The crux of my research being based on Poppleton’s study, it would be interesting to compare results and observe similarities, if any.
Having given some background on teaching and teachers, I shall now devote the remainder of this Literature Review to a brief look at the work of Dr. Poppleton et al. whose work, I am in part, duplicating. As such, the material presented here comes from the ‘The Meanings of Teaching – An International Study of Secondary Teachers’ Work Lives’ written by Menlo, Allen and Poppleton.
Their study was conducted simultaneously in nine different countries. A major factor to influence the results of this would be the differing cultures or cultural diversity since teaching and its terminology would not be the same for every country studied. Yet there was evidence to show a common orientation among teachers of differing nationalities and subcultures. My project proposes to compare the results of this study with that of mine where, I would be studying the teachers on staff at my school.
Some information on the teaching profession in a few of those countries studied came to light whilst perusing the material. I thought that it should be presented in the Review as a comparison to our teachers in Trinidad and their profession as well as to give an idea of the background of teachers around the world.
What was striking is that some of these situations are similar to ours, in that, the profession, at least in my opinion, is on the decline, that teachers are not encouraged to teach, particularly in this time of major education reforms. There is also a failure to attract qualified persons into the teaching service and discipline is on the decline.
To compare the situation in Canada fro example, there is an uncertainty never seen before about education. Governments want more accountability from teachers for student success (suggestive of the proposed PMAP incentive program in Trinidad). The current work force is submitting to early retirement or withdrawal from the service.
In England, there is a major reform program so described by Ball (1992) “ It is easier to capture the scope of change by listing those things that remain the same – except I can’t think of any”. As such, it was not surprising when many teachers left the service, feeling rejected and bitter.
In Poland, to make long story short, the attitudes of the teacher community is relatively negative.
In Russia, salaries were increased with the promise that teachers would be on level with engineers etc, yet teachers are still less than middle level. With Trinidad’s recent ‘increase’ in salary, it remains to be seen how this would affect our teachers.
Studies have reported rising dissatisfaction among teachers in many countries
(Hargreaves, 1992; OECD, 1990; Neave, 1992; Poppleton, Gershunsky & Pullin, 1994; Sauter, Hurrel & Cooper, 1989) due to the stripping of autonomy (Government’s proposal to decentralize the service) and resulting lack of professionalisation.
Again I find that the situation is remarkably similar across the board in many of the countries mentioned. It is against this sort background that I am now currently a teacher along with my co-workers. I propose that when the research is executed, that the findings would be similar to some extent in my school as with the international study and that, if given the means and opportunity to do an island wide research that the evidence found would be corroborated.
Having given a bit of the background of the teachers in the study, the results obtained will be released in a subsequent chapter. Let us now turn our attention to Chapter 3.
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY & METHODS
This chapter undertakes to explain both methodology and method of this research project. Before I begin, let me define what is research.
According to ‘Educational Research- A Caribbean Perspective and Guide, UNESCO, CARNEID’, research is – “A systematic way of seeking and finding information in order to explain and understand complex social situations and to discover the factors that are responsible for and that determine what is happening in those situations.” As it happens, this is exactly what my research is about, exploring a social situation.
Research generates data, which may be quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative data are objective facts capable of measurement and eventuate into statistical concepts. Qualitative data are subjective, impressionistic information, which are gathered by use of open-ended interviews, observation and case studies.
There are different types of research such as: -
a. Historical research – examining the past to find solutions for the present.
b. Action research – study of a social situation in order to find ways of taking some action.
c. Needs Assessment research – a way of identifying and assessing what people need.
d. Evaluation research – which monitors, evaluates and assesses the outcomes / impact of any policy, planned programme, project or activity.
METHODOLOGY & METHOD:-
Let us seek further to derive the answer to the question ‘What is methodology?’ The answer to be given is that methodology is the approach the researcher takes in the research and the justification given for the methods used. This is different from the term ‘Method’, where methods will be the tools used to collect, describe and analyze data.
Different methodologies are appropriate for the study of different educational problems. In addition, some designs are more rigorous and less subject to error than others. The problem of selecting which methodology to use is not a simple one as it usually involves a complex compromise between what is most rigorous, most natural and most possible.
After deliberation, I have decided that the methodology to this particular research project is to be based on the ‘Action research’ approach and is to be of a qualitative nature.
