School based decision making at a time of rapid change - Denis Hayes

Note the range of issues that were considered when organising this case study:

1. Motivation for carrying out the study.

2. The preparatory work needed before the study can commence.

3. Gaining agreement from the staff of the institution.

4. The methodology employed.

5. Writing up the study.

6. Theory development.

7. Feedback to participants.

8. Key issues arising from the research.

Motivation for the research

• the speed of externally imposed change

• the contact with a school head who espoused SBDM

• my own need to keep abreast of the changes

Preparatory work

• reading around the subject

• informal approach to the head teacher

• development of an ethics protocol (confidentiality)

• formal approach to the head by myself and to the chair of governors by the director of studies

Gaining agreement from the staff

• going in to school to explain the proposal

• fielding questions

• waiting for a response from staff

• agreeing an ethics protocol (ensuring confidentiality)

Methodology

• attendance at regular meetings (field diary, using the right hand page for notes about what was said and agreed, left hand for my reflections upon the process)

• allowing time for my presence in school to become unremarkable

• informal chats with individuals and small groups of staff

• after about a term, the start of interviews with each teacher (interview questions based initially on literature, later depended more heavily on issues arising from field-work)

• after two terms, interviews with the head began, about once per half-term

• active data collection continued for over two years

Writing-up

• began immediately with commentaries on what I had seen and observed

• some anxieties over whether I was misinterpreting events and comments

• semi-structuring my interviews to allow the respondents to feel some ownership of the interview

• interim feedback to the head using a management audit approach which allowed me to maintain my research status

• development of tentative hypotheses throughout the time, adjusting and modifying as new insights were available

Theory Development

• careful analysis of interviews and field notes to erect categories and list statements, etc under these categories

• erection of typologies to explain data as my ideas became clearer

• second interviews to confirm my impressions and clarify points

• construction of explanatory models and argument about generalisability

• final write-up using 'right of reply' material as appropriate and acknowledging my own part as researcher, links with previous work in the field, limitations of the research, the process and procedures associated with the research, etc.

Feedback

• summary for governors and offer to attend a meeting to further clarify points

• summary given verbally to staff

• several sessions with the head to discuss the implications of findings

Issues

• thorough preparatory time is not wasted

• it is difficult to maintain the balance between openness and breach of confidentiality

• the write-up needs to be of high quality: clear, well organised and taking nothing for the granted (such that if someone wished to replicate your study in a different context, they would be sufficiently well informed to be able to do so... reliability )

• diagrams are most useful for organising one's own thinking

• evidence has to be weighed carefully and a full picture has to be offered to the reader such that s/he is able to comprehend the basis on which conclusions are drawn (for instance, this may mean including whole interview transcripts or large parts of them from which your selected extracts are drawn...validity ).

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