6. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
6.3 Research Phases
6.3.1 Phase I: Investigating the Current Status of Public Participation
6.3.1.1 Data Capturing Instruments
a) Observation: During the researcher’s stay “living” in the environment under study, he and his female assistant met and talked to many related key-officers and public people during which they both recorded observations. Data were captured on tape or paper based on the agreement of the met people. The researcher did his best to record all of the details rather than filtering relevant information. Refining the data was done after detail collecting was complete.
b) Written and electronic information: Mission statements, administrative structure, workflow diagrams, job descriptions, maps, etc., all contain information that gives
initial understanding on how things ought to work. Information that differed from that in reality and discovered by the researcher has been further investigated as needed.
Much written and electronic information was collected to gain an insight prior to the ethnographic trip took place.
c) Interviews: Interviews were the most important data gathering technique during the researcher’s ethnographic trip. They were used to capture information that couldn’t be found in literature or to clarify information that was not clearly understood using the other data gathering instruments. The interviews conducted during the ethnographic trip were of two types: formal interviews and informal interviews. Prior to using the formal and informal interview questions, the researcher obtained approval from his PhD committee and the Institutional Review Board of Texas A&M University.
1) Formal Interviews (in-depth interviews): These interviews were aimed at collecting data from the municipality and the community association of the study area. Prior to conducting the interviews, the interview questions were tested. The main purposes for the pre-testing were to determine an average length for the interview, to make sure each question was clear, to make sure the questions flowed well, and to make sure that the questions used adequate terminologies.
This was particularly important because the questions comprising the instrument were to be asked to busy governmental officials where time and terminology are critical. Pre-testing was conducted with two experts separately. The first pre-test was conducted with an MBA holder who served in a leading governmental
position and is currently retired. The second pre-testing was conducted with a PhD holder who served in a different governmental position in the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and currently is a university professor a College of Environmental design. Both persons were chosen from outside the municipal body in order to avoid using a “live” sample for the pretests.
The actual (not-pre-testing) formal interviews were carried out in four sessions with four key-officers from Jeddah's Main Municipality, Jeddah’s municipal council, the municipality branch of Fawaz Community (Called the South Municipality Branch), and the community association of Fawaz Community. Initially, the researcher had the agreement of six key-officers to be interviewed. However, only four of them were interviewed as mentioned above.
Two key-officers didn’t fulfill their promise despite three attempts the researcher made to meet them. This negatively impacted the study especially when knowing that such key-officers were from one department that was very relevant to the study.
All of the formal interviews conducted were first audio recorded, second transcribed and third entered into a computer to make searching and accessing them efficient and effective. The questions used in these interviews are listed in (Appendix A).
2) Informal Interviews (focus-group discussions): This method was chosen because of its great potential to generate more insightful information and because it encourages discussion participants to give more candid answers (Joppe, 2004).
The focus-group discussions were aimed at collecting relevant data from a number of women residing in the study area. Prior to using the discussion questions, they were pre-tested to determine an average length for the discussion session, to make sure that the questions flow well, and to make sure that the questions were easy to understand as well as discussed by lay females. One round of the pre-testing was conducted on September 23, 2005. The pre-testing session was moderated by the researcher's female assistant. Eight public women participated in such pre-testing. Those participants were selected from outside the study area in order to avoid using “live” sample for the pretest.
The actual (not-pre-testing) Focus-group discussions were carried out in five sessions with a total number of 37 women selected from the study area. The number of discussion sessions wasn’t determined in advance, but the sessions continued until a pattern of feedback was clearly recognized by the researcher at the fifth session. Audio recording these interviews was impossible due to the refusal of the most majority of the participants. Therefore, the moderator was assisted by another female assistant just to write down what was being said during the discussions. The written information was then entered into a computer to make searching and accessing them efficient and effective. The questions used in these interviews are listed in (Appendix B).
d) Kinesics and Outcroppings: kinesics (or body language) of the participants was as important as their verbal answers. Body language was sometimes a signal to explore a specific topic further, change to another topic, or to end a discussion as soon as
possible. Outcroppings are observable conditions that can imply information about a context. Some kinesics/outcroppings recognized by the researcher and/or his female assistant were tested against other information because, in isolation, such clues and information could be easily misinterpreted.
e) Folk tales: Some stories of events heard repeatedly from people provided insight into the subjects of interest in the environment under study. They backed up and supported some of the other collected information as well.