My research project is a qualitative one in that the information I will be gathering is both subjective and impressionistic. There is very little quantitative data to be gathered though it will be present. The focus of the project will be based on interviews and personal observations where teachers’ personal views will be examined. Whilst the project would have been quantitative in nature, I would deem that method fit only if I was taking this project to other schools to investigate a larger population of teachers. Given the relatively small sample, this would not be necessary.
ACTION RESEARCH:-
Whilst the data is to be qualitative, the type of research undertaken would be Action Research. Why the choice of action research?
Action research is the study of a social situation in order to find ways and means of taking action to improve the situation. I am definitely studying a social situation ( my colleagues at work and how it affects them). This is being done in the hope that both they and new teachers appointed to our staff would be able to reflect on where they are and how they can improve themselves and that new teachers would not bow to their modes of thinking without questioning why.
Also to note, it is an on the spot investigation designed to diagnose and examine social contexts. It is a way of generating specific information (such as teachers’ perceptions) that can be used to solve specific problems. It can be used to address and deal with problems in human relations, which is in fact what the project is all about. It can change the way the institution functions or problems are solved.
In the role of the researcher, action research methodology is to improve practice by engaging researchers in research activities that are directly involved and related to the day-to-day problems they encounter in their practice of education. In other words, I (as researcher) am to take a direct part in the ongoing research. This would help to make a systematic examination of the situation, understanding the situation, appropriately launch actions to solve a problem, understand the relationship between research action and the improvement of their practice, gain new skills in critical skills and thinking and gain confidence when undertaking research and communicating more easily with researchers.
There are, of course, limitations to using that approach. Because action research calls for the involvement of the researcher, it means that, as a possible limitation, the project may proceed only when I am free from my duties at school making it difficult to accumulate the data needed.
Having identified the methodology i.e. Qualitative, action research, the question now asked is ‘ what methods am I to use?’
I have opted to use a questionnaire as well as personal interviews to gather my data. A sample of both questionnaire and interview questions are given in Appendices II and III.
QUESTIONNAIRES:-
The use of questionnaires in the project is to provide some comparable quantitative data as well as qualitative. A questionnaire was included particularly because the ‘mother study’ ( that done by Poppleton et al ,1986) was conducted using a similar questionnaire and it was necessary to administer the same to my sample to compare the data. The advantage of the questionnaire in this particular project was that it served to remove the awkwardness of the face-to-face interview. There were some questions that made the respondents uneasy which they opted not to answer (as I learnt from the pilot), but phrased differently and inserted into the questionnaire, I was able to get answers, as this did not seem so threatening. The disadvantage was that I was not able to get some of the respondents to complete the questionnaire so that a few were not turned in. This is probably because the questionnaire was impersonal and no one was obligated to answer it whereas, in the interview, those respondents gave their cooperation because the situation was personal.
INTERVIEWS:-
The majority of data is to be collected using interviews. An interview is a face-to-face interaction between the person collecting the information and the person giving the information. The interviews will be individual and semi-structured. This method was chosen because some of the questions we seek to answer are questions that may be termed as spying or may offend the sensibilities of those involved. During a face-to-face encounter, I can seek to allay their fears as well as pick up information not otherwise offered through the impersonal questionnaire that may be pertinent to the investigation. The interview also had the advantage of revealing more data than could be gleaned by the questionnaire in that the questionnaire yielded preset answers but the interview had the advantage of the spoken word which gave more information.
Some additional data may be collected by using the observation method. The two types of observation may be employed i.e. participation and non-participant observation. The former, where the researcher participates in the activity he is observing and the latter where he merely observes. This method will be useful in picking up information, which may not otherwise be revealed by the questionnaire and the interview since I surmise that some of the teachers interviewed may withhold some information.
ETHICAL ISSUES:-
Concerns expressed by the respondents to the interview were; anonymity and privacy or fear of my spreading the information gained to administration. However (which is why I like the mutuality of the interview method) I was able to reassure these persons on both issues. This was done at the point when I began each interview where I informed the interviewee that all answers would be confidential. When administering the questionnaire however, I did not make this a written statement and therefore I verbally communicated this to each respondent.
During the research, I was an insider as I used the observation method and sought some information by directly involving myself in the activities of those under observation.
