Category: 21/22 Self-initiated

In a 27th September we did a workshop and each group was asked to read about one form of carrying out research. I was asked to read about focus groups. This completely appealed to me as I though it a more relaxed way of getting genuine response form the participants. I also thought this way would allow the students to discuss a question and bounce of each others ideas.

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https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_luxM8D4=/– mira board from the workshop and link.

My focus group was help on Teams so that enabled me to transcribe the conversation. Luckily I did a test before the focus group and found that the PC I was using did have the option to transcribe. I call IT help desk at UAL and after a lot of head scratching and testing we tried a different computer. This gave me transcribe, a massive relief as it meant that I could have to source with my interview on. It also allowed me to feel confident on the day as i knew what i was doing as i had tested out everything.

I also found a helpful video online of how to conduct a focus group online. I had wanted to conduct it in a small classroom where it felt more intimate, people could have a chat before hand and feel relaxed. Online can sometimes be more intense due to every one seeing you and listening, it more formal. However due to the students working on the Major projects I had to conduct it after submission. I had finished my teaching in London and because I do not live in London so it wasn’t possible to come into the university. Thus the focus group we held online.

In this video it discussed the fact the a key feature of a focus group is the interaction with the participants and this allows for a deeper insight into a topic.

One of the key things is that you are not in the same physical space, so you cant control where they can be over heard, have outside distractions, which raises issues on the confidentiality of the participant. So your environment is less ‘focused’ as there are external factors.

I will countered this by asking if everyone was OK to speak and if they were in a physical location which allowed them to speak freely and without distraction. I will also asked if they can turn the videos so that I could see if there was any external interruption and it also allowed me to read the room, I could see if someone want to add comment by their body language and also if they went to speak and then fell silent.

Also it mentioned about technical difficulties. This was an issue as one students connection was really bad so they logged off and logged on again on a different device but that mean they couldn’t turn their camera on. Unfortunately that was the one student who english was strong and was the quietist on the group. I gave her the opportunity to expand but I think she had prepared her answers so found it difficult to expand and express herself further in that environment. So I was unable to as to use non verbal cues as Katie Rakow, a PHD student highlights on the podcast.

Natasha Lackovic a lecturer for Lancaster university went on concur the fact that a camera on really helps with the interaction of participants.

Katie Rakow also mentioned the importance of keeping the camera on so that the participants could see that what they were saying was valued and I was listening and engaged in what they were saying. This showed active listening with non verbal cues, which validates what the person is saying and encourages them to continue. This is something you do when interviewing in TV all the time as you don’t want your voice on the interview so you have to communication nonverbally.

Why focus groups interviews in eduction and psychological research?’

I really like the 5 concepts-

synergism- more data is gained through the groups interactions together.

snowballing- that what one person says promotes further responses from others

Stimulation- when the group becomes more engaged and excited about what they are discussing.

security-when people can relate to each other an enables they to be open and honest about their thoughts.

spontaneity- because they don’t have to comment on every question, the answers they give can be more spontaneous and honest as it comes from the discussion without being premeditated.

These 5 things I really felt worked with my participants as they had all done the same extracurricular workshops but they had different experiences. I noticed that they often started with ‘ I agree with XXX’ or ‘XXX made a good point, and would either reconfirm that point or give an alternative point of view, thus creating a discussion.

Me as the moderator- aspects to consider as Wells (1974) is quoted in saying in the paper are the following-listening, thinking, probing, exploring, framing hunches and ideas.(p4)

Probes are good as you can get someone to add further comment or clarification, to expand on a thought. tis is done with follow up questions. again active listening is key, to make sure you pick up. eg Can you give further examples of this?

Analysing interviews

The way in which the interview is analysed will depend on the methodology chosen. If a researcher is looking for qualitative information, they may read the transcript over and over again, to try and understand the meaning. This will help them identity the common themes across the interviews.

However, if the researcher is looking for quantitative information they may count the number of times a certain word was said in order to make conclusions about, for example, the popularity of something.

QUOTES-

The goal is to conduct and interactive discussion that can elicit greater, more in-depth understanding of perceptions, beliefs, attitudes and experiences from multiple points of view and to document the content from which those understandings were derived. (P4)

Focus groups have the potential to bring the investigator closer to the research topic and through direct, intensive encounters with key individuals……..aim at understanding more about what the stakeholders think and feel.

