The analysis for phase one served to answer the research question concerning factors influencing teachers’ beliefs about OPD. The case study design provided an in-depth understanding of the factors affecting teachers’ beliefs about online professional development and thus their behavioural intention to use online professional development.
Data analysis comprised three steps, data reduction, simplifying data collected and transforming new data occurring simultaneously (Miles & Huberman, 1984). The data produced through focus groups interviews were first transcribed into a word processing file for analysing (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007; Flick, 2008). Transcribing data means converting the oral interview data into a written structure for analysis purposes (Creswell, 2005). The researcher did the transcription to preserve the anonymity of the participants. In consultation with the participants, the discussions were carried out in Mauritian Creole to enable them to better express their views and to elicit richer information without any language barrier. Nonetheless, for the purpose of the thesis write up, the quotes have been translated from Kreol Morisien (KM) to English. The names used are pseudonyms.
After transcription of all data, the process of coding began. Merriam (2009) described the coding process as “making notations next to bits of data that strike you as particularly relevant for answering your research questions” (p. 178). While preparing the data, focus
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was on the next data collection. The intention was to group data into categories. The data from each group were coded without any comparison or matching (Merriam, 2009).
When the coding was finished, the themes development process started. This process was described as “(going) back over your marginal notes and compartments (codes) and (trying) to group those comments and notes that seem to go together” (Merriam, 2009, p. 179). The researcher went through the data of each group and grouped the codes in similar categories. The data was then translated into English language as the focus group discussions were done in Creole, the native language of the participants. Then the data were analysed.
The process of analysing the data in the case study involved finding patterns in the data.
Grounded theory being a good method for analysing data in exploratory studies and in this case teachers’ beliefs about online professional development, it was used for analysing the data in this study. Glaser and Strauss (1967) explain grounded theory as being “readily applicable to and indicated by the data, and is meaningfully relevant to and is able to explain the behaviour under study” (p. 3). Moreover, it is useful for understanding contextual elements (Orlikowski, 1993). This approach is used so that the contextual aspect of OPD usage is not neglected (Lawrence & Tar, 2013). Moreover, the interpretive orientation of this research fits well within the characteristics of grounded theory which are inductive, contextual and processual (Lawrence & Tar, 2013). Thus, as an analytical tool, grounded theory is appropriate to provide an insight about factors influencing beliefs about OPD, why such beliefs and how such beliefs are constructed (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Strauss and Corbin (1990) identified three analysis levels: (a) presentation of the data without interpretation and abstraction, where the participants tell their own story or views; (b) using field notes, interview transcripts and researcher’s interpretations to generate a rich and believable descriptive report; and (c) using high levels of interpretation and abstraction to build a theory. In this research, the second and the third levels were combined for presenting rich and comprehensive descriptions; this can help when transferring the case study findings to an alternative setting to make enough contextual judgements. Researchers have been warned by Strauss and Corbin (1998), that rigid adherence to any procedure can hinder the analytic process and stifle creativity.
The procedure for using the analytical tool is to find key phrases or words in the data gathered and then relate these phrases with meanings as described by Strauss and Corbin
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(1998). First, open coding, which is the “process through which concepts are identified and their properties and dimensions are discovered in data” is used (p. 101). The data is then broken into discrete parts before being compared. Next, axial coding, that is the process creating subcategories and associating these with “properties and dimensions”, is used (p. 123). Last comes the selective coding “integrating and refining the theory” (p. 143) using categories and their associations with subcategories (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).
The reasons for choosing the grounded theory were numerous. The grounded theory contributes in areas where little research has been done. Regarding secondary school teachers’ beliefs about online professional development, little research has been carried out as stated earlier. The grounded theory approach also helps in the development of theories about the phenomenon being studied; moreover, it produces accurate and useful results. It suited interpretive research due to the following characteristics: it was inductive, contextual and processual. Furthermore, this approach provided the research with strategies to sift and analyse a large amount of data gathered in non-standard and unpredictable formats.
Grounded theory helped the researcher to develop and describe theory and explore the interactions of contextual conditions and the consequences.
A descriptive analysis pertaining to the focus group discussions conducted during the first phase of the study is presented in the next sections. The “heu”, the pauses and unnecessary words, have been removed from the translated version so that the researcher could make sense of the data for analysis. During the data reduction stage, the focus groups transcripts were reduced and organised by coding, writing summaries and irrelevant data discarded. It was still ensured that there was access to them later after leaving the room for the re-examination of unexpected findings that might have been previously considered unnecessary or left out. The data were analysed to identify patterns. The patterns are issues that appeared recurrently across the interview transcripts. The analysis took place within each case as well as across the cases to identify similarities and differences. The generated data was coded and scrutinised, focusing on aspects that affect teachers’ intention to use online professional development.
Different themes emerged in the study after analysing the data. The grounded theory and an inductive approach were used to obtain the themes below. Themes were chosen according to what the data described. During the analysis the researcher followed the
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following steps. First the researcher read and found the categories which were suggested by the data collected (open coding). Next the researcher found links between themes or categories (axial coding) and finally the researcher found the core category (selective coding). Four themes were identified, as follows: (1) sources of knowledge and their applications; (2) technological factors; (3) challenges of online teacher training; and (4) policy challenges. These themes were further refined to evaluate how they fitted with the data (well or poorly). After deeper analysis these four themes were reduced to three themes, namely teachers’ experiences with teacher-training programmes, online teacher training and challenges of online teacher-training. The three themes were further broken down into sub- themes. These sub-themes revealed the factors that influence or inhibit teachers’ beliefs about online professional development. Each of these themes is exposed in Table 5.1.
Table 5.1: Emerging themes during data analysis
Themes Sub-themes
Teachers’ experiences with teacher training programmes
Theory versus practice (perceived usefulness) One-size-fits all
Course duration
Professional growth and progress Social influences
Teacher professional development and students’ learning outcomes
School context
Online teacher training use behaviour Teachers’ conception about online learning Motivation
Benefits of online teacher training Facilitating conditions
Challenges of online teacher training Implementation
Formal and informal learning Course structure
Unfamiliarity Human contact Health problem Self-discipline
Authenticity of students’ work
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Themes Sub-themes
Curriculum constraint
There are several elements that affect teachers’ behavioural intention to use online professional development, such as theory versus practice, one size fits all, course duration, professional growth and progress, social influences and teachers’ conceptions about online learning. Other equally important factors are teachers’ motivation; benefits of online teacher training; facilitating conditions; formal and informal learning; and course structure.
Unfamiliarity, human contact, health problems, self-discipline, authenticity of students’
work and curriculum constraints influence teachers’ beliefs about online professional development. Nonetheless, these are not the only elements that affect teachers’ beliefs about online professional development. However, these are emerging factors that influence teachers’ beliefs about online professional development in this case study; this is not an exhaustive list, but one determined by the scope of the study. Creswell (2007) states that after completing the process of thematic development which Merriam (2009) describes as
“mak[ing] sense of the data”, the following step is data representation. This is described as the “process used to answer your research questions” (Merriam, 2009, p. 176):
As soon as a tentative pattern of classifications or findings or themes has been derived, it is required to arrange the entire of the confirmation for a scheme into groups.
These categories were visualised as “buckets or baskets into which segments are placed” by Marshall and Rossman (2006, p. 159). “This is done by creating file folders each labelled with a category or name”. (p. 182)
In qualitative research, the presentation of the data serves also as the final analysis process as put forward by Creswell (2009) “the process of data collection, data analysis, and report writing are not distinct steps in the process – they are interrelated and often go on simultaneously in a research project” (p. 150).