SAMPLING: -
Every research study focuses on a particular population i.e. the group of people or institutions from or about whom, information will be collected. Because it is often not possible or necessary to study the entire population or universe, a sample is taken of the population and the information provided by the sample is used to make generalizations. Hence the larger the sample, the better although 10% of the population is acceptable.
When administering the questionnaire, I intend to use a 50% sampling of staff, which is about twelve to this present date. When conducting interviews, because of the constraints of time and timetabling, I intend to interview using the availability sampling method where information is collected from the first or most available people and hope to cover at least 10% of the staff at the school. These numbers should be able to yield reliable data as the number of staff who can yield quality information is small. Indeed, I was so confident of the data that after the first three respondents, the answers obtained started becoming so similar that I was sure the same data would be had from the others.
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND FINDINGS
Having completed the report on the problem, the literature and the methodology, it is now time to look at the actual results of the inquiry. After deliberation, I have decided that the results of both questionnaire and interview be presented separately before the data is used to answer the research questions.
Successful Sampling: –
In the previous chapter, it was stated that a 50% sample would be chosen to participate in this study. This was done to ensure the reliability of the answers. However, due to the problems of staff timetables and the erratic attendance of staff on the days when the questionnaire was given, only eleven people were able to return a completed questionnaire. While this was less than 50% of the staff, it was still far greater than 10%, which is accepted as adequate in research circles.
The Questionnaire: -
Whilst my study is based on imitating the work of Dr. Poppleton, my questionnaire was designed to include her questions as well as those designed by me aimed at answering my research questions in an attempt to get a view on the issues affecting teachers at Rio Claro High School.
The following table depicts a frequency tabulation of the answers given by respondents to the administered questionnaire. The number of respondents totaled eleven. Questions one to fourteen are questions of my own design and questions fifteen to twenty two are those of Dr. Poppleton.
Table 1: -
Question # Frequency
A B C D E
1 3 1 0 2 5
2 4 7 0 0 0
3 5 5 2 0 0
4 4 5 0 3 0
5 6 5 0 0 0
6 6 5 0 0 0
7 3 8 0 0 0
8 3 8 0 0 0
9 0 11 0 0 0
10 0 0 1 8* 0
11 5 6 0 0 0
12 4 7 0 0 0
13 0 5 3 3 0
14 6 4 0 0 0
15 5 1 3 2 0
16 1 4 5 1 0
17 0 2 4 5 0
18 0 4 5 2 0
19 9 1 1 0 0
20 0 6 3 2 0
21 4 4 1 2 0
22 6 3 2 0 0
? One respondent chose no answer.
QUESTIONS ONE TO FOURTEEN: -
These questions attempt to get a view on the issues affecting teachers at Rio Claro High School. The following section deals with these questions.
When asked if entering the teaching profession was a first choice or a last resort to gaining employment, 45% replied that it was a first choice and another 45% that it was a last resort. In a similar pattern, 45% said that they wanted to become a teacher because nothing else was available in terms of other career options and 36% said that it was their wish to become a teacher. However, when asked if they believe that there is a future in reaching or whether teaching was a dead-end career, 73% were of the opinion that it was a dead-end.
Attempting to get an insight into how teachers view administrative positions, a question was asked of whether they would accept an administrative position if it was offered to them. The answer was that 73% replied in the negative.
100% of the teachers asked, responded no to the question, “Do you believe that you are adequately remunerated for your services?”
In response to question 10, which dealt with teacher satisfaction, 73% felt that students, staff and administration were all factors that affect their satisfaction on the job.
In relation to the previous question, 55% of the respondents claimed that they do not teach with the same enthusiasm as when they began their career. Similarly, a like percentage indicated that they do not feel motivated to work as a teacher.
On the question of teachers’ role, 45% felt that they were fulfilling a multi faceted role at school, 27% thought that they were going above and beyond their expected role and another 27% claimed that they did not know what their role was. Clearly however, judging from those who responded to the first two, the majority believes that teachers’ roles are complex. Yet 55% of those asked, claimed that they feel capable of handling such roles.
Questions fifteen to twenty two and their results will be dealt with in a subsequent section where they will be used to answer one of the research questions that arose from the project.
THE INTERVIEW: -
Having decided that the sample was to be based on availability, I proceeded to conduct interviews once the questionnaires were completed and returned. It was my intention that at least 10% of the staff should be interviewed and this objective was clearly achieved when indeed I surveyed more than the stated 10%.