Strother (1984) provides evidence that focus group interviews yield more accurate information about what participants actually think than do other research methods.

In this article it quotes ‘The related construct of “belonging”, especially in its social dimensions, is also concerned with the individual’s relationships with others. A desire for belonging is a yearning for connection and a need for interpersonal relationships (Allen, 2020a; Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Allen & Furlong (2021) 

This correlates with my finding and the thoughts around belonging with my students. I was attracted to this article as it discusses loneliness and many of my students have worked as a team remotely due to the pandemic. I know that previous cohorts have suffered from loneliness whilst doing this course as they were in lockdown, in another county far from home and concerned how events were unfolding with little connection to others.

This overlaps with Lindsay talk about belonging when she talks about not being about to escape loneliness or anger. Its seems as if the loneliness and belonging are interlinked as ‘Indeed, these connections are so close that it seems imperative that the two terms be removed from their siloes and integrated into research and practice’. Allen & Furlong (2021) 

This is also brought up in my focus group when one of the students says

‘sometimes when you’re at home, and you’re trying to figure stuff out. It’s a lot harder and you do feel. I mean, in a sense, literally more isolated, but also, like figuratively, you know, being at home trying to figure stuff out versus being on campus’.

I wish I’d picked up more on that conversation and investigated it more. It doesn’t just relate to the pandemic but alienation from a group or feeling like you are on the outside.

This is definitely something to consider.

Another

Findings and thoughts

That the students wanted ownership of their course, the peer to peer came up often, passing on skills to reconfirm knowledge, to facilitate their own extracurricular workshops and be involved.

Student 3

Maybe if I’m vision mixer, next time and it would be better for me to teach teacher person who’s taking the role in this time, because I it will recall my memory too. And it can also that helps to communicate with each other and improve the like the atmosphere in your group.

To have smaller groups to facilitate Q&A and learning.

Mixing up of groups regularly so all students get to meet each other help with confidence to volunteer and speak up.  

Students 1

I’ve enjoyed the most out of all the studio sessions.

Lindsay’s talk is insightful into belonging, she talks a lot about the structure of education and how they are they to ‘protect’ but who are they protecting and who are they shutting out? There is still so much equability she says at one point ‘The culture we want to build might not be a place where everyone feels at home… the journey between gender and race equality rumbles on’.

‘We are always chasing a sense of belonging, but we can’t escape loneliness or anger’ she quotes when discussing ‘where the wild things are’, and how it represents how we all feel. Where and what is home? What makes us feel secure?  

Quotes from the video that I found relevant

Belonging is intersectional….. perhaps it’s individual. We belong to groups perhaps by our race, our gender, our academic discipline, academia in general as opposed to other groups but this doesn’t mean we can speak as one, or speak for each other, and there is a radically individuality in the nature of human experience.

It makes very little sense to speak of ‘THE student experience’, experience is something an individual goes through.

University and university structures, fears, threats, rational irrational, relevant or vestigial.

What threats come into play in our conceptions of belonging in education. Who and what are academica standard and rules protecting and who and what are they shutting out?

This really echo’s some of my findings as many of the themes the students discussed regarding their experience of belonging where in the extracurricular workshop and NOT in their usual sessions. Confidence to fail, as the work want marked…

Student 1- I do agree with what she’s saying because it was also the fact that there we weren’t being graded so there was no pressure to feel like ‘oh I have to do a really good job’. I think, I think I did a good job but I enjoyed it more and I learned more and I was able to like the sense of camaraderie, I like, really enjoyed with the people I was with ’cause I was not as worried about my individual performance.

Student 2.- Yeah you’re not under pressure, you’re more free to enjoy learning what you’re doing. Rather than a little space in your mind thinking ‘man am I doing this right’? Because they’re watching me or something like that.

Student 1- I took on the biggest rules on those two workshops precisely because I felt no pressure to, I felt less pressured to do it right. So, if I made mistakes, I thought it was OK. Like he said, it was the right environment for me to try taking on more responsibility.

There needs to be more space for failing and making mistakes. We learn from our mistakes, but there need to be space to make them. for student to know that its important, otherwise there is a constant pressure to perform. Do you go to uni for you to learnt and try new thing and ways, or to work within the structure of the uni and pass?