definition, which“combines a policy focus...with a physical location...[and where]
...reference to...individuals...[is] from the position of asking what does‘the case’
look like for this [person]?”(p. 53).
Relevant ethical authorisations were obtained, thus permitting researcher obser-
vation of classes, including some unrecorded exchanges with students. The data
gathered from observations and interviews would be analysed with the help of NVivo
software. This selection process leads to the themes by which the researcher is able to
gather the data to inform both description of what has been observed and heard, but
also to engage with, and make sense of, the lived experience of the participants.
20.8 Research Reality: Leon’s Narrative
20.8.1 Recruitment, Ethics and Design
Research as planned and research as executed may not necessarily cohere. First,
there are several participant recruitment challenges. Finding schools whose prin-
cipals and teachers are willing to engage in research is no easy task. Several emails
are followed by telephone calls, further mails, and further, sometimes nagging,
calls. Recruiting participants and participant schools can be time-consuming and
characterised by rejection.
In the spirit of reciprocal partnership and attaining mutual ends (as indicated by
Moss 2008 and Schuck 2012 ) I offered the schools who were willing to proceed, the
opportunity for me, as the researcher, to‘dig deeper’into any aspect related to my
research (on transitioning from traditional to modern teaching and learning practices)
that the school was particularly keen to develop or understand. This idea was taken
up by the senior leaders at Rosehill College, who saw an opportunity here for me to
evaluate the implementation of the school’s BYOD programme. Given that BYOD
and e-Learning was what I was looking at anyway, this was a sensible suggestion.
An initial meeting took place with prospective teacher participants, to review the
proposed ethics documentation (thus I could demonstrate‘consultation’to my
ethics committee). The mechanics of dealing with the documentation exercised our
collective mind, as at that stage, I had prepared for students to be treated as par-
ticipants, despite their role being marginal in the observations—common sense
prevailed at the ethics committee, however, and specific consents for students was
eventually not required.
Design was the following challenge. I explained I was not a scientist seeking
generalisable knowledge; rather I wanted to tap into what sense people were
making of the way their work was evolving, and what kind of influence these
changes were having on them. I also wanted to see them at work, so I could make
sense of how differently they might be working. From this, I would reach some
conclusions, possibly putting forward some explanations, and thus deepening the
collective understanding of the profession of these changes and what they entailed.
The difficulty that arose, however, is that rather than just three participants, I had
306 L. Benade et al.