Reflexivity

Presuppositions and fore-conceptions are inherent within my undertaking of this research as an academic with a first career in healthcare. It is essential that I am overtly aware of the beliefs that I bring to this research from experiences within my own social world (Delamont, 2002) and endeavour to minimise any unintentional impact of “me” on the study. Taking an interpretative phenomenological lifeworld approach to this research affords me the gift of utilising my presuppositions and fore-conceptions (Finlay, 2011; J. A. Smith et al., 2009) and, given that it is my own experiences as an academic that has driven my personal

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interest in the field of feedback, it is essential that I consider the potential consequences of these within my interpretation of the data.

Being acutely reflexive throughout my research allows me the opportunity to examine the role that I, as student, clinician and/or educator, play within the process. In order to address the aim of this research, it is paramount that I gain depth of understanding about how feedback affects ongoing learning from the perspective of the learner and the educator. To do this, it is important that I do not to impose by own views on the participants and interpret the subjective presentation of the participant’s lived experience truthfully, with integrity and without bias. It is crucial that I “tell it like it is for them” (Bryman, 2004, p. 279).

I will now briefly describe my employment experiences and explain how these have added to my familiarity with the research field. As a physiotherapist working solely in NHS clinical settings for 6 years I was, in the latter years, often the named clinical educator for

physiotherapy students. I developed my personal model of clinical education based on my own clinical placement experiences – both positive and negative – as an undergraduate student, and by role modelling respected colleagues having observed how they supported student learning in the practice environment. This collective experience shaped my belief and practise of supporting learning, and fostered my desire to move into an academic career.

I have worked as an academic for around 18 years. During this time, I have worked at two HEI’s, both of which have roots as polytechnics and both of which adopted the training of healthcare professionals in the 1990’s from traditional schools or colleges of health. Prior to healthcare education moving into the (then) polytechnics, the schools or colleges of health were largely linked, and usually geographically so, to an NHS hospital and much of the day- to-day student learning was divided across the clinical and classroom sites. As such, those involved in the education of student healthcare professionals often worked with the learners in both classroom and clinical settings. The move of healthcare education away from clinical establishments into polytechnics divorced the role of the classroom-based educator from that of the practice-based educator, and today there is ever-strengthening partnership working between the two in order to meet regulatory requirements (Health and Care Professions Council, 2009, 2013; Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2010) and maximise the student learning experience. My experience of working in former polytechnic HEIs also means that the vision and business of the HEI was, until more recent years, predominantly teaching-focussed rather than research-focussed. Whilst the research climate across the

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sector is now seen as core business to all HEIs (Research Excellence Framework, 2014) with increasing significance being placed on research outcomes and impact by traditionally

teaching-focussed HEIs than ever before, my values as an academic remain rooted in maximising the learning experience of students.

Having insight into the feedback experience as a student, as a clinical educator and as an academic placed me in a privileged position. I was able to “see” the feedback experience from the perspective of the student and the educator and this meant that I had to be careful not to adopt any role other than researcher during the study. Haynes (2012) asserts that reflexivity enables the researcher to question their research processes and practices, and the theoretical underpinnings that they bring with them to the study (p. 87). Exploring the lived experience of students through the theoretical lens of communities of practice enabled me to explore the perception of feedback on learning through a non-personal lens, offering another degree of detachment from the data.

I was an overt researcher undertaking participant observations within this study. I used several methods to become more reflexively cognisant within the research process and distance myself from engaging directly in the authentic feedback experiences that I was observing. These methods included not recruiting student participants from the student populations that I directly taught such that I was not compelled to contribute to the feedback dialogue, examining my data in audio and written-form to ensure that my role within the process remained as researcher rather than educator, and keeping notes of my feelings whilst undertaking the research. Finally, I note that my simply being present during an authentic feedback experience was likely to influence the authenticity of the experience. I tried to mitigate for this by observing the students on more than one occasion, such that they became familiar with my presence, but I acknowledge that this would not always have occurred.

The strategies discussed allowed me to develop greater insight into my role within the research process, and the challenges I faced. These strategies were used to help strengthen the sincerity and credibility (Symon & Cassell, 2012) of the research process.

3.9 Chapter Summary

This chapter initially presented a rationale for the methodological approach taken to this research, namely that of interpretive phenomenology through the lifeworld lens. It has discussed the methodologies used to collect and analyse the data, and presented

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consideration of the cautions of adopting this methodological approach, including those associated with me as the researcher. It has outlined the themes from the final template, and sketched an overview of the broad findings. The following chapters take the findings grouped around the themes of “Purpose of Feedback”, “Worth and Reward”, “Identity of Feedback” and “Questions, Reflection and Ownership”.

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