{"id":33,"date":"2021-12-30T09:35:59","date_gmt":"2021-12-30T09:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/welspgr\/?p=33"},"modified":"2021-12-21T12:45:13","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T12:45:13","slug":"what-do-i-mean-by-participants-perspectives-do-i-take-their-word-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/welspgr\/index.php\/2021\/12\/30\/what-do-i-mean-by-participants-perspectives-do-i-take-their-word-for-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What do I mean by participants\u2019 perspectives: do I take their word for it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The context<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I began my EdD studies, as an OU insider researcher, I knew that I wanted to explore multiple perspectives around feedback practices and to focus non-judgementally on participants\u2019 own perspectives.<\/p>\n

Feedback emerges as a concern throughout the literature Carless et al, 2011<\/a> and amongst colleagues.\u00a0 Empirical studies and pedagogical discussions around feedback practices tend to focus on one perspective, usually students\u2019. \u00a0I aimed to consider all perspectives, without foregrounding one, a challenge from my \u2018insider\u2019 position Hellawell, 2006<\/a> as an OU tutor of many years.<\/p>\n

\"\"In considering which perspectives were essential to explore to understand feedback practices within this context, three distinct participant groups emerged clearly in terms of their allocated roles within the feedback process.\u00a0 These comprised those who study and pay for tuition (students), those who facilitate and deliver a pedagogical service by working directly with students (tutors) and those who design and write the module and monitor the process of its delivery and assessment, manage staff and appoint tutors (central academics).<\/p>\n

Further, the literature tends to take a \u2018problem\/solution\u2019 approach and in so doing makes prescriptive recommendations about how participants \u2018should\u2019 behave, such as what tutors should be trained to do, to make feedback effective Wakefield et al, 2014<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/strong>I wanted to explore perspectives without imposing solutions to identified \u2018problems\u2019, considering multiple viewpoints, rather than a single dominant one.<\/p>\n

In order to stand back, to be non-partisan, I chose a broadly ethnographic methodology, informed by the principles of being exploratory, interpretive and concerned with context Blommaert, 2007<\/a>.\u00a0 I elicited participants\u2019 perspectives via their questionnaire responses and semi-structured interviews conducted via telephone.<\/p>\n

My problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although being an insider meant, to an extent, I was a participant, my in-depth exploration of participants\u2019 perspectives through their own accounts did not meet ethnographic tendencies to use the multiple methods of data collection Lillis, 2008<\/a> available, such as actual tutor feedback.\u00a0 I did not view events in situ, <\/em>like Tuck\u2019s ethnographic study Tuck, 2012<\/a>, considering the context of tutors\u2019 feedback production.\u00a0 Yet, I could not see how to achieve this immersion in the lived experiences of participants, without imposing, as I saw it, my interpretation of their actions; I wanted to stay with participants\u2019 own accounts of their perspectives.<\/p>\n

Two alternative solutions <\/strong><\/p>\n

I considered identifying a case study of one student\/tutor experience to allow me to explore observations of behaviour and associated documents alongside my data from semi-structured interviews and open questionnaire questions.<\/p>\n

Another option was to stay true to my original intention and to continue to focus on an in-depth exploration focusing only on my participants\u2019 declared perspectives.\u00a0 This is what I chose to do.<\/p>\n

My question\/s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Therefore, what do I\/we mean by participants\u2019 perspectives?\u00a0 What leads to the greater \u2018truth\u2019, to rely on participants\u2019 own accounts, inevitably filtered through the researcher\u2019s lens, or must we make potentially intrusive \u2018checks\u2019 on what participants do in practice to achieve an in-depth exploration of their perspectives?<\/p>\n

by\u00a0 Dr Jane Cobb<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I have been an Associate Lecturer at the Open University since 2002, tutoring mainly English Language modules.\u00a0 I live in Stourbridge in the West Midlands with my husband, two adult children and three Romanian rescue (street) dogs.\u00a0 My recent EdD and my current research interests concern the multiple perspectives around feedback practices around assessed writing in HE.\u00a0 This is my first venture into blogging, and I am looking forward to this creative space, where colleagues can share, debate, and discuss issues arising around their research.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The context When I began my EdD studies, as an OU insider researcher, I knew that I wanted to explore multiple perspectives around feedback practices and to focus non-judgementally on participants\u2019 own perspectives. Feedback emerges as a concern throughout the literature Carless et al, 2011 and amongst colleagues.\u00a0 Empirical studies and pedagogical discussions around feedback … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What do I mean by participants\u2019 perspectives: do I take their word for it?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[10,9],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-associate-lecturer","category-edd","tag-feedback","tag-participants-perspectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/welspgr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/welspgr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/welspgr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/welspgr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/welspgr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/welspgr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/welspgr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/welspgr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/welspgr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/welspgr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}