Data Collection
The goal of this project is to support the development of the sphere of education in Saudi Arabia on the example of one of its well-known institutions, Dhahran Ahliyya School, through the provision of educational books and high-quality materials that can be available to teachers and students. It means that it is necessary to focus on the qualitative aspect of the work. As a rule, collective qualitative data is time-consuming even if small amounts of data are necessary (Hopkins 138). It is not enough to create and pose several questions, surf the web, or make observations. It is more important to analyze the information found and apply it to the standards and requirements of the already successfully defined system. Data has to be collected from different sources to make sure several aspects and perspectives can be available for research.
It is decided to rely on several literary sources (books and journals), online material (official websites of Saudi Arabia institutions), and personal opinions that are taken from the interviews. The material has to be up-to-date. Still, it is possible to use some old sources to compare the achievements during different periods of time and identify what promoted education in the past. Interviews have to be properly planned, organized, and analyzed to understand the attempts have been already made in the sphere of Arab education, the benefits that can be observed by different people, and the limitations or challenges that still exist in education.
Form of Analysis
The general process of analysis consists of several stages. The analysis should be based on the credible material. That is why it is better to record interviews and to discuss the recording peculiarities with the interviewees before the process. This issue should be discussed in the research ethics section. First, it is necessary to develop a special system of initial codes with the help of which it is possible to memorize information and note it quickly. Then, it is obligatory to add some comments and reflections that can help to understand the peculiarities of the facts and their roles in research. Finally, it is possible to underline the same patterns or the answers that introduce different opinions and create a table within the frames of which all facts and data are properly organized.
Research Ethics
Research ethics is the practice that helps researchers to be fair and respectful to the participants (Alderson and Morrow 3). There are also several ethical standards that are designed to protect researchers and their achievements. The main research method of this project is an interview. Interviewees and the interviewer should be aware of the rules and their responsibilities.
An interviewer has to:
- Choose the method of data collection (as a rule, Skype interviews are recorded with the help of special programs that have to be installed on a working PC beforehand);
- Think about the location that is comfortable for interviewees and provide with several alternatives if necessary;
- Provide interviewees with confidentiality and explain the purposes for which the interviews are used;
- Promote safety while interviews (no distractions, frustrating factors, etc.);
- Get permission to conduct interviews (it may be in an oral form or a writing form).
In their turn, interviewees are obliged to give clear and honest answers during the communication with a researcher. They should also explain or introduce evidence if it is asked to prove the appropriateness or correctness of their answers. The violation or inability to meet the above-mentioned requirements have to be discussed by an interviewer and the interviewees personally and explained in a final project briefly.
Research Approach
Two research questions have been already developed. Both of them express the need to learn more about the methods and alternatives to gather and analyze information. There are four main approaches that can be used in the project: theoretical, quantitative (on the basis of experiments), qualitative (on the basis of observations), and action research. The sphere of education and the necessity to support it by means of properly chosen books and high-quality material presuppose a number of qualitative interventions.
The chosen qualitative research approach helps to develop an understanding that is crucial for the evaluation of the information and theories that have been already offered in the field. There is no necessity to touch upon statistics or other numbers. The main goal of this approach is to identify the variables that can be taken into consideration in research. Interviewees offer their ideas and thoughts about the chosen research issues, and the interviewer makes notes and analyzes how the information got can help to improve and support the topic.
Research Method
There are many qualitative methods that can be used by a researcher in this kind of project. There are three main options that help to gather information and understand the essence and worth of somebody’s achievements. For example, it is possible to use case studies and conduct a comprehensive examination of different situations. Still, it is a time-consuming kind of work and can hardly provide the whole breadth of research (Arthur, Waring, Coe, and Hedges 103). Qualitative observations provide the research with a chance to focus on human behavior and activities that are made in regards to some particular conditions (Creswell 190). Its main challenge is the inability to analyze responses or categorize the results. Taking into consideration all challenges and limitations of the defined methods, interviews remain to be one of the most frequently used research ideas that can be used by a project developer.
