Data Collection

The phase of this study reported here was conducted over the course of one fall semester (approximately 11 weeks, excluding holidays). The primary data sources can be grouped into three categories: interviews, participant observation, and artifacts.

Each of the six student participants was interviewed once toward the beginning and once at the end of the project, with a focus on experiences with language arts, computers, the Internet, and constructing the website. All of these semistructured interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. The media arts teacher was interviewed twice during the semester, and the school principal, Title I coordinator, and a language arts teacher were also interviewed at length toward the beginning of the project (results not reported).

All 90-minute class sessions were videotaped (for a total of 1,620 minutes of transcribed tape) for later analysis. In addition to videotapes and transcriptions, I kept a researcher reflection log in which I wrote immediately after each class session for purposes of later coding and analysis. Informal conversations with the students and with the media arts teacher were also used as data sources.

Finally, documents and artifacts collected included lesson plans, lesson handouts, students' daily reflection logs, student surveys, and webpages and the website (which can be viewed at http://earthvision.asu.edu/~maya/fwjhs).

Return to top

Data Analysis

All information gathered in this study was coded and analyzed using an inductive, or emic, approach. Categories and thematic connections were derived from the data using a spiraling reduction process (see, for example, Creswell, 1998; LeCompte & Preissle, 1993; Miles & Huberman, 1994; Seidman, 1991; Spradley, 1980). Combing through the data set proceeded in several iterative stages: (1) searching to derive initial categories, key words, and thematic connections; (2) probing for disconfirming evidence; (3) searching through the data several more times; and (4) regrouping the data into new categories. Member checks were not carried out because winter holidays made the student participants unavailable; however, the media arts teacher was consulted before final thematic categories were established.

The first stage of data analysis elicited themes identified by key words such as "school pride," "collaboration," "motivation," and "expression" (see Table 2, part 1, for a complete listing). Eventually many of these categories were collapsed, renamed, and reorganized under the four major research questions, evolving into the format laid out in the second part of the table. It was determined that saturation had been achieved when each relevant data bit (defined as a participant quotation, a transcribed unit, or a unified portion of an artifact) had been successfully grouped into one or more thematic categories, and when the leftover data bits were determined to be irrelevant to the research questions at hand.

Return to top

Go to next section

Go to discussion forum

Section References

Creswell, J.W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

LeCompte, M.D., & Preissle, J. (1993). Ethnography and qualitative design in educational research (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic.

Miles, M.B., & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Seidman, I.E. (1991). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. New York: Teachers College Press.

Spradley, J.P. (1980). Participant observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart.