Methodological Approach

It has been noted that the interrelationships between individuals and contexts are not easy to capture in quantitative studies so addressing the aims of this study demands an interpretive and qualitative approach, necessary to discover actors reasoning according to specific circumstances (Sayer 2000). The use of qualitative research acknowledges an interpretive naturalistic approach to the world which attempts to interpret phenomena in terms of the meaning that people bring to them (Denzin and Lincoln 2005).

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Qualitative research is undertaken “in a natural setting where the researcher is an instrument of data collection who gathers words or pictures, analyses them inductively, focuses on the meaning of participants, and describes a process that is expressive and persuasive in language” (Creswell 1998:14). Inherently multi-method in focus, qualitative research accommodates the need to examine the multiple dimensions of a problem or issue in order to provide a ‘complex holistic picture’ (Creswell 1998:15). As a result, qualitative researchers deploy a wide range of interconnected interpretive practices since each practice will make the world visible in a different way (Denzin and Lincoln 2005).

Understanding the social contextuality of meaning is achieved by tapping into the subjective experience of individuals, and as such, narrative material is crucial for integrating meaning into context studies (Frohlich et al. 2002). Interviews yield rich insights into people’s ‘biographies, experiences, opinions, values, aspiration, attitudes and feelings’ (May 2001:120). Built on a naturalistic interpretive philosophy, they are extensions of ordinary conversations in which interviewees are partners in the research enterprise; as a result, each conversation is unique, as researchers match their questions to what each interviewee knows and is willing to share (Rubin and Rubin 2005).

Due to the open ended nature of interviews, the interviewee is able to answer questions within their own frame of reference, allowing the meaning that the individual attributes to events and relationships to be understood in their own terms (May 2001; Bryman 2004). Here, the emphasis is on how the interviewee frames and understands issues and events, allowing the researcher to understand experiences and reconstruct events in which they did not participate (Bryman 2004; Rubin and Rubin 2005).

Adopting this approach will allow understanding of the way that structure is practiced, lived in, enacted and challenged, since embedded within narratives are explanations for what people do and why, which in turn shape social action. As such, they are valuable insights into the dynamic

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relationship between human agency and wider social structures (Popay et al. 1998; Frohlich et al. 2002; Popay et al. 2003). An in-depth examination of the peculiarities of context is facilitated by a case study methodology which allows the researcher to understand the dynamics present in each setting (Eisenhardt 2002).

5.1.1. A Case Study Methodology

A case study methodology allows a focus on the peculiarities of context, situation and actors, allowing the researcher to look at a case in depth in order to understand ‘the dynamics present within single settings’ (Eisenhardt 2002:8). A particular strength of a case study methodology is the recognition that any case or phenomenon under study will be embedded in a number of contexts, ranging from historical, cultural, physical, social, economic, political and ethical (Stake 2005).

By definition, a case study is “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon in depth and within its real world context” (Yin 2014:16). It is these peculiarities of context, situation and actors that are the important features of case studies and this methodology will allow the researcher to determine what is common and what is particular (J Clyde Mitchell 1983; Stake 2005). Taking this concept further, an extended case methodology acknowledges the multi-level nature of context and in doing so situates the case in the broadest field of action, allowing underlying structural conditions to be included in analysis and thus allowing a move from localised interventions (Sullivan 2002; Tavory and Timmermans 2009). Within an extended case methodology, analysis attempts to understand the interaction across levels and to analyse how this interaction will impact at the level of the individual case (Burawoy 1998).

Using this method in an analysis of school violence, Sullivan (2002) placed individual behaviour within levels of hierarchically nested ecological context

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and the influences and interrelationships of the individual, the school and the community were compared.

5.1.2. Researching the Policy Context

A review of the development of free school meal policy in Chapter 2 revealed the influence of changing political priorities and as a result, policy makers’ perceptions of the problem are crucial in shaping policy development (Gustafsson 2002, 2004). Additionally, the introduction of devolved powers across the UK, creating a ‘natural experiment’ has led to an increasingly complex policy context (Davey et al. 2008:1442).

Research which has examined the impact of devolution has tended to use a compare/contrast approach to assess how policy outcomes differ between territories (Davey et al. 2008; Blackman et al. 2009; Harrington et al. 2009; Musingarimi 2009; Connolly et al. 2010). To understand this variation, policy documents have been reviewed and interviews conducted with key informants in terms of policy and practice (Harrington et al. 2009; Musingarimi 2009). This dual approach facilitates understanding of how policy makers and stakeholders, in a variety of local contexts, interpret policy guidance and put it into practice (Harrington et al. 2009).

A review of policy documents often forms a key part of policy variation analysis, providing insight into important political and social aspects of policy (Freeman 2006). Government is a text based medium and as such, policy documents constitute the tools of politics with public policy often turning on the production of a key text. Such public policy statements often frame the nature of public policy problems, shaping the boundaries of possible responses and thus acting as a point of reference for a wide variety of actors to justify subsequent actions (May 2001; Dew 2005; Freeman 2006; Smith et al. 2009).

