Structuring the Thesis - Matching Method, Paradigm, Theories and Findings

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David Kember · Michael Corbett Editors
Structuring 
the Thesis
Matching Method, Paradigm, Theories 
and Findings
Structuring the Thesis
David Kember • Michael Corbett
Editors
Structuring the Thesis
Matching Method, Paradigm,
Theories and Findings
123
Editors
David Kember
University of Tasmania
Launceston, TAS
Australia
Michael Corbett
School of Education
Acadia University
Wolfville, NS
Canada
ISBN 978-981-13-0510-8 ISBN 978-981-13-0511-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5
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Preface
A conventional structure has been developed for writing theses, which is consistent
with the needs of the scientific research method. However, research students in
education, the social sciences and the humanities rarely follow the scientific
method. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the issues or problems resear-
ched in these fields are normally ill-defined, messy or wicked. One key feature of
wicked problems, as defined by Rittel and Webber (1973) in their now classic
formulation, is the lack of a clear and agreed-upon definition of the problem itself.
Additionally, the problem is nested in other equally wicked problems. Finally, the
way the problem is defined determines the potential solutions and the ways in
which the problem is approached and studied. At the outset, it is often hard to
identify exactly what the problem is, let alone formulate a well-defined research
question. As the issues investigated are hard to define, they have multiple variables
or aspects that interact in complex ways. We began thinking about this book
because the problems our higher degree research (HDR) students want to study
were almost always wicked, but at the same time, they very often wished to tame
these problems with the authoritative techniques of the scientific method.
Indeed, defining precisely what the research problem represents an important
part of setting out most dissertation projects in the social sciences. Definition of
problems is itself contested and unavoidably theoretical, while at the same time they
are caught up in the complexities of practice itself as well as competing definitions
of the situation. Since the nature and framing of problems involves theoretical and
ultimately political engagement on the part of the researcher, a clear articulation of
foundational assumptions that situate and give shape to the particular research
problem is essential. This means that the simplifying assumptions common to the
scientific method are inappropriate to research in these areas. Naturalistic
researchers have also moved away from the methods commonly used by positivist
researchers to ones more suited to ill-defined problems.
In spite of the fact that few social science research projects adhere to the sci-
entific method, the conventional thesis structure adopted by the scientific method
still has a strong influence. There is a long history of educational and social analysis
more generally attempting to adopt and co-opt the methods of the natural sciences
v
and to promote the use of analytic tools designed to study the material world.
Philosophical developments of the twentieth century, beginning with phe-
nomenology and hermeneutics in Europe and pragmatism and symbolic interac-
tionism in the USA expanded and developed into what has been called
postmodernism, poststructuralism, deconstruction or the ‘linguistic turn’ that began
following World War Two. These are movements that have challenged the hege-
mony of the scientific method in social analysis. The ongoing critique of feminism,
Marxist analysis and more broadly critical theory has further complicated the notion
that social life can and should be objectively and neutrally investigated.
This configuration of pragmatic problems of education researchers seeking to be
relevant and to improve practice, in conjunction with philosophical currents that
challenge positivist hegemony, creates difficulty for beginning HDR students. This
uncertainty and complexity also cause problems for research students when they
come to write up their study, and they find it hard to fit their work into a standard
structure developed for a method very different from the one they have followed.
This book addresses this issue by showing that alternative structures more suited to
research in the social sciences are not only possible, they are actually common. The
heart of the book consists of 32 example chapters that illustrate this point. In these
chapters, research students explain how the subject matter, method, paradigmatic
orientation and theories drawn upon in their research led to the structure adopted for
their particular and unique thesis projects. Rather than following a formula as is
suggested in many standard research texts, we begin with actual HDRs describing
the creative and innovative methodological choices they have made to answer their
research questions and to write up their dissertations.
While they are each unique and creatively designed research narratives, each
of these chapters follows a standard format. They begin with a research question
that we suggested to them at the beginning of this book project. Our question was:
‘What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study of subject matter X, fol-
lowing paradigm Y and adopting methodology Z?’ Then we suggested a series of
questions eliciting common features of the thesis, i.e. subject matter; method;
theories and paradigms; structure; table of contents; and commentary. In the
example chapters, therefore, the HDR students explain how their paradigmatic
orientation, the method they followed and the findings of their research led them to
devise the particular structure for their thesis.
The 32 example chapters have been grouped into four parts by methodological
orientation: mixed methods (Part B); action research (Part C); interpretive (Part D);
and emerging theoretical approaches (Part E). The book, therefore, includes
examples of a very wide range of research fields in the social sciences, diverse
methodological orientations and theories that were drawn upon. These range from
work that is positivist in orientation and that seeks to make particular realist
knowledge claims, to more pragmatist, embedded work in the action research tra-
dition, to work inspired by interpretivist forms of social science, and finally to work
that seeks to employ contemporary theory to frame and explore diverse research
questions that problematise educational phenomena withinwas when the voyage of discovery started to
become collective. We knew from conversations with colleagues with supervisory
experience that there was interest in a book about alternative thesis structures. To
see if there was sufficient interest to make a book viable, a call for chapter proposals
was sent out to all academic staff and research higher degree students in the
Education Faculty of the University of Tasmania where we both worked at the
beginning of this project in 2016.
The call requested chapter proposals in the form of the chapter template
described below. The proposal asked for responses to each of the questions in the
chapter template. It was in the form of a short proposal though and just one
paragraph was required in response to each question or heading.
18 D. Kember and M. Corbett
To our surprise, no less than 21 proposals were received. They represented an
interesting range of topics, methods, underpinning theories and structures deviating
from the conventional. There were definitely enough submissions to formulate a
proposal to the publisher, which would give a clear indication of the intention and
the form of the book.
Expanded Call
The response from the publisher was generally positive, with one significant caveat
raised by reviewers. They were concerned that the recruitment of chapter authors
was focused too exclusively upon the University of Tasmania. This presented an
opportunity to widen the input, not just in terms of the affiliation of authors, but also
in terms of the methodologies and theories drawn upon. We also expanded the call
more explicitly to our junior colleagues in the Faculty who were recently graduated
PhDs, as well as to current and recently graduated HDR candidates.
We also accepted the critique of the reviewers and decided that what we wanted, in
addition to the work of our students and colleagues, was a number of contributions
from leading education theorists and researchers working in universities around
Australia. We were particularly interested in finding cutting-edge research or higher
degree students working with what we call ‘emerging theory’. Mike put out a vari-
ation of our original call to a number of leading academics working theoretically in
curriculum studies and the sociology of education, virtually all of whom responded
positively suggesting those of their students whose dissertation projects were both
new and representative of interesting and important theoretical and methodological
work. These additional calls for proposals yielded an even wider variety of work and
approaches represented in the text you are reading here. We had the crucial ‘raw
material’ for developing a research text that focuses primarily on actual concrete and
current HDR research efforts. Thus, the project was set in motion and our bottom-up
approach to designing a research methodology text was born.
Chapter Template
Our initial challenge was to support chapter authors who were asked to write on a
topic that none of them had written about before. Furthermore, we had been unable
to find similar or competing books, which might have served as a model. It,
therefore, seemed sensible to provide guidance to chapter authors, which is what we
did, in part to support the chapter authors and lend clarity, but also to provide
consistency for beginning HDR students who would read this text. We wanted to
provide a format for each chapter that would generate a related and coherent set of
analyses of the research process that was flexible enough to accommodate the broad
range of topics, theoretical orientations and methodological approaches present in
2 The Collective Voyage of Discovery: How the Book Was Developed … 19
this diverse body of proposals, but which was not so flexible that the book would
offer little comprehensible and solid guidance.
Chapter 1 introduced the four generative research questions about research itself
that we asked the authors to use as they prepared their substantive chapters. As the
authors addressed research question 4 in their chapters, it seemed sensible to base
our guidance to them upon this question:
Research Question 4
What range of methods, theories and paradigms are commonly adopted by edu-
cation and social science students and what issues do these pose when students
write their theses?
To prompt the authors to focus their chapters to answer this question, a template
was developed. The template contained a series of headings that prompted the
writers to answer the sub-parts of research question 4 and to structure their chapters
in a consistent way, which focuses clearly on the issues explored by this book.
The headings in the template are as follows.
• Research question
• What was the study about?
• What was the method?
• What were the theories and paradigms employed?
• Structure
• Contents page
• Commentary.
The research question in the chapter template asked for a research question for the
chapter; not the one authors used in their thesis. It was expected to be in the
following form. What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study of subject
matter X, following paradigm Y, and adopting methodology Z?
The structure part of the template asked for a guide to the formulation of the
thesis structure in parts, chapters and main sections. This is illustrated by the major
elements of the contents page. In the commentary, authors were asked to explain
how the structure of their thesis is consistent with the paradigm, methodology,
theories and subject matter. The commentary also provided an opportunity to dis-
cuss issues in writing the thesis. They could, and typically did, reflect upon how the
adoption of these methods, theories and paradigms impacted upon writing about
their research illustrating in most cases how theory, method, practice and the
paradigmatic traditions within which the research was situated are entangled in
particular ways.
This approach, while fairly formulaic, did simultaneously allow authors both
space to think about their particular way of working and a clear structure for
reporting the process that is consistent with those of other chapter authors who were
obviously working on different projects.
20 D. Kember and M. Corbett
Initial Workshops
Following the release of the template guidelines we conducted two sessions of an
initial workshop, held soon after the project had been finalized. One session was
broadcast via a video conference to the three University of Tasmania campuses.
The other was a Skype link-up for the remainder of participants who were in other
universities in other parts of the world.
The initial workshop took the form of a general briefing and discussion. There
was a discussion of the process to be used for producing the book with attendant
timelines. The response to the proposal for the critical discussion sessions was very
positive. Those whose were still working on their theses were particularly appre-
ciative of the proposed sessions, and they anticipated gaining insights that could
improve their research process and dissertation. The discussions ranged from
introducing and learning about the substantive focus of one another’s research, to
the pragmatics of aligning the chapters and their content, to more scholarly dis-
cussions about how different students structured their work, made choices, came to
theory, developed methodology, and how they considered their work to be
important in terms of contributions to knowledge.
On the purely practical side of things, the chapter template was discussed.
Guidelines were given for what to focus on, and there was also discussion of
appropriate length and content for each section. Use of the styles embedded in the
template were demonstrated by David and we also discussed citation protocols and
how to deal with the publisher’s feedback, timelines and expectations. In other
words, our process reflected the parallel process of working in and with academic
conventions and the structured requirements which surround formal academic
writing.Discussion Workshops
We then organized a set of four discussion workshops, according to the Parts of the
book. All authors of chapters associated with the respective Part of the book were
invited. Also participating were the authors of the framing chapter for the Part,
together with the editors.
The purpose of these workshops was to explore, through critical dialogue, issues
relating to the writing and structuring of theses within the Part category. These
dialogues, therefore, constituted a process for collectively exploring the issues
underpinning the book. They had an impact on example chapters and also framing
and concluding chapters and generally took on a more in-depth and focused
scholarly tone as authors worked toward the completion of first drafts.
2 The Collective Voyage of Discovery: How the Book Was Developed … 21
First Drafts of Substantive and Framing Chapters
Chapter authors were asked to complete first drafts of chapters within 6 months of
contracts being signed. Perhaps rather surprisingly for a book with so many
chapters, only a few authors needed a short extension. There are in this book, four
parts, each containing a collection of substantive chapters written by current or
recently graduated HDR students. Each of the four parts is introduced by what we
call ‘framing chapters’ that respond to the substantive chapters.
Once the first drafts of the substantive chapters were in, it was possible to start
work on the framing chapters. The authors of these chapters responded to, and
situated the chapters in each section to write the framing commentary. The purpose
of the framing chapters is to provide historical background and contextual surround
in terms of the broad movements of ideas, philosophical traditions and epistemo-
logical and ontological debates that animate particular types of educational research
as well as to speak to how each distinct chapter works differently within these
broader philosophical and methodological flows.
Reviewing
Following the completion of first drafts, a process of peer reviewing of chapters
then commenced. To facilitate the process of collective discovery, fellow chapter
authors conducted the peer reviewing. Each author was asked to select the three
chapters most closely related to his or her own. From these selections, each author
was asked to review one chapter.
The reviewers were asked to act as constructive critical friends. They were asked
to provide constructive comments to the authors to improve their chapters.
In addition, peer-reviewers were asked to write a short commentary if they think
that would be valuable, particularly if they could see useful links, parallels or
comparisons to their own chapter. These were placed at the end of the chapter in the
Commentary section. In this way, the review process contributed to
cross-referencing and enhanced coherence.
Conclusion
We like to think of the process we used not only as a way of generating a set of
useful and diverse chapters for the explicit purposes of this methodology text, but
also as a set of post-doctoral seminars and rich conversations that carry on the best
aspects of doctoral study itself which we take to be critical friendship. In this sense,
we see the process providing an opportunity to HDR students to meet in a way that
combines aspects of the oral thesis defense, but also aspects of a methodological
postmortem/debriefing relating not to the findings themselves (which is what
22 D. Kember and M. Corbett
academics are typically called upon to write and speak about), so much as the
process or journey taken to generate those research conclusions. We think this is
particularly important in those HDR contexts like that of Australia where the dis-
sertation is not defended orally and is simply sent out for external examination.
The process also provided chapter authors an opportunity to think about their
projects in a way that might support others who are at the beginning stages of their
work. This approach does not proceed from a set of ideal-type propositions and
instructions about how research ought to be done as is the case in most research
manuals. Rather, it provides a set of experiential accounts that relate how research
was conceived, structured, carried out and written up. In other words we offer her not
a guide-book to how research should be done, but rather a text that explores multiple
ways in which research was done by a group of HDR students and recent graduates.
Most research methodology texts are more formulaic, and, while they may
mention particular research projects along the way to make a point, actual people
thinking about and doing concrete projects is not the central focus of these texts. We
offer no formulas here and we suggest that the nature of educational research does not
fit particularly well with the standard and sedimented vision of what can be called the
‘scientific method,’ precisely because most educational problems that are taken up by
beginning researchers are inherently ‘wicked’ (Rittell and Webber 1973) and deeply
embedded in the inevitable messiness of practice (Bourdieu 1992; Law 2004).
Simply put, very often, the formula does not fit complexity of the problems that
interest and engage HDR students in education and they soon find themselves on a
journey that winds through the complex relationship between theory, method,
paradigm, identity, social context, choices of data and framing of what counts as
data, standards of evidence, complexities of ethics and reciprocity, structural
choices, styles of academic writing and other modes of representation … in other
words they enact methodology as a complex learning journey rather than a
pre-given process. This book attempts to honour the often transformative, lived
experience of this journey. Rather than simply gesturing toward these issues as
problems to be taken up by beginning researchers and HDR candidates, this book
illustrates how actual people struggling to realise actual research projects have
addressed the crucial and consequantial decisions generated by the human com-
plexity inherent in their research projects.
We feel that this approach is novel and we think that it will serve HDR candidates
well in their own research voyages. Perhaps a good closing analogy for this chapter
is to compare booking a package-tour or a cruise as opposed to setting out seeking to
explore a complex geography more independently and with a unique purpose in
mind. We think that many educational researchers begin with a sense that they are
taking a packaged tour and very quickly become dissatisfied and begin to explore the
complexity and emergent phenomena they find as they move into and through the
terrain. Another important aspect of educational research is that the terrain of
research is often already known to a greater or lesser extent and so the purpose of the
journey or voyage can be to see something that is familiar with new eyes, from
different theoretical perspectives and social locations, in other words to re-search a
territory one thought one knew, but which, when approached through a rich research
question, can yield surprise, insight and ultimately, new and valuable knowledge.
2 The Collective Voyage of Discovery: How the Book Was Developed … 23
References
Berry, K. (2006). In K. Tobin & J. Kincheloe (Eds.), Doing educational research (pp. 87–115).
Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Bourdieu, P. (1992). The logic of practice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Britzman, D. P., & Greene, M. (2003). Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to
teach (Revised ed.,). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Law, J. (2004). After method: Mess in social science research. London, New York: Routledge.
Neilsen, L. (1994). A stone in my shoe, teaching literacy in times of change. Winnipeg: Peguis.
Rittel, H. W. J., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy
Sciences, 4(2), 155–169.
Shulman, L. S. (2004). The wisdom of practice: Essays on teaching,learning, and learning to
teach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
David Kember is Professor in Education: Curriculum Methods and Pedagogy in the Faculty of
Education at the University of Tasmania. Prior to that he worked in Hong Kong for 25 years. The
initial position was at the Polytechnic University, then Chinese University and finally as a
Professor in Higher Education at the University of Hong Kong. He spent six years running an
inter-institutional initiative, operating across the eight universities in Hong Kong, known as the
Action Learning Project, which supported 90 action research projects in which teachers introduced
a wide variety of initiatives aiming to improve the quality of student learning. His research in the
following areas has been particularly highly cited: student approaches to learning and the influence
of teaching and assessment on them; the Chinese and Asian learner; motivation; reflective
thinking; teachers’ beliefs about and approaches to teaching; action learning and research for
teaching quality improvement; distance and online learning.
Michael Corbett is an educational sociologist whose work draws on social theory, as well as
historical and geographic traditions. He has worked in the School of Education at Acadia University
in Canada since 2002 with a three-year sojourn at the University of Tasmania (2015–17) where he
held a research professorship in rural and regional education, and where he continues to hold an
adjunct professorship. Corbett’s work focuses principally on rural education and he is a global
leader in this field. He has studied youth educational decision-making, mobilities and education, the
politics of educational assessment, literacies in rural contexts, improvisation and the arts in
education, the position of rural identities and experience in education, conceptions of space and
place, the viability of small rural schools, and ‘wicked’ policy problems and controversies in
education.
24 D. Kember and M. Corbett
Part B
Mixed Methods
Chapter 3
The Paradigmatic Challenge
of Mixed-Methods Research: Positivism,
Relativism or Pragmatism?
Rosemary Callingham and Ian Hay
Abstract Contemporary research in education has been shaped by changing trends
in society over the last 100 years. The aim of this chapter is to highlight the
multifaceted nature of contemporary education research and the challenges this
environment provides to beginning researchers. This paradigmatic issue is explored
across five interconnected themes. (1) Educational research is dynamic and keeping
up to date with developments in theory and practice has to be ongoing. (2) There is
an ongoing transition between theories, to research methodologies, to educational
practices and then back to theories. (3) Educational research cannot occur in a
vacuum and so the context and culture of that research needs to be articulated.
(4) Educational research is often explored using a qualitative or quantitative data
framework but other similarities and differences also need to be considered. (5) The
research methodology needs to work towards answering the specific research
question under investigation. Educational research by its very name means
re-looking, going back again and again, and wondering (theorising) what is hap-
pening and why in education.
Introduction
Contemporary research in education has been shaped by changing trends in society
over the last 100 years. The aim of this chapter is to highlight the multifaceted nature
of contemporary education research and the challenges this environment provides to
beginning researchers. The context of education is complex, life-long focussed and
has a broad range of stake-holders. As an independent discipline, education research
began to emerge towards the end of the 19th century shaped in part by global
conflicts (Lagerman 2000). In America and Australia in particular, the two World
R. Callingham (&) � I. Hay
School of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
e-mail: rosemary.callingham@utas.edu.au
I. Hay
e-mail: ian.hay@utas.edu.au; i.hay@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_3
27
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_3&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_3&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_3&domain=pdf
Wars focussed attention on intelligence testing for sorting and selection purposes.
Developing out of the Binet-Simon intelligence scales, the Stanford Binet test was
established by Louis Terman, and was widely regarded as a more ‘objective’
measurement of intelligence (Becker 2003). Education research was firmly estab-
lished in the positivist tradition, and had a focus on testing and measurement of
mental capacity, persisting to solve the problems defined at the time, such as fatigue
in learning, and transfer of learning from one curriculum subject to another, for
example, the notion that teaching Latin was ‘good for the mind’ (Nisbet 2000). The
aim of education research was to identify an objective reality.
Gradually other forms of research began to be recognised. The move to universal
education after each of the World Wars, such as that associated with the ‘baby
boomers’, led to a demand for program evaluation. As more resources were poured
into educating the masses, governments began to want to know how their money
was spent and how effective different programs were. Descriptive approaches to
education research began to develop, such as case studies, using new and different
techniques, and based in disciplines like sociology and anthropology (Yates 2004).
Piaget had presented the notion of developmental stages (e.g., Piaget 1926) which
became highly influential. Although now criticised on some methodological
grounds, Piaget’s work has been significant in shaping curriculum documents and
approaches to teaching. Equally important, although taking a different position, was
the work of the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who emphasised the role of
culture and the significant other in children’s development (e.g., Vygotsky 1962).
Piaget and Vygotsky provided a basis for the theory of constructivism—children
develop knowledge over time through the interaction between their experiences and
their emerging thinking. In part this challenged the behaviourist school of research
exemplified by Skinner (1977).
Today, education research can draw from a plethora of theoretical stances,
having very different philosophical roots. This variety of theories may present some
difficulties for the beginning researcher. Although the testing and educational
measurement movement is still strong in education as a way of ranking individuals,
this approach has been challenged as being too narrow. On the other hand, quali-
tative approaches to research have been criticised as being insufficiently rigorous
(Fisher 2004) Many researchers attempt to bridge this gap by using some form of
mixed method research, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches to
provide both the ‘rigour’ of quantitative methods with the ‘rich description’ of
qualitative devices. The challenge is to combine these in ways that are meaningful,
and capture the best of both worlds. Many early researchers struggle with this task.
Education Research is Dynamic
Education research is typically applied research that often occurs in a naturalistic
school or classroom setting. The ‘proof’ is often how the different theoretical
perspectives play out in the real world of the classroom or in the behaviour and
28 R. Callingham and I. Hay
actions of the students. The context of education is a complex social and dynamic
environment and hence isolating one element and attributing cause has been
problematic in education research. Variables or elements typically cluster together
as a conglomerate factor that is multidimensional in nature.A review of education
research journals will demonstrate that a single outcome, such as achievement, can
be influenced by many variables either independently or as a combination,
including age, gender, home language, previous education experiences, motivation,
self-perceptions, home support, aspirations, motivation, interest in the task or
subject, the quality of the pedagogy, peers, students’ and teachers’ expectations, the
quality of resources, the time on task, the social and physical environment, duration
and intensity of any intervention; support within the school, the school’s leadership,
the family and home connections, the school and classroom culture, parental
occupation, cognitive working memory, speed of processing of information, verbal
reasoning and comprehension, health and physical and psychological well-being,
and location. This is not an exhaustive list but it does illustrate the challenge of
identifying a single cause.
In addition, as education progresses new theories and models are developed. The
advent of technology in the classroom, for example, has led to newmodels such as the
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework (Mishra and
Koehler 2006), which is typically used at the teacher level of analysis. In addition
how students’ behaviours change as a result of technology is also of interest to
education researchers, for example, understanding adolescent students’ problematic
internet use (Yu et al. 2013), or how adolescents construct online identities (Jang
2016). The learning and teaching process is explored by Fitzallen (Chapter 9). She
examined the notion that students’ learning is iterative and cyclical in nature using
classroom based research using the software program TinkerPlots (Konold & Miller
2011). Fitzallen argued that the classroom intervention is refined as the students and
the teacher becomemore knowledgeable with the software and this acquisition occurs
over a series of teaching and review cycles and this idea is reflected in both the study
design and in the thesis structure. Compared to their parents, children born into the
‘Information Age’ are likely to experience a social world where there is greater
cultural diversity and less focus on gender stereotypical values, expectations, and
roles (Lightfoot et al. 2012). The nature of system responses to the use of technology
provides another avenue for research (Jaikaran-Doe et al. 2016).
How then should the beginning researcher choose a theory or perspective from
which to proceed? The starting point is often interest—in a topic, curriculum area,
or approach to education—stemming from the researcher’s own background and
experiences. Many of the studies in this section begin with a personal story or
reflection, for example the research about Chinese international students’ experi-
ences by Wu, Myhill and Kember (Chapter 7) and Aryal, Short and Fan’s study
about English language teaching in Nepal (Chapter 6). Such a starting point
automatically challenges the idea of objectivity because the choice of project itself
is not impartial but brings with it the influences of prior involvements and expe-
riences. The next level is a consideration of what aspects of the element of interest
form the basis of the research, which in turn will influence the unit of analysis. Is
3 The Paradigmatic Challenge of Mixed-Methods Research … 29
the point of interest the system, the classroom, the teacher, or the students? These
questions are not trivial, and can only be answered after considerable reading round
the topic, and deep thought. Almost all variables addressed in education research
are nested within these levels, and there are complex interactions between them.
From this thinking and reading a working research question should emerge.
Research questions usually address the relationships between two or more vari-
ables, A and B, under a specified set of conditions, C. Some questions concern
causality, for example, What factors (A) influence students’ aspirations for further
study (B) in rural schools (C)? (Hay et al. 2016). Some are descriptive, for example,
In what ways (A) do teachers use interactive whiteboards (B) in early years
classrooms (C)? (Muir et al. 2016). Most questions could be potentially addressed
using a variety of methods.
Theory to Method
How does a novice researcher decide what data to collect and how to collect and
analyse it—the method for the study? If the study is a replication of previous
research under different conditions or contexts, the approach is fixed. The earlier
study must be followed as closely as possible. More often, however, the research
question may address a different aspect of previous work, or take an alternative
perspective. Here too there are traps for early researchers. Assuming that a topic is a
‘green field’ in terms of research is naïve. Many research students are keen to
collect data as early as possible but going out with a half formed self-designed
questionnaire or interview schedule may generate qualitative and or quantitative
data, but those data may not ultimately address the research question. How the
interviews, observations, and questionnaires or surveys are set up, and the context
in which they are used, is critical, and should be driven by the underlying theo-
retical stance of the study. One common problem with initial researchers is the false
economy of collecting data before really knowing what to look for, or how the data
will be analysed, or even whether the interview questions, or questionnaires are
understandable by the people involved. When mixed qualitative and quantitative
methods are employed, this problem can be exacerbated, with the researcher unable
to reconcile the two data sets when writing up the study. When initially starting a
research project, it is important to be aware that although a topic may be new to a
novice researcher typically it has a history. Understanding that history, and its
limitations and strengths, provides the researcher with a point of entry in the
research debate related to that topic.
Even in a well-designed study with a sound theoretical focus, however, the data
collected may not provide the desired insight into the topic. In this situation, it is
wise to stand back and reflect on all aspects of the study. This reflection can provide
new insights into not only the study itself, but also on the practice of becoming a
researcher. Goodwin and Kember (Chapter 4) describe this process in terms of the
researcher’s personal journey to understanding. Novice researchers are often
30 R. Callingham and I. Hay
reluctant to take such a course of action, feeling that it invalidates the work
undertaken to that point. On the contrary, as Goodwin and Kember show, thinking
deeply about the study, and having the courage to change direction can be pro-
ductive and satisfying.
Context and Culture
Bronfenbrenner (1992), in his ecological development model, considered culture to
be a key factor that interacts with an individual, be that individual a student, a
teacher, or a parent. The notion that culture and social context are important
variables in educational research is reflected in many of the chapters in this section.
In particular, how higher degree students’ own self-identity and thinking changes as
a result of shifting between different cultures is explored by Wu, Myhill, and
Kember (Chapter 7) in their research with Chinese students enrolled in a regional
Australian University. The idea that one culture can in part ‘overpower’ another
culture is explored by Hicks, O’Dowd, and Corbett (Chapter 10) in their research
on the interface between indigenous and non-indigenous cultures. How previous
research findings and theoretical models adapt to a new cultural context and with
particular cohorts of students is often not fully known. How valid and reliable
particular theoretical constructs are in a new cultural context, is a topic explored by
To and Mahboob (Chapter 8) and by Aryal, Short and Fan (Chapter 6). Toand
Mahboob investigated functional grammar research developed around English and
applied it to English as a second language teaching in Vietnam. Aryal et al. also
investigated English as a second language teaching but drew on teacher efficacy,
motivation and English language proficiency research to see how these constructs
operated within the context of the Nepal educational system.
Is There a Dichotomy?
In terms of mixed methods and education research, the typical dichotomy is con-
sidered as qualitative versus quantitative methods, but there are other dichotomies.
Skinner (1985) argued that controlled experimental conditions were important in
social science research and he claimed that research that was ‘mere descriptions of
conditions’ (p. 291) should not replace the assessment of behaviour with statements
of expectations and intentions. Skinner could be described as a positivist researcher,
aiming to identify some objective reality. Positivist studies usually adopt a
deductive approach, based on some hypothesis. In contrast, phenomenographic
researchers, such as Marton (1986) focus more on the human condition and making
meaning of the given situation, drawing on inductive reasoning. Such an approach
is more constructivist in nature in that it assumes that reality is relative to a given
situation. Some researchers today go further and aim to deconstruct particular
3 The Paradigmatic Challenge of Mixed-Methods Research … 31
situations (e.g., Somerville 2013). All of these approaches may use various methods
to collect and analyse data. Although it is possible to separate these differences in an
abstract way, when dealing with complex educational variables both facts and the
human condition are important.
As an example, take the notion of students’ interest in a curriculum subject (Hidi
and Renninger 2006). Interest may be inferred from student behaviour (e.g., are
students engaged in a learning task), using a qualitative observational approach
with an emphasis on the human condition, or from responses to appropriate
questions on a survey or questionnaire, a quantitative approach aiming to uncover
factual information. Both can provide valid outcomes for the examination of the
interest variable. Recent work, however, using a survey and observational
approach, identified that students who appeared engaged in classrooms might only
be complying with the classroom norms, rather than engaging cognitively with the
topic (Carmichael et al. 2017). In this study both the lived experience of the
observed classroom and the reported experience from students provided valuable
information that allowed a more nuanced picture of students’ interest in mathe-
matics to emerge.
There is much to be gained from reusing well validated instruments from prior
research, whether quantitative surveys or tests or qualitative interview and obser-
vation schedules. Some researchers are concerned about using standardised tests,
but such tests give the research higher levels of validity and a greater likelihood of
take up by appropriate authorities. For example, researching the effectiveness of a
phonics verses a language based approach to early reading received significant
attention when the same internationally available and reliable tests were used to
measure the outcome of the two interventions that were also qualitatively described
through collection of video data (Fielding-Barnsley and Hay 2012).
Answering the Research Question
The fulcrum on which an educational research study is balanced, is the research
question. How that research question is set up and stated in the study directs the
methodology needed to answer that specific question. There may be a range of tools
that could work to answer a particular research question, and investigating the
reliability, suitability and validity of these instruments is important before the study
begins. Carefully reading primary source journals may seem time consuming, but
the method section in the journal is typically the ‘cook book’ as to how the par-
ticular researchers conducted the study. Extending a particular piece of research
with its underlying constructs is a logical point of entry for beginning and even
experienced researchers.
Finding strengths and weaknesses in previous research or identifying its limi-
tations is an essential part of education research. The word research has two parts:
the prefix ‘re’ means to go back or return, and the word ‘search’ means to seek, to
look. Thus, looking at a problem again and again from different perspectives using a
32 R. Callingham and I. Hay
range of procedures and diverse stake holders is characteristic of education
research. As the researcher becomes engrossed in the specialisation of a topic or
process, once minor differences typically become the tensions that encourage new
thinking. As most postgraduate supervisors realise, there comes a point where the
student researcher knows the topic and overtakes the supervisor in recognising the
nuances of the procedure and the argument that are the basis for the study. Getting
to this point requires wide reading, focussed on the topic, and if need be mastering
the specific skills necessary to be in control of the whole research process. There is
no short cut to this comprehension process, it is constructivist learning in action.
That is, as the researcher develops a greater understanding of the topic, its limi-
tations and strengths become more apparent. The researcher draws on personal
metacognitive skills to comprehend the topic and the research process, in order to
adapt the previous work to the new setting (see Hay 2014 for an overview of this
cognitive process in comprehension).
As education research emerged as a field, considerable effort was put into
identifying pathways of knowledge growth, and appropriate ways to develop these
pathways in the classroom. Often the method used was hypothesis driven, in the
positivist tradition, but studies were typically small-scale and took an experimental
or quasi-experimental approach. The clinical interview technique used by Piaget
began to become a familiar tool, and the same practice is still used today, partic-
ularly with young children. Programs such as Reading Recovery (Clay 1993), and
Mathematics Recovery (Wright 2003) use one-to-one interviews to place the chil-
dren’s performance on a previously identified scale, providing a research-based
approach to classroom intervention. Interestingly, these programs and many others
that take a similar approach, bridge the divide between quantitative and qualitative
approaches. The method of identification of the child’s understanding is essentially
a qualitative structured interview requiring interpretation but this interpretation is
carefully proscribed within quantitative norms.
Method to Methodology
Today education research can draw from an overabundance of methods and theo-
ries. The purest forms of the positivist perspective, epitomised by the double blind
trial used in medical research, is almost impossible in education research because
there are too many variables. At the same time, purely descriptive and comparative
research, in which a situation is described in detail providing a rich picture or
narrative relative to other, similar situations, may lack the precision of numbers and
statistical methods. This situation has led to a rise in the forms of research denoted
as mixed-methods, using some form of quantitative process together with qualita-
tive approaches (Creswell and Plano Clark 2011). Typically such studies take the
form of a survey and interviews or observations. Fisher (2004, p. 441) argued that
3 The Paradigmatic Challenge of Mixed-Methods Research … 33
Research methods embodying integrated qualitative-quantitative mathematics have two
crucial advantages over currently popular methods in the social sciences. The first is that
strict criteria exist for knowing when mathematically transparent representation, and so,
quantification, has been provisionallyachieved. The second is the foundation this
achievement lays for creating and maintaining universal uniform metrics as a common
language for the exchange of value.
Theorising such approaches, however, has not always kept up with the devel-
opments in the field. Similarly, there are challenges for research thesis writers, who
have to decide whether to treat these two disparate methods as separate thesis
chapters or to integrate them together. These considerations are important because
they require the melding together of diverse paradigms. Add to this mix, the
dynamics of learning, which is far from a linear process, and the complexity of the
learning context, and decisions made about thesis structure and underpinning
philosophies can tie the writer up in knots. This challenge is illustrated by the work
of Hicks, O’Dowd, and Corbett (Chapter 10) who fit Settler Colonial Theory
(Wolfe 1999) to the positivist approach taken by the Longitudinal Study of
Indigenous Children (LSIC) (Australian Government Department of Social
Services 2018). Using structural equation modelling provides a quantitative
approach to a theory that arose from ethnography (Tedlock 2003). The Hicks et al.
study meets the challenge of disparate paradigms head on.
