Introduction to Chapter 6
This Chapter is about the ‘seeking to belong’ which is the Core Category of my theoretical framework32 arising from the analysis of and grounded in my data. It was clear to me from the stories of these interviewees that they had long histories of alienation, from other members of their families, from school and especially at the times when they dropped out from ABE. My analysis showed that their personalities and the social conditions both contributed to this alienation and to encourage them to persist would require change on the part of the provider and additional support at times when they found difficulty.
The interviewees described this ‘need to belong’ in relation to their experience of ABE. They wanted to feel comfortable - at home, respected and valued in the education setting and reported that when they had this experience they found it possible to persist in ABE, however when they did not, they left provision. I came to understand that this feeling of disconnection did not arrive unheralded at ABE, but that layers of their lived experience led them to this point. There was a cluster of stories with similar themes, which pointed to difficulties in their early lives and families, and in their primary education. My question was, could I connect these situations with subsequent non-performance in ABE?
Initially, in this Chapter, I wish to explain how through careful analysis of my data, I achieved a theoretical framework. Three parts follow – the first ‘process’, in which I show how the different elements in my research came together, the second shows how I arrived at the substantive theory ‘seeking to belong in ABE’, and the third part describes what the interviewees told me would have made their experience of ABE more welcoming.
32 Diagram P. 183
175 From explanatory to theoretical framework
Willig (2008) says that an explanatory framework provides a space within which one can understand the phenomenon under investigation and Stern (1994:215) says that it will explain ‘what the interactants see as their social reality’. Assuming that the research participants believe that what they share is reality, and because the grounded theorist does not come to the table with preconceived ideas, then the explanation has to come from the information given by interviewees, interpreted by the researcher. Denscombe (2010:118) tells that ‘put rather simply, the theory is shaped by the facts and therefore there should be a good fit’.
Thus in Chapter 4, I described how I used grounded theory methods to analyse the information provided to me by my interviewees and then, in Chapter 5, I linked instances of disconnection from my interviewees’ life stories across different conditions and thereby achieved an explanatory framework which would answer, to my satisfaction, why it was that the people I interviewed did not persist in ABE.
I was quite happy with this label ‘explanatory framework’, which I have used up to this point in the thesis. However, Charmaz (2006:168) suggests that a ‘theoretical framework’ which has a broader scope, will ‘refine, extend, challenge or supersede extant concepts’. While I did not see my framework extending extant concepts, indeed my findings suggest that we have known how to support these learners for rather a long time, I do believe that it meets the other criteria she suggests, in that my data have been linked back into the literature, throughout Chapter 5, that I make my constructivist position clear and that I make no excuse for taking a liberal position in education. Within a theoretical framework, Charmaz says that the way you code and name concepts in constructivist grounded theory ‘locate your manuscript in relevant disciplines and discourses’. Finally she says ‘Theoretical frameworks are not all alike. They need to fit your intended audience and to fulfil the task at hand’.
I believe that my ‘explanatory framework’ which arose from my interpretation of the data in the analysis, developed into a ‘theoretical framework’ as the data were examined in the light of existing theories and synthesised in Chapter 5 and should, as I mentioned in Chapter 1, inform providers at all levels, those who conceptualise, design and deliver literacy tuition for adult learners.
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I propose, first, to show how this process of theorising worked, from data to codes, codes to axial codes, to categories, to the core category, by showing how I labelled and sorted data into an explanatory framework which would answer the question
‘Why do students not persevere in ABE?’. Emerging themes and conditions were linked back into the data, enabling me to ‘theorize how meanings, actions and social structures are constructed’. (Charmaz 2006:151). I have used diagrams to illustrate my process. Charmaz says, (p.118) that using diagrams at all points in the analysis help visualise connections within a category, to make connections between categories.
By the end, I decided that the two categories, Self-Concept and Social Context in tension with one another can, within a positive environment lead to belonging, but in a negative environment, lead to exclusion. In analysing the data I found that my interviewees described times in their lives when they felt ‘part of’ rather than ‘apart’
and in this condition they were in charge of situations, coping well. I also felt very strongly that this positive or negative experience had to do with the tension between the personality of the individual and the support, or otherwise, within the specific environment. Thus, it is my theory that my interviewees strove to succeed, but could not because they did not fit – their search was not just for education, but also they were searching to belong.
In the second section of this Chapter ‘Explanatory Framework’(p.183) I describe and analyse the component parts of my theoretical framework and discuss the two major categories which arose from my analysis of the data – Self Concept and Social Construct. I look at the components of each of the categories and consider where they interface and why it is that a positive experience at that point supports persistence and a negative experience may precipitate drop out. I examine the importance of self-esteem in the learning experience and, finally set the elements of my explanatory framework into their theoretical context and thus achieve a theoretical framework.
In the third part of this Chapter, ‘Articulating Learner Need’, on page 195, I consider that, since the explanatory framework which I developed suggests that persistence is inhibited at the interface between the provider and the learner, I need to explore how my interviewees described elements in the provision of ABE which, if altered, would make a substantial improvement in their experience of adult
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education. I consider their needs and consider how they might be satisfied in an environment of care in education.