Maintaining Ethical Standards

Kvale (2007) explains the ethical issues of interviewing; starting from thematising which can create the beginning of an ethical issue if the study does not intend with clarity to improve knowledge on the subject matter. Kvale (2007) and Cousin (2009) insist on the informed-consent plan in order to consider the ethical issues that can arise during the study (p.119), which according to Creswell (2014) must be done at the beginning (p.93). However, situations can occur during the interviews where stress and alternative understanding would affect the outcome (Kvale: p.23). Hence, ethically, considerable attention needs to be given to the way the interviewee is approached, the responses are analysed, and the subject interpreted. This leads the researcher to another stage to play with the data - another critical questioning process, which must be as subtle as possible (pp.23-25). Therefore, it is essential for any study to maintain fairness, honesty, and possess the knowledge and experience necessary for sensing and identifying ethical and moral issues to eliminate possible bias (Kvale: p.118; Cousin, 2009).

For the interview itself, Kvale (2007) lists some very basic concerns that could arise including informed consent; confidentiality; study consequences; the researcher‘s role; the initiation of interviews; and digressions or the willingness of the interviewer to stray from the subject matter. Kvale further notes that while interviewing, the researcher must maintain appropriate behaviour during the entire study process. Hence, I, as a researcher, was very sensitive to the participants‘ opinions and values about their scholastic, known or unknown, contribution to the investigation. In addition to being knowledgeable about the process, I probed questions with reasonable clarity to meet the data‘s credibility with its in-depth understanding from students experiences (Mears, 2012); handled knowledge with respondents responsibly; and interpreted information usefully and accurately, in keeping with the principle that a study‘s attributes depend on the interviewer‘s qualifications about the research process and acceptable procedures (Kvale: p.137).

113

Corbin and Strauss (2008: p.28) and Cousin (2009) stress the importance of silence as another common strategy at the beginning of the interviewing process; maintained in the current research. A potential problem arises, however, when interviewees have little or no new information to offer which complicates the researcher‘s role with uncertainty; this vacuum may stop the researcher from proceeding with the interview (p.28). However, as the current study involved participants with knowledge about their experiences of the issues and my (researcher‘s) role was from a similar background, the issue never arose significantly. Whilst it is also important for the researcher to handle the collected information sensibly to ensure the study‘s integrity (p.29), I took necessary steps, using data for the study purpose only without revealing any sensitive information, to ensure data as my higher priority. Corbin and Strauss, and Cousin (p.31) have common agreement over confidentiality and reflexivity as important considerations in a qualitative research, especially over the protection of participants‘ information which might influence the entire research project. Therefore, I maintained the consistency of reflecting on my own actions and behaviour and considered my positionality to keeping the study and participants closely related. Simultaneously, I stress that no sensitive information was revealed during the entire process of this study.

I also assured participants of their right to withdraw from the study or cease to elaborate on matters uncomfortable or else concerning to them. A similar method of maintaining privacy is one by Bulmer (2001), which suggests that to properly govern the research process‘s ethical issues, ‗informed consent, respect for privacy, safeguarding data confidentiality, avoidance of harm, the absence of deception, and attention to publication consequences‘ (pp.49-52), must be given proper consideration. Schostak (2006) also contends that informed consent is to reassure and guarantee respondents their privacy and realistic representation, in contrast to under or over-representation (p.136).

114

In this chapter, I explained the methods which were used to answer my research questions, and the process that I used to gather and analyse data. I have given all possible examples of the data collection and analysis process and how this study fits into a qualitative approach.

The following chapter is aimed to present the findings from the data analysis, thus it introduces first the steps taken to data analysis and discussions about the findings.

115

CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction

The previous chapter examined in detail the methodological approach and research techniques used in the current study. The entire process of data collection, the limitations of data collection methods and ethical considerations were also discussed.

The current chapter describes the analysis of the data revealed in interviews. After careful analysis, several major themes emerged out of the data which have led to important categories. The analysis is carried out in detail and I have tried to establish the link between the categories. Starting from the analysis of Stage One, some important themes emerged from the first-stage interviews and questionnaire data, issues relative to prior education, independent learning (IL), language, finance; and cultural issues relative to socio-cultural adjustment.

Stage Two interviews, which involved probing of issues, explored some significant categories and themes which arose from the data collection, coding and categorisation. These interviews investigated the challenges students face in UK higher education. I tried to encourage students to elaborate on issues largely common to all of them, matters related to social influence, finance, language, prior learning experiences and IL skills. At the end of the Third Stage of interviewing, the emerging data clarified hindrances to their learning, comprised of interconnected issues to IL. These issues, which related to UK education, were further examined to clarify student perceptions on adjusting to the academic environment. Whilst student perceptions made it possible to form a descriptive theory, on the challenges students face and their lack of the necessary skills to meet UK independent learning standards, it was also necessary to critically analyse the transcribed data in detail. The emerging theory is thus based upon the core indicators derived from categories and includes both academic (language – writing and expert communication; learning support – impact of support on IL; likes and dislikes; and IL itself – from exam-oriented education to learning independently) and socio-

116

cultural issues (social adjustment to the new environment). Each category is analysed in detail as follows.