A qualitative interview is defined as a prominent research method that can be used in social science due to the possibility to get full information on a topic, develop the required relations with people involved in the chosen study, and change or improve the methods according to the participants’ or researcher’s demands (King and Horrocks 6). Any interview, as a qualitative method, may have its strengths and limitations. Besides, it is necessary to give clear explanations and rationale of why interviews are effective and what outcomes may be expected.
Interview’s Strengths
It is not an easy task to conduct a powerful interview because of the presence of evident strong and weak points. On the one hand, it is a huge responsibility to conduct research on the basis of the interview that helps to describe complex phenomena and provide personal interpretation of the results. The strong aspects of any interview are the presence of limited examples that can help to understand the depth and breadth of the investigation and the dynamics that can be used to describe qualitatively the main ideas of research. Besides, interviews help to develop cross-case comparison and evaluations and determine personal experiences in certain frames. Finally, the researcher is able to find enough information to use as the base for research and the evaluative means because the interviewees can introduce new information and share their personal attitudes to certain problems. As soon as the interviewer creates a list of answers, he/she should try to predict the results of the interviews and compare the actual results with predictions.
Interview’s Limitations
At the same time, qualitative interviews may become a real challenge for some researchers because of several factors. First, any interview is usually prejudiced because people are eager to demonstrate their personal attitudes to problems and issues under consideration. Second, the level of knowledge of interviewees may be not appropriate for research; however, the interviewer cannot understand this issue, until all interviews are complete. Third, the researcher is able to influence the results using personal biases and understandings. Finally, it is not an easy task to prove the worth or test the hypotheses and theories that can be developed on the basis of the interviews. To avoid misunderstandings in this kind of research approach, it is possible to develop open-ended interviews and choose similar or diverse patterns to approve or disprove theories (Creswell 190).
Provisional Methodology within the Personal Enquiry
The current project is based on two types of material: one is taken from literary sources that are approved and justified; another is taken from the interviews developed directly by the researcher. There are six people, who are going to be interviewed: four teachers and two parents. They should answer the questions posed by the researcher and rely on their personal experience and understanding of the matter. Teachers’ answers can help to understand if teachers are satisfied with a variety of material and sources that can be used in an educational process. Parents’ answers should help to realize if students benefit from the material they have access to and if the level of student knowledge corresponds to the expectations of their parents. The interviews will help to analyze the quality and worth of the educational material from two different perspectives: from those, who offer the material and use it as the basis for work, and from those, who observe how students can use the material and rely on the knowledge they get from the sources.
Rationale
The choice of this particular research method can be explained by two crucial reasons. First, interviews provide the researcher with a chance to realize how the representatives of Dhahran Ahliyya School use the opportunities they have and what makes them able to stay a pioneering learning community in the country (“Our Mission” par. 4). Second, the interviews help to focus on personal opinions. There is no need to rely on statistics or some general facts that cannot be used in regards to the members of the chosen school. The task is to understand how students and teachers of a particular school, Dhahran Ahliyya School, are challenged with the educational material and what steps they are ready to take to succeed.
In general, DAS works with different students. Its tutors and parents are ready to use different methods to find the necessary approach to each student. The interviews will help to clarify if the chosen school is successful in empowering thinking and compassionate learners with a number of global and local opportunities.
Works Cited
Alderson, Priscilla and Virginia Morrow. The Ethics of Research with Children and Young People: A Practical Handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Arthur, James, Waring, Michael, Coe, Rober, and Larry V. Hedges. Research Methods & Methodologies in Education. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2012. Print.
Creswell, John W. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2012. Print.
Hopkins, David. A Teacher’s Guide to Classroom Research. Berkshire, England: McGraw Hill Education, 2008. Print.
King, Nigel and Christine Horrocks. Interviews in Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2010. Print.
Our Mission. 2015. Web.