Kasia Idzi – Page 2 – PgCert blog

Preparing to analyse the data.

In order to prepare myself for data analysis I read as much as I could on the topic in a given time. I started with two short texts, just to get a feeling of what data analysis involves. I hoped to get some insight of where I could start with analysing my questionnaire and focus group.

Beginning to analyse: a chapter from: Matthews, B. and Ross, L. (2010) Research methods: a practical guide for the social sciences. Harlow: Longman, Pearson Education. pp.316-319

This was a very short introduction to analysing data process that helped me to relax a bit about this part of my research.

I found our workshop no.3 that was on the subject of analysis very stressful. Not because of how it was run – it was a very informative and rich session with good set of readings assigned to us. It was its timing that worked against me. I was very far from starting analysing data at the time of this session. Actually, I was still reading on my topic and deciding on my research question then.

Finding this chapter was a great way to ease myself into the subject and enabled me to get on with my project.

First of all it says that analysis begins with the moment we start working on our project. When we think of answering our research question we already start planning what methods of data collection and its analysis will suit our project. In my case, I have already decided to use questionnaire and focus group as methods of data gathering. I know my data will be qualitative and I need to look into analysing this kind of data.

Another important take out from this short text is:

“The purpose of data analysis is to describe, discuss, evaluate and explain the content and characteristics of the data that has been collected in your research project.” (p. 317)

It contained a very useful checklist for starting the process of analysis and it has already helped me to think about my project and steps I need to take:

think carefully what you need to do to begin analysis	I need to have the text of questionnaire answers and transcript of the focus group ready first
return to your research question to make sure that you know what you need to answer	that will be done once I familiarise myself with the data. I will keep in mind my question when deciding on themes/categories
learn and check the details about technique you are using	I think I will be using thematic analysis and have already started learning about it
know what you are looking for – check your topic/question again	It comes back to my research topic of improving teaching IL with inclusivity and critical pedagogy in mind
remember that the purpose of analysis is to reach conclusion	I am most scared of this part of my project. I hope to feel better about it once I have analysed some of the data

Ningi, A. I. (2022) “Data Presentation in Qualitative Research: The Outcomes of the Pattern of Ideas with the Raw Data ”, International Journal of Qualitative Research, 1(3), pp. 196-200. doi: 10.47540/ijqr.v1i3.448.

This was another very short and helpful piece that I found in time when I most needed it.

The following steps of qualitative data analysis were extremely useful, especially that they were presented in a very simple and accessible way:

Processes	Actions
Familiarising with the data	Transcription, readings, proofreading, and assigning of ideas
Generating initial codes	Coding interesting features in a systematic manner across the entire data set, organizing important points relevant to each code
Searching for themes	Collecting codes into major themes and gathering relevant data into such themes
Revising the themes	Checking in the themes information that relates to the coded extracts and the entire data set
Defining the themes	This process defined the specific themes and the overall information by generating clear definitions and suitable names for each theme
Producing the report	The final segment involves the selection process through the processed data which was conducted by relating the analysis to the research questions and literature.

Outcomes of Pattern of Ideas in Data Presentation/Analysis

The following quote from this article “the data must be represented in various ways as descriptive extracts from interviews, or indeed as illustrations of highly abstract categories derived from the analysis of the data.” (p.199) made me think of using a few methods in presenting my data (time allowing, as I am highly aware of time constricts in this small scale project). I think wordclouds or other visual aids may be helpful to show the themes in my focus group transcript.

Designing the questionnaire and gathering responses

I started working on the questionnaire by asking myself why I am using it and what I need to know, following the recurring advice from my readings on the subject (blog post).

I decided to use questionnaire to inform my focus group, to see what are the issues that my colleagues think are the most important in our Information Literacy teaching. I decided to ask about how we could improve and any methods that they think helped them already. I also wanted to know if there are any issues that they experienced when planning or running the sessions. The findings will help me to concentrate on the matters most relevant to my team in the focus group.

Once I knew what I need from my questionnaire I started composing the questions and writing them down on post-it notes.

First draft of the questions I was planning to use

When working on the questions I thought of using two with the rating scale to measure how my colleagues evaluate our students’ IL skills and our teaching as it is at the moment. Later I decided that only the latter will be relevant to what I needed to know at this point of my research. I think we could and should improve how we teach and it was interesting to see if we are all on the same page. I made sure I do not ask a leading question and used 5 points scale: from Poor to Excellent.

I gave the participants a chance to elaborate on their choice in question no.2. I think this was important to understand their answers to the first question better. It could give me lots of information on what is already working and what we want or need to work on.

I sent the questionnaire to five of my colleagues, four working in my team and one that I used to work with in the other library. All my participants replied swiftly and gave answers that helped me with my focus group planning.

