The Data is in the Detail

"Case studies are all about the Context" a comment Howard made to me yesterday that hit a chord, so if case studies are all about the context, excuse the paraphrasing but the Data and the Devil must be in the detail!
Right from the beginning of this process one of the few things that has been reasonably straight in my mind has been that the methodology is going to involve some sort of Action Research or at least until I started tried putting it into action!
The interest in the research has always been about ICT capability, what is it and more importantly what do teachers think it is. The aim has been to try and get them to define what they think it is, to work with teachers and show what they do to develop ICT capability. It's been about asking them to take on board an element of understanding gained from one of the other teachers' practice and change their practice. Essentially the research has been about change, a change in practice & changing perceptions. I suppose it still is just another viewpoint has changed.

Ideal for action research, I had dutifully researched methods of action research, I evaluated and argued the merits of action research, looked at the history and origins of action research, cited copious authors who described the process, the appropriate use and outcomes of action research and even the roles of the participant, the minor politics that can intrude upon the group. All this was highlighted, argued, and reasoned, the time had come to put it into practice and no one seemed to want to play ball.

The first problem that came into being was the practicalities of getting everybody who had agreed to participate in the same place at the same time for an initial discussion. Pressure of work, timetabling, parents evenings all seem to get in the way. Meetings were made and meetings were postponed.

Having given up the autumn term I decided to concentrate on the spring and summer terms and then obstacle number two in the form of Michael Gove and his speech in back in 2012, where he stated, "schools, teachers and industry leaders have all told us that the current (ICT) curriculum is off-putting, too demotivating, to dull.” This speech also called for a suspension of ICT in the curriculum as we know it.

The research forums went mad, and there was a sudden urgency to my research that did not seem to exist before maybe it should have, but now I had to get to the teachers perceptions before there was too much influence from the publications that this speech had prompted. The Royal Society is calling for computer science to be returned to the curriculum and in general there has been an intense interest in the curriculum for ICT in England. Suffice to say changes are afoot.

And change in the methodology was also called for, because of the need to move things forward use of case studies was thought appropriate. Three schools each with different approach to development of ICT are participating, a process of initial interview, observation, reflective dialogue including a possible change in practice being highlighted, a further observation and a final interview has been chosen to bring about building of three interlinked case studies. There is going to be further support, linkage, through an online discussion forum.

Sorted. Or is it? And the process is started, two interviews carried out, one is even transcribed! One observation carried out, and observations and interviews booked for early next term. Progress at last so what is the problem. The interviews were fascinating and there is already an interesting thread emerging, as well as anomalies between interview and practice, but is it really answering my questions, where do I go from here how will I structure the data collection from this point onwards. All questions asked at the supervision meeting, all questions for which I had no answer.

Then Howard used that phrase “case studies are all about the context”, and things started to make sense. At least they started to make sense last night when the Eureka Moment arrived, and yes like all good Eureka moments, Archimedes included it involved copious amounts of water and lights going on somewhere in the cerebrum!

I know where my next step lies,

1. Delve deeper into Engstroms’ triangle for it is these external influences which will give rise to part of the context of the case study!
2. Re-apply the ATLAS framework, to build the questions which can be used to develop the triangle and give specifics to the context.
3. Place the context of my three case-study interviews within a wider context – Narrative
4. Focus group of mentors to attempt to get a narrative within a focus group, with the aim of that focus group to establish views on possible changes to curriculum and personal practice and the perceptions of the importance of a digital literacy.

And finally discard my writings on Action research and start again with Case Studies –

Yin defines a case study as

“An empirical enquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident" 

(Yin, 1994: 13).

Update

Over a year since I last posted and only 10 posts since I started - Shocking I hereby promise to do better.
It is a good job the actual research / PhD is progressing a bit better than that.
With that in mind I am reviewing progress and the plan is to highlight some of the more interesting readings I have come across in the process of the last couple of years.

One area I have loved has been the examination of the curriculum, not really the ICT national curriculum, that is what it is even if it is likely to change and depending on who you talk to that change is unlikely to be too far away, in England at least! But more the development of the curriculum, and this led me to Paul Hirst, his concept of different domains or intellectual spheres of knowledge and the acquisition of knowledge really appealed to me.  Even though this was first described in the 1970's, it has a resonance today, with the possible addition of another 'Domain' of knowledge that is linked to all aspects technological. Hirst parcelled up different subject areas and linked them to different domains which are tidy and logical and appeals to my sense of order. The question of how different people acquire knowledge in different ways is fascinating and makes me question if there are different domains are there also different aptitudes, what makes one person more akin to mathematics, or technology or more akin to Art, is it about the way in which those subject areas are taught or does aptitude or talent come in to this, so the next step is to have a look at Gardner and his multiple intelligences.

And as for Piaget and Vygotsky, not to mention the earlier philosophers, however, that is for another time

Survey

Well my survey is out there problem is I am not getting alot of replies. Total 48, now that is a little sad. Anyway I am now trying to get it ona as many forums as possible as a line of attack.
So I now have it on

1. Facebook, thhough not much response there as yet!
2. NGfL Wales
3. Computing at schools - as Steve pointed out will need to acknowledge possible bias there
4. Teachers Tv forum - just hope they read the request properly and only those from Wales fill it in - if any fill it in.
5. Request to all our mentors - again will need to acknowledge possible bias.
6. UK teachers forum - now have a response from norwich!! -need to delete that one.