There have been suggestions made that social reality theory (Berger and
Luckmann 1966) could provide a suitable basis for a methodology. Such an
approach focusses more on systems and so appears to play down the importance of
the individual, a perspective that should not be lost in education. On the other hand,
there is a quest for certainty in education, epitomised by league tables and pre-
scriptive approaches to teaching and learning. These approaches, typified by
large-scale testing of a narrow conception of knowledge, take little account of the
human condition. Both the relativism of social theories and the positivism of sci-
entific approaches seem to have limitations for education research. Cobb (2011)
used the notion of ‘pragmatic realism’ to provide one way of resolving this diffi-
culty, stating that pragmatic realism ‘holds up a mirror to scientific practice and
clarifies that it is quite reasonable for scientists to act as conceptual relativists’
(p. 16). Cobb implicitly acknowledges the problem referred to earlier that the choice
of topic and approach is not value free or entirely objective. At the same time, he
recognises that truly naturalistic studies are also compromised. Having a researcher
present in a classroom, for example, however familiar students may be with that
person, may change the classroom dynamics.
In essence, as Fisher (2004) suggested, the qualitative and quantitative divide is
more conceptual than real. The researcher has to tell the story of the data, regardless
of its form. Interpretation of quantitative data to translate this into meaningful
information requires more than a simple presentation of some statistics. These
statistics have to be understood and read in relation to the location of the project,
the underlying theoretical framework, and the social and psychological context of
the study. Qualitative data provides this information. The two data sets allow for the
precision of mathematics and the depth of contextual understanding to be realised in
34 R. Callingham and I. Hay
ways that enhance both types of data. Modern approaches to mixed methods
research, such as design research studies (Cobb et al. 2003), make use of these
strengths to develop projects that are both pragmatic and theoretical. This point is
illustrated in the following chapters. For example in Cruickshank’s research
(Chapter 5) on male primary school teachers, an initial quantitative survey was
followed by qualitative interviews. In Godwin and Kember’s research (Chapter 4)
on the learning environment for first year university students a survey that con-
tained both qualitative and quantitative elements was administered at the start and at
the end of a semester to identify students’ changes in beliefs and attitudes.
Summary
Education researchers need to have a range of strategies and procedures that they
can adapt to suit their research question and their research context. The nature of the
research question shapes the research approach. Increasingly, education research is
drawing on other disciplines related to: psychology, sociology, philosophy, medi-
cine, technology, statistics, social welfare, economics, history, and cognitive
development to form theories that help to explain, understand, and predict students’
learning.
In this chapter some of the conceptions that can be used as a methodological
basis for mixed-methods research have been explored, together with the challenges
of providing suitable guidance to beginning researchers during their doctoral
studies. It is argued that there is not a simple dichotomy between quantitative and
qualitative research approaches. Rather education research is applied research that
operates in a social context that is dynamic and changing, and can have the best of
both worlds through well designed mixed methods studies that acknowledge both
the pragmatic limitations of the context and the reality of needing to provide
information that is generalised, meaningful, and useful. The applied nature of
educational research is well illustrated in the topics that are being investigated in the
chapters in this section of this book, such as students’ decisions about overseas
study (Wu et al., Chapter 7); use of technology in the mathematics classroom
(Fitzallen, Chapter 9); and engaging with indigenous knowledge and scholarship
(Hicks et al., Chapter 10).
What is evident across all of the chapters in the section is the notion that the field
of education research is not static but constantly changing in response to societal
pressures, shifting values and changing priorities. This dynamic nature of educa-
tional research provides new researchers with opportunities to make a contribution
to the field.
Although education researchers use mixed methods, it is not a formulaic mix.
The chapters that follow indicate some of the multiplicity and complexity of mixed
methods approaches. The researchers, working in different settings, have drawn on
a variety of sophisticated tools to plan, undertake data collection, analyse, and
interpret their data. The authors also illustrate a range of ways in which apparently
3 The Paradigmatic Challenge of Mixed-Methods Research … 35
different paradigms can be integrated. Education is a meeting point of many other
disciplines, such that mixed methods, mixed theories and mixed approaches are
now almost standard practice in education research. Perhaps it is time to stop
thinking of dichotomies and start thinking about the pragmatics of undertaking
studies in the changing context of education research.
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Rosemary Callingham is a mathematics educator at the University of Tasmania. She has an
extensive background in mathematics education in Australia, at school, system and tertiary levels,
including mathematics curriculum development and implementation, large-scale testing, and
pre-service teacher education. Her specific research interests include teachers’ pedagogical content
knowledge, statistical literacy, mental computation, and assessment of mathematics and numeracy.
She uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches in her work.
Ian Hay is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Tasmania, and was the former
Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education. His professional background is in psychology and
education. He has written over 250 publications for peer-reviewed journals, chapters in books, and
conference proceedings. His main research interests relate to the interactions between students’
cognitive and psychosocial factors and their longitudinal academic and social development. Ian
has had academic appointments at Griffith University, the University of Queensland, and the
University of New England. He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Research into
Learning Disabilities.
3 The Paradigmatic Challenge of Mixed-Methods Research … 37
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Chapter 4
An Exploration of Epistemological
Beliefs, Learning Environment
Expectations and Persistence Intentions:
Insights into the Shaping of Student
Persistence in the First
Semester of University Study
at Three Australian Universities
Julie Godwin and David Kember
Research Question
What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study of the impact of epistemo-
logical beliefs and learning environment expectations on persistence, following the
interpretive paradigm, and adopting a survey method?
What Was the Study About?
On commencing tertiary study most students find themselves in unfamiliar land-
scapes. They will be challenged not only by a new learning environment, but also
by new expectations of ways of knowing and making meaning in their chosen
discipline or disciplines. Krause and Coates (2008) highlight the significance of
unmet or unresolved expectations of university life in the first year of study in
relation to persistence. This study explores the relationship between the episte-
mological belief structures and learning environment expectations of commencing
J. Godwin (&)
University of New England, Armidale, Australia
e-mail: jgodwin3@une.edu.au
D. Kember
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
e-mail: david.kember@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_4
39
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_4&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_4&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_4&domain=pdf
students. It also investigates the impact of the relationship on the nature of students’
intentions to persist from very early in their university study.
A student’s decision to stay or leave has far reaching implications for the
individual, the institution and arguably, wider society. For universities,retaining
first-year students beyond the first semester census date is critical to meeting load
targets that determine the national distribution of government funds and the via-
bility of the institution. However, most studies of persistence consider the pro-
gression and retention of students over a longer period than one semester and rely
on exit data. Few studies look specifically at the intentions of students to persist at
the outset of study and throughout their first semester, despite the known impor-
tance of these early weeks to degree completion (Woosley and Shepler 2011).
As a Learning Advisor I support first-year students to find a ‘way in’ to the
academic practices of their disciplines and to align their expectations of university
learning with those of the institution, in short, to know the rules of the game and
understand the demands of the field. All too often, I meet with students at cross
roads, in ‘stuck places’, from very early on in their study. Students who are
struggling to take a critical perspective when confronted with new knowledge and
who may resist the call to interpret and integrate new knowledge demanded in
assessment tasks. For these students, there is seemingly little or no concept of their
own agency in knowledge construction. For some students, there was simply no
point to considering multiple perspectives if you already ‘knew’, or in verifying
what was known by distinguishing between sources of evidence. These were
unwanted, and uncomfortable complications of the learning process. At the same
time a surprising number of students were expressing doubt about their capacities
for success and uncertainty about their intentions to continue their study.
Traditionally, first-year students who are perceived to be ‘at risk’ and experi-
ence difficulties in transitioning to the tertiary learning environment are sent to a
central learning support unit with the attendant risk of alienation and feelings of
exclusion. More recently, there has been a shift to embed learning support within
the first-year curriculum and a call to shape teaching and learning tasks to create a
high support-high challenge learning environment that promotes early success
(Kift 2009). What is missing in these support programs and approaches is con-
sideration of students’ epistemological beliefs and the alignment of belief struc-
tures with their expectations of the learning environment. Phan (2007) notes that it
is as important for educators to help students reflect on their epistemological
beliefs as it is to reflect on study skills and motivation. It is possible to nudge
students’ epistemological development in the first year of university study (Neely
2014; Nist and Holschuh 2005). Potentially the data collected from this study
could inform a new approach to acculturation of first-year students that empha-
sizes the understanding and development of students’ personal epistemology and
more closely aligns persistence with the traditional aims of Higher Education as
opposed to institutional imperatives of student retention.
40 J. Godwin and D. Kember
What Was the Method?
In setting up the project I took a quantitative approach to the research. Data were
collected by means of questionnaire, administered at two time points: the beginning
of the first semester and the end of the semester. Each questionnaire contained three
individually identified separate surveys. In order participants completed (1) The
Epistemological Beliefs Survey developed by Kardash and Wood (2002), (2) A
learning environment survey based on the work of Tenenbaum, Naidu, Jegede, and
Austin (2001) (expected version at time one and perceived experience version at
time two) and, (3) An original five question survey ‘Intentions and options’ to
determine students’ persistence intentions for the start of the second semester. In the
learning environment part, students were instructed to answer thinking about a
particular unit of study (e.g., Biology110, English101). To enable comparison
between time one and time two, the selected unit of study was identified for each
student in the time two survey. For intention to persist, responses were based on
students’ overall intentions for study in the following semester, rather than a single
unit. There were also questions to capture demographic information, such as age,
gender, educational background and family experience of tertiary education and
space for comment on intentions for the second semester. At the second adminis-
tration of the questionnaire (end of semester), open ended questions to further
explore what knowledge means to students, their persistence intentions and per-
ceptions of the learning environment were added.
Descriptive, correlational and inferential statistics were used to summarise data,
characterise relationships and test group differences. Exploratory factor analysis was
used to establish students’ epistemological belief structures and conceptions of the
learning environment and then to explore the relationship between these constructs.
Student comments provided context and added rich description to the study. This
design is well suited to exploratory research where, as in this case, the focus is on
discovery and providing insight to the topic of interest (Cipriano 2002). The study
has both a cross-sectional focus in establishing key concepts and relationships and a
longitudinal focus in exploring change in those relationships over time.
What Were the Theories and Paradigms Employed?
I searched across disciplines for previous research and theory to provide direction to
explore concepts and identify potential relationships that underpinned my obser-
vations. The project aims to explore the relationship between three main concepts;
epistemological beliefs, learning environments and student retention. Drawing on
the literature of each, I formed a theoretical framework for the research. As my
understanding developed, the project’s position was clarified as exploratory rather
than confirmatory. I was looking at how two constructs might help explain the
persistence puzzle.
4 An Exploration of Epistemological Beliefs, Learning … 41
Beliefs about what is knowledge and how one comes to know (epistemological
beliefs) are complex and have been studied in various contexts and alongside other
equally complex constructs. In tertiary education, research students’ personal
epistemologies have been linked with numerous teaching and learning variables, for
example, conceptual change, information literacy, metacognitive awareness, study
strategies, motivation and field of study. Of importance to understanding my
observations, it has been found that a student’s epistemology influences how they
interpret the learning environment and how they act within it (Kember 2001;
Magolda 2002; Trabak and Weinstock 2008). The literature also provides
descriptions of the influence of learning environment/instruction on development of
epistemological beliefs (e.g., see Tolhurst 2007; Valanides and Angeli 2005). The
relationship between epistemological beliefs and learning approach has been
established (Mohamed and El-Habbal 2013; RodrÃ-guez and Cano 2006) and there
is evidence to suggest that learning environment perception predicts meaningful-
ness of learning approach directly and indirectly through epistemological beliefs
(Ozkal et al. 2009). Marton and Saljo (1984) drew attention to the role of learning
approaches in academic performance and Hofer (2001) later linked academic per-
formance and epistemological beliefs through the development of skills such as
critical thinking and learning strategies.
Student attrition is a ‘wicked problem’ in need of alternative approaches to
uncover ways to encourage student persistence (Beer and Lawson 2016, p. 1).
When the evidence linking epistemological beliefs with students’ responses to
learning environments is taken together with their predicted mismatched expecta-
tions (Longden 2006), it seemed reasonable to consider the student’s epistemo-logical stance and their learning environment expectations in relation to persistence
in higher education. This reflected my interest in understanding the complexities
around what might contribute to students finding themselves in ‘stuck places’.
Though the research is quantitative, the paradigmatic approach, if forced to
select one, is best classified as interpretive. In my confirmation document, I orig-
inally formulated hypotheses in line with the positivist paradigm commonly asso-
ciated with quantitative research. However, these proved to be inconsistent with the
exploratory nature of the project and the research was instead defined by open
research questions as is more commonly associated with qualitative approaches
(Krauss 2005). The opportunity to rethink the project was afforded by a change in
university and supervisory team around the mid-point of my candidature. Notably,
the title of the thesis changed from ‘Persistence: a measure of fit between the
epistemological beliefs and learning environment expectations of first year science
students’ to one that reflects exploration and the gaining of insight as presented in
the title of this chapter. Figure 4.1 illustrates the progress of the research journey
and how this is linked to the final thesis structure as discussed in the next section. It
also reflects the shift in my own epistemological beliefs in the process of becoming
a researcher.
42 J. Godwin and D. Kember
Structure
The thesis is organized four parts: Introduction, Main concepts and their
Measurements, Relationships and Discussion and Implications. This structure
provides essential context and reflects my discovery as I searched the literature
looking for links that might explain my observations. Each complex concept is
presented in general terms and then situated within the study before relationships
are presented.
Contents page
Part A Introduction
Chapter 1 Introduction to the Research Topic
Chapter 2 Overview of Thesis
Chapter 3 Research Method
Part B Main concepts and their Measurements
Chapter 4 Epistemological Beliefs of First Year Students
Chapter 5 Learning Environment Expectations of First Year Students
Chapter 6 Persistence Intentions of First Year Students
Part C Relationships
Chapter 7 Epistemological Beliefs and Learning Environment Expectations
Chapter 8 Intention to Persist, Epistemological Beliefs and Learning Environment
Expectations
Part D Discussion and Implications
Chapter 9 Impact of epistemological beliefs and learning environment on persistence
Chapter 10 Implications for practice
Chapter 11 Conclusions and contribution to new knowledge
Fig. 4.1 Progress of the research journey and development of thesis structure
4 An Exploration of Epistemological Beliefs, Learning … 43
Commentary
Part A provides background to the research topic, context around how I came to the
research questions and describes how the research was conducted. Chapter 1
reflects my experiences in working with commencing first-year students and my
then knowledge of the literature. It conveys what prompted my line of thinking
about the potential of epistemological belief awareness in promoting student per-
sistence and contextualizes the study within the literature. The aim of the explo-
ration is stated and the research questions are posed. Chapter 3 identifies the study
population and outlines the research method. Part A gives the reader insight into
why and how I conducted the research.
Part B, Chapters. 4, 5 and 6, treats each of the topics of interest, epistemological
beliefs, learning environment expectations and persistence, separately. Linking the
chapters builds the theoretical framework. In each chapter, the relevant literature is
reviewed, measures are justified and the results of analyses are presented and
discussed with reference to the effect of demographic measures. Leading the reader
through the complex individual concepts and research findings in Part B establishes
understanding and foreshadows the relationships that are explored in Part C.
Locating the literature relating to the three main concepts in the accordant
chapter of Part B provides context and positions the initial findings for further
exploration. It seems logical to put it there so that each of the three concepts are
presented coherently and within one chapter. For each concept there is a logical
flow to the chapter: from reviewing the literature; discussing and choosing an
instrument for measurement; using EFA to analyse the factor structure of the
gathered data; finalizing scales to be used for further analysis; to examining the
relationship of these scales to demographic variables.
Part C is the conceptualization of relationships between epistemological beliefs,
learning environment expectations and persistence intentions of the participants. In
chapter seven the relationship between expectations of the learning environment
and epistemological belief structures are explored. Chapter 8 brings together the
relationships explained in chapter seven and my findings about students’ persis-
tence intentions. Following on from Part B, there is a focus on effects of demo-
graphics on the relationships uncovered.
Part D draws the conclusion of the thesis and speculates on the implications of
the research. Chapter 9 discusses the impact of epistemological beliefs and learning
environment expectations on persistence. As this project grew out of my experi-
ences supporting first-year students, Chapter 10 proposes ways in which the find-
ings could inform practice, policy and further research in this area of Higher
Education. Finally, Chapter 11 presents resolutions to the research questions and
illustrates how this work contributes to new knowledge.
44 J. Godwin and D. Kember
References
Beer, C., & Lawson, C. (2016). The problem of student attrition in higher education: An
alternative perspective. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 41(6), 773–784. https://doi.
org/10.1080/0309877x.2016.1177171.
Cipriano, F. (2002). Survey research in operations management: A process-based perspective.
International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 22(2), 152–194.
Hofer, B. (2001). Personal epistemology research: Implications for learning and teaching. Journal
of Educational Psychology Review, 13(4), 353–383.
Kardash, C. -A. M., & Wood, G. (2002). Critical elements in the design and analysis of Studies of
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beliefs about knowledge and knowing (pp. 231–260). Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Kember, D. (2001). Beliefs about knowledge and the process of teaching and learning as a factor
in adjusting to study in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 26(2), 205–221.
Kift, S. (2009). Articulating a transition pedagogy to scaffold and to enhance the first year student
learning experience in Australian higher education: Final report for ALTC senior fellowship
program: Australian Learning and Teaching Council Strawberry Hills, NSW.
Krause, K. -L., & Coates, H. (2008). Students’ engagement in first-year university. Assessment &
Evaluation in Higher Education, 33(5), 493–505.
Krauss, S. E. (2005). Research paradigms and making meaning: A primer. The Qualitative Report,
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Longden, B. (2006). An institutional response to changing student expectations and their impact
on retention rates. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 28(2), 173–187.
Magolda, M. B. (2002). Epistemological reflection: The evolution of epistemological assumptions
from age 18–30. In B. K. Hofer, P. R. & P. R. Pintrich (Eds.), Personal Epistemology: The
psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing (pp. 89–102). Mahwah: Erbaum.
Marton, F., & Saljo, R. (1984). Approaches to learning. In F. Marton, D. Hounsell, & N. Entwistle
(Eds.), The experience of learning (pp. 36–55). Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
Mohamed, M. T., & El-Habbal, M. (2013). The relationship between epistemic beliefs and
academicperformance: Are better students always more mature? Journal of Educational and
Developmental Psychology, 3(1), 158.
Neely, M. (2014). Epistemological and writing beliefs in a first-year college writing course:
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beliefs. Journal of College Reading and Learning, 35(2), 84–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/
10790195.2005.10850175.
Ozkal, K., Tekkaya, C., Cakiroglu, J., & Sungur, S. (2009). A conceptual model of relationships
among constructivist learning environment perceptions, epistemological beliefs, and learning
approaches. Learning and Individual Differences, 19(1), 71–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.
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beliefs at the university of the South Pacific: A path analysis approcah. Educational
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RodrÃ-guez, L., & Cano, F. (2006). The epistemological beliefs, learning approaches and study
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Tolhurst, D. (2007). The influences of learning environments on student’s epistemological beliefs
and learning outcomes. Teaching in Higher Education, 12(2), 219–233.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2008.05.005
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Trabak, I., & Weinstock, M. (2008). A sociocultural exploration of epistemological beliefs.
In M. S. Khine (Ed.), Knowing, Knowledge and Beliefs: Epistemological Studies across
Diverse Cultures. Berlin: Springer.
Valanides, N., & Angeli, C. (2005). Effects of instruction on changes in epistemological beliefs.
Contemporary Educational Psychology, 30(3), 314–330.
Woosley, S. A., & Shepler, D. K. (2011). Understanding the early integration experiences of
first-generation college students. College Student Journal, 45(4), 700.
Julie Godwin’s research interest was sparked by countless conversations with first-year students
who seemed to be in ‘stuck places’ as they struggled to find their place, and make sense of the
requirements of their new learning environment when she was a First Year Advisor at the
University of New England, Armidale (2000–2017). This chapter is based on Julie’s journey as a
novice researcher exploring the epistemological beliefs, learning environment expectations and
persistence intentions of commencing first-year students at three Australian universities. Building
on this understanding, the project then investigates the relationship between these three constructs
and effects on the retention of students beyond their first trimester of study. Julie is completing her
Ph.D. thesis at UTAS under the supervision of David Kember and Michael Prosser. She is
currently the Manager, Student Partnerships at UNE where she drives projects that support the
development of contemporary learning relationships reconceptualising the role of the student as a
partner in Higher Education.
David Kember is Professor in Education: Curriculum Methods and Pedagogy in the Faculty of
Education at the University of Tasmania. Prior to that he worked in Hong Kong for 25 years. The
initial position was at the Polytechnic University, then Chinese University and finally as a
Professor in Higher Education at the University of Hong Kong. He spent six years running an
inter-institutional initiative, operating across the eight universities in Hong Kong, known as the
Action Learning Project, which supported 90 action research projects in which teachers introduced
a wide variety of initiatives aiming to improve the quality of student learning. His research in the
following areas has been particularly highly cited: student approaches to learning and the influence
of teaching and assessment on them; the Chinese and Asian learner; motivation; reflective
thinking; teachers’ beliefs about and approaches to teaching; action learning and research for
teaching quality improvement; distance and online learning.
46 J. Godwin and D. Kember
Chapter 5
The Challenges Faced by Male Primary
Teachers
Vaughan Cruickshank
Research Questions
What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study of male primary teachers,
following a constructivist paradigm, and adopting a mixed methodology?
What Was the Study About?
The percentage of Australian primary teachers who are male has decreased notice-
ably in the past thirty years (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] 2016). The falling
number of male primary teachers is a concern for many key stakeholders who
believe that more men are required, both in the classroom and in the wider school
environment (Martin and Marsh 2005). These concerns have prompted numerous
calls for increased male recruitment to, and retention in, the primary teaching pro-
fession (e.g., Carrington et al. 2007; Francis and Skelton 2005). Educational
authorities in Australia (e.g., Education Queensland 2002) have responded to calls
for more men in primary schools by initiating policies designed to increase the
numbers of male teachers. Despite the instigation of these recruitment-focused ini-
tiatives such as scholarships and quota systems, the percentage of primary teachers
who are male continues to fall. The continual decrease in male primary teachers
suggests that more attention needs to be placed on the retention of male primary
teachers already in the profession. Therefore, exploring the experiences of practicing
male primary teachers was a key focus in this research project.
V. Cruickshank (&)
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, Australia
e-mail: v.j.cruickshank@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_5
47
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_5&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_5&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_5&domain=pdf
Previous research on male primary teachers (e.g., Burn and Pratt-Adams 2015;
Mills et al. 2008) has noted that men often leave the profession because of the
gender related challenges they face. Challenges such as fear and uncertainty sur-
rounding physical contact have been identified by numerous studies of male pri-
mary teachers (e.g., Cruickshank 2014; Gosse 2011; Smith 2008), yet investigating
strategies to assist male primary teachers cope with these challenges has received
much less focus. This research project aimed to address this gap through the
identification of practical coping strategies that male primary teachers could use to
deal with the gender related challenges they faced, and thereby, persist within the
profession. This aim was underpinned by the desire to better understand the effects
these challenges have on the retention of male primary teachers, and the ambition to
further knowledge about how the influences of these challenges can be moderated
by coping efficacy. This project was guided by the following research questions:
1. What gender related challenges do Tasmanian male primary teachers face in their
profession?
2. How do Tasmanian male primary teachers cope with thematrices of power and
materiality, typically employing creative methods.
vi Preface
As there is such a diverse range of methodologies, in addition to being a book
about structuring theses, it works very well as a research methods text. In this
respect, it is unusual in covering such wide range of methods. This coverage takes
the form of narrative accounts of individual research journeys and of the practical
problems and considerations that led HDR students to make consequential choices
that shaped the thesis. We do not offer here a methodological how-to manual, but
rather a retrospective ‘how-did’ approach that provides an analysis of the real
decisions, emerging theoretical understandings and methodological judgments that
shaped actual research products. The actual methods employed range from con-
ventional social science approaches such as documentary and discourse analysis,
observation, interviewing and focus groups to arts based, participatory and visual
approaches emerging in the social sciences today.
In addition to the 32 example chapters, there are eight other chapters. Chapter 1
explains the origins of the book by reflecting on how the issue had troubled David
as both an examiner and supervisor. Chapter 1 also introduces the four research
questions, which are addressed throughout the book. Chapter 2 explains the pro-
cesses followed in developing the book.
Parts B–E group the example chapters; each begins with a framing chapter.
These framing chapters situate the work found in each section within the philo-
sophical traditions that inform the pieces. Each section in some ways represents an
ongoing conversation with the positivist tradition which tends to stand as a theo-
retical and methodological shadow to be addressed, and in a sense, circumvented by
HDRs as they make their way to producing independent work. The framing
chapters each situate the philosophical movements which grew up in response to
positivism and have sought to provide social science research with viable frame-
works of inquiry each focussed in different ways on dealing with problems of
reflexivity, subjectivity, interpretation, multiplicity, mutability, materiality, space
and place, the challenge of making sense of practice all of which have challenged
positivistically oriented educational and social research.
The penultimate chapter (Chapter 39) contains reflections on methodological
issues, which have arisen throughout the book. The main topic is the scientific
research method, which has been the underlying rationale for producing the book.
We consider why it is unsuited to research in the social sciences and examine
alternative directions that have emerged.
The final chapter (Chapter 40) contains overall lessons about structuring the
thesis synthesised from across the book. This chapter is organised around main
emerging themes threading through the substantive research chapters. The chapter
discusses the positioning and function of literature, as the traditional comprehensive
literature review, as Chapter 2, was regarded as inappropriate for inductive research,
which explored an ill-defined topic. There was a need for a relatively short initial
literature review to frame the study. The bulk of the literature was then dispersed
through the thesis, as findings were presented in an organised framework and
compared to the literature. In view of the alternative structures adopted, most of the
example theses included a section explaining and justifying the structure adopted.
Preface vii
The structures reported in this book, therefore, differ markedly from the con-
ventional structure, which appears more or less as:
Chapter 1 Introduction of the problem
Chapter 2 Literature review
Chapter 3 Methodology
Chapter 4 Results
Chapter 5 Discussion
Chapter 6 Conclusion
The second chapter of this conventional structure is a comprehensive review
of the literature. This review is necessary, as those following the scientific method,
research well-defined problems or hypotheses. The literature review is needed, as it
expounds what has been discovered in the well-defined area, so that the research
student can formulate a limited number of well-defined hypotheses or research
questions. The third chapter is the methodology chapter. As tightly defined
hypotheses or research questions have been formulated, the research method to be
followed in the programme of research can be specified in detail. Research students
following the scientific method are normally expected to stick closely to the plan.
Yet in social science research, and in educational research particularly, we have
found that few do this. This book responds to this disjuncture between conventions
about how theses are supposed to be structured and how they are actually structured
by working researchers.
The book will be of value to all research students in the social sciences who are
not following the scientific method, or indeed those HDR students who encounter
frustration working to understand how to fit their messy pragmatic problems into an
inquiry framework that makes sense. The guidelines for how to derive an appro-
priate structure to suit their findings, methodology, paradigmatic orientation and the
theories they draw upon will enable them to develop an appropriate structure for
their own thesis. Going through this process will also facilitate the organisation
of their analysis. With the wide range of topics, methodologies and interpretive
theories covered in the example chapters, it is almost certain that there will be
examples of relevance to their own study.
Launceston, TAS, Australia David Kember
March 2018 Michael Corbett
Reference
Rittel, H. W. J., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy
Sciences, 4(2), 155–169
viii Preface
Contents
Part A Introduction
1 Critical Reflections on the Conventional Thesis Structure and a
Guide to the Research Questions Addressed in the Book . . . . . . . . 3
David Kember
2 The Collective Voyage of Discovery: How the Book Was
Developed and Produced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
David Kember and Michael Corbett
Part B Mixed Methods
3 The Paradigmatic Challenge of Mixed-Methods Research:
Positivism, Relativism or Pragmatism? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Rosemary Callingham and Ian Hay
4 An Exploration of Epistemological Beliefs, Learning
Environment Expectations and Persistence Intentions: Insights
into the Shaping of Student Persistence in the First Semester
of University Study at Three Australian Universities . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Julie Godwin and David Kember
5 The Challenges Faced by Male Primary Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Vaughan Cruickshank
6 English Language Teaching in Nepal: An Investigation of Issues
and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Ananda Aryal, Megan Short and Si Fan
7 How Do Students Make Decisions About Overseas Higher
Education? A Case Study of Chinese International Students
at a Regional Australian University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Qian Wu and David Kember
ix
8 Linguistic Complexity in English Textbooks: A Functional
Grammar Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Vinh To and Ahmar Mahboob
9 Structure by Design: Reasoning About Covariation with
TinkerPlots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Noleine Fitzallen
10 Researching in the ‘Cultural Interface’: Working Between
Non-indigenous and Indigenous Research Paradigms . . . . . . . . . . . 97
David Hicks, Mary O’Dowd and Michael Corbett
Part C Action Research
11 Action Research and Criticality: Working Out the Stone
in Your Shoe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Michael Corbett and Allen Hill
12 Students’ Understanding of Statistical Inference: Implications
for Teaching . . . . . . . . . . .gender related challenges they
face?
2 (a). Does coping efficacy moderate the influence of the gender related challenges
faced by Tasmanian male primary teachers?
What Was the Method?
This mixed methods study utilised a sequential explanatory mixed methods design
(Creswell and Plano Clark 2011) that consisted of an initial quantitative survey phase
with specific findings then being explored in more depth in a subsequent qualitative
phase. The qualitative phase was given priority (Creswell et al. 2003) because this
study was focused on an in depth examination of challenges, and identification of
coping strategies. Qualitative data was best suited to examining the complexity of the
contextual challenges men face in a non-gender traditional occupation.
The quantitative and qualitative phases were connected (Hanson et al. 2005)
when selecting the participants for the qualitative phase of the study, and also when
using survey results to construct the interview questions around the challenges of
most concern to participants. The results of the both phases were integrated
(Creswell et al. 2003) when discussing the survey results with interview partici-
pants, and during the discussion and analysis of the findings of the study as a whole.
This strategic approach was undertaken in an attempt to produce findings that were
as authentic and trustworthy as possible.
The initial quantitative phase was conducted in order to obtain broader perspectives
from a larger number of male primary teachers to inform the development of the
interview questions for the qualitative phase of the study. Notwithstanding the
48 V. Cruickshank
prioritisation of the qualitative phase, substantial time and effort was taken during the
quantitative survey phase of this study. As there was no valid and reliable survey found
in the literature to address the research questions above, I developed a new survey tool
—the Male Primary Teacher Gender Challenge Inventory (MPTGCI; Cruickshank
2016; Cruickshank et al. 2018) consisting of both Likert scale and open ended ques-
tions. This process was based on the recommendations of Senocak (2009), and allowed
me to test the validity and reliability of the tool through four stages: item formulation
derived fromprevious literature, content validation using an expert panel of researchers,
reliability analysis, and construct validation through Rasch (1960) modelling. More
information on this approach is contained in my previous work (Cruickshank et al.
2015). A visual representation of the research design is presented in Fig. 5.1. This
chronological approach was adapted from an explanatory sequential mixed methods
study conducted by Ivankova and Stick (2007).
Phase 1 Procedure Product
Construct and conduct pilot survey
Test for pilot survey validity and reliability
Construct survey within Qualtrics Survey 
Ethical Considerations Obtain ethics approval Ethics approval
Quantitative Data Collection Web-based survey (N=53) Numeric data
Rasch modelling to determine reliability and validity
Descriptive statistics
Phase 2 Procedure Product
Purposefully selection of interview participants (n=5) Interview participants (n=5)
Development of interview questions Interview protocol
Qualitative Data Collection 2 x 60 minute one on one semi structured interviews 
with each participant Text data (interviews with transcripts)
Code data in Nvivo Codes 
Inductive and deductive thematic analysis Themes
Discussion 
Implications for future research
Qualitative Data Analysis
Integration of Quantitative and 
Qualitative Findings
Interpretation and explanation of the quantitative and 
qualitative results
Quantitative Survey Construction Pilot survey
Quantitative Data Analysis Numeric data
Interview Protocol Development 
Fig. 5.1 Visual representation of the research design
5 The Challenges Faced by Male Primary Teachers 49
What Were the Theories and Paradigms Employed?
Much of the male primary teacher research described above has utilised qualitative
methods and a poststructuralist feminist lens to deconstruct and critically examine
issues of gender in primary school contexts. Utilising a more pragmatic approach,
this exploratory study sought to build on previous research in this area by focusing
on the identification of practical coping strategies male primary teachers could use
to deal with the gender related challenges they faced, and persist in the profession.
The decision to take this approach influenced my choice of methodology, which
resulted in the use of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (Lent et al. 1994) as a
lens to analyse my data.
SCCT was used as a lens for examining male primary teachers and the gender
related challenges they face. SCCT highlights the complex interactions between
people, their behaviour, and their environments, and provides direction for research
that aims at increasing knowledge about the career choices of male primary
teachers. More specifically, how these decisions are affected by gender related
challenges, coping strategies and coping efficacy. SCCT is more concerned with
investigating the social effects of gender than with viewing sex as a physical or
biological factor to be categorised (Lent 2012). Gender is believed to link to career
development in several important ways. These links include the reactions indi-
viduals evoke from their social-cultural environment, and how it affects the
opportunity structure to which they are exposed. This theory was used to drive the
qualitative design of this mixed methods study, which was entirely conducted
within a constructivist paradigm.
The most common criticism of mixed methods research (MMR) is based on the
incompatibility thesis (e.g., Howe 2004). Proponents of this purist perspective have
argue that different paradigms cannot be mixed in a single study due to their
different definitions of concepts such as quantitative versus qualitative, and relia-
bility and validity. To do so would likely result in critical aspects of one method’s
findings being ignored, misinterpreted or reinterpreted by the researcher’s preferred
worldview. Guba and Lincoln (2005) began cautiously to take down the artificial
boundaries created by proponents of the purist perspective through the delinking of
paradigms and methods. This development meant that conducting research within a
specific paradigm did not mean a researcher was bound to the specific data col-
lection and analysis methods commonly associated with that paradigm. The key
inference for this study was that Guba and Lincoln provided provisional support for
surveys to be used in research informed by constructivist epistemologies. This
study involved the mixing of methods within the single paradigm of constructivism.
