Starting my research using observation data

My reason for observing classroom and other social interaction, as well as any relevant news items and physical objects around the school was to see for myself the context in which students and teachers learnt certain ideas and values and interacted with one another. I felt observation was necessary, as Mort (2004) says what people say and what they do are not always the same. Not that they want to mislead the researcher, but more so because they often cannot articulate exactly what they want to talk about. Besides, they may not consider it significant enough to tell the researcher about some routine or unconscious part of their work which may be very relevant to his/her study.

Before beginning my field work, I collected ‘maps’ that guided me towards various venues and timings of availability of different participants and the physical layout of premises, etc., enabling me to sample sites to visit at particular timings (Schatzman,

1973).

An exploratory observer, I began with a few themes in mind and let the study unfold as it progressed. I began by noting down anything I observed. For example, on September 14, 2004,1 wrote these 'initial thoughts’ about the Leaders’ campus in my diary:

Quite posh building. Traditional red brick, geometrical figures, clean and spacious. New-looking furniture and everything seems systematic and disciplined...Students often in Western dress, not allowed in Pioneer. English is heard more often. I still haven’t heard any crude language. Reminds me very much o f Lancaster.

I became more focused as the study continued, as is often the case with observation studies as they develop (see for example, Edwards and Westgate, 1994; Silverman, 2000). I looked at interactions amongst teachers and students, both inside and outside the classroom. I looked for patterns, trends and styles of behaviour that spoke of certain values around school campuses and caught on minute elements of social interactions if I could (Adler and Adler, 1998). For example, a few days after having visited some classes in progress in Leaders, I wrote of one:

I t ’s an electic course. They are discussing profitability o f shares and the giving o f dividends. No one speaks out o f turn - quietly raise hands and wait fo r turn. No one laughs at another or aggressively disagrees. They seem seriously involved in class.

In addition to such notes, I occasionally recorded speakers’ (whom I came across in my observation studies) words that I felt could be of relevance to my study. In my data analysis I sometimes quoted the fieldnotes and speakers’ words as presented above, but more often used them to supplement my analysis of interview data in order to form a complete theme or report on some other aspect of my findings presented in chapter 6 .1 also used these notes and words, along with extracts from school texts, to write a background and ethos of the two schools, as given in chapter 4.

Part of culture change involves construction, presentation and manipulation of symbols (Westwood and Kirkbride, 1998). As I was interested in finding out how different ideas and values in schools were communicated through artefacts, I noted down during my observations any objects that caught my attention and that I felt contributed unobtrusively to endorsing certain values and ideas in business schools. In my data analysis I made use of these notes to shed light on my interview findings. These objects and artefacts included

buildings, trophies, curtains and stationery with logos, plaques and rolls of honour. Hodder (1998:122) says, ‘Some material culture, precisely because it is not overt, self- conscious speech, may give deeper insights into the internal meanings according to which people lived their lives.’ ‘Material culture is often a medium in which alternative and often muted voices can be expressed’ (ibid: 127). Objects ‘are not innocent, but fraught with significance for the relations that they materialize’ (Suchman, 2003: 2). By figuring in the identities of people, standing for particular ideas or viewpoints, objects are used ‘as a vehicle for the pursuit of other things’ (p. 7) and have a role to play in the ‘micropolitics of everyday organizational life’ (p. 13).

Observing people and artefacts in classrooms, school grounds, and offices provided me, as I said earlier, with an insight into the ethos of the schools (c.f. chapter 4), indicated further aspects o f inquiry (Bulmer, 1977) and illuminated my interview findings and readings of school texts. For example, I referred to the lists of sponsors, disciplinary notices, and plaques around schools in my interviews. Observations also identified candidates for further interviews: for example, noting the frequent occurrence o f a particular teacher’s name under Islamic activities at Leaders and the Placement Officer’s name under internship notices at Pioneer, I thought of interviewing them regarding these aspects o f management education in their respective schools. In addition to these, I undertook visits to school libraries and computer laboratories to obtain some idea of the importance of research as an activity at both schools and the way some values, such as discipline, were enacted in the two schools. I would call my observations primarily

settings, without interfering with them (Angrosino and de Perez, 2000).(I asked them any questions I had later).

In the classrooms I maintained a rather distant relationship with the participants to be able to report on them (Law, 2004). Not because I was taking an imperialist stance by gazing at my subjects, but because I soon realized that my participation would disturb the flow of interaction as students and teachers did not seem used to the presence of a ‘stranger’ in class. Some teachers explicitly requested me to sit silently in a corner if I needed to attend their class. Some teachers introduced me to their student groups, which made them conscious of me for a little while. In other instances, teachers did not notify my presence, so the students also did not pay much attention to me. In both cases, teachers and students soon appeared to forget about me as I quietly blended into the group.

I took notes of my observational visits while I sat in classrooms or soon after if I could not write down anything there and then (such as presented above). In line with the postcolonial position of avoiding claiming expertise over my observed participants (see for example, Said, 1991) or artefacts (Stavenhagen, 1997), I asked respondents for elucidations in successive interviews. My observations continued during interview breaks or even after I had started reading textual material.

As mentioned earlier, data from observation studies was used to inform interviews and readings o f text. Hence, I reported my observation notes with whatever interview themes they appeared relevant to (c.f. 5.9).