Why over 3 schools

 

Enhancing Robustness through Multi-Site Qualitative Sampling

To strengthen the credibility, depth, and transferability of the qualitative findings, the research will include three different primary schools during the focus group and pilot intervention phases. This multi-site design enhances the robustness of the study in several key ways:

1. Capturing Contextual Variation

Each school represents a unique institutional and socio-cultural context—varying perhaps in terms of demographics, school ethos, leadership priorities, or technological infrastructure. By including three schools, the study is better positioned to account for how local contexts shape curriculum decision-making and pedagogical enactment.

✅ Benefit: Increases ecological validity and ensures that findings are not limited to the idiosyncrasies of a single setting (Stake, 2006; Yin, 2018).

2. Triangulating Qualitative Data Across Sites

By conducting focus groups and pilot interventions in three schools, the research introduces an opportunity for within-method triangulation—cross-checking themes and insights across cases (Denzin, 1978). This strengthens the confirmability and dependability of qualitative results by demonstrating consistency—or identifying meaningful divergence—across different institutional contexts.

✅ Benefit: Enhances the trustworthiness of the findings (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), supporting claims that emerging themes are not site-specific anomalies.

3. Supporting Theoretical Transferability

Qualitative research does not aim for statistical generalisation but seeks theoretical or analytical generalisability—the extent to which findings can inform broader understandings or models. Drawing on three varied sites supports the development of thicker descriptions (Geertz, 1973), which in turn allows readers and practitioners to determine the relevance of the findings to their own contexts.

✅ Benefit: Increases transferability by offering nuanced, multi-site data that speaks to different types of schools or learning environments.

4. Enhancing Validity Through Participant Diversity

Involving teachers and pupils from three schools introduces diversity of voice across the qualitative phases. This allows for comparison and contrast in perspectives and experiences, helping to uncover patterns that may be more broadly relevant, and to identify outlier or marginal views that enrich the overall analysis.

✅ Benefit: Offers a more inclusive and representative account of the phenomena under study.

5. Design Alignment and Methodological Cohesion

Including three schools also aligns methodologically with the QUAN → QUAL → QUAL mixed methods design. The initial survey phase may reveal regional or contextual differences in teacher knowledge and confidence. The inclusion of three schools in subsequent qualitative phases enables the researcher to strategically sample schools that reflect relevant variation (e.g., high vs. low confidence; urban vs. rural; high vs. low digital provision).

✅ Benefit: Strengthens the coherence and integrity of the research design by building logical links between sampling strategy and the sequential flow of inquiry (Teddlie & Yu, 2007).

Conclusion

In summary, selecting three distinct schools for the qualitative components contributes significantly to the rigour and robustness of the research. It promotes contextual sensitivity, enhances trustworthiness through triangulation, and increases the applicability of findings to diverse educational settings. This approach is particularly important when exploring an emergent topic like digital accessibility, where the aim is not only to understand but also to inform scalable and context-responsive pedagogical practice.

Suggested References

  • Denzin, N. K. (1978). The research act: A theoretical introduction to sociological methods (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.

  • Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books.

  • Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Sage Publications.

  • Stake, R. E. (2006). Multiple Case Study Analysis. Guilford Press.

  • Teddlie, C., & Yu, F. (2007). Mixed methods sampling: A typology with examples. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1(1), 77–100.

  • Yin, R. K. (2018). Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods (6th ed.). Sage Publications.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teach Access Repository and Facebook research link

Image
 #Educators, do your students know what assistive technology means? From tactile maps to screen readers, #AssistiveTechnology includes a number of devices that enable and foster the inclusion of people with disabilities. The Teach Access Curriculum Repository (TACR) has various resources designed to build out your courses and introduce your students to these types of technologies.  Go to the TACR (https://lnkd.in/gWMxzk2e) and check out the presentation slide deck on assistive technology and the assignment for using a screen reader, under the Psychology section.    #BackToSchool #Accessibility #Inclusion #ScreenReader #AssistiveDevices #Psychology #Disability #Disabilities #A11y https://teachaccess.org/curriculum-repository/ Facebook research post: PhD Thesis Writing Process: A Systematic Approach—How to Write Your Introduction To download complete article, use the link: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED590321.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED590321.pdf?f...
Read more

Pilot amends

Remove what subject do you teach. Did you learn about how to make digital content inclusive and accessible at school, college or university? What region are you from in the UK? What type of school or setting are you from: Mainstream school Specialist provision Private education  Trainee teacher Research survey invitation I am Helen Wilson, a second year part-time PHD student at the University of Worcester. I am planning a piece of research titled: Working with teachers to plan a school classroom intervention about inclusion in our digital society As part of this research I’m conducting an initial online survey to help me prepare for the study. Who is this survey for? This survey aims to collect a minimum of 50 participant responses from teachers across the UK. Participants in this study: must be teachers from  upper key stage 2 (Years 5 or 6) , the survey will ask this at the beginning before revealing the questions teachers can be from any type of school setting  includ...
Read more

Ideas for initial quantitative survey data

Phase 1 will be an initial survey to paint a basic picture of knowledge in schools. This survey I aim to do with a large number of respondents to get a broad picture of a range of schools and scale to have more reliable data to be able to group and analyse. This will be followed up with semi structured interviews to add more detail and to explain and better understand the findings. This will be smaller in scale but across a cross section of participants from a range of settings. *This in terms of Dewey is going to help identify the extent of the problem and help reflect on the problem. Any findings can also be located in literature to triangulate and discuss. Phase 2 will be focus groups exploring a range of knowledge concepts and resources (suggested solutions) with both teachers and learners to identify their level of understanding of each of them is and what could be realistically embedded into the curriculum and at what point or made visible and understood in the education space to...
Read more