My questionnaire that I used in the project, participants’ view and the whole document:

Participants’ view of the first part of the questionnaire

Questionnaire-on-our-experience-as-librarians-in-teaching-information-literacy

Reading about questionnaires and thinking about designing one for this project

When I started reading more about research methods, the interviews and focus groups seemed the most relevant to my research. Then when I read about the questionnaires it made me think they could provide me with some material that could help me design the interviews.

I think using a questionnaire would let me see what my colleagues think about our teaching and what ideas they have for the improvements, before meeting them for the next part of the research.

Some reading on questionnaires I have done for this project (and how it affected my questionnaire design process):

Matthews, B. and Ross, L. (2010) Research methods: a practical guide for the social sciences. Harlow: Longman, Pearson Education.

It is a quite in-depth chapter on questionnaires that was helpful to me, especially when talking about using open questions “which allow the respondent to answer the question in their own way.” (p. 202).

I am thinking of using a questionnaire to collect qualitative data and from what I have read it looks like open questions will be suitable to use in my questionnaire.

The following was a great help when I was designing my questionnaire:

Thinking about your research topic and designing a questionnaire to gather data:

What do you want to know?
Who will be able to answer the questions?
Will they understand the questions?
How will they answer the questions?
Will they be able to give the answers they want to give?” (p.206)

Ad.1 What do my colleagues think about our teaching? Are we doing well? Are we doing enough? What and how could we improve? What teaching methods and sessions work well? What is their experience of teaching Information Skills/Literacy?

Ad.2 and 3. I will be working with librarians from my team. They are all very well placed to understand and answer my questions.

Ad.4 I plan to have a few open-ended questions and use MS Forms to create an online questionnaire.

Ad.5 I will make sure my questionnaire to be anonymous and I will not know who said what. I think that this should free my participants to say what they really want to say. The last question will be for them to add anything they think they did not have a chance to say when replying to the previous questions.

This chapter has also provided a useful checklist. I underlined the points that were most useful to me:

INTRAC, Simister, N., Lunin, L. (2017) Surveys and questionnaires. Available at: https://www.intrac.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Surveys-and-questionnaires.pdf (Accessed: Jan 10, 2024).

This is a very concise document that I started with when searching for information about questionnaires. It helped me to understand well the difference between an open and closed questions and ways of structuring them, by providing good examples:

Additionally, it taught me that the questionnaires can be used:

At any time within a project or programme cycle
To supply baseline information
To support ongoing decision-making
To assess what has changed (after the project ends).

The first three points are very relevant to my project and confirmed that my decision of using questionnaires to help me with the further part of the data collection can be justified.

Peterson, R.A. (2000) Constructing effective questionnaires. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE. Pp. 45-60

I focused my reading on the Constructing and Wording Questions chapter.

As with the many other readings that I have done for this part of my project, this book provides lots of information on questionnaires used in quantitative research and treats the subject in a very detailed way. For this project I am going to use a very short questionnaire, just to touch the base with my team, so what I read was very informative, but only a few paragraphs were very useful to me.

I found some helpful material here for construction of my questionnaire. For example the following quotes:

“Five useful and easy-to-apply criteria are that questions be brief, relevant, unambiguous, specific, and objective.” (p. 50)

“Constructing effective questions is a delicate endeavor [.] (…) The formulation of a question will always influence if, and how, it is answered. In many instances, there is no correct or unequivocal way to ask a question, although positively worded questions generally tend to be less confusing than negatively worded questions.” (p.59)

Introduction to ‘Reading on my topic’ category of this blog

Planning reading about topics related to my research question

I created the Readings on my topic category to document what I have been learning during my ARP Unit regarding my profession (in relation to my research question).

I started this literature review from the materials about general Information Literacy (IL), then tried to put it into critical pedagogy context and finally put on the sustainable IL lenses. The most recent posts are at the top, so if you want to follow my journey you need to start with the oldest post in the category.

In my research question I focused on evaluating library resources part of IL and have done lots of reading on this specific aspect of my profession too. There is a separate a blog on this part of my reading.

Reading about critical literacy and evaluating resources

In my research question I focused on evaluating library resources part of IL and have done lots of reading on this specific aspect of my profession too. I treated it differently to the readings that I included in the other blogs in this category. I created a PDF with quotes from most useful readings and findings by the fellow librarians on evaluating resources. I colour coded the themes that are related to my project and used comment to record my thoughts on them and ways I can use the information once working on the actual session on evaluating resources. Some of the readings are accompanied with a short reflection. These readings will be very useful once I start planning my session specifically on evaluating variety of library resources. It will be then when I need to dive deeper into this area of my studies. Many of the findings were also important in designing and carrying out my focus group.

