Thematic Framework

It is undisputed that quality teachers play an important role in student achievement (OECD, 2016). Many high performing school systems internationally attract highly capable teachers, hence elevating the prestige of the profession (Barber & Mourshed, 2010; Sahlberg, 2010). For teachers to function efficiently in the school system, it is therefore important to understand the challenges they face.

You are required to conduct research on the topic “Challenges of being a teacher.”

PART 1: Data Collection

In this part of the assignment, you will collect qualitative data by conducting interviews and collecting documents related to the topic “Challenges of being a teacher.”

1A: Conduct Interviews

•  Identify and interview three (3) respondents using the topic above as a guide. Each interview should last at least half an hour.
•  Audio and/or video record all interviews.
•  Transcribe all interviews in verbatim, paying heed to pauses, interjections and turn-taking.

1B: Collect Related Documents/Audio Visual Materials

Read and collect three (3) documents/ audio visual materials that may provide confirmatory evidence of the information obtained from the interviews, as well as those that will give you in-depth understanding of the challenges teacher face.

PART 2: Coding and Generating Thematic Framework

In this part of the assignment, you will analyse the qualitative data that you collected in Part 1. Use a two-step procedure to analyse your data.

Step 1: Familiarising yourself with data collected (interview transcripts and audio and/or video recording of the interview, and documents)

•  You can do so by reading the interview transcripts, listening to the audio and/or watching the video recording of the interviews and going through the collected documents. This process will enable you to be aware of key issues, ideas and recurrent themes associated with “Challenges of being a teacher.”

Step 2: Coding and Generating thematic framework

•  After the familiarization stage, assign codes or labels to segments of the data which are relevant to the research objective.
•  Key issues, ideas or concepts, and themes which emerge after coding are referred to as “emergent themes”. Make a list of the recurrent themes and the subthemes, and how they may be substantiated by the data collected.

Note: This process is similar to a filing system. At this point in time, you may wish to read or collect new documents to support your interview data.

Assignment Description

Write a paper discussing issues related to your data collection, data coding and identifying emergent themes. You may adopt the following outline for your paper:

•  Purpose of your study
•  Data collection:
•  describe how interviewees were selected and why they were chosen
•  describe interview procedures
•  describe the choice and the rationale for the selection of the documents
•  Coding and Generating Emergent Themes
•  describe how data was coded
•  describe how themes were derived
•  list themes derived

[Total : 50 marks]