Still will search for some more forums - shame WJEC doesn't seem to have one on their site as that would be targeting quite well.

Back to the Curriculum now - have written some but need to get some more Hirst and O'Hear and then decide how much philosphy I need about the developement of knowledge or as Descarte puts it 'REASON' - oh boy wish me luck!!

Research Survey

The research being carried out is concerned with educator’s perception of ICT Capability; this is a term which was first coined in the ICT National curriculum. When the research originally investigated this term, it was found that there are vary few definitions of the term, and those that are present are not necessarily definitive. When linked with the vagueness of the National curriculum for ICT in Wales the question posed itself, what is ICT Capability? And what do IT educators perceive it to be?
Please find below links to carry out my research questionnaires in both Welsh and English

Canfyddiadau o allu TGCh

Click here to take survey

ICT capability perceptions

Click here to take survey

May I take this opportunity to thank everyone who participates in this survey

Research

I have been asked to give a research seminar later today to the group at Swansea Met. I have finished my preparation, and now feel only slightly anxious. Well if it isn't done by now it is too late to worry overmuch!!. One really useful aspect of all this is that it has once again clarified just what my purpose is. Over the last few months I have been flying around in circles and this has made me really scrutinise what I am doing and has helped me put everything in its place. It has even made me think about how to proceed from here instead of aimlessly carrying on. I have thought about structure and my reasoning behind that structure. Now all I have got to do is put thoughts into practice. One decision I have made is to use this far more regularly for my thoughts and readings. And on that note a little something I came up with for this afternoon.
Having worked out what questions I wanted to ask I had to now work out how to ask them, so, what sort of research was I going to carry out. I wanted to know what educators thought; what their understanding of ICT capability was, in my investigations I had found that there is a limited amount of literature, actually defining ICT capability, or indeed ICT literacy, and because of this I felt that this was worth investigation. The information I wanted to draw from both the educators involved and the pupils was of a qualitative nature, indicating that any research method used should be of a qualitative nature; furthermore it was concerned with what these educators were actually doing. Did their actions match their perception? Research in education in the past has tended to be of a single approach, either quantitative or qualitative (Cohen & Manion), however whilst there was a need for a qualitative approach, It was also necessary to have a wider approach to position this enquiry. Were the findings going to be a generalist view point, was the perception prevalent in the ICT educators arena or exceptions to the rule. In order not to make assumptions when analysing any findings or bias the conclusions it became obvious that a much broader initial approach would be needed. Given that the nature of determining perceptions is through interviews, focus groups and observations, financial and time constraints dictate that there are a finite number of these sorts of investigations that can be undergone. Therefore a mixed approach is necessary, Interpretive and scientific a combination of action research to provide the interpretive element and a questionnaire to provide a quantitative basis. Initially a questionnaire was to be produced to establish a platform for the research, and then a more detailed form of action research where observation of teaching practice can be carried out and analysis of case studies including schemes of work and assessment procedures together with discussions of the fellow researchers of the group can be carried out. Action ResearchRory O’ Brian in his article “An Overview of the Methodological Approach of Action Research” referred to Action research as being “learning by doing - a group of people identify a problem, do something to resolve it, see how successful their efforts were, and if not satisfied, try again”. However action research is not quite as simplistic as that though its essence may lie in this reflective cycle. Gilmore, Krantz and Ramirez (1986) define it as "Action research...aims to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an immediate problematic situation and to further the goals of social science simultaneously. Thus, there is a dual commitment in action research to study a system and concurrently to collaborate with members of the system in changing it in what is together regarded as a desirable direction. Accomplishing this twin goal requires the active collaboration of researcher and client, and thus it stresses the importance of co-learning as a primary aspect of the research process." This embedding in scientific study whereby the research systematically studies the problem and makes sure that any intervention is based upon theory means that a proportion of the action researchers energies are spent refining the methodology to the situations presenting themselves and collecting the data analyzing it and presenting in an ongoing basis. Further differences in this approach to research focus on turning participants into researchers and to encourage them to change practices and apply their learning. This brings about another question when running an action research group, the role of the organizer of the group, how are they going to participate, do they act on an equal basis in the research, are they working as an observer to the group, or are they acting as a devil’s advocate so to speak? And how is the group to be formed? It was thought that the best method for establishing a group of action researchers would be to extract a number from the initial survey on a location sampling basis. To enable the action group to take place and regular discussions to occur, the researchers by necessity be situated within a specified locale convenient to all which would mean within reasonable distance of SMU. This limits the choice of researchers from the survey, and thus necessitates the need for a widespread dissemination of the survey for positioning of any ultimate results.

I know it needs a lot more work to it and it has possible oversimplified action research but it is a start.

Key words so far

I have just been introduced to Wordle (see My other blog http://www.jan-icteach.blogspot.com/ ) and I thought it would be fun to see a word cloud of my blog thus far and matbe repeat it as my journey continues and compare any changes in the word clouds.



Hardly surprising the key words at the moment are questions and survey, probably due to my preoccupation with my pilot questionnaire!!

Research Survey

I have now closed the pilot of the Survey and would like totake this opportunity to thank all those who have participated.