To answer my research question I know I will need to speak to students as part of my ‘action’, but in what context is the most suitable?
Embedding into their current timetable
The easiest way for both students and myself would be to embed an activity or workshop into their timetabled sessions, to build it into their curriculum. This is way they would not have to attend or participate in anything ‘extra’ and I could incorporate the workload surrounding the research into my day to day job.
However as a course team we have already determined the curriculum for the term, and it was a struggle to squeeze in all of the necessarily content to get our students knowledge up to where it should be. Sacrificing some of this content so I could run my research more easily within that time whist convenient is actually quite selfish and not what would be best for my students.
I also only teach half of the year group, so whatever I teach in scheduled workshops another tutor also has to teach. So, embedding my research project into an existing session wouldn’t really work for parity across the year.
Interviews
Another option could be to conduct 1-1 interviews with students to gain insight into their thoughts on the subject. This research method I think would be good to hear the voices and opinions of students that sometimes retreat in group situations. Although different, I have found as a tutor that when doing 1-1 personal/pastoral tutorials students are more forthcoming with information and opinions than when group personal/pastoral tutorials are conducted. Perhaps it would work in a similar way for this research?
On the flip side conducting 1-1 interviews would be a mammoth administrative undertaking for myself as the researcher. To gain as much data as possible from different students I would need to conduct multiple interviews, involving planning and scheduling, conducting, transcribing and analysing. Even with a small sample pool this would be a lot of hours. Researching into it ‘the recurring answer to the question ‘how many’ is ‘it depends’’(Baker et al. 2012) on the focus and objectives of the analysis and the time available to conduct the research. Adler and Adler in the same paper (pg.10) comment on students conducting research and their small window for gathering data and ‘suggest that they should shoot for a sample of 12’.
Alongside this, interviews ‘are often one component of a research strategy utilizing complementary methods such as questionnaires or observations, to verify and humanize data collected using other means.’ (Hanington & Martin 2012)
As a fulltime member of staff that already has a very busy schedule, I need to remember that I need to be kind to myself in this process as the researcher. The project is only 13 weeks long which isn’t a huge amount of time, so keeping the admin down as much as possible will be beneficial.
Focus Groups
The last option I am considering is a focus group. This will allow me to speak to a larger number of students and gain their insights in one sitting, rather than conducting multiple separate interviews. ‘Focus groups are used to gather opinions.’ (Krueger & Casey, 2014) and opinions are exactly what I need.
The wording of my research question focuses on building a ‘relationship’ and is ultimately about communication. A focus group seems like a great place for myself and students to discuss the topic as a community and all have a collaborative input – rather than it just being a series of singular tunnel visions.
Narrowing the research down to one manageable focus group will also allow me to reduce the amount of admin for myself as the researcher, perhaps not in advance but certainly post ‘action’. With the potential of only one conversation to transcribe and analyse rather than a series of multiple conversations.
I need to further research into focus groups to fully understand what it will entail and how to best prepare and structure it, but for now it seems to be the best and most efficient method of research that is applicable to my situation.
References
- Baker, S.E. and Edwards, R. (2012). How many qualitative interviews is enough? National Centre for Research Methods Review Paper. [online] Available at: https://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/id/eprint/2273/4/how_many_interviews.pdf.
- Hanington, B, & Martin, B (2012), Universal Methods of Design : 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions, Quarto Publishing Group USA, Osceola.
- Krueger, R.A. and Casey, M.A. (2014). Focus groups: a Practical Guide for Applied Research. 5th ed. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.