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,
- Delve deeper into Engstroms’ triangle for it is these external influences which will give rise to part of the context of the case study!
- Re-apply the ATLAS framework, to build the questions which can be used to develop the triangle and give specifics to the context.
- Place the context of my three case-study interviews within a wider context – Narrative
- 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).