In this way, this research can be seen as dialectical in terms of methods, not
epistemology or ontology.
Within a constructivist framing, I saw the benefit of using different data col-
lection techniques in a complementary and interactive manner. When quantitative
and qualitative methods are combined to answer a research question they can
provide complementary strengths that allow for a more complete analysis of the
50 V. Cruickshank
research questions. This approach can be considered a form of ‘methodological
eclecticism’ (Yanchar and Williams 2006, p. 3), which Teddlie and Tashakkori
(2011) refer to as an essential characteristic of MMR. Embracing methodological
eclecticism can allow researchers to identify what they believe are the best methods
for answering their research questions. This flexible ‘what works best’ approach has
strong links to pragmatism and consequently, most MMR studies have elements of
pragmatism in their design (e.g., Feilzer 2010; Igo et al. 2008). This study does
have pragmatically designed elements, however it has been conducted utilising a
constructivist approach. This approach was chosen because male primary teachers’
perceptions of the gender related challenges they face in their profession are
socially constructed in relationto the particular contexts in which they live and
work. Carrying out this research project within a constructivist ontology and
epistemology therefore maximised opportunities for comprehensive examination
and nuanced exploration of these social constructions.
Structure
Contents page
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 SCCT and male primary teachers (Critical Literature Review)
Chapter 3 Methodology
Chapter 4 Quantitative Results/Overview of findings and discussion chapters
Chapter 5 Thematic Findings/Discussion Chapter 1—Physical Contact
Chapter 6 Thematic Findings/Discussion Chapter 2—Masculine Roles
Chapter 7 Thematic Findings/Discussion Chapter 3—Social Isolation
Chapter 8 Conclusion
Commentary
The structure of my thesis was constructed in response to participant data. The
findings and discussion chapters initially explored the quantitative survey data, and
how it were used to inform the construction of interview questions used in the
qualitative data collection phase of the study. Interview questions were open-ended
because male primary teachers’ perceptions of the gender related challenges they
face in their profession are constructed in relation to the unique environments in
which they live and work. This question format allowed participants to speak about
the challenges that were of most relevance and importance to them. In allowing
participants some control in the direction of the interview, I was attempting to
minimise my influence, and correct for some of the power asymmetry (Kvale and
Brinkmann 2009) that exists between the interviewer and interviewee. The three
5 The Challenges Faced by Male Primary Teachers 51
resultant thematic discussion chapters allowed for the in-depth examination and
exploration of these social constructions, as consistent with a constructivist
approach.
As is the case with most Ph.Ds, I had some setbacks during my study. These
setbacks were primarily concerned with getting ethical approval from relevant
bodies. The low participant numbers in the initial quantitative phase of this study
were primarily due to the Tasmanian Department of Education (DoE) not giving
approval for their employees to participate in this study because it was not con-
sidered to align with their literacy and numeracy specific research interests. This
was a limitation of this study. The DoE decision was disappointing in light of
previous national and international data (e.g., Burn and Pratt-Adams 2015; Smith
2008) detailing the low number of male primary teachers and the numerous gender
related challenges they face. The DoE decision greatly reduced my potential survey
participant numbers as they employ over 70% of the male primary teachers working
in Tasmania (ABS 2016). The resultant participant numbers limited my ability to
perform more in depth data analysis using demographic variables and inferential
statistics. To resolve this limitation I used a qualitative dominant mixed methods
approach. This approach was well suited to examining the gender related challenges
faced by male primary teachers. Although the quantitative phase was not the focus
of this research, it could be the focus of future research with more participants.
Increased participant numbers might allow for emergent challenges, supports and
strategies to be better identified and explored using conventional statistical methods
such as correlations and inferential statistics. Emergent themes might also be
identified through extending the Tasmanian context of this study to a larger national
or international cohort of male primary teachers.
Interview participant selection was also a difficult task in this Tasmania focused
research project. I had intended to have survey participants enter their email at the
end of the MPTGCI if they wished to participate in the follow-up interview phase of
the study. I was not able to do this because of University Ethics Committee con-
cerns about protecting the anonymity of participant data. Therefore, at the end of
the MPTGCI (Cruickshank 2016; Cruickshank et al. 2018), participants who
wished to self-nominate for the interview phase were taken to a second survey
where they could give their contact details. Ensuring the anonymity of survey
responses allowed me to gain ethical approval for this study but did limit my ability
to purposefully select interview participants as all data from the MPTGCI was
non-identifiable. The secondary survey included questions about participants’ age,
experience and location, but I did not know other demographic information or the
previous survey responses of potential interviewees. Therefore I did not know if the
interview participants had given a variety of survey responses, or all responded in
exactly the same way to each survey item. This situation did not allow for the
identification of participants that had provided noteworthy open-ended responses to
be interviewed for elaboration. I was also unable to select participants from all
demographic groups or different responses to the three main challenges identified in
the survey data and Rasch analysis. It is possible that this might have restricted the
variety in coping strategies I was able to identify for these challenges. Researchers
52 V. Cruickshank
using or adapting this survey instrument in future might need to better inform their
ethics committee of the limitations this requirement can result in, and argue that all
survey data needs to be identifiable. Such conversations need to incorporate an
awareness of the possibility that anonymity allows participants to be honest and
open in ways not possible (for some) if they are identifiable.
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2016). Schools Australia series. Canberra, Australia: Australian
Bureau of Statistics.
Burn, E., & Pratt-Adams, S. (2015). Men teaching children 3–11: Dismantling gender barriers.
London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Carrington, B., Francis, B., Hutchings, M., Skelton, C., Read, B., & Hall, I. (2007). Does the
gender of the teacher really matter? Seven- to eight-year-olds accounts of their interactions with
their teachers. Educational Studies, 33(4), 397–415.
Creswell, J., & Plano Clark, V. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd
ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Creswell, J. W., Plano Clark, V. L., Gutmann, M. L., & Hanson, W. E. (2003). Advanced mixed
methods research designs. In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods
in social and behavioral research (pp. 209–240). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Cruickshank, V. (2014). Challenges faced by the male primary teacher: A literature review.
In N. Fitzallen, R. Reaburn, & F. Fan (Eds.), The future of educational research: Perspectives
from beginning researchers (pp. 87–98). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense.
Cruickshank, V. (2016). The challenges faced by male primary teachers (Doctoral Thesis).
University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS.
Cruickshank, V., Pedersen, S., Hill, A., & Callingham, R. (2015). Construction and validation of a
survey instrument to determine the gender-related challenges faced by pre-service male
primary teachers. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 38(2), 184–199.
Cruickshank, V., Pedersen, S., Cooley, P. D., & Hill, A. (2018). Developing a survey to quantify
the gender related challenges faced by male primary teachers. Australian Journal of Education.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0004944117751440.
Education Queensland. (2002). Male teachers’ strategy: Strategic plan for the attraction,
recruitment and retention of male teachers in Queensland state schools 2002–2005. Brisbane,
QLD: Queensland Government.
Feilzer, M. Y. (2010). Doing mixed methods research pragmatically: Implications for the
rediscovery of pragmatism as a research paradigm. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 4(1),
6–16.
Francis, B., & Skelton, C. (2005). Reassessing gender and achievement. London, United
Kingdom: Routledge.
Gosse, D. (2011). Race, sexual orientation, culture and male teacher role models: “Willany
teacher do as long as they are good?”. The Journal of Men’s Studies, 19(2), 116–137.
Guba, E., & Lincoln, Y. (2005). Paradigmatic controversies, and emerging confluences.
In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 191–216).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hanson, W. E., Creswell, J. W., Plano Clark, V. L., Petska, K. S., & Creswell, D. J. (2005). Mixed
methods research designs in counseling psychology. Journal of Counselling Psychology, 52
(2), 224–235.
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5 The Challenges Faced by Male Primary Teachers 53
https://doi.org/10.1177/0004944117751440
Igo, L. B., Kiewra, K. A., & Bruning, R. (2008). Individual differences and intervention flaws: A
sequential explanatory study of college students’ copy-and-paste note taking. Journal of Mixed
Methods Research, 2(2), 149–168.
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educational leadership in higher education: A mixed methods study. Research in Higher
Education, 48(1), 93–135.
Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2009). Interviews: Learning the craft of qualitative research
interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
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make a difference? Australian Journal of Education, 49(3), 320–334.
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The disciplining of John. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 16(1), 71–84.
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Smith, J. (2008). Male primary teachers: The experience of crossing-over into pink-collar work.
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Five proposed guidelines for method use. Educational Researcher, 35(9), 3–12.
Vaughan Cruickshank’s chapter is based on his Ph.D., which focused on the challenges faced by
male primary teachers and the coping strategies they use to deal with them. He developed this
research interest during his previous Health and Physical Education teaching experience in various
schools (predominantly primary) in Australia, England and Japan. He also travelled extensively
between completing his Bachelor degree and beginning his Ph.D., including volunteering stints in
the USA, Costa Rica, Kenya and Tanzania. Vaughan also has a strong interest in school boarding
and has nearly a decade of experience working in different positions in boarding houses in
Australia and England.
54 V. Cruickshank
Chapter 6
English Language Teaching in Nepal:
An Investigation of Issues
and Challenges
Ananda Aryal, Megan Short and Si Fan
Research Question for This Chapter
The research question that is being asked in this chapter is ‘what is an appropriate
structure for reporting this study on English language teaching in Nepal?’ The study
itself is an investigation of issues and challenges explored using a mixed methods
approach.
What Was the Study About?
Prior to starting the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), my personal experience and
observations as an English language teacher suggested that several issues and
challenges limited English language teaching (ELT) in Nepal. Once I received the
opportunity to do a Ph.D. I decided to further explore these issues and challenges.
I believed that such a study could possibly assist ELT practitioners, educational
stakeholders and policy makers to introduce ELT practices and policies designed to
improve the quality of ELT in Nepal.
Although some of my motivations to conduct this research resulted from my
own experiences of teaching English in Nepal, I felt that other teachers would also
have ideas, and to consider their ideas would be beneficial in framing the research
A. Aryal (&) � M. Short � S. Fan
School of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, Australia
e-mail: ananda.aryal@utas.edu.au
M. Short
e-mail: megan.short@utas.edu.au
S. Fan
e-mail: si.fan@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_6
55
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_6&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_6&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_6&domain=pdf
questions. For this reason, I contacted some lecturers and colleague teachers that I
had met in the past and communicated with them regarding some of the questions
related to ELT in Nepal. This process was termed as a ‘Preliminary Exploration’
(PE). The PE revealed that ELT teachers in Nepal experienced similar issues to
those I had encountered, they also have issues with self-efficacy and motivation,
and are concerned with their English language proficiency. Consequently, the PE
guided me to include teachers’ efficacy, motivation and English language profi-
ciency as part of the investigation. Although the investigation of teachers’ efficacy,
motivation and English language proficiency was not included as a research
question, it holds a prominent position in this research. Exploration in these areas
complemented the findings resulted from the qualitative data. In light of the PE, the
research questions in this study were written as:
1. What are the issues and challenges that have an impact on English language
teaching in Nepal?
2. How can English language teaching in Nepal be improved?
Analysis of the qualitative data indicated several issues and challenges for ELT
in Nepal occurring at different levels of the education system. These issues can be
observed in a top-down hierarchy from a macro to a micro level, with the system
level issues on the top and the actual classroom teaching issues remaining on the
bottom. These issues involved in ELT in Nepal do not exist in isolation, rather they
are interconnected and complex in terms of their relationship to each other.
A pyramid structure issue hierarchy (see Fig. 6.1) developed via the analysis of
qualitative data offered a way of understanding the linkages between ‘top-down’
pressures, such as the ineffective policies, limited funding, social and political
context and its influence in the classroom practice. The issue hierarchy was fun-
damental in discussing diverse ELT issues in the Nepalese education system. ELT
issues and challenges identified in each level were reported in each chapter of this
thesis. Hence, the issue hierarchy was used as a guide to structure the chapters in the
discussion section.
What Was the Methodology?
This research employed a concurrent mixed methods design (Teddlie and
Tashakkori 2003) which is a key type of the mixed methods approach. In the
concurrent mixed methods design, data collection takes place in a single phase and
is analysed separately. This research solicited the perceptions of Nepalese sec-
ondary English language teachers in order to investigate issues and challenges in
ELT in Nepal with thehelp of semi-structured interviews. Questionnaires were also
used to explore teachers’ efficacy, motivation and English language proficiency.
56 A. Aryal et al.
Mixed method, which is also known as the ‘third wave’, offers a logical and
practical alternative of conducting research (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie 2004,
p. 17). Explaining the usefulness of mixed methods in conducting research,
Johnson and Onwuegbuzie (2004) stated:
Mixed methods research also is an attempt to legitimate the use of multiple approaches in
answering research questions, rather than restricting or constraining researchers’ choices
(i.e., it rejects dogmatism). It is an expansive and creative form of research, not a limiting
form of research. It is inclusive, pluralistic, and complementary, and it suggests that
researchers take an eclectic approach to method selection and the thinking about and
conduct of research. (p. 17)
The mixed methods approach became important in this research for the richness
of data which also provided an opportunity to compare or contrast the findings. As I
was interested in exploring ELT issues and challenges in Nepal, understanding the
participants’ lived experiences, feelings and behaviours became important. Multiple
people report, view or describe same incident differently (Mack 2010) therefore
qualitatively exploring ELT experiences of the participants from the interviews
became essential where participants could indicate different issues resulting on
richness of data. On the other hand, the PE confirmed my previous observation that
Nepalese English language teachers have low self-efficacy and motivation, and it
Role 
of the 
governe-
ment
Community 
level issues
Poli cal interference
Professional iden ty and 
status
Issues of professional development
Constraints on pedagogical prac ces
Fig. 6.1 A pyramid structure issue hierarchy for ELT in Nepal, also used to structure the chapters
in the discussion part of the thesis
6 English Language Teaching in Nepal: An Investigation … 57
also questioned on the English language proficiency of the teachers. As a result, I
decided to quantitatively explore the self-efficacy, motivation and self-reported
English language proficiency of the participating teachers.
The qualitative data in this study were drawn from 16 semi-structured interviews
that were conducted with participants in four different districts of Nepal:
Kathmandu, Chitwan, Surkhet and Dailekh. The participants shared their experi-
ences of teaching English language and highlighted the issues and challenges. The
interview data were analysed to generate emergent themes. A data reduction, data
display and conclusion drawing and verification framework forwarded by Miles and
Huberman (1994) was used to analyse the data. Interview transcripts were
repeatedly read to generate codes and categories. The issues and challenges iden-
tified by the participating teachers were logged into different categories according to
their types and frequencies. These categories were further grouped into an ‘um-
brella’ theme according to the type of issues revealed by the participants.
For the quantitative data in this study, 200 teachers from the same four districts
completed a questionnaire survey to determine their self-efficacy, motivation and
self-reported English language proficiency. The Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale
(Tschannen-Moran and Hoy 2001) was adapted to determine efficacy for classroom
management, student engagement, and instructional strategies in this research. The
questionnaire to test teachers’ self-reported English language proficiency was
derived from Chacon (2005) to assess four components of language skills: speak-
ing, listening, reading and writing. Finally, 16 items were formulated based on
Guajardo’s (2011) framework of analysis for teacher motivation. The quantitative
data were descriptively analysed to gain mean and standard deviation. Bivariate
two-tailed correlations were also computed on the questionnaire data to analyse the
strength and direction of the linear relationship between variables (Pallent 2011).
What Were the Theories and Paradigms Employed?
Grounded Theory
The grounded theory approach was followed in this research to determine the issues
and challenges limiting ELT in Nepal. A grounded theory research begins with a set
of data that further develops into a theory. Strauss and Corbin (1998) stated that in
grounded theory the researcher does not start research with a preconceived theory,
rather the theory emerges from the data. Similarly, Creswell (2003) defined
grounded theory research as the ‘researcher attempts to derive a general, abstract
theory of a process, action, or interaction grounded in the views of participants in a
study’ (p. 14).
One of the key features of the grounded theory is its iterative study design
(Lingard et al. 2008). Several processes followed this iterative approach in this
research. Firstly, the conceptual framework which shaped the research questions of
this research was developed from the researchers’ personal experience of teaching
58 A. Aryal et al.
English in Nepal, the PE, and the review of current literature. Secondly, under-
standings and knowledge gained from the first interview was used during the
second interview and the same pattern was followed while conducting the subse-
quent interviews for deeper understanding and richness of data. Thirdly, the
translated interviews were sent to the participating teacher to confirm the accuracy
of the interpretation and translation of the information shared during the interviews.
Finally, the interview data were systematically analysed. The researcher kept on
going back to his original translated interviews and continuously re-read them to
generate new ideas and themes. Similarly, the researcher frequently read translated
interviews to pursue a higher level of familiarity with the translation of each par-
ticipating teachers and systematically compared the categories that emerged from
the analysis. This was beneficial in order to develop final conceptual categories.
This research used both qualitative and quantitative data to compliment or
contrast the findings. It used the grounded theory approach to ‘…emphasis(es) steps
and procedures for connecting induction and deduction through the constant
comparative method’ (Patton 2002, p. 125). Employing the grounded theory was
essential because it is practical and pragmatic in terms of providing a process for
coding the data. Similarly, this research was not based on preconceived theories;
rather I aimed to build a theory based on the participants’ experiences of teaching
English in Nepal. Hence, the grounded theory approach was an appropriate
methodological tool to analyse and interpret the qualitative data.
Interpretive and Positivist Paradigms
Both interpretive and positivist paradigms were used in this research. The onto-
logical position of interpretivism is relativism. Relativism is the view that reality is
subjective and differs from person to person (Scotland 2012). Thus, the interpretive
position is a key aspect in exploring individuals’ perceptions and investigating
interaction among individuals (Creswell 2013). Understanding the lived experi-
ences, feelings and behaviours of the participating teachers through interviews
became important for the deeper understanding of ELT issues and challenges.
On the other hand, the ontological position of positivism is one of realism or
objectivism and positivistic statements are descriptive and factual (Scotland 2012).
The research aimed to explore the self-efficacy, motivation and English language
proficiency of the participating teachers in relation to their ELT experience.
As the core idea of this research was to explore ELT issues and challenges in the
Nepalese education system, it was only possible to do this by exploring the lived
experiences of the participants. Therefore, I believed that a qualitative approach
would provide rich data in order to answer the researchquestions. Hence, the
methodological stand of this research is interpretive dominant with qualitative
results supplemented by the quantitative results.
6 English Language Teaching in Nepal: An Investigation … 59
Structure of the Thesis
This thesis is divided into three parts (A, B and C) and 14 chapters. Part A is an
introduction section which contains five chapters. Similarly, Part B includes the
analysis, results and discussion chapters. Structure of the chapters in part B was
guided by the pyramid structure issue hierarchy (see Fig. 6.1) developed after
analysing the qualitative data.
The thesis starts with my personal reflection of teaching English in Nepal. The
idea of exploring ELT issues in Nepal originated from my five years of ELT
experience. Therefore, the personal reflection chapter discusses the issues and
challenges faced during my teaching and provides justifications for conducting this
research in the Nepalese ELT context.
The second chapter is ‘The overview of the structure of the thesis’ which
explains the theoretical positioning of this research. This chapter also unveils
methods and techniques employed in structuring this thesis.
The third chapter is ‘The preliminary exploration’. I conducted a PE to gain authentic
insights on ELT in Nepal. The outcome of the PE is reported in Chapter three.
Chapter four is ‘The contextual overview of ELT in Nepal’ which presents a
historical overview of the introduction of English language teaching in Nepal. This
also discusses the impact of ten years of civil war in English language teaching and
present ELT scenario of Nepal. Finally, this contextual overview chapter discusses
some of the Nepalese ELT issues identified by the literature. The remainder of the
reviewed literature is dispersed in relevant chapters of discussion in Part B. This
research is exploratory in nature and revealed varied ELT issues. I believed that
writing the literature review depending on the diverse issues and challenges
reported by the participants will create confusion on the consistency of the thesis.
Therefore, the literature review has been embedded while discussing the issues and
challenges in the discussion sections. This enables comparison and discussion of
issues relevant to ELT in Nepal with the international literature.
The final chapter of part A, chapter five, is about the ‘research design’. This
chapter describes the research methodology, method, data collection procedure and
the analytical techniques applied in this research. The chapter also details the data
analysis methods utilised and discusses the limitations of the study.
Part B of this thesis is the most significant section. This section presents analysis,
results and discussion in eight chapters. Chapter six which is also the first section of
Part B presents the quantitative data analysis. It presents the mean and standard
deviation of the participants’ self-efficacy, motivation and self-reported English
language proficiency from the questionnaire responses. A correlation study of these
variables is also discussed.
Chapter seven discusses the macro-level analysis of the qualitative data and
reveals the main themes and subthemes that emerged from the qualitative data. The
issue hierarchy presented in Fig. 6.1 was used as a guide to structure the
Chapters 8–13. These chapters answer the main research question, ‘What are the
issues and challenges that have an impact on English language teaching in Nepal?’
by discussing key findings based qualitative analyses and integrating quantitative
findings to support the qualitative discussion.
60 A. Aryal et al.
Part C of this thesis is the conclusion section. This part comprises two sections:
overall conclusion and recommendation for improvement which are included in
Chapter 14. The first section of Chapter 14 presents the concluding ideas and
summary of the overall findings of qualitative and quantitative results. Finally, the
second section forwards recommendations to improve the ELT scenario in Nepal.
This section is important to address the second research question. Table 6.1 pro-
vides the overall structure of the thesis.
Commentary
The main aim of this research was to explore issues and challenges limiting ELT in
Nepal. The pyramid structure issue hierarchy developed from the data analysis
presents these issues in relation to a ‘top-down and bottom-up’ dichotomy. The
research suggests that the pyramid structure encapsulates the tensions between
larger societal forces, such as government funding and the political and social
context, with the lived experience of English teachers in Nepal. The challenges
faced by English teachers appear at all stages of the issues hierarchy to be signif-
icant and indeed, capable of limiting the quality of ELT in Nepal.
The pyramid structure issue hierarchy also served as an organising principle for
the structure of the dissertation. In this sense, the process of data analysis played a
role in decisions made about the thesis presentation and organisation. The qualitative
Table 6.1 Structure of the thesis ‘English language teaching in Nepal: An investigation of issues
and challenges’
Contents page
Part A Introduction
Chapter 1 Teaching English in Nepal: Personal reflection of the researcher
Chapter 2 The overview of the structure of the thesis
Chapter 3 The preliminary exploration
Chapter 4 The contextual overview of English language teaching in Nepal
Chapter 5 Research design
Part B Analysis, Results and Discussion
Chapter 6 Quantitative data analysis
Chapter 7 Macro level analysis of qualitative data
Chapter 8 Role of the government
Chapter 9 Community level issues
Chapter 10 Political interferences
Chapter 11 Professional identity and status
Chapter 12 Issues of professional development
Chapter 13 Constraints on pedagogical practices
Part C Conclusion
Chapter 14 Overall conclusion and Recommendations for improvement
6 English Language Teaching in Nepal: An Investigation … 61
data provided insights on the diverse ELT issues and challenges from the system
level to the actual classroom teaching. Similarly, the quantitative data explored the
self-efficacy, motivation and English language proficiency of the participating
teachers which indicated that teachers’ perceived themselves as less efficacious and
proficient in English language and demotivated within the profession. The structure
of this thesis is congruent with the mixed methods research design. It used single
phased triangulation design in which quantitative results supplemented the quali-
tative findings. Finally, obtaining results using both approaches were beneficial to
comprehend the Nepalese ELT context and to assist in generating theories.
References
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whose time has come. Educational researcher, 33(7), 14–26.
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Ananda Aryal is a Ph.D. candidate in Faculty of Education in the University of Tasmania
working on a research topic ‘English language teaching in Nepal: An investigation of issues and
challenges’. This chapter is based on the structure adopted by Aryal in structuring his dissertation
under the supervision of Megan Short, Si Fan and David Kember. He has five years of English
language teaching experience in Nepal which motivated him to conduct this research in the
62 A. Aryal et al.
Nepalese context. He is particularly interested in researching English as a second/foreign language
teaching contexts and pronunciation teaching.
Megan Short is a lecturer in language and literacy at the University of Tasmania, currently
specialising in English language teaching methodologies and TESOL. Her research interests focus
on issues that offer opportunities to explore how culture and language are involved in the
formation of attitudes towards ‘the other’. She is currently involved in a project that is exploring
the prevalence of racism and racist attitudes in specific communities. Her other research interests
include teachers’ beliefs, teacher knowledge and personal epistemology.
Si Fan is a lecturer in Early Childhood Education at the University of Tasmania, Newnham
Campus. She has been involved in a number of research projects, and has a broad research interest
in higher education, learning analytics, early childhood education, educational technologies, Big
Data analytics for educational purposes, and online language education. She contributed in this
book as a Ph.D. supervisor and co-author of Ananda Aryal, who is the first author of one of the
chapters.
6 English Language Teaching in Nepal: An Investigation … 63
Chapter 7
How Do Students Make Decisions About
Overseas Higher Education? A Case
Study of Chinese International Students
at a Regional Australian University
Qian Wu and David Kember
Research Question
What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study exploring Chinese interna-
tional students’ decision-making to undertake regional Australian higher education,
following positivist and interpretivist paradigms, and utilizing convergent mixed
methods?
What Was the Study About?
This doctoral research aims to investigate the decision-making of Chinese inter-
national students when selecting a regional Australian university, and their
post-sojourn satisfaction with that decision. From this specific aim, there is a more
generalized aim of developing models for student decision-making to study
overseas.
The initial inspiration of this research was derived from my personal experience.
Before coming to Australia to undertake my Ph.D. program, I was conducting
research about higher education, especially comparative higher education, in China
for several years. The approaches to develop my vision for understanding inter-
national higher education at that time were limited to translated literature from
English to Mandarin and second-hand resources, which probably could not present
Q. Wu (&)
Faculty of Education, College of Arts, Law and Education,
University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, Australia
e-mail: qian.wu@utas.edu.au
D. Kember
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
e-mail: david.kember@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_7
65
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the full sense of original authors. Plus, founders of a large number of higher
education theories are from overseas. Therefore, for the sake of understanding
higher education better, it would be a good idea to study overseas to gain first-hand
knowledge. Also, to undertake a doctoral course at an overseas university is a good
way to involve myself into the overseas higher education system which would
greatly help me to gain a more comprehensive understanding of overseas higher
education.
After I decided to study overseas, I realized that only a small number of edu-
cation students in China intended to go overseas to study, which was different from
the situation for science students in China. Therefore, due to quite limited infor-
mation upon selecting overseas study from my seniors, I became very keen to
collect overseas study information from various sources in an effort to help me
make a wise decision. Additionally, a special phenomenon caught my attention; that
for students in China who had intention to study overseas, the preference of the
majority of them was to enrol in universities located in metropolises. For the above
two reasons, I started to become curious of what motivated students in China to
make decisions to study overseas and how those decisions were made.
Eventually, I enrolled into the University of Tasmania (UTAS), a regional
Australian university. When I just commenced my doctoral course at UTAS, I
attempted to understand my own decision-making process of selecting regional
Australian higher education. Moreover, it came to my attention that the enrolment
numbers of Chinese international students at UTAS, a regional Australian univer-
sity have steadily increased in recent years. This led me to focus on another new
phenomenon emerging recently in a broader context; that a growing number of
Chinese international students have made the decision to undertake higher educa-
tion courses in regional Australia rather than to follow the majority of their com-
patriots to enrol in metropolitan Australian universities.
Reviewing literature was the main task in the beginning of my Ph.D. journey.
I found that there were significant gaps between those two emerging phenomena
and existing studies. That is, a significant body of literature has concentrated on
education decision by employing Mazzarol and Soutar’s push-pull theory (2002) to
facilitate an understanding of the decision-making factors for international students,
especially in metropolitan universities (e.g. Azmat et al. 2013; Bohman 2009;
Cummings 1984; Duan 1997; Li and Bray 2007; Pimpa 2002; Wilkins et al. 2012).
However, the factors influencing the decision-making of the new generation of
Chinese international students are unknown, and much less attention has been paid
to students in regional universities. What is more, most existing research fails to
explain the relationship between factors and choices, and does not reveal the
complete decision-making process.
Seeking to make a contribution to those under-researched areas, this study
focuses on two major research objectives:
Objective 1. To examine how Chinese international students make their
pre-departure decisions to enrol at a regional Australian university.
Objective 2. To identify how Chinese international students perceived their
experiences of a regional Australian university after their overseas study sojourn.
66 Q. Wu and D. Kember
Along with achieving two research objectives, this research eventually establishes
Chinese internationalstudents’ decision-making models of selecting to enrol in a
regional Australian university through fully presenting the interaction among three key
elements, choices, factors and processes. The study then proceeded to derive general-
ized decision-making models for international students seeking overseas study.
What Was the Method?
The methodological principles underpinning this study are located within mixed
methods, including both qualitative and quantitative methods. Mixed methods
research is known for gaining multiple pictures of the research problem from
several angles (Creswell 2015a). In terms of types of mixed methods, this research
falls into a convergent mixed methods design, which is to concurrently and sepa-
rately gather qualitative and quantitative data (Creswell 2012), subsequently to
merge results of the quantitative and qualitative data analysis.
This convergent mixed methods design provides a more complete understanding
of the research problem and questions than either method by itself (Creswell 2012,
2015a). To be specific, quantitative results generate general statistical trends, while
qualitative results yield stories and personal experiences (Creswell 2015b). In this
research, the quantitative method offers an overview of the general situation of
Chinese international students’ motivations by examining certain variables across a
large sample. The qualitative method is utilized to explore the individual factors
further and deeper, through investigating interviewees across a large number of
variables (Huxley 1995), and to examine student perceptions of experiences.
Because of complementary and non-overlapping strengths of both methods, this
convergent mixed methods employed in this research potentially offer a compre-
hensive and broad insight into the research data which would allow an appropriate
examination of the issue (Frechtling and Sharp 1997).
This study included two phases of data collection, corresponding to the time-
frames associated with the two objectives. In phase one, data were collected by
questionnaires and individual semi-structured interviews, conducted simultane-
ously. Questionnaires were utilized to obtain the numerical data and the textual
data, while interviews were carried out for collecting the textual data. In the second
phase of data collection, only one form of data, qualitative data was gathered, in
individual semi-structured interviews. Data analysis in this research also had two
stages. Stage one was for analysing data in the phase one of data collection. In this
stage, the numerical data from questionnaires was analyzed using tools: SPSS
(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 22 and Excel 2010. The main
technique employed to analyze those quantitative data was descriptive statistics
analysis, including frequencies and descriptives. In the same stage, NVivo software
was the platform used to analyze the textual data according to three steps of open,
axial, and selective coding under the methodological guidance of systematic
grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin 1990). Systematic grounded theory is a design
widely used in educational research and it focuses on procedures used to generate a
7 How Do Students Make Decisions About Overseas … 67
theory that explains a process or an interaction (Creswell 2012). This research
emphasizes process, including the decision-making process of choosing overseas
higher education and assessment of overseas higher education experiences. Thus,
systematic grounded theory is considered to be the most appropriate choice. In the
second stage of data analysis, qualitative data from the second phase of data col-
lection, was analyzed in the platform of the NVivo. Subsequently, quantitative data
results and qualitative data results from two stages of data analysis were integrated
to address research questions.
What Were the Theories and Paradigms Employed?
Paradigms
Underlying this mixed methods research, the philosophical paradigms which pro-
vides a context for the process and grounds its logic and criteria (Crotty 1998),
involve positivist and interpretivist stances. In other words, this research combines
deductive and inductive approaches with an induction-dominated nature.
Specifically, the key aim of this research is to generate theories about phenomenon
‘grounded’ in collected data, which is primarily based on systematic grounded
theory. Therefore, a ‘theory-building structure’ developed in this thesis tailors to
match the nature of this research. If putting this research on an inductive/deductive
spectrum, as seen in Fig. 7.1, the theory-building process of this research is posi-
tioned dominantly at the inductive side but also involves some deductive elements.
More detailed information upon the paradigmatic position of this study can be
shown in Fig. 7.2. In the philosophy of positivism, reality is out there to be studied,
captured, and understood (Guba 1990). Positivism is referred to as the scientific
method and is based on empirical evidence, adhering closely to the deductive nature
(Sciarra 1999). Part of this research is done deductively in a positivist spirit. Ideas
and theories from reviewed relevant literature were used to deductively derive the
theoretical framework of this research, and then based on the theoretical framework,
the research instruments were deductively developed.
Interpretivists seek to rely on ‘participants’ views of the situation being studied’
(Creswell 2014, p. 8) and realize the impact of their background and experiences on
the research. Therefore, interpretive studies’ generate or inductively develop a
theory or pattern of meanings’ (Creswell 2014, p. 8). Guided by the interpretive
paradigm, after those deductive preparations, this research comes straight to the
point, to inductively establish the Chinese international students’ decision-making
Fig. 7.1 Research position in the inductive/deductive spectrum
68 Q. Wu and D. Kember
theories on regional Australian higher education selection on the basis of collected
data by means of research instruments and guided by systematic grounded theory
(see Fig. 7.2). In other words, theories in this research are inductively established
from the proposed theoretical framework, and research instruments serve as a
bridge between the theoretical framework and theories. The presentation of the
theory development is the main focus of this research and devotes the major part of
this whole thesis. It also reflects the essence of the research, that is, to inductively
present research findings. Those discovered theories in this research will be a
contribution to the relevant field, especially utilized to fill these gaps in existing
literature. Also, research findings will play an active role in restructuring the
original theoretical framework derived from previous literature.
Literature Position
Reviewed literature plays special roles in two parts of the thesis. In Part A of this
thesis, Chapter 2: Thematic overview of the literature, reviews a series of literature
very related to this research topic, and then this chapter establishes the theoretical
framework of this research. This chapter is kept short and only presents most
relevant literature to this study. In this chapter, the most relevant literature discussed
is presented in the form of themes in terms of diverse elements of decision-making
Fig. 7.2 Development of the theory-building structure
7 How Do Students Make Decisions About Overseas … 69
process. The thematic literature eventually leads to the establishment of a theo-
retical framework in this study on student choice facets of overseas study (see
Fig. 7.3). This developed theoretical framework of this research is utilized to
interpret data in Part B of this thesis. Chapter 2 is mainly about a preliminary
literature review. The role of the literature in Chapter 2 is to build the theoretical
framework, to facilitate developing research instruments, including survey ques-
tionnaire and interview schedules.The remainder of the literature is embedded within Part B of this thesis in results
and discussion chapters. In each results and discussion chapter, after results for that
theme are presented, theories are reviewed and related literature compared with the
identified results, in an attempt to maximize the links between literature and discus-
sion and to explore the theoretical position of those results in relevant research fields.
