26/10/22
Whilst designing my research methodology, I initially contemplated sending a questionnaire to Year 3 students and conduct a Focus Group with Year 1 students. However, after a breakout room discussion with a colleague on the PG Cert, I decided to ditch the questionnaire and centre my project on getting feedback from Year 3 students. Below are the notes from my discussion with Anne-Marie.
- A focus group will be preferable because ‘Belonging’ can be a very emotive topic.
- The questionnaire may not provide the space for students to be effusive about how they feel.
- The questionnaire limits the scope of conversations that may arise from peer to peer reminiscing/conversing (belonging together!) It keeps the discussion linear and only connected to me the tutor.
- The questionnaire may not gather enough detailed data.
- Approaching third years is good as they would have had time to reflect.
UPDATE:
Whilst this was the right direction, now that I’ve concluded the ARP cycle, it would have benefitted from a series of focus groups with more stakeholders for a richer dataset, for eg. Focus Groups with Year 1, Year 2, Staff and Technicians.
Ideally, I would also have included a workshop to co-design community building exercises with students.