010, p. 153) and relate also to the use of Skype as a communication channel. The auditory component of Skype was predominantly used for the interviews, as many participants either lacked a web camera attached to their desktop computer or undertook the interview at another staff member’s workstation. Only three of the forty-two interviews were conducted as a videoconference. The telecommunications issues were acknowledged by ascertaining respondents’ access to Skype, which was available in all cases, and their willingness to be interviewed in this manner; again, all respondents were happy. The lack of cues is a more complex problem. On the one hand being able to read body language can assist an interview to proceed effectively, with rapport more easily established between the participants; on the other hand, some interviewees will respond more readily in a situation that is not face-to-face, feeling somewhat protected by a degree of anonymity. There is the added benefit of telephone-style interviews being shorter and more focused, suited to busy working people (Cohen et al., 2010, p. 153).
4.8.5 Interview Data
The degree of authenticity is of concern when collecting data from interviewees, whether, or to what degree, bias is present in responses. The researcher sought to minimise this threat to the validity of responses through the selection of three staff from each institution, each of whom would be commenting on the same environment and culture. Triangulation, examining the evidence from different data sources and using it to build a coherent justification for the findings, was employed. Staff completed an online survey regarding the evidence of technology in their library environments and student library users were similarly asked the same questions at greater length. This allowed comparison of data. Some degree of inconsistency in responses in regard to ‘opinion’ questions in both the semi-structured interviews and the online questionnaire was to be expected, given the different interpretations the three positions would offer, however the factual information, for example, whether wireless connectivity was available, was expected to demonstrate similarities.
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The validation of interview data can be further strengthened through returning transcripts to interviewees for agreement with the content of their statements. For the purposes of this study the transcripts were not returned subsequent to the interviews as five steps of validation were afforded through the technology hardware and software employed for data collection. Use of a recording device is recommended when interviewing (Cohen et al., 2010; Flick, 2009; Thomas, 2003). The study acknowledged transcription involved a range of issues inherent in converting a contextual situation to a written one, such as creating a record of data rather than a record of a social encounter (Cohen et al., 2010, p. 365), loss of parts of the valuable, non-verbal information evident in a face-to-face interview through use of an audio recording and the resulting transcription. However, transcribed data were crucial for the type of analytical methods that were to be applied in the present study. The Smartpen used for recording each interview, although not documented in any of the studies investigated, offered a range of benefits in data capture, transcription and subsequent checking:
1. Handwritten notes taken by the interviewer during the interview 2. Video capture of the notes via camera device in the Smartpen nib 3. Audio capture of the interviews
4. Pdf capture of the handwritten notes
5. Word files (checked and corrected against the audio recordings) created from the pdf documents
A tangible benefit of the Smartpen during the transcription and checking processes is the synchronicity of the video and audio recording components, this allows the transcriber to double tap anywhere on the handwritten notes to access the accompanying audio recording. With this level of checking accuracy available, it was not considered of any further advantage to send the transcripts back to the interviewees.