Structure
This thesis develops a ‘theory-building’ structure which is to describe how theories
are mainly inductively generated and to allow those theories to build throughout
this study based on systematic grounded theory approach (O’Leary 2014). This
structure also presents this mixed methods study through seamlessly integrating
Fig. 7.3 The theoretical framework of this research
70 Q. Wu and D. Kember
quantitative and qualitative data. Table 7.1 provides the overall structure of the
Ph.D. thesis.
In order to make readers clearly and easily understand this research, the thesis
shows an organisational structure with three parts, Part A: Introduction, Part B:
Analysis, results and discussion, and Part C: Conclusion. As a guide to the thesis,
Part A provides a comprehensive overview on mapping this research before the
research step to look at data. This part presents a systematic introduction to this
study through grouping introduction, literature review, and methodology together
as a package on the grounds that those are the first few key steps before collecting
data. This part leads readers to developing a clear understanding of what this
research is about and how this study was undertaken. It is noteworthy that the
theoretical framework (see Fig. 7.3) as a sound theoretical basis for the following
theory-building process is yielded after reviewing thematic literature in Chapter 2. It
is followed by the next theory-building step, the designs of research instruments in
Chapter 3, according to the generated theoretical framework.
Part B: Analysis, results and discussion is the main part of this thesis. It focuses
on gathered data through presenting data analysis, and reporting results and dis-
cussions. In terms of the order of the research procedures, data analysis is firstly
shown in Chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5: Analysis of the quantitative data, details the
process and the preliminary results of quantitative data analysis, including the
demographic distribution of survey respondents, and the descriptive statistical
Table 7.1 Structure of the Thesis ‘How Do Students Make Decisions About Overseas Higher
Education? A Case Study of Chinese International Students at a Regional Australian University’
Contents page
Part A Introduction
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Thematic overview of the literature
Chapter 3 Method and research design
Chapter 4 Structure of the thesis
Part B Analysis, results and discussion
Chapter 5 Analysis of the quantitative data
Chapter 6 Macro level analysis of the qualitative data
Chapter 7 Results and discussion for theme-Higher education
Chapter 8 Results and discussion for theme-Overseas
Chapter 9 Results and discussion for theme-Australia
Chapter 10 Results and discussion for theme-Tasmania
Chapter 11 Results and discussion for theme-UTAS
Chapter 12 Results and discussion for theme-Course
Chapter 13 Post-sojourn satisfaction with the decision to study at UTAS
Chapter 14 Decision-making models of the Chinese international students in the case study
Part C Conclusion
Chapter 15 Conclusion and generalizations
7 How Do Students Make Decisions About Overseas … 71
summary of the numerical data. Chapter 6 looks at the process and the preliminary
results of qualitative data analysis in the macro level. The micro level analysis of
qualitative data will be presented in chapters of results and discussion. Six themes
emerged from the theoretical framework are reaffirmed in this Chapter 6 (see
Fig. 7.3), that is, higher education, overseas, Australia, Tasmania, UTAS, and
course, which is the theoretical basis for the following six results and discussion
chapters. In this chapter, sub-themes in the first-phase interviews are identified from
codes. Afterwards, the choice sequences of Chinese international students gathered
from the first-phase interview is analyzed.
Forming part of the built theory, Chapters 7–12 present results and discussion
for six themes in the logical order for the sake of addressing the first research
question under the first research objective. Seeing that themes of Chapters 7–12 are
a group of choices Chinese international students made (see Fig. 7.3), Chapters 7–
12 all adopt identical structures to present results and discussion. Take Chapter 7:
Results and discussion for theme-Higher education as an example. Chapter 7
reports the results and discussion for the first theme according to the theoretical
framework, about why Chinese international students seek higher education. The
highlight of this chapter is to reflect a seamless combination of quantitative data and
qualitative data in the process of presenting findings in this theme. The descriptive
statistics summary of survey data for this theme is provided in the beginning of this
chapter. Most sub-themes presented in this chapter are from quantitative data while
other sub-themes are identified from qualitative data. In each sub-theme section,
results from quantitative data analysis is reinforced or compared with relevant
qualitative results if any, for interpreting each factor in this theme holistically. Then,
results are compared with the theories reviewed in closely related literature.
Chapter 13 explains results and discussions about Chinese international stu-
dents’ satisfaction with their decision of receiving higher education at UTAS,
through evaluating Chinese international students’ pre-departure decision of UTAS
study and influencing factors taken into consideration in making that decision,
which will be foundations for the formulation of decision-making models in the
next chapter. This chapter addresses the research question under the second
research objective, which is achieved. Building on six chapters on influencing
factors for Chinese international students to choose overseas study, and former
chapter on the evaluation of their decision on overseas study, Chapter 14 interprets
the decision-making processes and constructs Chinese international students’
decision-making models of selecting to enrol in UTAS, a regional Australian
university. In the beginning of this chapter, the choice strength framework is
constructed inductively in an effort to discover Chinese international students’
decision-making processes. Taking account of the importance of each choice in
results of the analysis of first-phase qualitative data, this framework encompasses a
set of six spectra poles representing the strength of choices in the decision made.
Arising from this framework, the decision-making processes of Chinese interna-
tional students are identified in the form of a set of flowcharts, and thus restructuring
the theoretical framework of the research, so that the second research question
under the first research objective is addressed. Following up with the construction
72 Q. Wu and D. Kember
of decision-making processes and combining the findings of decision-making
factors reported from Chapters 7–12, the grounded decision-making models of
Chinese international students in selecting UTAS, a regional Australian university,
are derived. The discovery of those decision-making models address the third
research question under the first research objective.
To wrap up this thesis, Part C: Conclusion mainly presents more general
decision-making models which were derived from decision-making models of the
case study, and provides a summary of the findings of this study. This part in this
thesis is shorter via integrating key points rather than repeating all points in the
entire research journey.
Thus, this is an appropriate structure for reporting amixed methods study of
students’ decision-making in selecting international higher education and present-
ing its built theories, through integrating qualitative data and quantitative data
seamlessly and following the induction-dominated nature underpinned by system-
atic grounded theory.
Commentary
An unconventional structure is adopted in this thesis to present the mixed methods
study through the seamless integration of quantitative data and qualitative data. The
induction-dominated presentation of theory formulation and development, under
the guidance of systematic grounded theory and based on the proposed theoretical
framework, provides readers with a comprehensive and logical insight to under-
stand this research.
This thesis structure is consistent with the paradigm, methodology and subject
matter of this research. One of characteristics of this thesis structure is the great
suitability for a mixed methods research, particularly for this convergent mixed
methods design. Results and findings do not have quantitative and qualitative
differences but are identified using those two distinct approaches for the purpose of
exploration from multiple dimensions. Quantitative data and qualitative data are
collected in parallel in the convergent mixed methods research, so the convergence
of quantitative data and qualitative data is the key in this research. Thus, this thesis
adopts a suitable approach to present data for convergent mixed methods research,
that is, to seamlessly integrate qualitative data and quantitative data according to
themes of decision-making process, and to present data analysis, results and dis-
cussion into one part of the thesis. In detail, both forms of data are combined
together to be discussed in each theme chapter, and results and discussion are
shown according to themes, so that findings for each theme could be presented
holistically and exhaustively. This approach is contributive to bridging the gap
between quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and presenting the intersections
of quantitative and qualitative data, which is the essence of the convergent mixed
methods research. This reflects a deep understanding of convergent mixed methods
research (Fig. 7.4).
7 How Do Students Make Decisions About Overseas … 73
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Qian (Amanda) Wu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Education at the University of
Tasmania, under the supervision of David Kember, and Marion Myhill. Her research interests lie
in the areas of internationalization and globalization of higher education, higher education and
regional development, and higher education management. She is completing her Ph.D. research on
how students make decisions about overseas higher education. The Examiner newspaper on March
28th, 2015 reported her Ph.D. research. In addition, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of
China in Australia, and the Consulate General of The People’s Republic of China in Melbourne
have expressed particular interest in her research, because her research contributes positively to
Sino-Australian higher education relationship, and the globalization and the internationalization of
higher education. Also, the 2016 Australian Higher Education Summit specially invited her as a
keynote speaker to present her Ph.D. research. This chapter is about her Ph.D. thesis.
David Kember is Professor in Education: Curriculum Methods and Pedagogy in the Faculty of
Education at the University of Tasmania. Prior to that he worked in Hong Kong for 25 years. The
initial position was at the Polytechnic University, then Chinese University and finally as a
Professor in Higher Educationat the University of Hong Kong. He spent six years running an
inter-institutional initiative, operating across the eight universities in Hong Kong, known as the
Action Learning Project, which supported 90 action research projects in which teachers introduced
7 How Do Students Make Decisions About Overseas … 75
http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/8620710
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513540210418403
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/3800279
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1028315311429002
a wide variety of initiatives aiming to improve the quality of student learning. His research in the
following areas has been particularly highly cited: student approaches to learning and the influence
of teaching and assessment on them; the Chinese and Asian learner; motivation; reflective
thinking; teachers’ beliefs about and approaches to teaching; action learning and research for
teaching quality improvement; distance and online learning.
76 Q. Wu and D. Kember
Chapter 8
Linguistic Complexity in English
Textbooks: A Functional Grammar
Perspective
Vinh To and Ahmar Mahboob
Research Question
This chapter explores how a dissertation was structured according to the chosen
research framework and research questions. In particular, the chapter attempts to
address the following question:
What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study of linguistic complexity in English
textbooks, following the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach, and adopting
mixed methods research?
What Was the Study About?
Within the diversified English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbook markets,
choosing an appropriate textbook for a course at university or at language centres
has become increasingly difficult (Minoo and Nikan 2012), and in many places,
such as Vietnam, there are no consistent criteria for education policy makers and
educators to choose texts and/or textbooks for their language teaching programs.
This raises the need to investigate the appropriateness of the language used in
available textbooks in the markets, based on established measures, to provide
suggestions and implications for textbook choice and writing in the Teaching
English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) context.
V. To (&)
University of Tasmania, Locked Bag 1307, Launceston, TAS 7248, Australia
e-mail: vinh.to@utas.edu.au
A. Mahboob
Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
e-mail: ahmar.mahboob@sydney.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
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The dissertation analysed in this chapter explored whether and how texts differed
across levels in a commonly used English textbook series used in Vietnamese
universities and language centres. In the dissertation, I argued that the concept of
linguistic complexity is crucial in language teaching and that there is a need to carry
out research on the language of international textbooks designed and chosen for
English language teaching (ELT) around the world. In order to investigate this
issue, I focused on a popular textbook series used in Vietnam and presented a case
study of what such work might reveal and what implications it might have for ELT.
In order to carry out this work, I focussed on linguistic complexity as a measure of
text differentiation. Linguistic complexity is an important concept in language and
literacy education. Despite its significant contributions to the understanding of
language sciences, there are no general measures for it as different linguistic theories
take different perspectives on linguistic complexity (To 2014a, b). In my disserta-
tion, I chose to use SFL as the informing framework. SFL is a theory of language that
views language as a social semiotic system and a meaning-making resource. In other
words, it looks at how people use language to construe and create meaning to fulfil
their communicative purposes in social contexts (Martin and Rose 2003).
In specific, my study aimed to examine how the level of linguistic complexity
shifted across four textbook levels and within science and non-science fields in a
series of EFL textbooks. The study also examined the relationships among lin-
guistic features characterising complexity as well as how complexity differed
according to stages of text types. The study drew on Halliday’s (1985a, b)
description of five key linguistic features, namely lexical density, grammatical
intricacy, nominalisation, grammatical metaphor, and thematic structure to analyse
24 reading extracts in the selected textbooks on a quantitative analysis basis. In
addition, qualitative method research was adopted to analyse hierarchies of peri-
odicity (i.e., the flow of information) to unpack the complexity of language further
in four full texts.
What Were the Theories and Paradigms Employed?
As mentioned previously, my study adopted SFL, a socio-semiotic theory of lan-
guage, as the main theoretical and methodological framework. In SFL, language is
realised in four levels of abstraction known as four strata of language: context,
discourse semantics, lexico-grammar, and grapho-phonology (Halliday and
Matthiessen 2004). At the level of context, genre and register are realised. Genre is
‘a staged, goal-oriented, purposeful activity in which speakers engage as members
of our culture’ (Martin 2001, p. 155). This means genre is concerned with the
context of culture. Genre is realised through register which is ‘the immediate sit-
uational context in which the text was produced’ (Eggins 1994, p. 26). In other
words, register refers to the context of situation. Furthermore, in SFL, register is
seen as relating to three variables: field, tenor and mode which determine the
ideational meaning, interpersonal meaning and textual meaning respectively at the
78 V. To and A. Mahboob
discourse semantic level. The ideational meaning represents human experience
about the world; the interpersonal meaning enacts the interactions between the
writer/speaker and the reader/listener; and the textual meaning is concerned with the
text organisation (Martin and Rose 2003). These three kinds of meaning are known
as three metafunctions of language. At the lexico-grammar level, meaning is rea-
lised by means of wording through three levels of rank: word, group and clause
(Halliday and Matthiessen 2004). The ideational meaning is realised by lexical and
grammatical choices such as lexical items, transitivity systems, and the logico-
semantic types. The interpersonal meaning is realised by mood, modality and
evaluative language. Finally, the textual meaning is realised by thematic and
information structure (Halliday and Matthiessen 2004), and text periodicity (Martin
and Rose 2003). While discourse semantics and lexico-grammar belong to the
content plane, phonetics and phonology belong to the expression plane, which are
the most basic linguistic resources for making meaning (Halliday and Matthiessen
2004). The dissertation analysed in this chapter primarily focused on the ideational
and textual meanings at the level of lexico-grammar, discourse semantics and
context to analyse and interpret the language of English textbooks across levels.
With respect to the research paradigms, the positivist paradigm was employed in
this study to analyse English textbook language. Positivism is a deductive research
approach and it seeks objectivity and employs logical and consistent approaches to
research (Carson et al. 2001). Thus, in addition to a consistent analytical framework,
statistical techniques are central and adopted within the positivist tradition
(Carson et al. 2001). Within. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Robyn Reaburn
13 The Design and Implementation of a Short Course, Focusing on
Metacognition, to Develop Writing Skills for University Students
for Whom English Is an Additional Language: An Action
Research Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Adnan Satariyan, Bronwyn Reynolds and David Kember
14 Intersections of Indigenous Knowledge and Place Based
Education: Possibilities for New Visions of Sustainability
Education in Uganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Kevin Kezabu, Jenny McMahon, David Kember and Allen Hill
15 ‘I Only Look Forward to Mondays’. Facilitating Creative
Writing Groups: Ageism, Action and Empowerment . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Joan Webb
16 A Journey Around Tongan Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
W. John Phelps
Part D Interpretive Methods
17 Ways of Working in the Interpretive Tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Angela Thomas and Michael Corbett
18 Fluid Methods to Make Sense of an Unknown: An Emergent
Grounded Theory Study of Cultural Wellbeing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Sherridan Emery and Jill Fielding-Wells
x Contents
19 Exploring Interpretations of Sustainability Across Diverse
Social Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Kim Beasy
20 Embracing Change When ‘Writing for Change’: My Ph.D.
Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Damon Thomas
21 Teaching History in Australian Museums: Pedagogy
and Praxis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Louise Zarmati
22 Social Justice and Constructivist Grounded Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Val Kitchener, Danielle Williams and Sue Kilpatrick
23 Language Learning and Integration of Adult Bhutanese
Refugees: An Ethnographic Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Subhash Koirala
24 Exposure and Effect: An Investigation into a Culture of Body
Pedagogies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Jenny McMahon
25 Arts-Based Research in Education: Becomings from a Doctoral
Research Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Abbey MacDonald and MaryAnn Hunter
26 Silent, Invisible and Under-Supported? An Autoethnographic
Journey Through the Valley of the Shadow of Youth Mental
Health in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Anne Hugo
Part E Emerging Theories
27 Emergent Theory and/as Doctoral Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Michael Corbett and Bill Green
28 The Way that Things Are Done Around Here: An Investigation
into the Organisational and Social Structures that Contribute to
Structural Power Within the Australian Swim Coach Education
Pathway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Chris Zehntner
29 Are We All Foodies Now? An Ethnographic Exploration of Food
Experience in Primary Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Lexi Earl
30 Governing Civil Society: How Literacy, Education and Security
Were Brought Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Stephen Kelly
Contents xi
31 From Developing Child to Competent Learner: A Genealogical
Study of the Kindergarten Child and Progressive Reform in
Aotearoa New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Emma Buchanan
32 Feeling-Thinking for a Feminist Participatory Visual
Ethnography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Laura Rodriguez Castro
33 Girls’ Tales: Experiences of Schooling: Making a Re/Active
Documentary Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Melissa Joy Wolfe and Mary Lou Rasmussen
34 Intricacies of Professional Learning in Health Care: The Case
of Supporting Self-management in Paediatric Diabetes . . . . . . . . . . 339
Sarah Doyle
35 Understanding New Spaces and Relations of Global Governance
in Education: The OECD’s PISA for Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Steven Lewis
36 Now, Then, When: Working with Qualitative Longitudinal and
Intergenerational Research to Study Pathways and Imagined
Futures in Transnational Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Joanne Higginson and Julie McLeod
37 Being Chosen and Performing Choice: Young People Engaging in
Imaginative and Constrained Secondary School Practices in
Vancouver, BC, Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Ee-Seul Yoon
38 Research Secrets, Research ‘Messiness’ and the Complexity of
Knowing: Behind the Thesis and the Content’s Page . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Mary O’Dowd
Part F Conclusion
39 Reflections on Methodological Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Michael Corbett and David Kember
40 Lessons Learnt About Structuring the Thesis and Implications
for Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
David Kember
xii Contents
Classification of Thesis Structure Chapters
Chapter Research
student
Method Paradigm for
action/data
collection
Theory/paradigm for analysis and
interpretation
Mixed Methods
4 Julie
Godwin
Quantitative:
exploratory factor
analysis and
correlation
Interpretive A wide range of literature,
predominantly from the student
experience and retention fields
5 Vaughan
Cruickshank
Mixed methods Constructivist
paradigm
Social cognitive career theory
6 Ananda
Aryal
Mixed methods Positivist and
interpretive
paradigm
Grounded theory
7 Qian Wu Mixed methods Positivist and
interpretive
paradigm
Grounded theory
8 Vinh To Quantitative Mixed methods Systemic functional linguistics
approach
9 Noleine
Fitzallen
Educational design
research methodology
Pragmatist Pragmatist
10 David Hicks Structural equation
modelling
Cultural interface Cultural interface
Action Research
12 Robyn
Reaburn
Design experiment
and action research
Critical Critical
13 Adnan
Satariyan
Action research Critical Interpretive and critical
14 Kevin
Kezabu
Participatory action
research
Critical Critical place inquiry
15 Joan Webb Action research Critical Critical
16 John Phelps Action research and
autoethnography
Pragmatism Culture and educational change
(continued)
xiii
(continued)
Chapter Research
student
Method Paradigm for
action/data
collection
Theory/paradigm for analysis and
interpretation
Interpretive Methods
18 Sherridan
Emery
Grounded theory Interpretive
paradigm
Social constructivist epistemology
19 Kim Beasy Hermeneutical Interpretive
paradigm
Bourdieusian
20 Damon
Thomas
Qualitative Positivist,
interpretive and
critical
Classical rhetoric and systemic
functional linguistics
21 Louise
Zarmati
Qualitative Interpretive Grounded theory
22 Val
Kitchener
Constructivist
grounded theory
Interpretive Symbolic interactionism and
pragmatism
23 Subhash
Koirala
Ethnographic Interpretive Eclectic
24 Jenny
McMahon
Narrative
ethnography and
autoethnography
Interpretive and
critical
paradigms
Creative analytical practices
25 Abbey
MacDonald
Hybridsed arts-based,
narrative and
autoethnographic
Naturalistic
qualitative
method
Creative constructivist
26 Anne Hugo Critical
autoethnography
Interpretivism Critical theory
Emerging Theories
28 Chris
Zehtner
Narrative and
auto-ethnographic
Critical enquiry
perspective
Post structural theorist Michel
Foucault, sociologists Pierre
Bourdieu, and Erving Goffman
29 Lexi Earl Multi-sited
ethnography
Critical;
constructivist
paradigm
Foucauldian
30 Stephen
Kelly
Genealogy and
problematisation
Policy texts as
principle source
of data
Discourse, governmentality,
problematisationthe positivist paradigm, the dissertation employed well-
established measures from SFL theory and examined how they worked in the English
textbooks designed to teach English as a foreign language. This study also examined
the correlations among linguistic features. Guided by the positivist perspective, the
focus of the dissertation examined here is on description and explanation of the
investigated linguistic features in the chosen texts and the relationship between them.
What Was the Method?
In order to investigate the linguistic complexity of selected texts from the textbook
series under focus, this study adopted a mixed methods approach (drawing both on
quantitative and qualitative analysis of texts). Quantitative research design was used
to examine the complexity of 24 reading extracts in four textbooks at four different
levels (i.e., elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper-intermediate).
Qualitative analysis was conducted with four full texts.
The quantitative analysis presented in the study included descriptive statistics
that reported the values of lexical density, grammatical intricacy, nominalisation,
grammatical metaphor and thematic structure across textbook levels and in science
and non-science fields. In addition, inferential statistics conducted by one-way
ANOVA test was presented to examine if there was a significant difference in terms
of statistics between textbook levels. When there was a difference between textbook
8 Linguistic Complexity in English Textbooks: A Functional … 79
levels (p � 0.05) displayed by ANOVA test, Tukey post hoc test was presented to
find out which group was statistically different. The qualitative analysis used in this
study focussed on the flow of information in the four selected texts, known as the
text hierarchies of periodicity.
There were six main elements to consider in carrying out the quantitative (5) and
qualitative (1) analysis in this study:
Lexical density analysis: The dissertation employed two formulas of lexical
density. The first method, which was originally proposed by Ure (1971), is identical
to Halliday’s (1985b) first approximation. In the first method, lexical density is
measured by the proportion of lexical items to total words (Ure 1971; Halliday
1985b). In the second formula, lexical density is calculated by the ratio of lexical
items per ranking clauses Halliday (1985b). The purpose of employing both
measures of lexical density was to determine if they were consistent in measuring
density and if the results obtained were reliable.
Grammatical intricacy analysis: The dissertation adopted Halliday’s (2008)
measure to carry out this analysis. According to this measure, grammatical intricacy
is calculated by the ratio of ranking clauses per clause complexes. Only ranking
clauses comprising parataxis (or independent clause in traditional term) and
hypotaxis (or dependent clauses in traditional grammar) are counted, embedded or
rankshifted clauses are not included in the analysis.
Nominalisation analysis: The study focused on two main types of nominalisa-
tion: nominalisation of verbs and nominalisation of adjectives (Halliday 1994).
Verbal nominalisation can be recognised in three ways: (1) verbs and nouns have
the same stems (e.g., to visit—a visit), (2) verbs change their stems to become
nouns (e.g., to live—a life), (3) verbs add suffixes to become nouns (e.g., to explore
—an exploration). Adjectival nominalisation can be formed by adding suffixes to
adjectives (e.g., dense – density). Frequency of nominalisation was calculated by
the ratio of instances of nominalisation to ranking clauses.
Grammatical metaphor analysis: The study drew on Halliday (1985a, 1994) in
developing ways of coding and analysing grammatical metaphor. Following
Halliday (1985a, 1994), the study differentiated between two types of grammatical
metaphors: ideational metaphors and interpersonal metaphors. As this study
investigated linguistic features of written language and the relationship between
nominalisation and grammatical metaphor, it focussed on ideational metaphors.
Interpersonal metaphors were not taken into consideration in this study.
Thematic analysis: Themes were classified into three major types: simple
themes, multiple themes and clausal themes. Simple themes, also known as topical
or ideational themes, include unmarked themes and marked themes. A multiple
theme may consist of a combination of two or three themes together including
textual theme, interpersonal theme and ideational themes. A clause complex con-
tains one dependent clause followed by one independent clause; dependent clause is
treated as an adverbial clause and functions as the Theme of that clause complex
which is known as clausal Theme (Halliday 1985a, 1994).
Full text analysis: Four texts were chosen for a detailed qualitative analysis. To
do this, hierarchies of periodicity were analysed according to stages of genre to see
80 V. To and A. Mahboob
whether different stages of genre led to different values of lexical density, gram-
matical complexity, nominalisation and grammatical metaphor.
Structure
My dissertation comprised of eight chapters. The content of each chapter is
described in detail in the following sections. However, before the focus of each
chapter is summarised, three broad observations should be shared. First, the dis-
sertation was structured based on how SFL dissertations are typically organised, but
with some caveats: in particular, I considered the purpose of the dissertation in
deciding what would be included in the dissertation and how this information was
to be organised. In making these adjustments, the dissertation both looks like, but is
different from, other SFL dissertations. Second, given the newness of the topic of
research, I decided to include a full chapter that described the different perspectives
of linguistic complexity before expanding on the approach used in this study in a
follow-up chapter. And third, given that the quantitative analysis aided the quali-
tative analysis, I first presented a detailed account of their quantitative findings in
Chapter 5 before delving into the qualitative findings in Chapter 6. In addition to
these three observations, another point (a point we will return to later in this section
and discuss in more depth in the following section) that we noted was that I
continuously reflected on and changed my dissertation structure as I progressed in
my work. These observations are important as they help answer the ‘research
question’ stated in the introduction to this chapter.
Chapter 1: Introduction
This chapter introduced the rationale and purpose of the dissertation project. It provided
a brief overview of studies on linguistic complexity and pointed out the gap in research
in this area. This led to the presentation of four specific research questions explored in
this dissertation. The chapter also presented a general introduction to Halliday’s SFL
theory and briefly discussed how linguistic complexity is measured from this point of
view. The chapter also introduced the research design employed in the study, the chosen
textbooks and texts, and the methods of analysing data.
Chapter 2: Different Perspectives on Linguistic Complexity
This chapter provided a comprehensive and critical review of literature on linguistic
complexity from multiple linguistic perspectives. While the study primarily drew on
SFL, the author found it important to contextualise and evaluate work on linguistic
complexity in general in order to provide a strong rationale for their choice. By
describing and evaluating alternative approaches, the author was able to present
8 Linguistic Complexity in English Textbooks: A Functional … 81
arguments that supported her choice of using SFL. In terms of the organisation of
this chapter, it started with an explanation of some concepts in relation to grammar
and linguistic complexity. Following that, linguistic complexity was discussed from
the perspective of traditionalgrammar, Chomsky’s transformational-generative
grammar, and Halliday’s functional grammar.
Chapter 3: A Hallidayan Approach on Linguistic Complexity
After identifying and justifying an appropriate theoretical framework for my study
in Chapter 2, I provided an elaborate and detailed discussion of linguistic com-
plexity from a Hallidayan SFL perspective in Chapter 3. In particular, lexical
density, grammatical intricacy, nominalisation, grammatical metaphor, thematic
structure and hierarchies of periodicity were discussed in depth. A literature review
on prior studies on linguistic complexity and pointing out the gap in research in this
area was also included.
Chapter 4: Methodology
This chapter introduced the methodological and analytical framework of the
research. After reiterating the aim and objectives of the project, I explained the
research methodology adopted in this study and highlighted how this was aligned
with the research goals. This study employed quantitative research approach to
quantify complexity; thus, quantitative data analysis dealt with descriptive and
inferential statistics of linguistic complexity. Quantitative research design was
supported by qualitative analysis of four texts to identify some trends regarding text
periodicity in more detail. In addition to the analytical approach taken, the chapter
also described the process of text selection and discussed issues related to the
reliability and validity of the study.
Chapter 5: Analysis of Linguistic Complexity Across
Textbook Levels
This chapter reported on findings from quantitative data analysis of the linguistic
complexity of 24 reading extracts in EFL textbooks with a focus on five linguistics
features: lexical density, grammatical intricacy, nominalisation, grammatical
metaphor, and thematic structure. I chose to present the findings of the quantitative
study first in a separate chapter so that these results could be used in analysing four
full texts in more detail (using a qualitative approach).
82 V. To and A. Mahboob
Chapter 6: Analysis of Linguistic Complexity
at the Full Text Level
In this chapter, quantitative and qualitative analysis of four full texts was conducted
to find out how linguistic features differed according to stages of genre, and what
effects they had on the text periodicity.
Chapter 7: Discussion
The two data analysis chapters were followed by a discussion of the results
addressing the four main research objectives and four associated research questions.
In response to each research question, this chapter discussed the extent to which this
research supported and expanded the existing literature. It also pointed out which
results were expected and which ones were unforeseen but interesting.
Chapter 8: Conclusion
This final chapter summarised the main findings of the research project and dis-
cussed the theoretical and educational implications of this work. Limitations of the
study and recommendations for further studies were also highlighted. The thesis
concluded with a brief review of my personal reflections on the research journey.
Above, we have summarized the key focus of the eight (8) chapters contained in
my dissertation. However, before moving on, we would like to argue that that the
organization of a dissertation is based on: (a) the dissertation structure frequently
adopted in studies using a particular framework (in this case SFL); (b) the specific
questions being asked in the dissertation’ and (c) my growing understanding of and
confidence in my research. I continuously reflected on and changed my dissertation
structure as I progressed in my work. So, what is described in the sections above is
not what I had originally planned. Table 8.1 includes my final ToC (Table of
Contents) as well as an indication of whether I had initially planned to include this
chapter in my dissertation or not. Readers will note that that a number of chapters in
the submitted dissertation were not part of my original plans. The structure of the
dissertation evolved as I progressed in my work: a point that we will discuss in
more detail in the following section.
8 Linguistic Complexity in English Textbooks: A Functional … 83
Commentary
As starting off the research journey, I developed a broad outline structure of what my
dissertationwould include. I did this primarily by looking at how a ‘simple’ traditional
thesis is organised as well as reviewing some other SFL dissertations. However, the
final structure, as described in the previous section, was not the same as the one at the
beginningmywork. As I progressed onmy research journey, my discussions with my
Ph.D. supervisors and academic mentors, as well as my on-going readings and
analyses, I revised the organization of my thesis (see Table 8.1) in a way that not only
suited my chosen theoretical paradigm, but which also reflected the unique needs of
my research goals (see also Paltridge and Starfield 2007).
For example, in my initial plans, I had projected only one literature review
chapter; however, I ended up having two. The first of these was a comparative
analysis of the different approaches used in analyzing linguistic complexity. I added
this as a separate chapter to show what the different approaches used for studying
linguistic complexity were, how these were different, how they related to my work,
and which of these was most appropriate for my project. By doing this, I wanted to
avoid potential criticism from examiners that I had not explored or considered other
theoretical frameworks (note: I was successful in avoiding such criticism).
Following this chapter, I added another literature review chapter, which focused on
the Hallidayan framework and also included a discussion of other studies that
adopted this framework.
I had also initially planned a single Results and Discussion chapter, in which I
had planned to provide all my research findings and include an analysis and dis-
cussion of these findings. However, as my work developed, I realized that I needed
to separate these out into three chapters. The first findings chapters presented the
results from the quantitative analysis of linguistic features across levels. The second
Table 8.1 Thesis structure
Contents page
Chapter
ID
Chapter title Was this chapter included in my
initial plans?
Chapter 1 Introduction Yes
Chapter 2 Different Perspectives on Linguistic
Complexity
Chapters 2 and 3 were initially
planned
as a single literature review chapterChapter 3 A Hallidayan Approach on Linguistic
Complexity
Chapter 4 Methodology Yes
Chapter 5 Analysis of Linguistic Complexity across
levels
Chapters 5, 6 and 7 were initially
planned
as a single ‘Results and
Discussion’ chapter
Chapter 6 Analysis of Linguistic Complexity
at full text levels
Chapter 7 Discussion
Chapter 8 Conclusion Yes
84 V. To and A. Mahboob
findings chapter focused on the qualitative analysis of four full texts. And the third
chapter provided an in-depth discussion of both my quantitative and qualitative
findings as well as relating these findings to previous research.
In conclusion, and to respond to the research question set out in the introductory
section of this chapter, an analysis of how I structured my dissertation lead us to
two key observations. First, I organized my dissertation broadly in sync with how a
‘simple’ traditional thesis is organized, however, over time, I made some important
changes to this structure. I reflected on the specific purpose of my dissertation in
deciding what would be included in the dissertation and how this information
would be organized. Second, my initial plans of how I would organize the dis-
sertation evolved as my work developed. For example, given the focus of research,
and the potential criticism that I might draw from examiners, I decided to include
two full chapters on literature review, instead of one: one which discussed the
different perspectives of linguistic complexity; and the second on the approach used
in the study. Similarly, I decided tobreak-up my planned single Results and
Discussion chapter into three chapters. These changes reflected my development as
a researcher and as a writer of research. One of the things that I discovered through
writing my dissertation was that one might start off thinking and planning one thing,
but may end up doing something quite different to suit the development of the
work. I also learned that although my study addressed a gap in research and
provided an answer to a research issue, this was not really the end, as new questions
emerged from my work. Through this exciting yet challenging journey, my research
abilities enhanced in many different ways. I learnt that research is a journey and that
one develops and learns through the journey.
References
Carson, D., Gilmore, A., Perry, C., & Gronhaug, K. (2001). Qualitative marketing research.
London: Sage.
Eggins, S. (1994). An introduction to systemic functional linguistics. London: Pinter.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1985a). An introduction to functional grammar. London: Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1985b). Spoken and written language. Deakin: Deakin University.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed.). London: Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K. (2008). Complementarities in language. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2004). An introduction to functional grammar
(3rd ed.). London: Arnold.
Martin, J. R. (2001). Language, register and genre. In A. Burns & C. Coffin (Eds.), Analysing
English in a global context: A reader (pp. 149–166). London: Routlege.
Martin, J. R., & Rose, D. (2003). Working with discourse: Meaning beyond the clause. London:
Continuum.
Minoo, A., & Nikan, S. (2012). Textbook evaluation: EFL teachers’ perspectives on “pacesetter
series”. English Language Teaching, 5(7), 64–68.
Paltridge, B., & Starfield, S. (2007). Thesis and dissertation writing in a second language: A
handbook for supervisors. London: Routledge.
