Stage two: Data collection .1 Questionnaire

The findings of the focus groups and semi-structured interviews were used to design a questionnaire, the data collection tool adopted for the quantitative phase of the research. Using questionnaires assisted in fulfilling the aim of this study to compare similarities and differences in perceptions of the respondents. Weinreich (2006) states that questionnaires are often used in traditional scientific inquiry which is designed to find facts, patterns and comparative baseline information by gathering numerical and statistical data using experiments, measurements and fixed-response questionnaires. Therefore, the data from the questionnaire allowed a comparison of issues that concerned different groups of hill tribe people.

In this study, the lack of language skills of the sample population, all of whom could speak Thai but were unable to read or write in Thai or any other language meant that although an interpreter was not required, it was necessary to undertake interviewer completed questionnaires that allowed the responses to be recorded in a precise way instead of taking notes of a long conversation during the interview process (Mann 1985). The interviewer read out the questions and entered responses for them. Using this technique helped minimise the language difficulties of the participants. The results from this approach are argued to be clearer than those from self-completion questionnaire, because the researcher could clear up seemingly inconsistent answers by explaining the questions to the participants (Miller and Salkind 2002). Moreover, the researcher could address some questions in more detail using the laddering method of interviewing; for example, questions about why they decided to work/ to not work for ETAs.

Conducting face-to-face interviews to complete the questionnaire allowed the researcher to ask the respondents why and what they decided by asking them to explain their reasons (Hawley 2009). According to Krueger (1998) “why” questions should be avoided as it often generates

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dishonest answers because in real life people do not always make decisions based on logic, instead they often base their decisions on habit, tradition, value or other non-rational processes.

Therefore, when asking why, the researcher may get answers that sound good and seem reasonable, but the results may not be reliable (Krueger 1998). In order to address this problem, the researcher explored their answers in greater detail, so that in-depth details could be counted as their response. A further advantage of interviewer assisted questionnaires was that it allowed the interviewer to select respondents who worked alongside ETAs and to exclude those who worked in the tourism industry but had no direct contact with ETAs.

4.13.2 Questionnaire design

The questionnaire was designed in conjunction with the literature review and the initial data collected in stage one, through focus groups and in-depth interviews, to produce a series of statements. The respondents to the survey were asked to indicate their level of agreement with these statements. The themes explored were employment, and the socio-cultural impacts they see occurring to themselves and social changes occurring in their community.

According to Moser and Kalton (2001) the order of questions may affect refusal rates. Therefore, it is important to know who the target participants are to apply an appropriate style that efficiently facilitates the process. Demographic questions were put at the beginning, due to the culture and value of beliefs of this group that tended to feel more comfortable talking with new faces after exchanging some personal details such as, age, marital status, education, occupation etc. Exchanging this type of information with other people with whom they had just met made both parties feel at ease and willing to talk and get to know each other better.

Although a Likert Scale and closed questions limited the opportunity for respondents to express their own thoughts, open-ended questions allowed the researcher to gain information from the respondents‟ own individual answers not limited to the items provided by the researcher.

However, due to time constraints, the use of open-ended questions with 400 respondents was avoided as this approach would have required an enormous amount of time for the researcher to group and analyse all the answers. Therefore, the researcher used a Likert Scale and closed questions in the questionnaire as the insights gained from the first stage of data collection were used to design this questionnaire, which it is argued addressed the relevant issues. In order to be able to compare responses it was important to use an identical set of items with every respondent. Therefore, the questionnaire design used closed questions with one opportunity to ask an open-ended question to elicit the respondents‟ reasons for not working with ETAs.

Closed questions still allowed comparisons to be made because the respondents had to consider

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the same choices of information to give a response (Oppenheim 1992). The finalised questionnaire comprised 74 items, divided into 2 main parts (see Appendix 7).

Part one concerned recording demographic variables such as sex, age, education, and income and was used to form a general description about the background of the respondents from the two tribes and those who worked with ETAs and those who did not.

Questions in part 2 were categorised into the different themes of motivation, conflict, solution, socio-cultural impacts they have experienced themselves and the changes they had seen in their communities.

Part 2 was divided into three sections based on the nature of their employment. Section 2.1 sought information about perceptions of respondents who were working with ETAs towards their level of involvement, types of job, motivation to work for ETAs, conflicts encountered, solutions and their view of impacts from working with ETAs. Section 2.2 was for those who were not working with ETAs, and the questions were designed to elicit the main reasons of the respondents for not working with ETAs and the work they have chosen as their career path.

Section 2.3 sought information from all respondents (both working and not working with ETAs) about their perceptions towards socio-cultural impacts that have affected them personally and changes they perceive in their communities. It was believed that this questionnaire would provide some indications of the degree of similarities and differences in perceptions between the Karen and Hmong who work with ETAs and reflect the degree of similarity of people who were from the same ethnic group but were involved in different working environments.

4.13.3 Pilot test

White (2000) and Jennings (2001) define a pilot test as a test that is carried out to spot weaknesses in the question design and to present alternative data for the range of a probability sample. It can also be said that the use of a pilot test is to help the researcher ensure that the questions are clear enough for respondents to answer before the actual distribution. Moser and Kalton (2001) affirm that pilot testing can be used to check the effectiveness of instructions, questions order, length and layout etc.

A number of people that participated in the pilot test were selected on a convenience basis, but all had stayed in or at least experienced the expansion of tourism brought in to Doi Inthanon by ETAs and its impacts and were able to comply with the requirements of the questionnaire. The pilot tests were distributed to the supervisory team, five family members and friends, four hill tribe people in Bangkok and another six hill tribe people in Chiang Mai town centre. The initial intention was to adopt a seven-point Likert Scale so as to measure their perceptions. However,

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due to the respondents difficulties in understanding the Thai language, and their limited analytical ability, identified by the pilot test, it was necessary to change to a five-point Likert Scale to ensure the respondents were able to analyse carefully and answer reliably.

The results from the pilot tests demonstrated that some people required further clarification while the majority were able to answer all questions correctly. However, not everyone completed the entire questionnaire due to lack of patience and the fact some people could not recall all of their experiences accurately. Consequently, certain questions were revised. The pilot test with hill tribe participants demonstrated that face-to-face interviews would be essential as some of the respondents had difficulties in understanding the Thai language and others did not like to read the questions, hence it was very likely that they would answer the questionnaire without a careful reading. Moreover, as identified during the pilot test, interviewer completion is a time consuming procedure; therefore, the need for extra interviewers to conduct the questionnaire to save time in the research process was required. Therefore, four volunteers were invited to help conduct the face to face questionnaire, (see below).

4.13.4 Sample group for the questionnaire

The criteria in selecting the sample population for the questionnaires were similar to the focus group selection. It was important to use the same criteria in all methods to support the total findings. Hence, the target population for the questionnaire comprised members of both the Hmong and Karen tribes who:

Type 1: Work for and are in direct contact with incoming ETAs