Analysis of these texts provides a key method of understanding the policy process since they allow insight into what assumptions are, and how they are

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likely to shape the way in which actors conceive of, and respond to particular policy problems (Smith et al. 2009). In addition, different stakeholders’ perceptions of the policy problem need to be scrutinised and evaluation unfolds in the way in which they define the problem situation and the strategies they pursue (Hanberger 2001; Hill 2009).

This research will draw on these strategies; a review of policy documents produced by each of the devolved territories will provide the context for semi structured interviews with policy makers and stakeholders within each territory. The focus of interviews is to explore perceptions of the purpose of free school meal policy as well as the efficacy of current policy, and to identify and understand factors, including devolution which has influenced recent policy development.

5.1.3. Understanding Implementation Variation

It has been noted that it is within the process of implementation that public policy will take shape (Hill and Hupe 2002). Research which has attempted to understand variation in terms of implementation has highlighted a diverse range of influential factors including; actors, social norms, hierarchies of power, accountability mechanisms, local organisational culture and the physical and psychosocial environments (Poland et al. 2009).

The school sits between macro social structures and processes on one hand and the micro level of social agents on the other, serving as mediating structures between individuals and the larger social environment (Sanderson 2000). As a result, to understand implementation within the school setting, the broader socio political and economic context must be considered (McLeroy et al. 1988; Green et al. 2000; Poland et al. 2009). Additionally, key to understanding the implementation of interventions within the school is to understand the role and array of actors and agencies involved in the process (Ryan 1995; O'Toole 2000).

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As a result, previous analysis has focussed on the actors who interact at the operational level (Sabatier 1986) highlighting the key importance of ‘networks of implementation’ (Schofield 2001:251). To understand the influence of key actors, research has undertaken interviews with key informants within the school setting to uncover factors which have impeded or facilitated the implementation of policy within the school setting (Abbott et al. 2011; Masse et al. 2013).

Drawing on these methods, this research will use interviews with local authority and school staff to focus on the way that implementation is shaped by the local and national policy context. Also to understand the influence of local factors on the implementation of policy in relation to the school food environment and the implementation of free school meal policy, also the influence of individuals within these processes.

5.1.4. The School Meal Environment

The literature review notes that for children and young people, dietary practices are a key aspect of consumption, contributing to social identity and a number of studies attempt to understand food practices within the school environment (Neumark-Sztainer et al. 1999; Warren et al. 2008; Fitzgerald et al. 2010).

It is acknowledged that qualitative methods can be useful in making sense of children and young people’s food and eating practices, in particular where an individual’s narrative is likely to involve complexity, contradiction and ambiguity (Wills 2012). In particular, speaking and writing about food and eating can offer participants of all ages and most abilities the opportunity to delve into their own world of practice (Share 2008). Such innovative methods offer the researcher the opportunity to build rapport with children and young people and spoken and written methods offer the researcher a way of deriving what social practices mean, since the texts produced can

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reveal narratives which incorporate experiences, feelings, interactions and stories about food (Wills 2012).

The use of focus groups allow the opportunity to examine adolescent group norms and practices in terms of food and such an approach acknowledges that, in the school setting, food and eating takes place in social groups and school lunch represents an inherently social occasion (Share 2008). Drawing on these methods, this study will use focus groups to explore how pupils perceive and negotiate the school food environment and the school food practices which result.

5.1.5. The Free School Meal Experience

The concept of collective lifestyles has been used as a theoretical basis with which to explain what context is and how it affects individual outcomes and this approach has been used to understand the impact of context on behavioural outcomes, such as smoking (Poland et al. 2006; Frohlich et al. 2010) and dietary behaviours (Delormier et al. 2009).

Research by Frohlich (2010) used a collective lifestyles approach to focus on the way in which social context may structure smokers’ views and reactions to tobacco control. This research stems from an understanding that social context may be key to understanding diverse sources of resistance to tobacco control and as a result is an approach which moves away from the concept of smoking as a lifestyle behaviour and towards the significance of the social as a domain of inquiry. In this research, interactions between tobacco control and the smoker’s social context were examined as smoking was considered a social activity, rooted in place (Poland et al. 2006).

A collective lifestyle approach has also been utilised for the examination of eating patterns as social phenomena. Using the concept of social practice, understood as the interplay of structure and agency, it is acknowledged that while eating does involve isolated choice, that choice is conditioned by the context in which it occurs (Delormier et al. 2009).

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Drawing on these concepts, this research explores how the interaction of the policy framework, policy implementation at the local level and the school food environment combine to influence parents and pupils in terms of the uptake of free school meals in secondary schools in one local authority in Wales.