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To, V. (2014a). Grammatical complexity of English textbooks: A comparative study of two book
levels: Elementary and Pre-intermediate. Paper presented at the Australian Systemic
Functional Linguistics Association Conference, 29 September–2 October, Sydney, Australia.
To, V. (2014b). Linguistic complexity in English textbooks: A Functional Grammar Perspective.
Paper presented at the AILA World Congress 10–15 August 2014, Brisbane, Australia.
Ure, J. (1971). Lexical density and register differentiation. In G. E. Perren & J. L. M. Trim (Eds.),
Applications of linguistics (pp. 443–452). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vinh To has completed a thesis on Linguistic complexity in English textbooks: A functional
grammar perspective. The chapter about her thesis was based on a Ph.D. degree, completed at the
University of Tasmania under the supervision and mentoring of Thao Le, Si Fan, Quynh Le and
Ahmar Mahboob. Vinh To was an experienced English Language Lecturer in Vietnam who is
passionate about English education and English curriculum design in universities in her country,
leading her to researching English textbooks commonly used in Vietnam to provide useful insights
into English pedagogy and curriculum design in Vietnam. Vinh completed her Ph.D. at the
University of Tasmania in 2015 and has worked as a Lecturer in English curriculum and pedagogy
at the same university since then. Her recent publications appear in the proceeding of the 44th
International Systemic Functional Congress, the Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, and
the Qualitative Research Journal.
Ahmar Mahboob is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney. Ahmar is
keenly interested in the application of language sciences to developmental issues, with a particular
focus on education. His primary research interest is on an examination of policies, practices, and
implications of language variation in local and global contexts. In pursuing this goal, Ahmar draws
from and contributes to a range of linguistics and applied linguistics traditions, theories, and
methodologies.
86 V. To and A. Mahboob
Chapter 9
Structure by Design: Reasoning About
Covariation with TinkerPlots
Noleine Fitzallen
Research Question
What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study of the development of stu-
dents’ understanding of covariation when using exploratory data analysis software,
TinkerPlots Dynamic Data Exploration, following a pragmatist paradigm, and
adopting educational design research methodology?
What Was the Study About?
The first objective of the inquiry was to further understanding of the factors that
influence student learning when working with a graphing software package,
TinkerPlots Dynamic Data Exploration, through the development of a conceptual
framework for learning in exploratory data analysis graphing environments. The
second objective was to explore the intersection between the students’ thinking and
reasoning about covariation and the influence of TinkerPlots on that process, as
students explore data sets to determine the relationship between variables, and
identify trends.
N. Fitzallen (&)
School of Education, College of Arts, Law, and Education,
University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
e-mail: noleine.fitzallen@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_9
87
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What Was the Method?
The inquiry was a teaching experiment that employed a sequential exploratory
strategy (Creswell 2003) and an educational design research methodology to
facilitate the development of a systematic iterative study (Akker et al. 2006). It
adopted an innovative qualitative research approach to capture the complexity of
student learning of covariation, which is influenced heavily by the context of the
technological learning environment, student prior knowledge, and instructional
design (Konold 2007). These influences created a complex research/learning
environment that recognised the research process and the learning intervention were
intrinsically entwined—one constantly influenced by the other. Embedded within
this was the idea that the students’ learning about statistical concepts, learning about
data analysis software, and developing exploratory data analysis (EDA) skills
(Tukey 1977) were similarly entwined. The research questions explored were:
1. How can the learning behaviours of students as they engage with exploratory
data analysis software be characterised through a framework that can then be
used to explore and analyse students’ understanding of covariation using
TinkerPlots?
2. How do students interact with the exploratory data analysis software,
TinkerPlots, to represent data in a variety of forms when exploring questions
about relationships within a data set?
3. How do students develop an understanding of covariation in the exploratory
data analysis software environment afforded by TinkerPlots and use these
understandings to provide informal justification for their conclusions about the
relationships identified?
What Were the Theories and Paradigms Employed?
The orientation of this research aligned with a pragmatist paradigm. Pragmatism
seeks to link theory and praxis through the exploration of the research problem
(Greenwood and Levin 2003; Mackenzie and Knipe 2006). It examines actions and
situations to develop an understanding of the meaning of ideas by drawing on
qualitative research methods and techniques (Creswell 2003; Johnson and
Onwuegbuzie 2004). There is an emphasis on developing an understanding of what
works and examining solutions to problems to derive knowledge about the prob-
lems (Patton 2002). It followsthat the meaning of an idea or a proposition is
developed by observing its application in real-world practice (Creswell 2013).
Therefore, a pragmatist approach dictates that research methods are matched to the
aim and purpose of the research and the specific questions of an inquiry (Boaz and
Ashby 2003). Although a pragmatist paradigm is usually applied to scientific
investigations (Mackenzie and Knipe 2006), it was appropriate for this inquiry as it
88 N. Fitzallen
allowed for the design of the inquiry to be shaped around investigating directly the
use of TinkerPlots by students.
Educational design research was selected for the inquiry because it is iterative
and cyclical in nature (Seeto and Herrington 2006; Shavelson et al. 2003). It is
underpinned by a fundamental tenet that ongoing evaluation is an essential part of
the research process (Kelly 2003; Phillips 2006). Educational design research has
been used in many studies that interrogated and informed the design of techno-
logical learning environments (Reeves 2006). In the case of Seeto and Herrington
(2006), it guided the development of a web site for accessing online learning. The
purpose of their study was to create a collaborative research environment where
software designers worked with education researchers to develop a set of design
principles for the web-based delivery of teacher education courses. Typically,
design research studies are longitudinal. The study conducted by Seeto and
Herrington demonstrates that design research can also be an effective research
approach when studies are short term.
The intention of the TinkerPlots inquiry was to take advantage of the iterative
nature of educational design research (Shavelson et al. 2003), which involved using
the outcomes from each stage of the inquiry to inform the next stage of the inquiry.
Although the inquiry explored the students’ use of the software environment
afforded by TinkerPlots (Fitzallen 2013; Watson and Fitzallen 2016) and was
interested in the way in which the environment influenced students’ data analysis
techniques (Fitzallen 2012, 2016), it was not the intention of the inquiry to make a
contribution to the design principles of TinkerPlots.
A general model of educational design research includes four phases: develop-
ment of the research questions, selection of data and data collection methods,
design of artefacts and processes, and analyses and evaluation. It ‘is a research
approach that is particularly suited to the exploration of significant education
problems and technology-based solutions’ (Seeto and Herrington 2006, p. 742).
Seeto and Herrington aligned their research methodology with the integrative
learning design (ILD) framework developed by Bannan-Ritland (2003). The phases
of the ILD framework are (a) Informed Exploration, (b) Enactment, (c) Evaluation:
Local Impact, and (d) Evaluation: Broader Impact. The Informed Exploration phase
may include activities such as conducting literature reviews, carrying out needs
analyses, and determining the form of teaching intervention to be developed. The
Enactment phase is characterised by the development, implementation, and
refinement of the intervention over a number of cycles. Refinement of theories and
suggestions for redesign arise from the Evaluation: Local Impact phase, while
dissemination of data, evaluation of the impact, and consideration of the conse-
quences of the intervention for the long term occur in the Evaluation: Broader
Impact phase. The ILD framework is utilised by large projects that are expected to
be delivered over a long period of time. The extended research period provides the
opportunity for the implementation and evaluation of interventions to be iterative
(Bannan-Ritland 2003).
The inquiry utilised the ILD framework developed by Bannan-Ritland (2003) to
guide the inquiry design. In recognition that the inquiry was short term, as well as to
9 Structure by Design: Reasoning About Covariation … 89
accommodate the context of the inquiry, the titles of the phases of the ILD
framework were modified. Consideration was also given to the educational design
based research model used by Seeto and Herrington (2006), who implemented a
study that explored the development of a web site for teacher education students.
Although their study was relatively short term—less than one year—they applied
the phases of educational design research successfully. Table 9.1 details the phases
of the ILD framework, the Seeto and Herrington model, and their relationship to the
phases developed for the TinkerPlots inquiry. The research followed four phases of
inquiry consistent with educational design research methodology through seven
stages of inquiry (Fig. 9.1). The figure maps chronologically the four phases of the
inquiry process noted in Table 9.1 to each of the seven stages of the inquiry.
Alpha-numerical codes are used for each phase of the inquiry to reflect the nature of
each phase. For example, L0 includes the literature review for the initial stage of the
inquiry, D0 includes the development of the inquiry design, E0 includes the
evaluation of the inquiry design and links to E6. The link to E6 reflects the iterative
nature of the inquiry. A0 includes the application of inquiry design and its
implementation to the structure of the thesis.
Structure
The structure of the thesis was based on the seven stages of the educational design
research inquiry. It was divided into seven sections with each section of the thesis
for the first six stages of the inquiry opening with a literature review, as noted in the
first phase of each stage detailed in Fig. 9.1. This was followed by information
about the implementation of the other phases for that stage together with infor-
mation about the methodological considerations relevant to that stage. Providing the
detail about each stage of the inquiry as it arose in the thesis addressed the call from
Table 9.1 Phases of educational design research in relation to the inquiry
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
ILD framework
(Bannan-Ritland
2003)
Informed
exploration
Enactment Evaluation:
Local
impact
Evaluation:
Broader impact
Seeto and
Herrington
model (2006)
Analysis of
practical
problems by
researchers and
practitioners
Development
of solutions
with a
theoretical
framework
Evaluation
and testing
of solutions
in practice
Documentation
and reflection to
produce ‘design
principles’
Reasoning
about
Covariation
with TinkerPlots
Analysis of
practical
problems
Development
of solutions
with a
theoretical
framework
Evaluation
of solutions
Application of
solutions and
reflection on
implementation
90 N. Fitzallen
Collins et al. (2004) to characterise the elements of an inquiry design and state the
reasons for including the elements in the inquiry process.
Contents page
Stage 0—Inquiry Commencement
Stage 1—Development of Model of Learning
Stage 2—Evaluation of TinkerPlots
Inquiry
Phases
Inquiry 
Stages
Analysis of 
practical 
problems
Development of 
solutions with a 
theoretical 
framework
Evaluation of 
solutions
Application of 
solutions and
reflection on 
implementation 
Stage 0
Inquiry 
Commencement 
L0. Literature 
reviewed on 
educational design 
based research
D0. Development 
of Inquiry Design 
E0. Inquiry Design 
discussed in Stage 6
A0. Guides Inquiry 
Implementation 
and Thesis 
Structure
Stage 1
Development of a 
Model of 
Learning - 
Research 
Question 1
L1. Literature 
reviewed on graph 
creation and 
interpretation, 
using technology, 
EDA, and models 
of graphing 
D1. Development 
of Model of 
Learning in EDA 
Graphing 
Environments 
E1. Evaluation of 
Model of Learning in 
EDA Graphing 
Environments
conducted in Stage 6
A1. Model of 
Learning in EDA 
Graphing 
Environments 
applied in Stages 2, 
3, & 4
Stage 2
Evaluation of 
TinkerPlots –
Research 
Question 2
L2. Literature 
reviewed on 
evaluating EDA 
software packages
D2. Development 
of Criteria for 
Evaluating EDA 
Software 
Environments
E2. Evaluation of 
TinkerPlotsusing 
Criteria for 
Evaluating EDA 
Software 
Environments
A2. Informs other 
inquiry activities –
development of 
Student Survey and 
Learning Sequence
Stage 3
Establishment of 
Student Prior 
Learning- 
Research 
Questions 2 & 3
L3. Literature 
reviewed on 
assessment 
instruments for 
evaluating student 
learning of 
covariation and 
graphing 
D3. Development 
of Student Survey 
to determine 
student prior 
learning in graph 
creation and graph 
interpretation.
E3. Trial and 
evaluation of Student 
Survey 
(n=71) 
A3. Selection of 
Participants
(n=12) for Stage 
4. 
Stage 4 Sequence 
of Learning and 
Outcomes –
Research 
Questions 2 & 3
L4. Literature 
reviewed on 
student 
understanding of 
covariation and 
graphing 
D4. Development 
of Learning 
Sequence
- Covariation 
E4a. Implementation 
of Learning Sequence 
(n=12) 
E4b. Administration 
of Student Interviews 
(n=12)
A4. Analysis of 
Student Interviews
(n=12) 
Stage 5
The Findings – 
Research 
Question 1, 2 & 3
L5. Literature 
revisited and used 
to support findings
D5. Results of 
Research 
Questions 
E5. Discussion of the 
Research Questions. 
A5.
Recommendations 
for future research
Stage 6
Inquiry 
Conclusion 
L6. Literature 
revisited and used 
to support inquiry 
implications
D6. Discussion of 
Inquiry 
Implications 
E6. Evaluation of 
Inquiry Design using 
NRC (2002) 
principles of scientific 
inquiry. (E0 & E1))
A6.
Recommendations 
for future research
Fig. 9.1 Stages and phases of the inquiry
9 Structure by Design: Reasoning About Covariation … 91
Stage 3—Establishment of Prior Learning
Stage 4—Sequence of Learning and Outcomes
Stage 5—The Findings
Stage 6—Inquiry Conclusion
Stage 0—Inquiry Commencement. This stage set the scene for the inquiry and
included the broad methodology that underpinned the inquiry and explained how
the methodology fit the purpose of the inquiry. Inclusion of Stage 0 acknowledged
the research that was undertaken in setting up the research project before its
implementation. The aim and objectives, the research questions, the origins of the
inquiry, the inquiry design, the sampling design, the significance of the inquiry, and
a consideration of the ethical issues associated with the inquiry were also included.
Following Stage 0, the next four stages detailed the enactment of the inquiry.
Stage 1—Development of Model of Learning. The purpose of this stage of the
inquiry was to develop a theoretical framework, Model of Learning in EDA
Graphing Environments (Fitzallen 2006), which exemplified the critical behaviours
of working in EDA graphing environments from an interrogation of the literature on
student learning about graphing and development of data analysis skills. The model
was used repeatedly throughout other stages of the inquiry to inform the research
process, evaluate research instruments, design criteria for the evaluation of
TinkerPlots, and analyse student interviews. The model of learning was developed
in response to Research Question 1 and is revisited in Stage 6 to determine in what
ways it contributed to the inquiry meeting its objectives.
Stage 2—Evaluation of TinkerPlots. This stage was used to establish a clear
understanding of the features of the software package and the different graph types
it produces in order to answer Research Question 2. To do this it was necessary to
develop criteria for evaluating TinkerPlots and then apply them to evaluate the
potential for TinkerPlots to be used as a learning tool. The Model of Learning in
EDA Graphing Environments developed in Stage 1, in conjunction with the liter-
ature on evaluating software and technological learning environments, was used to
establish the criteria (Fitzallen and Brown 2006). The literature on previous
research about TinkerPlots, its application as a learning tool, and its application as a
teaching tool were also reviewed in this stage.
Stage 3—Establishment of Prior Learning. The purpose of this stage of the
inquiry was to establish the prior learning of students in relation to their under-
standing of graphs, graph-sense-making, and covariation. In order to do this, an
assessment instrument to be used as a student survey was developed. Proven
assessment items from previous research that evaluated students’ development of
statistical and graphing concepts were used to construct the student survey
(Fitzallen 2008). The results from the administration of the student survey informed
the design of the sequence of learning experiences developed and implemented in
Stage 4—Sequence of Learning (Fitzallen and Watson 2014). The results also
informed the selection of the participants for Stage 4.
92 N. Fitzallen
Stage 4—Sequence of Learning and Outcomes. The purpose of this stage of the
inquiry was to develop and implement a sequence of learning experiences that
would provide the opportunity for novice learners to use TinkerPlots to develop an
understanding of covariation. As part of the implementation of the sequence of
learning experiences, the final session was used to administer an interview protocol
to gather evidence of the students’ understanding of covariation and determine the
way in which they interacted with TinkerPlots to create graphs and interpret data.
Student profiles that characterised their statistical thinking and reasoning according
to the dimensions of the Model of Learning in EDA Graphing Environments were
developed for the students who participated in this stage of the inquiry (Fitzallen
2012, 2013). The student profiles contributed to answering Research Question 1 in
Stage 5.
Stage 5—The Findings. In Stage 5 the student profiles built from the results in
Stage 4 were analysed and used to answer Research Question 1. The student
profiles were then analysed another two times to answer Research Questions 2 and
3, respectively.
Stage 6—Inquiry Conclusion. This stage revisited the research design adopted
for the inquiry and the Model of Learning in EDA Graphing Environments
developed in Stage 1 as part of an evaluation of the inquiry design using the
principles of scientific inquiry developed by the National Research Council (2002).
The implications and limitations of the inquiry were developed in this stage of the
inquiry as were recommendations for future research.
Commentary
The thesis, Reasoning about Covariation with TinkerPlots, used the structure of the
inquiry design to structure the thesis. It was set out to follow the design process
through Stages 0–6 as chapters of the thesis. The decision for the structure of the
thesis to follow the inquiry design was made so that the thesis reflected the evolving
exploratory nature of the inquiry, which is in keeping with design-based research
approaches (Akker et al. 2006). Setting out the thesis in this way allowed the thesis
to demonstrate clearly how each stage of the inquiry was developed from the
literature and how the literature was used to inform each stage. It also allowed the
factors that influenced the enactment of each stage to be made explicit at the time
they were relevant to the inquiry, which satisfied Collins and his colleagues (2004)
call for elements of an inquiry be justified. All of the conventions for a regular
thesis such as literature review, methodology and results were included in the
thesis; however, they were not presented as individual chapters.
The thesis was organised so that the literature reviews and methodological
considerations for each of the stages were presented at the beginning of each stage.
Figure 9.2 provides a representation of the relationships among the phases and
stages of the inquiry and indicate which research question was the main focus of
each stage. The main connections are indicated by the bold lines and arrows. It is
9 Structure by Design: Reasoning About Covariation … 93
important to note that there are many other subtler connections represented by
dashed lines. Although not directly responsible for the outcome of a preceding or
following stage, information from aparticular phase impacted on other stages or
phases of the inquiry. For example, evaluation of the students’ prior learning in
Stage 3 was used to inform the development of the sequence of learning experi-
ences in Stage 4. The map also places the Model of Learning in EDA Graphing
Environments developed in Stage 1 in the centre and indicates its relationship with
the other stages of the inquiry.
Fig. 9.2 Inquiry map
94 N. Fitzallen
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Noleine Fitzallen conducts research in statistics education. Her thesis was on student reasoning
about covariation when using the exploratory data analysis software, TinkerPlots. The chapter
about her thesis was based on a Ph.D. completed at the University of Tasmania under the
supervision of Prof. Jane Watson and Prof. Natalie Brown. Prior to embarking on her Ph.D. study,
Noleine was investigating the integration of ICT in the mathematics classroom. Her statistics
education research focus has now shifted to exploring students’ development of understanding of
modelling with data when conducting investigations embedded within STEM contexts. Her other
research interests include investigating the outcomes for undergraduates delivering STEM
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of inquiry-based learning.
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Chapter 10
Researching in the ‘Cultural Interface’:
Working Between Non-indigenous
and Indigenous Research Paradigms
David Hicks, Mary O’Dowd and Michael Corbett
Research Question
What is anappropriate structure for reporting a study of Indigenous education
which employs Structural Equation Modelling as a primary method of analysis as a
means to understand and explore the role of culture in the educational environment
as a facilitator of improved student outcomes?
What Was the Study About?
In 2008 the Australian government committed the nation to closing the gap between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians (Council of Australian Governments
[COAG], 2008). Central to such commitment was a promise to eliminate educa-
tional disparity. The government committed to halve the gap in reading, writing and
numeracy achievements for Indigenous children within a decade, to close the gap
between Indigenous and non-Indigenous school attendance by 2018, and to halve
D. Hicks (&)
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
e-mail: david.hicks@utas.edu.au
M. O’Dowd
University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
e-mail: mfodowd@outlook.com
M. Corbett
School of Education, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS B4P 2R6, Canada
e-mail: michael.corbett@utas.edu.au; michael.corbett@acadiau.ca
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_10
97
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the gap in year twelve attainment by 2020. It is now 2018. Despite nearly a decade
of intervention little real progress has been made. Instead, abject failure has been
clouded by cleverly crafted spin and a discourse of deficit which positions
Australia’s Indigenous population as a ‘problem’ to be fixed (Gillan et al. 2017).
The present study explores this issue. However, it distances itself from the
traditional rhetoric and discourse of deficit which often surrounds Indigenous
education. Instead of asking what is wrong with the individual, it asks what is
wrong with the environment within which the individual is forced to operate? Thus,
it views the classroom and broader school environment as sites where positive
change can be implemented. Drawing on De-Colonial Theory and the concept of
the cultural interface, it hypothesises that educational environments which are
responsive to and respectful of Indigenous cultures will promote improved
engagement and thus educational outcomes for Indigenous students. We take a
strengths-based approach, similar to that expounded by Walter and Andersen
(2013), and seek out through an analysis of the data, what it is that appears to work
in terms of supporting engagement and achievement. The study is guided by the
following sequential research questions:
(1) Does the implementation decolonizing practices in the classroom and broader
school environment influence the engagement of Aboriginal students with
formal education?
(2) Does engagement with formal education influence literacy and numeracy
outcomes for Aboriginal students?
What Were the Theories Employed and How Do They
Articulate with the Methods?
The study operates within an over-arching framework of Settler Colonial Theory.
It begins with an explication and extension of Patrick Wolfe’s ‘logic of elimination’.
We argue firstly, that formal education, through overt and covert processes of
assimilation, has and continues to function as a force of cultural repression for those
whose social and cultural background fail to align with those of the status-quo.
To make such a claim, we draw on the broader literature of Post-Colonialism to assert
that the classroom, both historically and in the present day, is a site of colonial power
implicated in the reproduction of Eurocentric ideology and hegemony.
From this juncture the study undergoes a shift as we move from the classroom to
an exploration of the individuals within it. At this point we turn to Indigenous
scholars working both in the Australian and the global context. Drawing consid-
erably on the work of Marie Battiste (2008) and Martin Nakata (2007), the study
asserts firstly, that students who are faced with curricula that fail to reflect their
history and perspective, experience a fragmented existence. Secondly, this work
argues that many stories of Indigenous success stem from children who have learnt
not just the curriculum, but also to live in two worlds built on competing
98 D. Hicks et al.
epistemologies. A theorisation, which can be traced to the classic scholarship of
W. E. B. Du Bois, as he spoke of the ‘two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled
strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps
it from being torn asunder’ (Du Bois 1903, p. 5).
Lastly, we explore the work of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars to blend
Settler Colonial Theory and De-Colonial Theory to hypothesise that solutions to the
educational disparity experienced by Indigenous Australians lie in part, in the
restructuring of curricula, classrooms and schools. In essence, the study adopts the
position that ‘where Indigenous languages, heritages and communities are respec-
ted, supported, and connected to Elders and holistic learning, educational successes
among Indigenous students can be found’ (Battiste 2008. p. 88). The general
argument here is that what counts as educational success is subject to cultural
interpretation rather than simple acontextual quantification.
Methodological tension arises in our work as we work from a set of theoretical
assumptions that derive from De-Colonial Theory. We assume, based upon the
historical record concerning schooling as a process that was explicitly opposed to
Aboriginal cultural practices, ontologies and epistemologies (Beresford 2012), that
decolonising practices may remedy, in part, the current outcomes in Indigenous
education in the nation. Quantitative analysis such as Hunter (2000) and Hunter
(2009) has established how discriminatory educational practices have denied many
Indigenous communities access to the full gamut of opportunities and privileges of
citizenship, security and employment and qualitative research such as Dockett et al.
(2006) has evidenced widespread educational disenfranchisement. We explicitly
use quantitative methods to seek out, through advanced statistical techniques, those
de-colonial educational practices that work.
What Was the Method?
From theory we hypothesise that culturally responsive practices have no direct
effect on educational outcomes. Rather it is our argument that such practices pos-
itively affect student engagement and subsequently educational outcomes.
Furthermore, we hypothesise that such a pathway will remain despite the influence
of various circumstances derived from the literature which are known to influence
educational outcomes both for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. We apply
this hypothesis to a longitudinal data set containing information on 4620 variables
pertaining to 1680 Indigenous Children, their parents/primary carers and teachers
conducted over eight waves with further iterations planned (National Centre for
Longitudinal Data 2017). This data was obtained from the Footprints in Time
research project conducted by the Department of Social Services under the guid-
ance of an Indigenous steering committee chaired by Professor Mick Dodson AM.
In the context of statistical analysis, the testing of such a hypothesis is not a
simple process. There is no single measure for outcomes, for engagement, or for
what may constitute culturally responsive practice. Rather, these are building blocks
10 Researching in the ‘Cultural Interface’: Working … 99
of theory, they are constructs, they are mental abstractions which we cannot directly
observe and thus, must be treated as such. This is the beginning of our analysis, to
observe the ‘unobservable’. We begin first with a reading of our data in conjunction
with the literatureapplicable to each construct, we look for questions which have
been asked which align with our operational definitions, and categorise these
accordingly. From here, we test.
We conduct a series of exploratory factor analyses to uncover the underlying
structure of the variables we have chosen. From the results, we are able to deter-
mine, in a statistical sense, the influence of the unobserved on the observed.
Through interpreting the factor loading of each variable, we can identify whether
the chosen variables move in conjunction with one another and more importantly,
whether they move in relation to the overarching constructs we have hypothesised.
Furthermore, we can identify in-part the validity of our proposed constructs. From
this process the following variables were identified as aligning to the constructs of
interest, evidence also emerged that there were more constructs than initially
hypothesised (Fig. 10.1):
Hypothesized
Construct 
Identified
Construct(s)
Manifest Variables
Educational 
Outcomes
Literacy
1) Understands and interprets a story or other text read to 
him/her
2) Reads words with regular vowel sounds
3) Reads words with irregular vowel sounds
4) Reads age appropriate books independently with 
comprehension
5) Reads age appropriate books fluently
6) Able to write sentences with more than one clause
7) Composes a story with a clear beginning, middle and end
8) Demonstrates an understanding of some of the 
conventions of print
Numeracy
1) Demonstrates an understanding of place value
2) Models, reads, writes and compares whole numbers
3) Counts change with two different types of coins
4) Surveys, collects and organizes data into simple graphs
5) Makes reasonable estimates of quantities
6) Measures to the nearest whole number using common 
instruments
7) Uses a variety of strategies to solve math’s problems
Engagement Engagement
1) Keeps belongings organized
2) Shows eagerness to learn new things
3) Works independently
4) Easily adapts to changes in routine
5) Persists in completing tasks
6) Pays attention well
Culturally 
Responsive 
Practice
Pedagogy 1) Typically teach Indigenous arts or practices
2) Typically do Indigenous singing/storytelling
Community 1) Elders visit or teach
2) Involved within the Indigenous community
Staff 1) Indigenous education workers
2) Indigenous teachers/staff
Fig. 10.1 Table of constructs and manifest variables
100 D. Hicks et al.
From this juncture, we are able to explore relationships between our proposed
constructs and begin testing our overarching hypothesis. To achieve this we employ
a combination of confirmatory factor analysis and regression to construct a struc-
tural equation model. Within this model, latent variables derived from manifest
variables represent our proposed constructs and regression relationships between
latent variables represent causal propositions between these. To test the efficacy of
our proposed model, covariances implied by the model are compared to those
within the data with the aim of confirming whether the relationships we have
hypothesised are plausible in a statistical sense. It is traditional to represent such
models in the form of a path diagram where ellipses represent latent variables,
rectangles represent manifest variables, circles represent error/disturbance terms
and directional effects are indicated by single headed arrows. We have represented
our proposed model as such below (Fig. 10.2).
Fig. 10.2 Pathway model employed by the study
10 Researching in the ‘Cultural Interface’: Working … 101
Structure
We begin our study with a brief self-reflexive commentary on the lead author’s
social and cultural positioning. This has been done in attempt to ‘make clear’ the
author’s stand-point from the outset and thus to introduce the manner in which the
subsequent chapters of the thesis are framed both in political and scholarly terms.
From here, the study enters its first section (Part A) which begins with an intro-
ductory chapter outlining Australia’s Indigenous policy, both broadly and within
the specific domain of education. In the secondary chapter we discuss aspects of
research methodology through an exploration of Indigenous scholarship, the impact
of such on the lead author and, subsequently the research process as a whole.
The study then enters its second section (Part B) which deals solely and
explicitly with theory. The initial chapter situates itself within Settler Colonial
Theory and aims to identify the research problem. The following chapter, situated
in the work of Martin Nakata’s and his theorisation of a ‘cultural interface’ aims to
hypothesise potential solutions. It is within this latter chapter that links between
theory and analysis are explicitly made.
Part C opens with a discussion of method. Here we link our hypothesised
solutions to statistical technique and the data to be employed in the process. From
this point, the study blends literature and analysis to define and test the validity of
constructs. This process is a direct product of statistical technique, which creates
unique structural consequences. For example, each sub-section could be presented
as an individual study. From here, the final chapter engages in the formal processes
of model development and testing.
The final section of the study (Part D) explores both the applicability of the
research findings, and the implications for future policy and practice. It also
explores to some extent, the role quantitative evidence can play in strengths based
analysis of Indigenous education and within this, ways that such analysis can be
constructed to avoid creating deficit interpretations of Indigenous learners.
Prologue:
i. Portrait of the Cultural Self
ii. Road Map
iii. Table of Contents
Part A—Introduction
Chapter 1: Mind the ‘Gap’
i. Fifty Years: A discussion of Indigenous inequality & potentially transforma-
tive policy.
ii. Separate and (un) Equal: Exploring past and present manifestations of
Indigenous education.
iii. Research Aims.
102 D. Hicks et al.
Chapter 2: Deficit Aboriginals…
i. Colonial Ghosts: Representations of Indigenous ‘realities’.
ii. Talking Back: Indigenous voices in the Ivory tower.
iii. Listening: Recognising and challenging hegemony.
iv. Research Questions.
Part B—Theoretical Frameworks
Chapter 3: Eliminating the ‘Native’
i. Settler Colonial Demands: Land and the nation state.
ii. Education = Elimination: Assimilation through the institution.
iii. Here to Stay: Resistance in the face of neo-colonialism.
Chapter 4: Culture
i. Existential Terror: Invasion, cultural destruction, grief.
ii. Education 6¼ Elimination: The cultural interface.
iii. Culturally Responsive Education.
Part C—Method and Results
Chapter 5: Complex Relationships
i. Tackling ‘WickedProblems’: Structural equationmodelling as amethod of analysis.
ii. The Data: The ‘Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children’.
Chapter 6: Defining and Testing Constructs
i. Culture.
a. The literature.
b. The measures.
c. Validity and reliability.
ii. Social and Emotional Well-being.
a. The literature.
b. The measures.
c. Validity and reliability.
iii. Engagement.
a. The literature.
b. The measures.
c. Validity and reliability.
10 Researching in the ‘Cultural Interface’: Working … 103
iv. Outcomes.
a. The literature.
b. The measures.
c. Validity and reliability.
v. Controls
a. The literature.
b. The measures.
c. Validity and reliability.
Chapter 7: Defining and Testing Relationships.
i. Hypothesis.
ii. Specification.
iii. Identification.
iv. Model fit.
Part D
Chapter 8: Culture.
i. Universal applicability? Research findings in the context of diverse realities.
ii. The present: Curricula and teacher standards re-visited.
iii. Where to now? Tomorrow’s research and policy.
Commentary
The research we describe here covers tricky, contested and often shifting ground.
Methodological tension arises from competing paradigms, epistemologies and
ontologies as we work from a set of theoretical assumptions thatderive from both
Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholarship. Within this, our methods are a product
of the way in which we frame the issue at hand, in essence our political and
theoretical commitments. In this sense we recognise and in a sense resist the typical
use of quantitative methods in the analysis of Indigenous students’ performance,
which tends to focus on gaps and deficiencies, often (unintentionally) reinforcing
deficit framing. Furthermore, we recognise as (Walter and Andersen 2013) have
argued; that ALL research is to some extent subjective; driven by ‘stand-points’
which shape everything from the questions we ask to the answers we seek. These
recognitions inevitably place considerable structural demands on the thesis which
steer it away from the traditional positivist form. The result, we believe, is a thesis
which recognises the complexity of the issue at hand and in many ways breaks new
ground.
104 D. Hicks et al.
References
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education. In M. Villegas, S. Neugebauer, & K. Venegas, Indigenous knowledge and education
(pp. 85–92). Cambridge: Harvard Educational Review.
Beresford, Q. (2012). Separate and equal: An outline of aboriginal education 1900-1996.
In Q. Beresford, G. Partington, & G. Gower (Eds.), Reform and resistance in Aboriginal
education (pp. 85–119). Crawley: UWA Publishing.
COAG. (2008). Council of Australian Governments [COAG]. Canberra: Council of Australian
Governments [COAG].
Dockett, S., Mason, T., & Perry, B. (2006). Successful transition to school for Australian
Aboriginal children. Childhood Education, 82(3), 139–144.
Du Bois, W. E. (1903). The souls of black folk. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co.
Evermann, J., & Tate, M. (2009). Building theory from quantitative studies, or, how to fit SEM
models. In International conference on information systems (p. Paper 192). Arizona: AIS
Electronic Library.
Gillan, K., Mellor, S., & Krakouer, J. (2017). Australian education review: The case for urgency:
Advocating for indigenous voice in education. Camberwell: Australian Council for Education
Research.
Hunter, B. (2000). Social exclusion, social capital, and Indigenous Australians: Measuring the
social costs of unemployment. Canberra: CAEPR.
Hunter, B. (2009). Indigenous social exclusion: Insights and challenges for the concept of social
inclusion. Family Matters, 82, 52–61.
Nakata, M. (2007). The cultural interface. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 36
(Supplement), 7–14.
National Centre for Longitudinal Data. (2017). Footprints in time: The longitudinal study of
indigenous children (LSIC). Canberra: Department of Social Services.
Smith, L. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies, research and indigenous peoples. London: Zed
Books.
Walker, P. (2003). Colonising research: Academia’s structural violence towards indigenous
peoples. Social Alternatives, 22(3), 37–40.
Walter, M., & Andersen, C. (2013). Indigenous statistics: A quantitative research methodology.
California: Left Coast Press.
David Hicks came to tertiary education later in life. Initially, he enrolled in a Bachelor of
education specializing in health and physical education however over the course of the degree,
engagement with educational and economic theory saw a shift in focus. This shift resulting in the
completion of an honors dissertation exploring the ability of current policy to improve
socioeconomic outcomes for Indigenous Australians through education. From this juncture, he
enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University of Tasmania and is currently completing a thesis
under the supervision of Prof. David Kember, Prof. Michael Corbett, Assoc Prof. Clair Anderson
which explores the relationship between culture, engagement and educational outcomes for
Aboriginal children.
