Page 165 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

Chapter 6
6.3.4 Analysis
All interviews were transcribed verbatim. With our research questions in mind, the analysis sought to categorise di erent types of beliefs and behaviours, nd associations between them, and seek explanations. Framework analysis – a systematic process of si ing, charting, and sorting material according to key themes – suits these goals (Ritchie & Spencer, 1994). As detailed in Table 6.2, we followed Ritchie and Spencer’s (1994) ve data analysis stages: (1) familiarisation, (2) identifying a thematic framework, (3) indexing, (4) charting, and (5) mapping and interpretation. Atlas.ti was used to conduct the analyses.
Table 6.2 Overview of the stages of framework analysis: Description and execution
Stage
1. Familiarisation
2. Identifying a thematic framework
3. Indexing 4. Charting
5. Mapping and interpretation
Description by Ritchie and Spencer (1994)
Becoming familiar with the data and gaining an overview.
Identifying key issues, concepts, and themes and constructing a framework by drawing on research aims and themes arising from the data.
Applying the thematic framework systematically to the data.
Rearranging the data according to the themes and constructing main ‘charts’ that consist of headings and subheadings from the research questions and developed framework.
Analysing the range and nature of key themes within the charts, mapping and interpreting the data as a whole and searching for patterns and explanations.
Our practices
We immersed ourselves with the data by reading and re-reading the 50 transcripts and listing recurrent themes that emerged as important.
We linked emergent themes to the research questions. In addition, we categorised those pertaining to beliefs about university readiness and practices of university preparation according to Conley’s four keys: cognitive strategies, content knowledge, learning skills and techniques, and transition knowledge and skills.
We coded the passages using the framework with emergent themes developed in stage 2. If a passage did not t the framework, we assigned a new code and thus expanded the initial framework.
In line with our research questions and the framework derived from stages 1–3, we constructed seven charts: (1) readiness beliefs, (2) preparation practices, (3) role perception, (4) obstacles, (5) wishes, (6) background factors in uencing beliefs and practices and (7) knowledge in uencing beliefs and practices.
Using Atlas.ti, we generated an overview of how many teachers mentioned each theme to obtain an overall pattern of beliefs and practices. We linked university readiness beliefs to university preparation practices, to determine the extent to which they aligned. Role perception beliefs, background factors, knowledge and barriers were linked to practices
and can explain why teachers attend to university preparation or not in their classrooms.
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