Philosophical position

In order to attend to the aims of the research it is important that I justify the theoretical position that I have taken in order to provide a context for the research and methodological choices that I have made. I believe that true understanding of knowledge is the product of a detailed exploration of the experience with those who have lived through the socially

constructed event. Additionally, I consider elements that make up that social construction (Burr, 2003) – the actors involved, relationships, the time, the environment etc – all have a role to play in the development of that individual experience. The German sociologist Max Weber postulated a systematic interpretative process within qualitative research

methodologies called verstehen which allows a detailed understanding to be made by an outsider (me) of how research participants (students or educators) make sense of their own behaviour (i.e. what happens as a result of feedback) by their understanding of the

meaning (i.e. value/intention) placed on it (Duberley et al., 2012; Hughes & Sharrock, 1997).

Langdridge (2007) claims that individuals use their bodies to perceive the world, relate to other people and learn about themselves and, I suggest, others. As the aim of this research is to explore the value and impact of feedback from the individual perspective of those central to that feedback experience, it is crucial that their individual lived experiences of feedback are studied in detail. It is asserted that:

“…rich description[s] of people’s experiences, so that we can understand them in new, subtle and different ways …. [allows us to] … use this new knowledge to make a difference to the lived world of ourselves and others”. (Langdridge, 2007, p. 9) An individual’s experience of feedback fundamentally underpins my theoretical viewpoint, and the knowledge generated from this research will be borne through the participant’s interpretation of their socially constructed experience and my subsequent interpretation of their feedback story. My theoretical position is not to try to apply rules or positivist theory to any given situation or experience (Langdridge, 2007), nor am I intending to formulate rules or general theory from my interpretation and understanding of the experience.

Instead, the findings – i.e. my interpretation of the self-interpreted lived experiences of the participants – will be represented only from the perspective of the individual participant.

It is important to consider my own role (Langdridge, 2007) in the research process, particularly given that knowledge will be generated by my personal interpretation of participants’ feedback stories. Acknowledgement of my own beliefs and attitudes, assumptions and presuppositions is crucial to ensure that a clear starting point is

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established for the research design (Cohen et al., 2007; Finlay, 2011; Hammersley, 2007; Hughes & Sharrock, 1997). Since moving into an academic role from clinical practice in 1998, I have always been interested in assessment and feedback, undertaking and disseminating a small-scale research study around self-assessment dialogue (Eastburn, 2009) within physiotherapy pre-registration education. Following this small study, and with the majority of my clinical and academic experience being situated, at that point, within a physiotherapy-specific culture, I assumed that other professional groups operated in a similar way to physiotherapy in terms of how educators supported learners within, in particular, a clinical learning environment. Furthermore, and supported by my own actions as a result of being influenced by others (Armstrong, 2008; Gordon, 2013; Kilcullen, 2007) I assumed that other individual educators operated in a similar way to how I had previously done as an educator supporting students in a clinical environment. My view of how best to support learners had been influenced by two major factors; firstly, my own learner

experience as a student physiotherapist and, secondly, by the educator role models that helped me develop my pedagogical theory and approach to supporting student learning. My assumptions regarding the “normal” processes involved in supporting healthcare students in clinical settings were challenged when I became more exposed to the academic practices of other healthcare professions. This occurred through my changed professional role which then gave me more exposure to a broader range of professions and the subsequent dialogues that I was having with colleagues from other professional groups about

pedagogical diversity across the health profession courses. These assumptions led me to develop an interest in how different professional communities operate and I wanted to gain greater insight into the impact of pedagogical practices.

In addition, as an experienced academic I assumed that students did not actively engage with feedback and were primarily concerned with the mark that they were awarded. My assumption, supported by the work of Sinclair and Cleland (2007), was fuelled by knowing that some students did not access, and therefore could not have read, their electronic written feedback. As someone accountable for managing the workload of academic staff for whom time, as a funded resource, is at a premium, it is important to me as a manager that staff are investing their time in meaningful activities. Meaningful activities are those that have a demonstrable outcome for those that have engaged with them and my assumption was that, despite being heavily resourced, feedback was having a limited impact on ongoing student learning. Collectively, these assumptions support my ontological preference towards the realist end of the spectrum (Duberley et al., 2012), recognising that the behaviour of others – both educators and students - is varied and not uniform.

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In summary, the philosophical position that I am taking is that the lived experience of the individual is dependent on aspects of individuality and social construction. An experience creates new knowledge for that individual and this is individually-specific. Finally, my interpretation of the individual’s understanding of their experience is influenced by my own assumptions of the educational world. I overtly acknowledge my own educational biases and suppositions and adopt a reflexive approach towards this research in order to mitigate against these in a realistic manner. The detail of my reflexivity is discussed later in this chapter.