Mary O’Dowd’s thesis was a study of empowerment and the at risk. Her chapter is based on her
Ph.D. thesis. The chapter’s reflective analysis, on how taken-for-granted assumptions embedded in
socio-cultural discourses were disrupted by experience and emotion, was completed at Monash
University. This Ph.D. was supervised by John Hunt. The motivation for her study arose from her
prior community development work with homeless and marginalized young people (Indigenous
and non-Indigenous), where too many of these young people suicided or died in overdoses. Since
then, Mary has had an academic career in teaching and research on social/ cultural/ human rights
10 Researching in the ‘Cultural Interface’: Working … 105
education in three universities. Her specialization is Settler-Colonialism and fostering critical
thinking on hegemony in non-Indigenous knowledges/beliefs, to improve professional practice for:
the non-Indigenous cultural interface with Indigenous peoples. She is currently a Cultural
Consultant and Researcher specializing in this area.
Michael Corbett is an educational sociologist whose work draws on social theory, as well as
historical and geographic traditions. He has worked in the School of Education at Acadia
University in Canada since 2002 with a three-year sojourn at the University of Tasmania
(2015–17) where he held a research professorship in rural and regional education, and where he
continues to hold an adjunct professorship. Corbett’s work focuses principally on rural education
and he is a global leader in this field. He has studied youth educational decision-making, mobilities
and education, the politics of educational assessment, literacies in rural contexts, improvisation and
the arts in education, the position of rural identities and experience in education, conceptions of
space and place, the viability of small rural schools, and ‘wicked’ policy problems and
controversies in education.
106 D. Hicks et al.
Part C
Action Research
Chapter 11
Action Research and Criticality:
Working Out the Stone in Your Shoe
Michael Corbett and Allen Hill
Abstract The action research tradition in Australia has been heavily influenced by
critical work of Steven Kemmis and the school of researchers he inspired, as well as
by the British tradition inspired by Lawrence Stenhouse and others. These chapters
illustrate the close alliance between educational research and the ordinary practice
of working educators, which is a particular feature of Anglo-American traditions of
inquiry inspired both by pragmatism and by critical theory, both of which demand
of research an active engagement in intentional change process. Work in this
section is developed out of this action research tradition and takes the form of
analyses of practice with an eye to improving the way that practice is accomplished.
In some cases, this means a critical interrogation of the effectiveness of the work of
an educator/researcher, while in other cases, the analysis of practice from a socially
critical perspective is the central focus of the work. What draws these disparate
studies together is a central focus on practice.
Introduction
Most contemporary education research texts instruct students to begin their inquiry
with a robust research question. The question, it is argued, will not only give
direction to the study, it will also point toward the kinds of methods that should
be applied to the investigation. Then typically, students are walked through the
essential distinctions between qualitative and quantitative approaches and the
philosophical assumptions that should be brought to the surface of how the inquiry
is theorized and how the methods of the inquiry are developed in the project.
M. Corbett (&)
School of Education, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS B4P 2R6, Canada
e-mail: michael.corbett@utas.edu.au; michael.corbett@acadiau.ca
A. Hill
Ara Institute of Technology, City Campus—Madras Street, PO BOX 540,
Christchurch, Otautahi 8140, New Zealand
e-mail: allen.hill@ara.ac.nz; allen.hill@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_11109
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_11&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_11&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_11&domain=pdf
The turn toward critical forms of inquiry, informed by critical theories of various
kinds, adds complexity in the sense that research questions often contain unac-
knowledged and unrecognized political assumptions. With notable exceptions (Carr
and Kemmis 1986), action research is derived from the pragmatist tradition in
which particular ‘problems of practice’ are situated at the centre of the research act.
Yet, it is also clear to us that the question of how problems are framed, and whose
problems they are in the first place (Mertins 2010), involves politically and con-
textually situated choices made under increasingly challenging political circum-
stances (West and Crookes 2017). One part of good social science research is
developing an acute sense of reflexivity, or the ability to interrogate one’s own
biases, assumptions and implicit theory as well as socio-political positioning. By
doing this work, a researcher employing action research implicitly moves into a
political or critical frame.
The question that drove Corbett’s (2001) doctoral research was, ‘Who stays and
who leaves rural communities and what role does education play in the process?’ At
one level, this question is simple and straightforward. Yet this is a question that the
research act itself only went a short way toward answering. It should be obvious for
instance, that this would be a difficult question to answer for all rural communities.
Thus, ‘Which rural communities?’ is one issue. Another is: ‘What is a rural com-
munity anyway?’ A third is: ‘What does it mean to leave?’ Enormous conceptual
complexity starts to emerge whenwe explore a rich research question. Fundamentally
though, action research is informed by the pragmatist tradition that tends to be pri-
marily interested inwhat are today called problems of practice, and subsequently how,
in complex institutional and social environments, these problems can be actively
addressed through research (Carr andKemmis 1986; Labaree 2003;McKernan 2013).
On one hand, quantitative research is fundamentally concerned with asking
questions that can be answered deductively through an analysis of numerical data.
Qualitative research, on the other hand, is typically concerned with answering ques-
tions that cannot be adequately answered through quantification, but which require an
inductive linguistic engagement and more of an investigation into the nuances of the
meanings people assign to phenomena. For instance, quantitative research questions
might explore the rates of retention or PISA (Programme for International Student
Assessment) scores in a particular student population. A qualitative analysis, alter-
natively, might delve into why in a particular community, or sub-population within the
community, PISA scores or retention rates are high or low, or even what different
people make of the test itself. Finally mixed methods projects of various sorts can also
work abductively formulating questions through inductive analysis and testing them
deductively (Timmermans and Tavory 2012). It is these latter two sorts of investi-
gation that are prevalent throughout this section and indeed, throughout this book.
As a practice-oriented field, education doubles as an academic discipline, at least
in the Anglo-American tradition that has shaped educational inquiry in Australia,
New Zealand, the United States, and Canada, and as such it remains intimately
connected with professional teaching practice and its problems. Indeed, in the
action research tradition, it is the practical problems encountered by professionals
working in complex situations that are considered to be the appropriate and
110 M. Corbett and A. Hill
generative starting point of a research project. Because the problems faced by
modern professionals are layered and ‘wicked’ (Rittel & Webber 1973), it can be
difficult if not impossible to answer, the problems themselves are worthy of
ongoing systematic investigation that is shared with colleagues forming part of an
emerging, generative, research-oriented approach to professional practice itself.
Thus, in action research, professional practice becomes research.
The logic of the inquiry chosen in action research is significant because it belies
the researcher’s particular approach to the problem as well as his or her particular
position in the research act. If the lens is drawn into focus on the meaning-making
activity of individuals and/or small groups, the researcher makes some assumptions
about the best way to understand the problem, and indeed, about the nature of social
reality and of knowledge production itself. A rough way of framing this is in terms
of realist and idealist ontologies that pragmatist social research sought to bridge.
The situated approach we are describing above assumes an ontology that accords
importance to understanding the way agents consciously construct meaning within
the social situations in which they live and work. This ontology points the
researcher to questions, theory and method that focus on interpretation and con-
struction, and ultimately, to the improvement of practice.
To assume a realist ontology (typically, but not exclusively associated with
quantitative analysis) is to tend to see the world as a place where forces (economic,
psychological, linguistic, mythic, etc.) operate ‘behind the back’ of ordinary per-
ceiving social actors. These ‘forces’may be the structural features that are uncovered
by a macro analysis of the structuring structures (Bourdieu 1989) such as the eco-
nomic position, gender, race, psychological or developmental predisposition of
groups of people. In critical education analysis, the structures operating behind the
backs of ordinary people have to do with the exploitative structures within capitalist
societies, or in the discursive and institutional practices through which subjectivities
are formed. Still, as critical realists point out, to adopt such an ontology does not
necessarily signal epistemological uniformity, but rather a conscious approach to
reflexivity and relevance that recognizes the interplay of structure and agency
(Archer 2000, 2012; Fenwick et al. 2011). In other words, we can accept that an
external reality exist independent of our constructions and linguistic devices, but that
there are, at the same time, many ways which are appropriate to making sense of this
reality. As Haraway (1988) pointed out some years ago, multiple perspectives on
reality do not deny objectivity, but rather, we become more objective when we
examine a social phenomenon from a number of angles and using different methods.
Today, many educational researchers are focused on practical problems, be they
at the level of policy, curriculum or instructional practice. Many, if not most
graduate or higher degree research (HDR) students in education come out of a field
of practice (teaching and/or educational administration) and wish to understand
their experience, and ultimately contribute in some way to the improvement of
teaching and learning. This is, as Biesta (2015) points out, one of the legacies of the
Anglophone tradition in educational research, which has been closely aligned with
the education of teachers and system improvement as opposed to the system
analysis, and critique which characterize the Germanic tradition of educational
11 Action Research and Criticality: Working Out the Stone … 111
research. At the same time though, it seems to us that most people who find their
way into educational research are also driven by a discomfort (sometimes profound)
with the way educational institutions work. Higher degree research students are
often, as Neilsen (1994) puts it, doing research to try and work out a ‘stone in our
shoe’. These chapters each contains31 Emma
Buchanan
Genealogical;
interpretive;
historical; visual and
material-spatial
analysis
Post-structural;
post-foundational
Foucauldian theory;
post-foundational historical
perspectives
32 Laura
Rodriguez
Castro
Visual ethnography
and participatory
research
De(s)colonial
feminist
paradigm and
visual methods
De(s)colonial reflexive paradigm
33 Melissa Joy
Wolfe
Filmic method Re/active
documentary
Karen Barad’s new materialist
agential realism
34 Sarah Doyle Participant
observation, and
interviews
Sociomaterial Karen Barad’s
ontological-ethical-epistemological
framework
35 Steven
Lewis
Qualitative Critical Critical/poststructural, focusing on
topological spatiality
(continued)
xiv Classification of Thesis Structure Chapters
(continued)
Chapter Research
student
Method Paradigm for
action/data
collection
Theory/paradigm for analysis and
interpretation
36 Jo
Higginson
Qualitative
longitudinal research
(QLR) and narrative
inquiry methods
Interpretive Inductive, drawing principles and
ideas from biographical methods,
oral history and narrative enquiry
37 Ee-Seul
Yoon
Multi-site
ethnography
Critical policy
studies
Bourdieu and the imaginary
38 Mary
O’Dowd
Participant
observation
ethnography
Interpretative
cultural
deconstructive
Reflective critical cultural interface
ethnography
Classification of Thesis Structure Chapters xv
Editors and Contributors
About the Editors
David Kember is Professor in Education: Curriculum Methods and Pedagogy in
the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania. Prior to that he worked in
Hong Kong for 25 years. The initial position was at the Polytechnic University,
then Chinese University and finally as a Professor in Higher Education at the
University of Hong Kong. He spent six years running an inter-institutional initia-
tive, operating across the eight universities in Hong Kong, known as the Action
Learning Project, which supported 90 action research projects in which teachers
introduced a wide variety of initiatives aiming to improve the quality of student
learning. His research in the following areas has been particularly highly cited:
student approaches to learning and the influence of teaching and assessment on
them; the Chinese and Asian learner; motivation; reflective thinking; teachers’
beliefs about and approaches to teaching; action learning and research for teaching
quality improvement; distance and online learning.
Michael Corbett is an educational sociologist whose work draws on social theory,
as well as historical and geographic traditions. He has worked in the School of
Education at Acadia University in Canada since 2002 with a three-year sojourn at
the University of Tasmania (2015–2017) where he held a research professorship in
rural and regional education, and where he continues to hold an adjunct
professorship. His work focuses principally on rural education, and he is a global
leader in this field. He has studied youth educational decision-making, mobilities
and education, the politics of educational assessment, literacies in rural contexts,
improvisation and the arts in education, the position of rural identities and expe-
rience in education, conceptions of space and place, the viability of small rural
schools, and ‘wicked’ policy problems and controversies in education.
xvii
Contributors
Ananda Aryal School of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS,
Australia
Kim Beasy School of Education, College of the Arts, Law and Education,
University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
Emma Buchanan Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne,
Parkvile, Australia
Rosemary Callingham School of Education, University of Tasmania,
Launceston, Australia
Michael Corbett School of Education, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada
Vaughan Cruickshank Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania,
Launceston, TAS, Australia
Sarah Doyle NHS Education for Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
Lexi Earl School of Education, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Sherridan Emery College of Arts, Law and Education, University of Tasmania,
Launceston, TAS, Australia
Si Fan School of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, Australia
Jill Fielding-Wells Learning Sciences Institute, Australian Catholic University,
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Noleine Fitzallen School of Education, College of Arts, Law, and Education,
University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
Julie Godwin University of New England, Armidale, Australia
Bill Green Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia
Ian Hay School of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
David Hicks Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
Joanne Higginson Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Allen Hill Ara Institute of Technology, Christchurch, Otautahi, New Zealand
Anne Hugo School of Education, College of Arts, Law and Education, University
of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia
MaryAnn Hunter School of Education, College of Arts, Law and Education,
University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia
xviii Editors and Contributors
Stephen Kelly School of Education, University of New England, Armidale, NSW,
Australia
David Kember Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston,
Australia
Kevin Kezabu University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
Sue Kilpatrick University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
Val Kitchener University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
Subhash Koirala Widening Participation Unit, Macquarie University, Sydney,
Australia
Steven Lewis Research for Educational Impact (REDI) Centre, Deakin University,
Burwood, Australia
Abbey MacDonald College of Arts, Law and Education (CALE), University of
Tasmania, Newnham Campus, Launceston, TAS, Australia
Ahmar Mahboob Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney, Sydney,
NSW, Australia
Julie McLeod University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Jenny McMahon School of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston,
TAS, Australia
Mary O’Dowd Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD, Australia;
University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
W. John Phelps University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
Mary Lou Rasmussen School of Sociology, Australian National University,
Canberra, Australia
Robyn Reaburn School of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston,
Australia
Bronwyn Reynolds University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia
Laura Rodriguez Castro Griffith University, Southport, QLD, Australia
Adnan Satariyan University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia
Megan Short School of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS,
Australia
Angela Thomas University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
Damon Thomas University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, Australia
Vinh To University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, Australia
Joan Webb University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Editors and Contributors xix
Danielle Williams School of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart,
Australia
Melissa Joy Wolfe Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC,
Australia
Qian Wu Faculty of Education, College of Arts, Law and Education, University of
Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, Australia
Ee-Seul Yoon Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Louise Zarmati University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
Chris Zehntner Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS,
Australia
xx Editors and Contributors
Part A
Introduction
Chapter 1
Critical Reflections on the Conventional
Thesis Structure and a Guide
to the Research Questions
Addressed in the Book
David Kember
Abstract The chapter describes the voyages of discovery as an examiner and
supervisor which led me to question the suitability of the conventional thesis
structure, devised for the scientific method, for research students in the social
sciences, who generally eschew the scientific method. These personal voyages of
discovery eventually became aa particular stone in the shoe of the researchers
who deal not so much with abstractions or with objectivised system analysis, but
with specific problems emanating from practice.
The political, psychological, sociological, geographic, economic, philosophical
or other key metaphors that they use to think about the world then frame this
discomfort, providing the critical educator with a set of tools to understand it better
(Giroux 1988). Often, these frameworks are unacknowledged and/or unrecognized
theoretical perspectives, and the journey toward a Ph.D., is in large part, a journey
toward finding out what kind of thinker you are, and what kind of theory you use to
view, represent and analyze the world. Many educational researchers work on the
ground with students whose families are significantly disadvantaged in school by
factors that are largely systemic and beyond their control. Others work in diverse
contexts where problems of language and culture form the basis of the questions
that they feel a need to answer.
Theory helps them to make sense of an unequally structured world and the
motivations of individuals operating in social space. But then, because we work with
people day in and day out, the cold, rational, structural or psychological analysis that
often underpins social or learning theory is typically unsatisfying. There can be a
resistance to theory in the sense that this is not the starting place from which typical
novice educational researchers want to begin (and of course, there are exceptions).
Many educational researchers today are interested in inductively generating their
own theory, typically through some form of thematic analysis of qualitative data that
they believe will lead them to a better understanding of the problems(s) they have
posed for themselves, one which will ultimately improve practice. Because of this,
many educational researchers whose work comes out of their own teaching experi-
ence, are interested in action research that has as its fundamental premise, the
improvement of practice through critical reflection and sharing work with colleagues.
This chapter presents an analysis of action research as a generative space that
animates educational research conducted by embedded practitioners, typically in
conjunction with university-based academics. It is our sense that in most instances
both in this section, this book, and indeed, in education research generally, that
problems of practice are more commonly used to frame educational inquiry than the
theoretical preconceptions and structural analysis that drives and shapes most forms
of critical theory. Yet at the same time, it is virtually impossible to imagine action
research or any other pragmatist-inspired form of social inquiry that is not located in
the contested space of politics and theory, precisely because this sort of work is
necessarily and explicitly aligned with the messy and inevitably political world of
practice. Bourdieu puts this rather nicely when he asserts that while agents have an
‘active apprehension of their world’, that ‘they do construct their vision of the
world’, and that the resulting ‘construction is always carried out under structural
constraint’ (1989, p. 18).
112 M. Corbett and A. Hill
Structuring Pragmatic Research Projects
The chapters in this section share in common their investment in problems of
practice and the development of a structure to help the researcher both understand
the problems itself and to develop a way of addressing the problem proactively
through an action research cycle. Interestingly, the first of these research problems
in this section relate to student learning principally in the areas of mathematics and
language learning, and particularly in second language learning in the relatively
contained pragmatic space of the Australian institutional education system. While
the contexts in which these problems are posed vary quite widely, the centrality of
the highly politicised fields of numeracy and language learning sit at the heart of
these inquiries. Moving on through the chapters, the research problems engaged
through action research move out of the school and into the space outside. Here the
‘action’ that is researched is perhaps messier and driven not so much by the
pragmatic concerns of the institutionally located teacher, but rather, by problems in
wider society.
For instance, operating out a pragmatist paradigm, Fitzallen whose work is
featured in the previous section, offers an analysis of her dissertation research that
uses design principles to move from the investigation of a practical problem (how
students use data software to understand covariance), through to thinking theoreti-
cally about how to solve that problem, and then on to an application of the solution.
After an initial research engagement, the whole process then begins again as she
reflects on this approach and works through her research questions as a problem of
design and working evaluation. Her thesis structure differentiates productively
between cyclical inquiry phases (problem-solution-evaluation-reflection) using a
series of six stages that engage the inquiry ultimately designed to understand better
how students learn with data analysis software. The structure of this work is both
emergent and responsive to the way that the researcher learned how to make sense of
her problem as she progressed. Fitzallen’s approach is an excellent example, we
think, of the kind of abductive inquiry that consciously uses a pragmatist paradig-
matic framework to combine inductive and deductive analysis.
Reaburn also takes up a problem of practice in mathematics education. Her
central concern is the struggles experienced by students to actually grasp statistical
concepts as opposed to using ‘formulaic methods’ to solve problems. She took up
this problem as one that is key to her own teaching practice and sought to find what
her students understand about key statistical concepts. To accomplish her aims, like
Fitzallen, Reaburn constructs a design experiment that uses an action research cycle
to continuously generate questions, suggest solutions to be tested, put them to the
test, and finally reflect on the success of the design and examine new problems that
arise to start the cycle again. The political dimension of this methodology has to do
with a commitment to working with teachers and to creating reciprocity and
democratic collaboration between researchers and practitioners.
Satariyan et al. address a problem of practice that is all too familiar to teachers of
English as an additional language, that is, the level of proficiency in written and
11 Action Research and Criticality: Working Out the Stone … 113
spoken English of students who arrive at Anglophone universities and who are
immediately expected to perform linguistically at a very high level. This chapter
reports on how a structure was developed to enact the kind of experientially based
language learning program that is missing for many international students who
arrive at Australian (and other international) universities ill prepared for the lin-
guistic demands of higher degree research, in some measure because of the way
English language teaching is approached in their home countries. The problem is
identified and a pragmatic program is developed to actively address it in the context
of the academy with its particular ways of working, standards of evidence, concern
with theory and methodology, and modes of inquiry. The thesis structure begins by
posing the problem, moving on to thinking about it theoretically, which leads to an
intervention, and then on to describing the action research cycle. Like Reaburn and
Fitzallen, this is a recursive cyclical approach that involves active reflection and
iterative reframing through the research cycles. Again, this is active theorization
derived from an engagement in and with practice.
An important aspect of pragmatically driven research is that it often involves a
teacher’s own search for answersto his or her research questions which are simul-
taneously key problems of practice, or ‘stones in the shoe’ (Neilsen 1994). The work
is consequential for the purposes of improving practice as much as for generating
theoretical knowledge. Indeed, the extent to which action research can and should
produce generalizable theory is an interesting question. Indeed, some if not most
action research actually seem to retreat from making this kind of generic knowledge
claim preferring to focus specifically on an immediate practice context and the
recursive and reflexive work of research-engaged professionals. Yet, following on the
critical turn in action research initiated by Carr and Kemmis (1986) whose influential
book Becoming Critical raised the radical possibility that research could use theory to
frame the problems action researchers investigated. This legacy has resonance in
these chapters and we will turn to it now.
Structuring Political Research Projects
Webb’s study of her implementation of creative writing projects in two residential
aged care facilities (RACF) in Tasmania sought to both investigate the impacts of
creating poetry with participants and also uncover or interrogate how the social,
economic and organisational structures of RACFs marginalised creativity. Based on
the well-accepted premise that creativity is beneficial to wellbeing generally, and
particularly for the mental and emotional health of RACF residents, Webb found
through the action research process that she moved from ‘the practical’ to ‘the
critical’. The problem shifted or evolved in Webb’s study from a focus on how to
improve the practice of care in RACF’s to one of critical examination of the
underlying features of those care facilities. Thus, her research became overtly
political, inspired by the writings of Carr and Kemmis (1986) and Kemmis and
McTaggart (2005), to engage in deliberate social change to transform the worlds of
114 M. Corbett and A. Hill
participants. Although claims of emancipatory power in any action research project
must be treated with caution, the resulting published books of poetry, recitals, and
of course, accompanying positive impacts on wellbeing of participants’ cannot be
underestimated. The challenge for projects such as Webb’s, in the context of this
book, was how to structure a thesis in a way that captured the unfolding narrative of
the research whilst simultaneously extending the political and critical elements of
the process. Webb achieved this through a genealogical approach that created, a
temporal narrative with short critical or theoretical interjections woven throughout.
This innovative style and structure honoured the lived experiences of her partici-
pants in the action research process and met the academic standards expect of
doctoral level work.
Kezabu et al. take up an explicitly political problem and one that has a geo-
graphic foundation. They begins with a theoretically informed concept of indige-
nous knowledge juxtaposed against a colonially-derived, abstract school knowledge
system. The analysis then investigates what happens when place is made central to
education in the Ugandan context. The problem is both immediate and explicitly
political relating directly to the politics associated with deforestation and sustain-
ability in a community she cares about. The research is, in fact, motivated by the
killing of a friend of the researcher herself. The thesis is structured around a stone in
a teacher’s shoe, but one which is a public issue as well as a personal trouble (Mills
2000) as the research is structured to engage an action research cycle in the
transformation of practice through education. This politically engaged and invested,
transformative imperative is the fundamental foundation of the critical approach.
Kezabu embeds herself in the research and works with educators and community
elders (who actually participate in this research) to address a pragmatic and con-
sequential, and highly political problem. The research was structured in such a way
that the problem, which is essentially one of environmental sustainability is
engaged by an assemblage of community actors including elders steeped in
indigenous knowledge and teachers to effect change through education.
The chapter authored by John Phelps developed out of a five-year professional
engagement in Tonga that was not initially conceived as a research project. In the
course of the project though, three central and pragmatic questions arose for Phelps
that, in time, both motivated and shaped his inquiry which took the form of an
action research project with an auroethnographic turn. Methodologically, the piece
follows indigenous scholarship and developed a culturally embedded operational
standpoint that focused on story and a knowledge production process that made
sense in the cultural context of the Tongan education system in which Phelps
worked. Phelps engages action research by subjecting his own meaning-making as
a professional teacher to scrutiny. The actual structure of the thesis reflects and
represents Phelps’ own journey from practice to what might be called the will to
research, through to developing a way to understand data that is personally
meaningful/useful and culturally appropriate.
11 Action Research and Criticality: Working Out the Stone … 115
Conclusion
The idea of practice has long been a preoccupation in social science research, and
we think this is particularly true of much research in education. While considerable
early work in education-related social science research involved psychologically
oriented modes of inquiry, since the 1970s there has been a notable shift toward
studies that take their inspiration and framing from sociological and cultural forms
of analysis. This development of more diverse theoretical and methodological
approaches in educational research still maintained the centrality of the acting
subject and the applied contexts of practice.
The work in this section demonstrates how practice itself can be the ‘motor’ of
research in the sense that it is the location fromwhich research questions are generated.
This is the case in the work of Fitzallen, Reaburn and Satariyan et al. They begin with a
pragmatic problem, not set explicitly in a political context. At the same time though,
the inevitably political idea of change sits beside the foundational idea of practice.
Practice them becomes both the motor and the object of change itself. It is practice that
poses the problems and it is through an intentional form of inquiry into practice that
change is affected. This reflects Stenhouse’s (1975) classic definition of action
research as critical inquiry into practice made public. For some projects, such as that of
Webb, the political work of the research can evolve to becomemore explicit over time.
Yet for others, an inquiry into practice can be explicitly political from the outset as is
the case with the work of Kezabu in this section. For Kezabu the stone in her shoe was
born out of deep-seated dissatisfaction with current educational practice and the
impact that had on both the human and more-than-human world. Her work also
elucidated fundamental epistemological problems concerning how to motivate the
production and integration of place-based indigenous knowledge into classroom
practice, which inevitably raises questions about who may speak in educational
spaces, whose knowledge counts and how this knowledge is counted.
How to structure theses in such a way that honours the pragmatic while at the same
time motivating honest critical reflection and a commitment to improvement in
teaching and learning is an ongoing and persistent problem.Wewould argue, and this
is probably the case across the somewhat arbitrary sections into which the editors
have organised the work in this volume, that finding a way to answer this problem is
the methodological task that faces most doctoral students in education. While the
action research cycle is relatively simple and straightforward,practice is not. Nor
does practice offer an easy and reproducible framework for organising a thesis. This
is the dilemma that doctoral students in education must solve as they work through
how they will conduct their inquiry, how they analyse the data they gather along the
way and how they will write up their conclusions. Conducting research into practice,
thus, is both an art and a science, which requires the active construction of a
methodology that answers research questions by taking practice to a new level.
Such work inevitably moves beyond the structural to consider questions of
interpretation and representation. Given that educators practical knowledge is most
often revealed in narrative form (Hart 2008), how a researcher might interpret and
116 M. Corbett and A. Hill
represent such narratives in an authentic and trustworthy manner is of central
concern. In an action research context where research data is often generated dia-
logically, and where the researcher is considerably invested in the process, there is a
need to reflexively recognise the value-laden subjective nature of research
exchanges. How to present those exchanges in ways that recognise the subjectivity
of peoples’ perspectives, experiences or practices is a challenge that accompanies
decisions made regarding thesis structure. In action research, as in all social science
research, representational decisions are made related to who is represented in the
research, what that representation looks like, and how such representations con-
tribute to the overall conclusions of a thesis. The chapters that make up this section,
either explicitly or implicitly, wrestle with issues of representation through the
structural configurations of thesis documents.
The relationship between the research question and literature is taken up by
Kember in the final chapter of this book. In much action research, the practical
problem is the starting point; theory emerges from the research act itself, and lit-
erature tends to be employed following a less theoretically-driven inquiry. In an
important sense, this orientation follows both the critical pragmatism inspired
through the 20th century in educational research by Dewey (Kadlec 2007), and Marx
and Engels’ (1998/1845) foundational 19th century invocation that the point is not to
study the world, but to change it. Yet, we find in these chapters dealing with the
actual structuring and writing up of the thesis, that theory and literature appears to
play a role throughout the process and it is used in a number of different ways
throughout the research process. Rather than theory driving practice or practice
driving theory what we find is a process in which practice is understood, and indeed
challenged, through inquiry that is theoretically informed. Doctoral work is ulti-
mately theoretical in the sense that some kind of quality knowledge claim is a
generally accepted standard for judging the strength of a dissertation. What the
action research movement has helped to introduce is the idea that professional
practice itself is an appropriate venue for research and that its improvement through
reflective inquiry is both valuable for the profession and its practitioners, but also for
academic knowledge more generally. Additionally, the action research tradition
provides researchers with an embedded or integrated professional strategy for pro-
moting collegial conversations which lead ultimately to managed, intentional,
democratic social change (Carr and Kemmis 1986; Greenwood and Levin 2006).
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research (pp. 559–603). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
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Publishing.
Michael Corbett is an educational sociologist whose work draws on social theory, as well as
historical and geographic traditions. He has worked in the School of Education at Acadia University
in Canada since 2002 with a three-year sojourn at the University of Tasmania (2015–17) where he
held a research professorship in rural and regional education, and where he continues to hold an
adjunct professorship. Corbett’s work focuses principally on rural education and he is a global leader
in this field. He has studied youth educational decision-making, mobilities and education, the politics
of educational assessment, literacies in rural contexts, improvisation and the arts in education, the
position of rural identities and experience in education, conceptions of space and place, the viability
of small rural schools, and ‘wicked’ policy problems and controversies in education.
118 M. Corbett and A. Hill
http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0013189X032004013
AllenHill is a Principal Lecturer in Sustainability and Outdoor Education at ARA Institute of
Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand. Dr. Hill joined the team at ARA in July, 2016 from the
University of Tasmania, Australia, where he holds an adjunct Senior Lecturer position in the
Faculty of Education. Dr. Hill’s professional career can be characterized by an enduring
commitment to the development of people through education coupled with a strong concern for
issues of justice, sustainability, transformation, and citizenship. How education can engage people
with meaningful outdoor learning experiences and contribute to a sustainable future through
connecting people with each other and with the places they inhabit is at the heart of his research
and teaching interests.
11 Action Research and Criticality: Working Out the Stone … 119
Chapter 12
Students’ Understanding of Statistical
Inference: Implications for Teaching
Robyn Reaburn
Research Question
What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study of tertiary students’ under-
standing of statistical inference, following an Action Research paradigm?
What Was the Study About?
This thesis arose from my own experiences as a student and then later an instructor
in inferential statistics at the tertiary level. As a student it had taken some time for
me to understand the logic behind the procedures I was following. In particular I
was completely bewildered by the notion of p-values and confidence intervals,
which just happen to be the basis of much of the work in statistics. However, by
following the procedures and learning the right words to say I received high grades.
Once I became an instructor in an introductory statistics course at university it did
not take long for me to realise that the students were having the same problems in
understanding as I had had. These students, like I had before them, used the
formulaic methods they were taught, and used the words they were given, to cover
up their lack of understanding. For example, it is possible to say ‘The 95% con-
fidence interval for the mean blood glucose level for athletes at this university is
between 5.0 and 5.4 mmol/l’ without any idea of what is meant by this. If the
calculations and the terminology are correct then full marks can be obtained.
Once I began my literature search it was immediately obvious that this problem
in statistics education had been known for some time. For example, in 1988
Garfield and Ahlgren had commented on instructors being aware that many of the
R. Reaburn (&)
School of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
e-mail: robyn.reaburn@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_12
121
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students in introductory statistics courses did not understand their courses. In
general, when any topic in mathematics becomes difficult to understand students go
into ‘number crunching’ mode, plugging quantities into a computational formula or
procedure without forming an internal representation of the problem’ (p. 46).
There are, however, issues that are peculiar to statistics that do not occur in other
mathematical topics. Yilmaz (1996) has pointed out that randomness and the dis-
tributions of sample statistics are abstract and harder to understand than many
instructors realise. In addition, the probabilistic, hypothetical reasoning used in
inferential statistics is non-intuitive, and after many years of aiming to get the
‘right’ answers in mathematics, students can find the concept of working within a
non-deterministic world difficult.
The aim of the research described in the thesis was to try and increase students’
understanding of p-values and confidence intervals in a first-year, introductory
statistics course in a tertiary setting. I first came to the research with the question:
Was it possible for students to develop an intuitive understanding of these topics?
As planning for the research developed the research questions were refined to:
1. What are students’ understandings of probability and stochastic processes on
entering university? Are there any differences in understandings between those
students who have studied statistics in their previous mathematics courses and
those who have not?
2. What are students’ understandings of p-values at the end of their first tertiary
statistics unit? How did these understandings change over the time of the study?
3. What are students’ understandings of confidence intervals at the end of their first
tertiary statistics unit? How did these understandings change over the time of the
study?
What Were the Methods, Theories and Paradigms
Employed?
In this research I was going to be the instructor and researcher, therefore Action
Research was the obvious choice. Before the research could be started, however,
I needed to clarify the attitudes and beliefs I was bringing to this research.
The Nature of Knowledge
Before becoming a researcher in education I had been a researcher in the scientific
environment. Therefore I was well used to the scientific paradigm. Within this
paradigm is the idea of positivism, where it is considered that the only phenomena
worth recording are those that be measured. I do not share this positivist view. I do,
however, subscribe to Popper’s (1963) criterion of ‘falsifiability’ (p. 37) of the
nature of valid science. With this criterion ‘statements or systems of statements,
122 R. Reaburn
in order to be ranked as scientific, must be capable of conflicting with possible, or
conceivable observations’ (p. 39). A ‘theory that is not refutable by any conceivable
event is non-scientific’ (p. 36). Therefore any hypotheses I was going to use needed
to be able to be refuted, even if all the evidence that was going to be gathered was
not necessarily measurable. Because of the nature of the data that was collected, the
research used both qualitative and quantitative analyses.
Within the scientific paradigm is the standard scientific experiment where con-
ditions are controlled, treatments are given in known amounts, are replicable, and
contain controls. The objects being studied are randomly allocated to each treat-
ment. This cannot be achieved in education research; even if students are randomly
allocated to different classrooms each class is unique—it has within it a series of
interactions between the individuals that cannot be replicated.
It is argued, however, that educational research is still able to provide genuine,
and indeed scientific, knowledge and this is behind the idea of the design experi-
ment (National Research Council [NRC], 2002). Within a design experiment,
hypotheses are proposed and a series of situations are designed to test these
hypotheses that are then confirmed, refined or refuted (Steffe et al. 2001) during a
period of reflection. If the hypotheses are refined or refuted alternative hypotheses
are then generated which are again subject to test (Shavelson et al. 2003) in a new
cycle of the experiment.
Action Research
From the previous section it is evident that the design experiment is based on a
series of cycles where hypotheses were tested, confirmed, refined and refuted and
then tested again. This is also a characteristic of Action Research (AR) and this
procedure was followed throughout this research. Where the design experiment and
AR differ is that the design experiment is collaborative between the researcher and
practitioner whereas AR is solely practitioner based.
‘Action Research is any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers,
principals…other stakeholders in the teaching/learning environment to gather
information about…how well they teach and how well their students learn’ (Mills2007). AR can sit within the critical paradigm of educational research, where the
aim is of ‘reducing prejudice and increasing democratic behaviours’, such as that
proposed by Kurt Lewin (Noffke 1994, p. 10). AR can also have a practical focus,
where it is ‘assume[d] that teacher researchers are committed to continued pro-
fessional development and…that teacher researchers want to systematically reflect
on their practices’ (Mills 2007, p. 7). As this research was being used to reflect on
and improve teaching practice, this thesis fitted into this practical paradigm.
12 Students’ Understanding of Statistical Inference: Implications … 123
Constructivism
This research was also based on a constructivist theory of learning. There are many
variants of this theory, but they are all based on the idea that students take in knowledge
and adapt it in the light of their own prior knowledge and experience (Krause et al.
2007). It was my experience both as a schoolteacher and university instructor that
students seemed to interpret instructions and learningmaterials in differentways towhat
was intended. In the area of statistical inference it is reflected in the common belief held
by students that a p-value is the probability that the null hypothesis is true. This belief
appears in the educational literature as being a frequent misconception that other
instructors, with other materials, also face (Gliner et al. 2002). It became apparent that
merely telling students that this was incorrect evenwith explanation did not change this
belief. Perkins and Simmons (1988) state that students resist changes to their previous
ideas, andwill even prefer to hold a view of theworld that is internally inconsistent than
tomake such changes. Strike and Posner (1985) explain that it is indeed very difficult to
change a student’s ideas and it may take time to do so.
With these ideas in mind one of the teaching and learning strategies introduced
into research was that of computer simulation with the use of guided discovery
learning (delMas et al. 1999; Lane and Peres 2006). The students were asked to
predict an outcome, then simulated the problem with the use of a computer, and
then compared their answer to what happened later—a ‘query first—answer later’
strategy suggested by Lane and Peres (2006). This was particularly successful in
introducing students to the Central Limit Theorem which states that if the sample
size is large enough sample means belong to a normal distribution. The exercise
was set up so that students would believe that sample means would have the same
distribution as the parent population from which the samples had been taken. They
were then surprised to see that the sample means belonged to a normal distribution
(the familiar bell curve). For each topic in the course the ideas were explored in the
computer laboratory before they were introduced in a formal lecture.
Ethical Issues
Having the instructor and the researcher as the same person leads to ethical issues
that do not necessarily arise in other forms of research. Any research where there
could be a perception by the students that they were being coerced into participation
or that their marks could be affected by non-participation would not be approved by
the Social Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee. I wanted to administer two
questionnaires to the students and to use some answers from their formal tests. The
solution was to have a person from another faculty hand out and collect the consent
forms and questionnaires, and have the students use their student ID numbers only
to identify their tests. After the students’ grades for the course were officially
published I was then given their ID numbers and their questionnaires.
124 R. Reaburn
These restrictions were reasonable but had an unexpected consequence. This was
that the number of students who participated varied from seven to 26 over the four
cycles of the AR and the reasons for this variation cannot be known. This variation
has been queried by the reviewers of all the publications that have arisen from this
research.
Another ethical issue arises from the lack of objectivity that could have resulted
because of my emotional investment in the research. The potential for this lack of
objectivity arises anytime the researcher and instructor are the same person
(Hammersley 1993). Therefore it was important that the coding protocols were
worked out before an analysis of the data was commenced. It did turn out that some
student answers were unexpected and had to be added to the coding, but overall the
protocols remained as originally planned. It was also of assistance that the ques-
tionnaire and test answers to be analysed were in short answer format; this helped
immensely keeping consistency in the analysis of the data.
Structure
Whilst the thesis roughly followed the traditional presentation of literature review,
methodology, presentation of results, and discussion, adaptations had to be made.
The first adaptation was that of having three chapters for the literature review so that
the differing facets behind understanding probability and inferential statistics could
be described and analysed. Because the thesis was about student learning and
understanding another chapter describing learning theories was included. As
computer simulation was important feature of the research a chapter on the use of
guided discovery learning and simulation was added. In addition, part of the
quantitative analysis was carried out by Rasch Analysis (Masters and Wright 1997)
therefore a chapter on measurement theory and the basis of Rasch Analysis was
included. Such an analysis placed the questionnaire items on an interval scale in
order of difficulty.
Some weeks were spent pondering how the results would be presented. I decided
that the results also needed to be divided into more than one chapter. The first two
results chapters consisted of a qualitative and a quantitative analysis of the two
questionnaires that had been administered to the students. The next chapter
described the analysis (quantitative and qualitative) of the development of students’
understanding of p-values over the cycles of the research, and last chapter of results
described the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the students’ understanding of
confidence intervals.
Whilst the results chapters appear on the surface to be straightforward, the
cyclical nature of the research meant that some of the findings needed to be
included in the methodology chapter. It was otherwise difficult to make sense of the
description of the refinement of the teaching hypotheses and changes to the inter-
ventions without describing what had happened before. With my supervisor, I had
12 Students’ Understanding of Statistical Inference: Implications … 125
decided that clarity was more important than tradition. This combination of the
results and methodology, however, was not liked by one of the examiners but
remained as is for the final publication of the thesis. As a result of these issues
(thoughts) etc. The final thesis had the layout shown in Table 12.1.
Commentary
Whilst discussing AR in a teaching context, Mills (2007) states that ‘The act of
putting information on paper for you peers necessitates honesty, clarity, and
thought, thereby encouraging you to create a better product than if you had simply
made a mental note of your action research as you left school at the end of the day’
(p. 164). From my experience this is certainly true; a great deal of thought was
required to achieve the clarity I wished to achieve. I also had to admit that some of
the interventions in the cycles did not work as well as I had hoped. The relatively
straightforward structure of this thesis does not reflect the weeks of thought (whilst
walking my dog) as I wrestled with how to present the mass of information required
to explain the context for the research, and how to report all of the findings. The
structure as presented here was the last in a series of severalattempts.
In summary, this chapter describes the challenges involved with the planning,
the ethics and the writing of this thesis. It demonstrates how the resulting product,
whilst seemingly simple, can be the result of much trial and error.
Table 12.1 Structure of the thesis: Students’ understanding of statistical inference: Implications
for teaching
Contents page
Part A Introduction, Literature review and Study design
Chapter 1 Introduction: Why do this research?
Chapter 2 Literature review Part I: Statistical reasoning
Chapter 3 Literature review Part II: The nature of learning
Chapter 4 Literature review Part III: Measurement in the social sciences
Chapter 5 The use of computer technology in statistics
Chapter 6 The study design
Part B Results
Chapter 7 Results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the first questionnaire
Chapter 8 Results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the second questionnaire
Chapter 9 An analysis of students’ understanding of P-values
Chapter 10 An analysis of students’ understanding of confidence intervals
Part C Discussion and conclusions
Chapter 11 Discussion with implications for teaching
Chapter 12 A personal reflection
126 R. Reaburn
References
delMas, R., Garfield, J., & Chance, B. (1999). A model of classroom research in action:
Developing simulation activities to improve students’ statistical reasoning. Journal of Statistics
Education, 7(3). Retrieved from http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse.
Garfield, J., & Ahlgren, A. (1988). Difficulties in learning basic concepts in probability and statistics:
Implications for research. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 19(1), 44–63.
Gliner, J., Leech, N., & Morgan, G. (2002). Problems with null hypothesis significance testing
(NHST): What do the textbooks say? The Journal of Experimental Education, 71(1), 83–92.
Hammersley, M. (1993). On the teacher as researcher. Educational Action Research, 1(3), 425–445.
Krause, K., Bochner, S., & Duchesne, S. (2007). Educational psychology for learning and
teaching. South Melbourne, VIC: Thomson.
Lane, D., & Peres, S. (2006). Interactive simulations in the teaching of statistics: Promise and
pitfalls. In Phillips B (Ed.), Developing a statistically literate society (Proceedings of the 7th
international conference on teaching statistics, Salvador, Brazil) [CDRom]. Voorburg, The
Netherlands: International Statistics Institute.
Masters, G., & Wright, B. (1997). The partial credit model. In W. van der Linden & R. Hambleton
(Eds.), Handbook of modern item response theory (pp. 101–122). New York: Springer.
Mills, G. (2007). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher. Upper Saddle River NJ:
Merrill Prentice Hall.
National Research Council. (2002). Scientific research in education. Washington DC: National
Academy Press.
Noffke, S. (1994). Action research: Towards the next generation. Educational Action Research,
2(1), 9–21.
Perkins, D., & Simmons, R. (1988). Patterns of misunderstanding: An integrative model for
science, math and programming. Review of Educational Research, 58(3), 303–326.
Popper, K. (1963). Conjectures and refutations. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Shavelson, R., Phillips, D., Towne, L., & Feuer, M. (2003). On the science of education design
studies. Educational Researcher, 32(1), 25–28.
Steffe, L., Thompson, P., & Von Glaserfield, E. (2001). Teaching experiment methodology:
Underlying principles and essential elements. In S. Carver & D. Klahr (Eds.), Cognition and
instruction: Twenty-five years of progress (pp. 205–226). Mahwah, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum and
Associates.
Strike, K., & Posner, G. (1985). A conceptual change view of learning and understanding.
In L. West & A. Pines (Eds.), Cognitive structure and conceptual change (pp. 259–266).
New York: Academic Press.
Yilmaz, M. (1996). The challenge of teaching statistics to non-specialists. Journal of Statistics
Education, 4(1). Retrieved from http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse.
Robyn Reaburn is a lecturer in Mathematics Education at the University of Tasmania. Her Ph.D.
thesis, Students’ Understanding of Statistical Inference: Implications for Teaching, examined
students’ understanding of confidence intervals and P-values in a first-year tertiary statistics
course. This thesis was undertaken at the University of Tasmania under the supervision of Jane
Watson, Kim Beswick and Rosemary Callingham. Previously she has taught in high schools, in
Technical and Further Education, and at the Australian Maritime College. In addition, she was a
lecturer in statistics in the Discipline of Mathematics at the University of Tasmania, where her
interest in this Ph.D. arose. She also has a Masters Research degree which examined the
relationship between pollution levels and visits to the Launceston General Hospital by people with
respiratory illnesses. Prior to becoming an educator she worked in hospital laboratories
specialising in haematology.
12 Students’ Understanding of Statistical Inference: Implications … 127
http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse
http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse
Chapter 13
The Design and Implementation
of a Short Course, Focusing
on Metacognition, to Develop Writing
Skills for University Students for Whom
English Is an Additional Language:
An Action Research Study
Adnan Satariyan, Bronwyn Reynolds and David Kember
Research Question
What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study of designing a short course to
develop the writing skills of EAL university students to cope with the university
assignments when following the interpretive and critical paradigms and adopting
action research methodology?
What Was the Study About?
The aim of this research was to design a constructively aligned short writing course
for English as an additional language (EAL) learners, to encourage a perceived
level of competence in writing academic assignments for their discipline.
The course was designed and implemented through eight reflective action research
cycles totalling eight teaching sessions. This also enabled me, as the teacher/
researcher, to reflect on and improve my pedagogical practices, along with
improvements for the EAL participants’ writing skills.
A. Satariyan (&) � B. Reynolds
University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia
e-mail: Adnan.Satariyan@utas.edu.au
B. Reynolds
e-mail: Bronwyn.Reynolds@utas.edu.au
D. Kember
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
e-mail: David.Kember@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_13
129
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_13&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_13&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_13&domain=pdf
Most EAL students spend many years of formal English instruction at school
and/or language institutions. They, however, tend to lack proficiency in English
language skills to complete written assignments with academic rigour, when
English is the medium of instruction. The impetus for developing a short course for
these EAL learners, therefore, was to support them academically and to implement
change and improved practices in this area.
The results from this study identified the need to develop a short writing course
with some attention also given to improving EAL students’ metacognition (thinking
about thinking). The course was developed in accordance with the principles of
constructive alignment. This was to ensure that intended learning outcomes for the
course were effective, clear and purposeful and that learning activities were
developed in alignment with these outcomes. To examine the progress of partici-
pants’ learning, their final written assignments were assessed using the Structure of
the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) Taxonomy framework. Changes in
epistemological beliefs were also consideredwhen examining the knowledge
development of the participants during the course of intervention. The action plan
implemented was effective in developing participants’ writing proficiency, along
with gaining more sophisticated epistemological beliefs about the knowledge of
writing skills over the eight teaching sessions/cycles. The shift in participants’
epistemological beliefs appeared to be related to the improved learning outcomes
and the quality of their writing, which were assessed by the SOLO Taxonomy. This
may have also contributed to the development in the quality of participants’
knowledge of writing skills.
The findings also showed that participants learn writing skills better in a more
experiential and discovery-based approach, rather than focusing on the mechanics
of writing (i.e. rules for punctuation, capitalisation, spelling, and grammar). A shift
in participants’ epistemological beliefs, the development of their learning outcomes
through the use of the SOLO Taxonomy, the quality of their final written assign-
ment, and their perceptions concerning the teaching sessions provide supporting
evidence for the effectiveness of the course.
The study appropriated a very demanding challenge in addressing the needs of
EAL students, who received English instruction throughout their schooling, yet
were still unable to write assignments to the expected standard. It seems that
students have a very small amount of time available to undertake a supplementary
bridging course. The design of this course, therefore, needed to attain in eight
sessions what their schooling had been unable to achieve.
What Was the Method?
A reflective action research model (Satariyan and Reynolds 2016) was implemented
within a class of four undergraduate EAL learners. Participants in the study were
invited to attend eight teaching sessions. Each session was then considered as one
130 A. Satariyan et al.
action research cycle. An analysis of each cycle included four reflective steps—plan
of action, implementation of action, observation and interpretation, and recom-
mendations for future actions. All teaching sessions were based on an identified
teaching or learning issue with respect to writing skills. An additional focus was the
participants’ need to reflect on and revise a plan of action to implement and evaluate
in order to affect improvements for future actions/cycles.
The teaching sessions, with a focus on metacognitive strategies, were designed
to provide information about academic writing skills applicable for these EAL
students. The first three teaching sessions focused on brainstorming the essay
question(s), the key features of an academic text (personal opinion and academic
position), the difference between description and analysis and the development of
critical thinking and problem solving skills. The next three sessions focused on
developing participants’ inductive and deductive thinking, including the importance
of the student voice in assignments. The final two sessions included a greater
emphasis on practical and concrete skills required to write academic assignments at
university level.
What Were the Theories and Paradigms Employed?
Through the reflection on the different philosophical underpinnings of educational
research, I was able to discover my own purpose for undertaking research.
I discovered that I had aligned my practice of EAL writing skills with the critical
paradigm. That was because I wanted my practice to effect change, develop stu-
dents’ writing skills and generally I would have liked to see how pedagogy related
to developing cognitive and meta-cognitive writing strategies and how these
developments affected university English as additional language learners’
(EAL) perceptions about their writing skills. The methodology employed in this
study was action research, which draws on the paradigms of critical theory. McNiff
and Whitehead’s (2005) claim about action research has motivated and supported
the idea. They assert that action research is an approach to personal and professional
development that enables practitioners to evaluate their own practice. In addition,
Whitehead (2009) and McNiff and Whitehead (2000) assert that action research
constitutes a look at the questions in the class of things, which disturb us, and try to
find a solution. The teacher’s position is not only as teacher but also as researcher.
The teacher can develop professional competence as well as improve students’
learning through action research (McNiff and Whitehead 2002; Satariyan and
Reynolds 2016).
13 The Design and Implementation of a Short Course, Focusing … 131
Structure
This research study involved four parts that were consistent with a macro level
action research cycle. The first part (A) concerned my initial reflection and was
about creating a link between my journey as an EFL learner and the recent expe-
riences with teaching English to EFL and ESL learners. After identifying the action
research problems in part A, I considered the aspects that needed to be incorporated
into the plan of action for the mini course. This resulted in an extensive literature
review, which was included with the theoretical framework in part B. The next part
(C) was the action cycles and within that I had a series of micro cycles for the
teaching sessions. Each micro cycle included four stages: the plan of action; the
implementation of action; observation and interpretation (micro level); and rec-
ommendations for future actions. Finally part D was the concluding reflection in
which I reflected on the process of the action research (macro level) and plan for the
mini course implemented in part C.
The structuring of chapters and style of writing for this action research thesis was
quite different to the traditional construction of a thesis. I needed to work out a more
appropriate trajectory to explore the multi layers, elements and complex nature of the
study. My supervisors informed me that the chapters found in a traditional thesis,
such as an introduction, literature review, methodology, data analysis, results, dis-
cussion and conclusion would be best located in different places in the thesis and
written in a narrative style. So I knew I had to rework parts of the structure, of a
traditional thesis that I had already drafted, into easily digestible and story-like parts
and chapters. Supervisory meetings were an opportunity for me to discuss my pro-
gress and advise my supervisors of any problems in relation to the process of my
thesis writing. It was suggested that chapter one, for example, ought to be about
setting the scene and telling the story about the issue. It should explain the rationale
for the course of action and how it differed from other modes of teaching. Chapter
two should include how I investigated the issue, which previously had been dis-
cussed in chapter one. Another consideration, for example, was that Part C of
the thesis should reflect the actions that were implemented. It needed to include the
details about the teaching sessions, the tasks set/discussed with students, the
preparation and what I delivered from my lesson plans. It was not easy for me to
move away from the traditional format of writing to an action research style of
writing and thesis construction. I moved to a structure consistent with the four steps
in the action research cycle, which included initial reflections, building towards a
plan, action, and concluding reflections. Within the action part, I also used a four-part
structure including a plan of action, an implementation of action, observation and
interpretation, and recommendations for future actions. The chapters within each part
required a different writing style. I laboured over each part in the first chapter
particularly, and it took a few iterations to master a narrative style of writing. Other
chapters generally followed more easily once this style was understood.
132 A. Satariyan et al.
Contents page
Part A Initial reflections
Chapter 1 My story
Chapter2 The initial reflection and trigger for my Ph.D. investigation
Chapter 3 The second reflection
Chapter 4 My research dimension and questions
Part B Building towards a plan
Chapter 5 Shifting paradigms in pedagogy of writing skills
Chapter 6 The theory of learning applied in this study
Chapter 7 Review of metacognitive literature
Chapter 8 Description of the plan
Part C Action
Chapter 9 First Cycle
Chapter 10 Second cycle
Chapter 11 Third cycle
Chapter 12 Fourth cycle
Chapter 13 Fifth cycle
Chapter 14 Sixth cycle
Chapter 15 Seventh cycle
Chapter 16 Eighth cycle
Part D Concluding reflections
Chapter 17 Reflection on curriculum design and pedagogy of the short course
Chapter 18 Impact of the course on the participants
Chapter 19 My Journey
Chapter 20 Contribution to new knowledge
Commentary
Upon commencing this research, I actually had limited knowledge of action
research. I had been familiar with more positivist and naturalistic perspectives. In
fact, I was a naturalist with a scientific background in research. Being encouraged to
read more about action research, however, and listening to some action research
stories from my supervisors, paved the way for me and I started to feel quite excited
about the possibility of conducting my own research using this method.
Traditional research, also known as experimental or quantitative research, as I
remember it as a student while completing a masters’ of the TEFL program, is a
systematic process that demands a standard scientific method. In my masters’ thesis,
I identified a problem, formed some research questions, reviewed the research
literature and conducted the research, analysed the findings and then provided
responses for the research questions. Traditional educational research is generally
conducted by researchers or scientists from outside the organisation, whose goal is
to remain objective and offer generalised truths (Stringer 2014).
13 The Design and Implementation of a Short Course, Focusing … 133
My initial Ph.D. proposal included a qualitative case study methodology. Like
most other qualitative researchers, my Ph.D. proposal was primarily exploratory.
I was interested in gaining an understanding of the academic challenges concerning
writing skills for ESL students. After I had reviewed the recent literature on the
topic, I decided to write my second chapter titled ‘review of literature’ (as in the
traditional style of thesis writing). My story changed before the data collection
process. There was a change in my supervisory team as one of my supervisors was
unable to take the lead due to his retirement status. That was when I was introduced
to action research as a methodology. I believed quantitative and/or qualitative data
would have been beneficial to my initial research proposal. However, would it
expedite change and improvement within my EAL classroom? Could it help my
practice? This was when I thought an action research study could prove to be highly
beneficial in my practice, by promoting my pedagogical skills and fostering positive
attitudes towards the writing skills of my EAL students.
Action research created a strong interface between theory and practice (Johnson
2012) and helped me to develop new knowledge about my classroom teaching and
practices (Hine 2013). During the action (implementation) stage, for instance,
I developed my teaching practice every session by observing and reflecting. My
findings were then used to revise the teaching materials for future sessions (cycles).
Implementing action research, in this study, also facilitated my empowerment
(Fueyo and Koorland 1997). According to Zeichner (2003) teachers are empowered
when they are able to collect their own data that can be constructively used for
making future decisions about their classrooms. My participation in the determi-
nation of classroom objectives and discussions enabled me to exercise professional
judgment about what and how to teach. This is an example of how action research
helped me to become empowered. My research findings have shown that the
writing skills of the EAL participants have been improved due to my pedagogy,
which helped to personalise my teaching to the needs of each participant. As
Sweetland and Hoy (2000) affirm, when teachers take actions and make changes in
relation to teaching and learning, student achievement is enhanced. This action
research study was an effective way to improve my professional growth and
development (Hine 2013). I believe the traditional methods of teaching writing
skills did not provide sufficient time, activities, or content to increase knowledge or
affect my practice. Action research has offered a way for me to reflect critically on
my teaching (Birman et al. 2000; Cain and Harris 2013; Hodgson et al. 2013),
stimulate change in my thinking and practice (Zeichner 2003), and promote
self-improvement and self-awareness (Judah and Richardson 2006).
The findings of the study were reported in a literary narrative, with reference to
the participants’ perceptions and contributions (Leedy and Ormrod 2010). Ferrance
(2000) states that in the educational field ‘action research specifically refers to a
disciplined inquiry done by a teacher with the intent that the research will inform
and change his or her practices in the future’ (p. 1). The connection between this
statement and the goals of the research project undertaken are that the research
would lead to a change in my teaching practice and improvement in students’
academic writing abilities. This action research study has traced my development in
134 A. Satariyan et al.
beliefs about knowing and teaching over the eight teaching session course. As I
participated in this practice, my personal epistemological beliefs changed because
of the changes in my teaching practice (Brownlee 2003).
The functionality of an action research, as a strategy for this research study, lies
in the emphasis on change through research (Blaxter et al. 2007). This research
study not only investigated and described a problem experienced in practice (like a
case study would do), but it also focused on how the necessary action, to resolve it,
was achieved. This action was ‘researched and changed’ (Davis 2004, p. 6). Davis
also emphasises another feature of action research, which is the constant need for
critical reflection throughout the process of the research. Critical reflection can be
obtained by regular feedback during the process of the action research. The feed-
back gained from the participants and the cycles, in this study, led to either positive
confirmation of the applied plan of the course or a change of direction. The sys-
tematic observation and interpretation stage also linked in with the cyclical pattern
of action research (Blaxter et al. 2007; Satariyan and Reynolds 2016). I believe that
now I have achieved a more effective practice through changing my role in the
classroom. By carefully listening to the needs of participants, I have improved my
role as a facilitator in a classroom setting. During this action research process, I
often found myself in a dual role with my academic goals and responsibilities. I tried
to create change in the participants’ thinking and approach to learning (epistemo-
logical beliefs) as a type of evolution in the way students learn in the classroom.
I became frustrated and discouraged as I was lost and did not know how to start
writing about my journey. The role of my supervisors in encouraging action research
as an integral part of my academic development should not be neglected. Their
constructive feedback, comments and suggestions helped me to find an appropriate
writing structure for this action research journey. It nearly took three months for me to
determine what style would be the most appropriate for my action research project.
I used to send the drafts of the chapters to my supervisors prior to every supervisory
meeting. Supervisors also monitoredmy progress in every supervisorymeeting. They
helped me to set anagenda that gave a structure for what I needed to mention and
helped me to not forget to consider any important issue in relation to my intervention
and journey. In this way, my supervisors acted as critical friends by helping me to
developmy action research thesis writing skills. It was important forme to seek advice
frommy supervisors in the process of collaborative inquiry to advance the developing
research effort. I found that it was extremely helpful to have some ‘critical friends’
who worked with me to help define the research problem, formulate the questions,
collect and analyse the data, and discuss the data and outcomes of the study.
Step by step, I tried to develop my understanding of writing the thesis in
accordance with an action research style. As another example, I was always
advised, in my masters’ of TEFL program that the convention in scientific methods
of academic writing was to write with minimal reference to myself as an author.
The reason for this lies in a tradition of needing to present work ‘objectively’, as the
work of an unbiased researcher. So, one of the features of the traditional thesis
writing was a general absence of the first person pronoun ‘I’. Moreover, I had to
remove the abundant use of passive voice e.g. ‘it is shown’ or ‘it is implied’, or to
13 The Design and Implementation of a Short Course, Focusing … 135
use phrases referring to my study, e.g. ‘the present study’, ‘this study’. Readers of
scientific papers are interested primarily in scientific facts, not in who established
them. This was very difficult, as my supervisors often said to me, ‘it is your
journey; you need to narrate that in a story type style’. They often reminded me that
an action research project required narrative and self-reflective methods of writing.
Therefore, I came to the understanding that self-reflective action research projects
are usually written up in the first person. Undergoing these changes was difficult.
I needed to undergo a perspective transformation equivalent to the change in
epistemological beliefs of my participants.
Generally, this journey is very consistent with the action research process.
Kemmis and McTaggart (1988, p. 5) define action research as:
Action research is a form of collective self-reflective [inquiry] undertaken by participants in
social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or
educational practices, as well as their understanding of these practices and the situations in
which these practices are carried out.
In struggling towritemy thesis I undertook a journey of discoverywith respect tomy
own writing. I had to unlearn a lot of what I had been previously taught and master the
very skills I was trying to teach in the short course.My journey improvedmypractice as
a teacher and researcher and considerably enhanced my academic writing skills. The
journey developed my understanding of EAL teaching, research methodology and
academic writing to the extent that I experienced a major transformation in my per-
spective.My self-reflective inquiry was guided by supervisors acting as critical friends.
References
Birman, B. F., Desimone, L., Porter, A. C., & Garet, M. S. (2000). Designing professional
development that works. Journal of Educational Leadership, 57(8), 28–33.
Blaxter, L., Hughes, C., & Tight, M. (2007). How to research (3rd ed.). Berkshire, UK:
McGraw-Hill Education.
Brownlee, J. (2003). Paradigm shifts in pre-service teacher education students: Case studies of
changes in epistemological beliefs. Australian Journal of Educational & Developmental
Psychology, 3, 1–6.
Cain, T., & Harris, R. (2013). Teachers’ action research in a culture of performativity. Journal of
Educational Action Research, 21(3), 343–358.
Davis, J. (2004). Writing an action research thesis: One researcher’s resolution of the problematic
of form and process. In E. McWilliam, U. Danby & J. Knight (Eds.), Performing educational
research: Theories, methods and practices (pp. 15–30). Flaxton, Queensland, Australia: Post
Pressed Company.
Ferrance, E. (2000). Themes in education: Action research. Providence, Rhode Island, USA: The
Education Alliance: Brown University.
Fueyo, V., & Koorland, M. A. (1997). Teacher as researcher: A synonym for professionalism.
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Adnan Satariyan has completed a thesis on Second Language Education. The chapter about his
thesis was based on a PhD degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL),
completed at the University of Tasmania, Australia under the supervision of Bronwyn Reynolds,
David Kember and John Williamson. He has been a managing editor for the Journal of Language
and Translation in Iran and an AMEP/SEE program trainer and assessor at Max Solutions in
Australia. His research interests centre on research methodology, pedagogy of literacy skills,
psycholinguistics, problems of second language teaching/learning, and action research and
classroom-based studies.
Bronwyn Reynolds is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania.
Her research interests include curriculum and leadership in early childhood education, positive
learning environments, action research and working with students for whom English is an
additional language (EAL). This chapter evolves from a doctoral student’s dissertation that focuses
on developing a short course to support the writing skills for EAL university students.
David Kember is Professor in Education: Curriculum Methods and Pedagogy in the Faculty of
Education at the University of Tasmania. Prior to that he worked in Hong Kong for 25 years. The
initial position was at the Polytechnic University, then Chinese University and finally as a
Professor in Higher Education at the University of Hong Kong. He spent six years running an
inter-institutional initiative, operating across the eight universitiesin Hong Kong, known as the
Action Learning Project, which supported 90 action research projects in which teachers introduced
a wide variety of initiatives aiming to improve the quality of student learning. His research in the
following areas has been particularly highly cited: student approaches to learning and the influence
of teaching and assessment on them; the Chinese and Asian learner; motivation; reflective
thinking; teachers’ beliefs about and approaches to teaching; action learning and research for
teaching quality improvement; distance and online learning.
13 The Design and Implementation of a Short Course, Focusing … 137
Chapter 14
Intersections of Indigenous Knowledge
and Place Based Education: Possibilities
for New Visions of Sustainability
Education in Uganda
Kevin Kezabu, Jenny McMahon, David Kember and Allen Hill
Research Question
What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study of Indigenous Knowledge and
place based education, following the critical paradigm, and adopting participatory
action research?
What Was the Study About?
This doctoral research was guided by the following research questions:
• How can Indigenous Knowledge, practices and values intersect with place-
based education in Ugandan secondary schools?
K. Kezabu (&)
University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
e-mail: kevin.kezabu@utas.edu.au
J. McMahon
School of Education, University of Tasmania, Newnham Campus,
Launceston, TAS 7250, Australia
e-mail: jenny.mcmahon@utas.edu.au
D. Kember
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
e-mail: david.kember@utas.edu.au
A. Hill
Ara Institute of Technology, City Campus—Madras Street, PO BOX 540,
Christchurch, Otautahi 8140, New Zealand
e-mail: allen.hill@ara.ac.nz; allen.hill@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
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• How can teachers use place-based education pedagogies to influence their learners
to reconnect to their community/culture and places inUgandan secondary schools?
• How can community elders contribute to place-based education in their com-
munities in Uganda?
This study pursues the intersection of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and
place-based education in Ugandan secondary schools. In particular, how teachers
use place-based education pedagogies to influence their own as well as their
learners’ reconnection to their communities, cultures and places towards a more
sustainable future. Given the fact that the role of community elders of guardianship
and instruction of IK has been weakened by the formal education system (Semali
1999; Smith and Sobel 2014), this research also explored how community elders
can contribute to place-based education in their communities.
The participants carried out the following three IK learning activities to intersect
IK and place-based education into the formal education setting. The participant
elders were the educators in these activities. The first IK learning activity was the
formation of the Bulungi Bwansi clubs (For the good of the land) in which the
students and teachers restarted the traditional practice of community service, a
practice that had been abandoned just like IK due to the colonial influence. In this
activity, the participants and the students learnt how to make briquettes for cooking,
an alternative to charcoal, in order to save the trees that are threatened by the
rampant charcoal burning trade. When they learnt these skills, the participants and
students took these skills to the communities and trained the people to make their
own skill in addition to telling people the dangers of cutting down trees for char-
coal. The community trainings were part of the Bulungi Bwansi activities.
The second IK learning activity that the participants carried out was to visit and
learn about the Indigenous sacred places. The intention was to relearn the traditional
respect for nature which has been forgotten with the disregard of the IK by the
formal education system. The participant teachers and their students visited the
sacred places where they learned about the historical significance of these places
through historical narratives retold by the participant elders.
And the third and last IK learning activity that the participants carried out was
the learning about the Indigenous foods and plant values around the school
grounds. The elders led the participant teachers and their students around the school
grounds explaining the medicinal values of the Indigenous plants and demon-
strating how some of Indigenous crops were used as well as how they used to be
looked after.
Through these IK learning activities, the participants deliberately integrated IK
into the formal education system. The teachers as well as their students reconnected
to their cultures and places; and in addition, the elders were involved in the edu-
cation of the young people, a role that had been taken away from them by the
formal education system.
140 K. Kezabu et al.
The Genesis of This Research
The doctoral research was born out of the student researcher’s encounter with
Environmental challenges in the country and also the people’s lack of environ-
mental awareness or attachment to place as shown by the unsustainable economic
choices that the majority made.
The Student Researcher’s Narrative
Back home in Uganda, in February 2011, I came face to face with community vs gov-
ernment conflict regarding management of the forest resources. In Mukono, the area I lived,
boarders Mabira forest which is one of the largest forest reserves in Uganda. Mabira forest
is in the same region as the source of the Nile and Lake Victoria, one of the largest fresh
water lakes in the world. In this town, my neighbor’s husband who was a timber trader lost
his life, while saving his son from the National Forest Authority Police squad. The police
shot him as he tried to obstruct them from arresting his son who had been cutting trees
illegally from Mabira forest reserve for the family business.
I witnessed the riots as they raged in the town for three days, bringing to a standstill
businesses, schools and transport because of this incident. Moreover, there had been other
clashes between the police and the townsfolks over police arresting the timber thieves and
confiscating timber that had been illegally cut from the forest. The people that I talked with
believed that the government was unfair in giving the license to cut trees to a few indi-
viduals and not the local people who lived near the forest. In supporting the timber thieves,
the local people did not realize the damage that the timber thieves were doing to the forest,
the ecosystems and its impact on their own well-being.
When I worked as a university lecturer at one of the local universities, I was involved in
writingworkshops held for teachers at the threeUniversity constituent colleges in the different
regions of the country namely; Mbale, Arua and Kabale. In Mbale, I visited the slopes of Mt.
Elgon where they’d had mudslides due to heavy rains on the badly deforested slopes. I talked
with a resident of the area who would not heed the government call to evacuate the dangerous
area on the slopes of the mountain. This elderly lady narrated her story, a narrative that has
been told by generations, about her tribal right to the Mountain. I also saw the problem of
waste disposal in Mbale, the same problem facing many towns in Uganda.
In Arua, I saw malnourished children whose mothers, according to the nurse in the pediatric
section of the hospital, had to walk long distances to look for food. The nurse told me that
for an income the fathers of these children cut down trees to burn charcoal whichcollective voyage, as many research students and
supervisors shared similar concerns about the conventional thesis structure and had
explored alternatives. The voyages led to the formation of four research questions.
These are introduced in the chapter as they are explored through the book. (1) Why
do examiners often find theses hard to read when research students in non-scientific
disciplines adopt the conventional structure of the scientific method? (2) Why do
students in non-scientific disciplines struggle to write up the outcomes of their
research in the conventional structure? (3) What alternative thesis structures can be
devised which better suit the wide range of methods, theories and paradigms
commonly followed in education and the social sciences? (4) What range of
methods, theories and paradigms are commonly adopted by education and social
science students and what issues do these pose when students write their theses?
A Voyage of Discovery
A voyage of discovery going from personal experiences to explore theory and move
in a more or less convoluted way towards identifying research questions is an
appropriate starting point for the book as it is what many, if not most, education
students do. Indeed, it is what many research students in professional disciplines do.
Unlike many science students who go directly from an undergraduate degree to a
research one, education students tend to go into professional practice on graduation,
usually as a teacher. Most stay as teachers, but some become so embroiled with a
D. Kember (&)
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
e-mail: david.kember@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
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particular issue in their professional practice that they move on to investigating or
tackling it through a research degree.
However, they do not move in a flash of insight from recognizing a problem to
researching it. Most struggle with a bundle of complex issues for an extended
period. As often with wicked problems, it is hard to even define the problem,
let alone solve it.
Even when they feel they have taken it far enough to enroll for a research higher
degree, they usually still front up with an ill-defined topic to research. Cook (1998)
writes of the mess of the initial stages of action research projects and how those initial
stages are concerned with resolving the mess sufficiently to set out on a project.
My Two Germinating Voyages
This book has come about through two inter-related voyages of discovery of my
own. The first was as an examiner of theses. In this voyage I became increasingly
disillusioned with having to wade through voluminous and often turgid tomes. The
journey was often circuitous, as the theses often did not offer a straightforward
well-signposted path. Other experienced examiners expressed similar sentiments.
The second voyage of discovery was as a supervisor. When I moved to my
current position I took on a heavy supervision load with students tackling a diverse
range of projects. As students started writing up, I often found myself suggesting
major changes to initial drafts as attempts to write about findings using the con-
ventional thesis structure did not seem to adequately communicate the findings of
the project. I moved to suggesting structures before writing commenced.
In the next two sections I will analyse and reflect upon these two voyages. In
course of these voyages I was moving, over an extended period of time, from a
growing unease about thesis structures to a position where I could identify the
issues and articulate them sufficiently clearly that research questions could be
formulated. These questions could then be posed to colleagues to turn the voyages
from a lonely journey into a collective itinerary for a large team of colleagues.
The Voyage as an Examiner
To bring some clarity and sense of direction for the reader I will signpost this
section by starting with the formulated research question, then presenting a series of
reflections on the question. In practice, the voyage was much more circuitous than
this, but as with a thesis, presenting every wrong turn and diversion confuses the
reader.
The first research question is formulated as a general question suitable to be
addressed within the book, rather than the personal reflective question I had been
toying with over time.
4 D. Kember
Research Question 1
Why do examiners often find theses hard to read when research students in
non-scientific disciplines adopt the conventional structure of the scientific method?
The Voice
I find most theses tend not to be enjoyable to read. I usually take on the role of
examiner out of a sense of academic duty or because the project is in my area of
expertise, rather than because I expect a gripping read.
One of the reasons is that research students frequently excise themselves from their
theses. As explained earlier, most education research students research a topic related
to their professional practice, which has gripped them sufficiently to undertake a
highly demanding higher degree. Yet when it comes to writing the thesis the traveler
disappears from the voyage of discovery and there is no narrative of the voyage.
Use of the first person is often avoided in favour of a neutral or impersonal
voice. A passive tense is preferred to an active one. It is as if the task of performing
the research study has been handed over to an automaton. The impersonal or third
person writing emanates from the positivist tradition, in which the researcher is a
neutral observer. Positivist researchers should not influence or disturb the system or
scenario they are investigating.
The hesitancy to write in the first person results from the way students are taught
and conditioned to write during their undergraduate degrees. They are required to
justify their arguments by citing authoritative sources. Personal opinions and
observations are not valued.
I will contrast this position with an action research one, as this is one of my areas of
expertise and I have examined and supervised theses of this type. Action research is a
type of research that requires participants to examine their practice and positively
embraces change. Indeed, action researchers have drawn on the classic phrase of Karl
Marx and Frederick Engels in The German Ideology (1845), ‘We are here to change
the world, not to study it’. Participatory action research in which the researcher is an
active agent with respect to their own practice is recognized as legitimate.
The action research genre is highly consistent with the types of project under-
taken by education and social science research students in which they seek to better
understand and improve their practice towards a particular aspect of their profes-
sional role. As they are the major actor in the study, it makes eminent sense to write
in the first person and give a personalized account of their actions, observations and
reflections.
The Role and Position of the Literature Review
The most tedious part of a thesis is invariably the literature review. Often as much
as 100 pages of tedium. It is also common to find that substantial parts of the review
1 Critical Reflections on the Conventional Thesis Structure … 5
have limited relevance to the research project. Theses which manage to integrate
well the literature review with findings and discussion are not common.
The conventional position of the literature review is as Chapter 2. This makes
perfect sense for scientific disciplines. Research students commonly progress
straight from an undergraduate degree into a project chosen by their supervisor.
The first task, therefore,they then
sold and spent the money on alcohol and gambling. I saw hundreds of heaps of charcoal
bags sold along the roads, indicating the extent of the deforestation. It was hard to not
connect the deforestation, the lack of food with the malnutrition in the area. This is hap-
pening in an area through which the Nile, with all her agricultural potential, flows on her
way to the Egypt.
As a teacher educator, I realized that there was an opportunity to start a change in the
education system of Uganda so that environmental education is incorporated in the cur-
riculum. I also realized the potential of the integration of our IK and place-based education
in changing the hearts of the people towards their communities, cultures and places. This is
the reason I chose to work with teachers and community elders in this Participatory Action
Research (PAR) project.
14 Intersections of Indigenous Knowledge and Place … 141
What Was the Method?
In this project, all the participants shared the same problem; they all wanted to see a
change in the Ugandan education system. The current formal education system was
disempowering to all of them. The teachers struggle with an exam driven cur-
riculum which is hardly relevant for them or for their students’ futures. The elders
have been made irrelevant and dismissed by an education system that disregards the
IK. PAR is therefore suitable for this project because it empowers people. McArdle
and Reason (2008, p. 6) rightly affirm that PAR aims to ‘restore to the oppressed
peoples the ability to create knowledge and practice in their own interests’. For this
reason, we used dialogue-rich methods that empower, motivate, increase
self-esteem and develop a community solidarity (McArdle and Reason 2008). We
used group discussions, group interviews, active observation, and diary notes.
Since PAR is participatory in nature, the research student worked with the
participants as co-researchers in the research project. The co-researchers in this
project were as follows; three elders, two community members who facilitated in
the IK learning activities, five teachers and the student researcher. They all actively
worked together in understanding how they could contribute to the integration of IK
into their education system in their different roles in the community. MacIntosh
et al. (2007, p. 373) urge that ‘researching with people means that they are engaged
as full persons and the exploration is based directly on their understanding of their
own actions and experience, rather than filtered through an outsider’s perspective.’
The participants got equally involved the project and made sound decisions about
the procedure of the project.
Here is how the participants/co-researchers followed the PAR cycles of plan,
action and reflection. The first phase was the ‘Planning’ phase. The student
researcher invited participating elders and teachers for a Professional Learning
Development (PLD) workshop. In this workshop, the student researcher presented a
paper on the intersection of IK and place-based education as ways of sustainability
education in Uganda. The community elders also presented papers on their areas of
expertise in the Kiganda IK. After the paper presentations, the teachers, through
group discussions planned on how the IK of the community elders fit into their
practice.
The participant teachers and elders planned on when they could all implement
the IK into the formal education setting. A survey was administered to all the
participants at the end of the workshop to find out whether they were satisfied with
the PLD workshop and if they were willing to continue to the next phase of the
project, the action phase.
Five teachers out of the 25 teachers that had attended the first PLD workshop
were willing to continue to the second phase, which is the ‘action’ phase. In the
action phase, the participants were actively involved in the integration of IK and
place-based education into the formal education setting. The teachers invited the
participant elders to their classrooms where the elders facilitated the classes in the
various IK learning activities surrounding the elders’ areas of expertise.
142 K. Kezabu et al.
The participants went on excursions with the students to sacred places where the
elders told historical narratives about these places. The elders also taught the stu-
dents and the teachers the medicinal, spiritual and food values of various
Indigenous plants around the school grounds of the participant schools. The elders,
through historical narratives, taught the students and the teachers about the spirit of
Bulungi Bwansi (For the good of the land) and how one historical Ssekabaka
(Ssekabaka is the title of a deceased King of Buganda. The title of the current King
is Kabaka.) introduced the drumbeat of Saagala Agalamidde (I don’t want idlers) to
summon the people for community service in Buganda. As a result, Bulungi Bwansi
clubs were formed in all the participating schools with the aim of students going out
to the communities to carry out community service.
The co-researchers actively observed these IK lessons while also making diary
entries of the significant aspects of the lessons in their personal diaries. The diary
entries were later shared and discussed during the participants’ group meetings.
These lessons were also audio recorded and parts of which replayed during the group
discussions for the teachers’ reflections on the significant parts of the IK lessons.
One such part was the elder’s historical narratives of the sacred river, Ssezibwa.
The next phase in the PAR cycle was the ‘reflection’ phase. Reflection took
place during the group discussions. The group discussions were conducted in two
ways; they happened during the group interviews after every lesson and every once
a week during the teachers’ Nyama Kyoma meetings. The meetings were named
Nyama Kyoma because the participants met in a relaxed informal environment and
enjoyed roast beef and goat meat on pokes, a local delicacy known as Nyama
Kyoma. An informal environment is important for group meetings because it helps
to boost the participants’ self-confidence (Kindon et al. 2007). Meeting off the
school grounds created a relaxed non-judgmental atmosphere where the participant
teachers met as a team of experts in charge of improving their own practice.
The group interviews were guided by an interview schedule and were conducted
at every end of an IK lesson facilitated by a community elder at the participant
school. It is important for reflection in PAR to be systematic and deliberate
(Duenkel and Pratt 2013; Kemmis and McTaggart 2005). These group interviews
involved the participant teacher(s) at the school, the facilitating elder, a participant
teacher from another participating school who came to observe and take part in the
IK lesson, and the student researcher.
During these group interviews, the participants reflected on the action in the IK
lesson that just ended; evaluating the success and shortcomings in the implemen-
tation of IK and place-based education in the formal education setting. Goodnough
(2008, p. 435) rightly asserts that ‘group reflection fosters group and individual
learning.’ All the participants were willing to learn new knowledge and skills for
them to ably integrate IK into the formal education setting for the benefit of their
communities.
Group discussions also took place during the weekly Nyama Kyoma meetings.
Every Wednesday evening, the teachers met to critically reflect on how they
brought the IK that they had learned into the curriculum. They discussed in detail
how the different elders’ IK fit into the different topics in the Lower Secondary
14 Intersections of Indigenous Knowledge and Place … 143
Luganda syllabus. They also discussed the best teaching methods to use for the
topics that were integrated with IK. The teachers also shared their diary entries plus
samples of students’ work to learn together and from each other. Duenkel and Pratt
(2013) urgeis to read everything that has been written which relates to
the topic area chosen by the supervisor and to make a record in the form of a
literature review. From this a hypothesis or tightly specified research question can
be formulated.
However, education students usually enter research following a period of pro-
fessional practice and have, at least, a tentative idea of what they want to research.
That topic, though, will usually be more of an ill-defined issue than the testable
hypothesis of their scientific counterparts. The research project, therefore, tends to
be more exploratory.
With ill-defined problems and exploratory methods, it is often not easy to
determine, in advance, which literature will be relevant to a study. Yet social
science students are routinely required to jump through the hoop of writing a
literature review, usually as a confirmation of candidature requirement, in doctoral
coursework, or as comprehensive dissertation proposals, which are typically
required prior to data gathering and thesis writing.
To get over this hurdle, the research students do what the confirmation com-
mittee and standard books on doing a research degree tell them to do—they write an
extensive review of literature relating to their field of study. However, for an
ill-defined study a crystal ball is needed if the literature selected is to be relevant to
their study. If it turns out that some of the review is of limited relevance, it still stays
in the thesis so all the hard work does not go to waste.
Writing the literature review before the study has started means that comparison
with results is often reduced. There is often reluctance to repeat what is in the
literature review in the discussion chapter, so comparison of results to literature
becomes indirect.
Convoluted Writing Structure
The lack of links between literature and discussion relates to the next issue. I often
found myself looking backwards and forwards through a thesis, trying to follow
what had been written about a particular topic. A topic might be referred to in every
chapter in the conventional structure. Few theses made a good job of
cross-referencing, and even if they did, there was a lot of jumping backwards and
forwards to follow the thread.
The problem is confounded by social science dealing with complex messy
topics. Most studies, therefore, have to deal with many themes and topics. Trying to
follow each theme when it is split between multiple chapters can be very
demanding.
6 D. Kember
The Supervisor Journey
The supervisor journey was shorter in time but possibly required a greater con-
ceptual leap. It has mainly taken place since my appointment to the Education
Faculty at the University of Tasmania. I entered a Faculty short of experienced
supervisors, but with a growing cohort of research higher degree students of diverse
backgrounds undertaking a wide range of projects. Team supervision is the norm,
so I found myself as a member of teams for students undertaking an interesting
diversity of types of project. As a senior professor, I also had an advisory role on
bodies such as confirmation of candidature committees, for an even more diverse
range of projects.
When it came to students writing first drafts of their thesis, all too often, there
was a great deal of red ink, track changes comments and re-writing. Co-supervisors
and I frequently found first drafts, which invariably were conventional in structure,
did not seem to be a good way to present the study.
Suggesting ways to re-write started to lead to insights into problems with the
conventional structure. This made me think of alternative ways of structuring a
thesis. I started suggesting structures before students began writing. This eventually
led to the formulation of a second research question.
Research Question 2
Why do students in non-scientific disciplines struggle to write up the outcomes of
their research in the conventional structure?
Again I will follow the question with four sub-sections, which are my reflections
on the issues that seemed to be material to the problems students were having when
they try to fit their thesis to the conventional structure. Interestingly, there are close
parallels to the reflections on research question 1.
Starting Point
Many students found it hard to start their thesis. In initial discussions they might
have recounted the personal experiences, which motivated them to commit to a
research degree. However, many have been reluctant to start their thesis by
recounting their personal journey.
Conventional research methods texts and courses usually see a research study
originating from a research question. Yet, they often have little to say about where
the research question comes from. In many disciplines it comes from the supervisor.
The start of the thesis is then impersonal. It might include a brief background to the
topic area and a justification for the research question derived from the literature.
However, an impersonal introduction seems inappropriate if the study is being
undertaken as a result of personal experiences and insights. It seems more sensible
to start by recounting the journey.
1 Critical Reflections on the Conventional Thesis Structure … 7
In some cases it is not clear where the research project starts. Some experienced
practitioners take initiatives to improve their practice and might have been doing
this for quite some time before enrolling in a research degree. Writing the thesis as
though the study started at the time of enrolment seems inappropriate, though, as
the journey of discovery started earlier, sometimes much earlier.
Voice
A connected issue is the voice adopted. If research is being conducted as a personal
voyage of discovery, it is surely inappropriate to write about it in the third person
and a passive tense. A voyage of discovery needs to highlight the traveler.
Organising According to Emerging Themes
Consistent with the complexity of topics in the social sciences, when students
analyse qualitative data, they find multiple emerging themes, often interconnected
in complex ways. A research question will generate many answers or issues. Putting
all the themes into a single Results chapter can result in a very lengthy chapter that
is hard to navigate.
A more successful structure seemed to be that of having a chapter that intro-
duced all the themes and placed them in an organizational framework. This was
then followed by a series of chapters; one for each major theme.
Position of the Literature Review
Presenting the results of the analysis theme-by-theme in separate chapters also
helped in dealing with the literature. There is a need for a short introduction to the
literature near the start of the thesis. However, the bulk of the literature fitted better
into the thematic chapters. As the results relevant to each theme were presented,
they could be compared to relevant literature.
Research Students’ Voyages Towards Alternative
Structures
These initial explorations of alternative thesis structures seemed to work well.
Students were able to fit the outcomes of their research into the structures and found
the organizational clarity helped their writing. Co-supervisors found the drafts well
8 D. Kember
presented and clear to read. Other academics expressed an interest in the process.
A few talked about how their own thesis or those of past or present students had
structures which differed from the conventional one.
There seemed to be sufficient interest and momentum to invite other travelers to
join the voyage of discovery. This led to the formulation of the third research
question, which is addressed in Parts B, C, D and E of the book.
Research Question 3
What alternative thesis structures can be devised which better suit the wide range of
methods, theories and paradigms commonly followed in education and the social
sciences?
Parts B, C, D and E of the book portrays research students’ voyages of dis-
covery, accompanied by their supervisors, as they come togrips with: defining what
it is they want to research; relating the research to relevant theories; and, situating
the research within a paradigm. Then we move to the part that is more germane to
the theme of the book which is finding an appropriate structure to record the voyage
as a thesis. Research question 3 is addressed by each of the students who present
their thesis structure in Parts B, C, D and E. Each structure is explained and justified
in terms of the methods, theories and paradigms adopted for the research study.
Methods, Theories and Paradigms
It had become clear that the need to explore alternative structures arose because
students in education and the social sciences were not following the scientific
method for which the conventional structure was devised. This is the general
problem of coming to understand the difference and the connections between a
particular research problem, theory, and method. Here the HDR student in the social
sciences encounters the initially daunting, but ultimately generative and enriching
challenge of developing a creative and more or less unique methodology. Thus,
dealing adequately with research question 3 clearly needed a parallel exploration of
the underlying methods, theories and paradigms adopted. This led to research
question 4.
Research Question 4
What alternative thesis structures can be devised which better suit the wide range of
methods, theories and paradigms commonly followed in education and the social
sciences?
This, as students in education typically come to learn, is not simply the appli-
cation of a generic set of methods that can be used to test a hypothesis.
The apparently simple practitioners’ problem of finding ‘what works’ (Biesta 2007,
2010) through some analysis of established best practice or applying a standard set
of supposedly scientific instruments to a seemingly straightforward educational
problem (Lather 2004) seldom fits the messiness of the problems practitioners
experience in educational settings.
1 Critical Reflections on the Conventional Thesis Structure … 9
Indeed, the more HDR students think about these problems, the more complex
they tend to become and the more inadequate generic and standardized approaches
appear. What tends to happen is that as research progresses students begin to
understand that how they theorise the research problem suggests particular meth-
ods, which are located in paradigmatic traditions in the social sciences. They
realize, in other words, that they must design their research and that these design
choices are largely theirs to make.
In the example chapters, the students were asked to address research question 4
by responding to explicit questions, posed in headings, about the methods, para-
digms and theories which underpinned their research. In the chapters they then
reflect upon how the adoption of these methods, theories and paradigms impacted
upon writing about their research. They are asked to explain how the resulting
structure and form of their thesis suits the method, findings and content.
Parts B, C, D and E each commence with a framing chapter. In these supervisors
and researchers experienced in the paradigm addressed by the Part of the book are
asked to address research question 4 by presenting outcomes of supervisors’ voyages
of discovery into the theoretical, methodological and paradigmatic frameworks
which guide the voyages of discovery of the research students they supervise.
The authors of the framing chapters were asked to address the following ques-
tions, which are sub-questions of research question 4.
• How have you come to theory?
• How has this influenced your thinking about research methods?
• How do you support your students as they think through theory, method and the
way that they are linked (methodology)?
• What suggestions do you make for structuring theses?
Through an analysis of these questions a group of supervisors discuss the ways that
they support their students to think about the connections between their topics and
the thought streams in the discipline of education and in the social sciences more
generally. This takes the journey in another direction, one that connects our aca-
demic traveler journeying through problems that came to him or her through an
engagement in practice onward to frameworks and paths that other travelers have
created in their voyages of discovery.
It is here that the research student enters what Michael Oakeshott called the
grand conversation (Plotica 2015) and offers what is often referred to as a ‘con-
tribution to knowledge’ which involves taking steps to locate one’s own work in
relation to other important work in the academic field. The concept of field as it is
employed by Pierre Bourdieu (1984, 1992) is useful here to help us understand the
journey that many education researchers make as they encounter new ideas, ways of
working, standards of evidence, language use, and generally, the range of normative
practices that constitute and make a field coherent.
An important step for the practitioner aspiring to become an academic researcher
is to develop familiarity with theoretical, methodological and paradigmatic dis-
courses that are not commonly engaged in the professional field. At the same time
though, experience or what Lee Schulman (2004) calls the wisdom of practice
10 D. Kember
continues to inform and inflect the way that many educational researchers approach
their projects. The journey then typically involves some form of integration the
known and the unknown straddling fields or working within the tensions in the
in-between third space rather than settling comfortably in one or the other.
The Conventional Structure
In a chapter which has reflected upon and critiqued the conventional structure for
writing theses, according to the scientific method, it seems appropriate to include a
section on the conventional structure. This will consider: what it is; its prevalence;
and some issues concerned with adopting alternative structures.
The literature on the conventional structure, appropriate to the scientific method,
is voluminous. Numerous research methods texts, university thesis writing guide-
lines and publication manuals detail it. Reviewing this body of literature would be
an arduous task and would serve little purpose in this context.
To establish what the conventional structure is, I will turn to the APA
Publication Guidelines (American Psychological Association 2009), as these are
probably the most widely adopted guidelines in education and many of the social
sciences. Undergraduate students are commonly required to follow the guidelines
for referencing. Other sections of the manual are drawn upon as models for the
presentation of theses.
Chapter 2 of the manual specifies the structure of a manuscript. It is to consist of
the following elements:
• Abstract
• Literature review
• Introduction
• Method
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion.
This constitutes the conventional thesis structure. The manual is unequivocal about
the structure. There is no discussion of any alternatives and there are detailed
guidelines for what goes in each element. While there are exceptions, most con-
ventional research methods/methodology textbooks that provide a more detailed
exposition of this idealized thesis structure essentially operate on the assumption
that this is what the thesis ought to look like. We think it is interesting, and
something of an omission, that there are few research methods text that take actual
examples of dissertation work and attempt to analyze how the research process
works in the field. This is the approach we take in this book.
To what extent the conventional structure is prevalent or entrenched is hard to
answer. There are so many theses produced each year in the social sciences that it
would be a substantial task to examine the structures of even a representative
1 Critical Reflections on the Conventional Thesis Structure … 11
sample. We are convinced though, through our ownexperience as supervisors and
in our conversations with colleagues beginning their academic careers that few if
any actually followed the plot laid out in standard research texts. That we have been
able to put together a book with a sizeable number of examples of alternative
structures indicates that use of the conventional structure is certainly not exclusive.
However, all we really need to establish at this point is that we are not presenting a
straw man argument. I suspect readers will need little convincing of this: the
voluminous literature presenting the conventional structure is surely sufficient
evidence that the structure is well established and extensively followed. These texts
rather obviously have an audience.
A convincing argument for the value of this book is that, while there is abundant
guidance for students wishing to use the conventional structure, we could find little
for those who wished to use an alternative structure. There are thesis writing
guidelines and research methods texts, which accept that alternative structures are
possible and can be appropriate, but we could not find much that went beyond
admitting the possibility towards providing helpful guidance. This is the gap in the
research methodology literature that we hope this book suggests, and to some
extent fills.
To substantiate this assertion, reference can be made to the process for getting
the book accepted for publication. In proposals, publishers ask for information
about competing titles. Our response to this question was that we could not find any
competing titles. We tried hard to find any, as assertions of this nature can backfire
if found to be inaccurate. However, the publisher or reviewers did not challenge the
assertion. We, therefore feel that it is reasonable to claim that this book has resulted
from a collective voyage of discovery into the unknown. In this book we attend to
actual research journeys rather than to an idealised conception of how research
ought to be conducted. We hope that higher degree students in education and
indeed, in other social science disciplines find value in this book and in our way of
working back from a body of recent work by scholars beginning their academic
careers.
References
American Psychological Association. (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Biesta, G. (2007). Why ‘what works’ won’t work: Evidence-based practice and the democratic
deficit in educational research. Educational Theory, 57(1), 1–22.
Biesta, G. J. J. (2010). Why ‘what works’ still won’t work: From evidence-based education to
value-based education. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 29(5), 491–503.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1992). The logic of practice. (R. Nice, Trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press.
Cook, T. (1998). The importance of mess in action research. Educational Action Research, 6(1),
93–108.
12 D. Kember
Lather, P. (2004). Scientific research in education: A critical perspective1. British Educational
Research Journal, 30(6), 759–772.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1845). The German ideology. Republished (1947). New York:
International Publishers.
Plotica, L. P. (2015). Michael Oakeshott and the conversation of modern political thought. New
York: SUNY Press.
Shulman, L. S. (2004). The wisdom of practice: Essays on teaching, learning, and learning to
teach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
David Kember is Professor in Education: Curriculum Methods and Pedagogy in the Faculty of
Education at the University of Tasmania. Prior to that he worked in Hong Kong for 25 years. The
initial position was at the Polytechnic University, then Chinese University and finally as a
Professor in Higher Education at the University of Hong Kong. He spent six years running an
inter-institutional initiative, operating across the eight universities in Hong Kong, known as the
Action Learning Project, which supported 90 action research projects in which teachers introduced
a wide variety of initiatives aiming to improve the quality of student learning. His research in the
following areas has been particularly highly cited: student approaches to learning and the influence
of teaching and assessment on them; the Chinese and Asian learner; motivation; reflective
thinking; teachers’ beliefs about and approaches to teaching; action learning and research for
teaching quality improvement; distance and online learning.
1 Critical Reflections on the Conventional Thesis Structure … 13
Chapter 2
The Collective Voyage of Discovery:
How the Book Was Developed
and Produced
David Kember and Michael Corbett
Abstract As the book is quite novel we feel it would be helpful if we explained the
guidelines we have given to authors and the processes we incorporated in devel-
oping the book. We asked the past and current research students to describe their
own voyages of discovery to capture some of the tensions researchers go through as
they struggle to find a methodological approach to tackle their project. This is often
initially perplexing as research students in the social sciences usually come from a
background of professional practice and wish to research a complex issue of interest
or concern from that practice. To present both their solution to the methodological,
paradigmatic and theoretical issues and the way they accordingly presented and
structured their thesis, we asked the authors of the 32 example chapters to use a
common template. This asked them to explain: what the thesis was about; the
methods, paradigms and theories drawn upon; and, the resulting structure of the
thesis. The template ensures that the important common elements are present in
each chapter, but still provides authors with sufficient flexibility to accommodate
very different voyages of discovery and resulting thesis structures.
The Collective Voyage
The previous chapter explained how an individual voyage of discovery morphed
into a collective voyage. This chapter narrates the story of this collective voyage.
It is not common for an edited book to describe the process for its development.
In many cases of edited books, authors of individual chapters have little contact
with each other. Reviewing of chapters is normal, but is usually by reviewers other
than chapter authors. Quality is assured by the original choice of chapter authors,
D. Kember (&)
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
e-mail: david.kember@utas.edu.au
M. Corbett
School of Education, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS B4P 2R6, Canada
e-mail: michael.corbett@acadiau.ca; michael.corbett@utas.edu.au
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
D. Kember and M. Corbett (eds.), Structuring the Thesis,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_2
15
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http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_2&domain=pdf
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/978-981-13-0511-5_2&domain=pdf
based on their previous writing on related topics. First drafts are then enhanced
through the reviewing process. A sense of coherence can be sought by the choice of
authors and chapter topics, and by the editors producing a concluding review.
For this book, though, we were seeking authors to write on a topic none of them
had written about before. The topic is specified in the title of the book; Structuring the
thesis—matching method, paradigm, theory and findings. Chapter 1 clearly defined
what the book is about, with research question 3 particularly pertinent at this point.
Research Question 3
What alternative thesis structures can be devised which better suit the wide range of
methods, theories and paradigms commonly followed in education and the social
sciences?
We, therefore, felt that the process of constructing the book needed to be
underpinned by a setof activities which similarly enabled us to explore the topic
together and inform our writing about it. We felt that the book would be enhanced
considerably if it were developed through a genuine collective voyage of discovery.
The process of development is, therefore, integral to exploring the topic and how
we collectively enhanced our understanding of it.
This is also an ethical point as well, in the sense that we do not wish to provide
authoritative prescriptions to the beginning HDR student that offer a set of abstract
procedures to be followed in order to produce quality research. Instead, we work in
the opposite direction, beginning with the finished work of recently graduated or
nearly graduated HDR students who provide, in the coming chapters, specific
accounts of their particular research voyages. We see this as a way of orientating
HDR students through narratives that introduce the complexities and nuances of
educational and social science research as they have been experienced by other
fellow travellers who have recently taken their own journeys.
Rationale for the Critical Discussion: Questions
Rather Than Answers
To begin with, we had only a general sense of the kinds of dissertation work that
students in our Faculty were undertaking. Each of us had worked with a good
number of graduate/HDR students, and, as we point out in the preceding chapters,
we encountered students whose work was typically developed out of a practical
engagement in education systems, both domestic and international. This work spans
the range and breadth within particular educational systems from early childhood to
doctoral level study. The work is also located in different national contexts with
differently constituted centralised or decentralised systems, different social, politi-
cal, economic and cultural contexts. We found though, across these differences,
there tended to be a common interest in addressing pragmatic problems, or to use
Canadian education scholar Lorri Neilsen’s lovely phrase, ‘stones in the shoe’
16 D. Kember and M. Corbett
(1994). In other words, most education research students begin not with a deep
immersion in educational theory; nor do they tend to begin in the disciplines out of
which this theory is derived. Neither do they tend to arrive for HDR study with a
particular methodology in mind, although most have a general sense about whether
they want to work quantitatively (for the most part with surveys) or qualitatively
(typically using interviews and focus groups). Rather, in our experience, students
tend to think about educational problems in terms of teaching, learning, adminis-
tration, leadership and curriculum, not as abstract academic fields, but rather as
practical discourses that have some bearing on their work as educators.
Some higher degree students see themselves as ‘coming out’ of professional
practice as teachers, principals and system administrators seeking a different way of
looking at commonplace problems they have encountered. Others want to use
research to continue their existing practice in order to enter more deeply into this
practice through a more intentional and studied engagement. Frankly, many enter
higher degree students arrive with the view that they already know something
important that they wish to share with colleagues and with those of us in the
academy who live and work far from the ‘chalkface’. They very often want to
explore the ‘wisdom of practice’ (Britzman and Greene 2003; Schulman 2004) and
share their acquired learning back into the professional field, armed with the
authority of an advanced degree.
Each of these orientations carries with it a core feature which is some level of
personal engagement and history with/in professional practice. The challenge we
face as university educators is to help practice-oriented teachers, principals and
system administrators to think in terms of researchable questions instead of
pre-formulated answers received from ‘what the research says,’ from some notion
of data that provides a form of transparent truth about reality, or from an established
and authoritative idea of transcontextual ‘best practice’. One part of this challenge is
to work with our students to help them understand that all practice is fundamentally
theoretical, and indeed that theory is not the opposite of practice or even the result
of practice. Rather, theory is practice and vice versa.
Thus, the journey for higher degree students who have been immersed in years,
or even decades of professional practice, is to make the shift to thinking about
themselves, their work and their research inquiries as fundamentally implicated in
educational theory. For many students, the challenge is to find the implicit and often
unconsciously held theory that animates and even explains their practice and how
they understand human agency more generally. For others, it is a matter of reading
deeply into fields of educational thought to find the bodies of ideas that resonate or
make sense to them, and that help them see and understand the ordinary landscapes
of practice in a way that raises fresh, authentic and genuinely researchable ques-
tions. For still others who enter higher degree research in education with a more or
less explicit direction, the task is to discover who else has been considering similar
questions, and how they have gone about trying to answer them. Again, theory is
indispensible for this level of work and through the text we return to theoretical
discussions that are not common in standard research methods texts which tend to
be almost exclusively procedural and method-focussed.
2 The Collective Voyage of Discovery: How the Book Was Developed … 17
The problems confronted by higher degree students can be, to some extent,
supported by standard research texts that lay out the fundamental distinctions
between qualitative and quantitative research and provide detailed road maps for
how to develop a standard and legitimate structure for a research project. Indeed,
many, if not most, beginning HDR students are looking for precisely this kind of
text. Finding the ‘right’ way to answer research questions is a common preoccu-
pation. Yet in our experience, most students discover rather quickly that the stan-
dard research text is not particularly helpful when they get into the meat of their
inquiries. They find that the literature takes them in directions that raise difficult
questions about the ontological and epistemological dimensions of their work
which are not really addressed by the rather simplistic slicing and dicing of reality
and how to approach and represent it found in most social research texts.
Developing a powerful and meaningful research question often is more complicated
than the formulaic approach imagines. They often find the research process that
engages them is more specific to the particularity of the situations HDR students
understand through their practical experience and also to the places they want to do
their research. They learn that rather than applying a standard method to their
problem, they must create a theoretically consistent methodology of their own.
They also learn in the process about the multiple methods at their disposal beyond
the standard interview and survey adding to the complexity and also to the richness
and creativity possible in the research act.
This book traces the journey into and through the process of structuring a thesis,
from developing a question, to thinking about theory and method and how to put
them together, to writing up the results. We divide this work somewhat arbitrarily
into four broad categories of inquiry, each of which is informed by particular kinds
of theory, which in turn suggests different methodological approaches. Indeed, our
sense of methodology is bricolage (Berry 2006) or a creative putting-together of
theory and method into a way of asking worthwhile questions about social phe-
nomena in a complex world.
Call for Chapters
The initial call for chapter proposals