Readings-in-my-subject – evaluating resources Download

Reading about Green Information Literacy 3

Kurbanoğlu, S., Boustany, J. (2014). From Green Libraries to Green Information Literacy. In: Kurbanoğlu, S., Špiranec, S., Grassian, E., Mizrachi, D., Catts, R. (eds) Information Literacy. Lifelong Learning and Digital Citizenship in the 21st Century. ECIL 2014. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 492. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14136-7_6 pp. 47-58.

The aim of this paper it “to examine how environmental issues can be incorporated into libraries (…) [and] to highlight how information literacy and information literacy instruction can be transformed into green [one]” (p. 48). I was especially interested in the second part of the purpose of this text.

The paper provides a very rich source of information on Green Libraries (buildings, green practices, information systems, and collections). This made a very interesting reading, especially that it is done in a concise and accessible manner.

However, in the context of my research, the most relevant part of it is when it starts talking about green literacy. It postulates that any information literacy (IL) is linked to green literacy, as it can reduce the impact of our actions on the environment. Making our searches more effective makes them more sustainable, for example. Additionally, IL supports critical thinking and helps to make informed decisions in any area of our life. I really like that idea.

We can “green” IL instructions by:

Embracing green operations and practices (for example: using less printed materials in sessions, reusing it, using double-sided print options, recycling, using natural lighting, turning off screens when not in use).
Embedding sustainable thinking into it (how to be sustainable when searching and using information, informing on impact of web searches, using green topics and resources).
Exploring means of sharing ideas on going green (community of practice, working groups)
Compiling factual information on the impact of information behaviours and sharing it with users.

I have been concentrating on the first 3 points of this list in my professional practice so far. I can see how all my actions in greening my IL sessions can benefit from implementing the 4^th one.

Reading about Green Information Literacy 2

Hauke, P. (2018), “From information literacy to green literacy: training librarians as trainers for sustainability literacy”, Paper Presented at the IFLA World Library and Information Conference (WLIC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 24-30 August, available at: http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/ 2147/1/116-hauke-en.pdf

This is a very useful and informative paper discussing the role of libraries in society regarding sustainability literacy (SL).

It puts teaching sustainability literacy in two categories:

Teaching more theoretical issues through sustainability literacy courses, mainly at academic libraries
Teaching through a more practical approach, mainly at public libraries, offering Repair Cafés, Food sharing initiatives, Urban Gardening programmes etc.

This article came 4 years after the first one I read on the subject. It still says that there is more emphasis put on Green Libraries (GL) as the green buildings. However, by widening focus of the definition of GL to include activities, events and projects that are run in support of environmental sustainability, libraries can act “as educators in sustainability literacy.” (p.3)

Then the article explores the role of the libraries in teaching SL in more depth. For me the most important was learning that the SL “means having knowledge and skills to advocate for resilient social, economic and environmental system.” (p.4) It changes my perspective on what I was planning to do in my sessions. I realised that for me in order to implement SL I need to educate myself more. I have started with exploring our UAL Libraries guide on sustainability and (as mentioned in the previous blog post) to take part in Eco-literacy Toolkit training as soon as possible.

However, the article also mentions all the little ways we can contribute to sustainability goals. By using specific topics or key words in sessions, promoting the databases and guides on the subject. That is what I have already started doing and will continue to include more materials around environmental issues into my teaching.

The article referenced the next interesting text for me in the context of this project: From Green Libraries to Green Information Literacy.

Reading on Green Information Literacy 1

Townsend, A.K. (2014) ‘Environmental sustainability and libraries: facilitating user awareness’, Library Hi Tech News, 31(9), pp. 21-23. doi: 10.1108/LHTN-07-2014-0059.

This a good introduction to sustainability and libraries subject. I chose to read it as first, as it is short and mentions the users in the title. When I first started looking for resources on green libraries, I come across writings mostly on the library buildings, so having user awareness in the title was a good sign.

This article talks about Canadian libraries that have sustainability certified buildings and how (if) they promote it in raising awareness of environmental issues.

It starts with a statement that the majority research on green libraries had been focused on the library buildings and our day-to-day procedures. The article is from 2014 and I am sure there is more writings on the sustainable information literacy now, however, I am still finding many writings on what libraries are doing to be sustainable not on how we can support students learning in this subject area.

The article gives examples of different internal initiatives that were organised by the libraries they researched. The initiatives revolved around the collections and their promotion and/or creating resource guides. What was interesting for me was using film screenings to promote resources. I think our art college students would be happy to engage with this kind of events.

When studying for our second unit of the PgCert course, I researched what initiatives our UAL Libraries take to promote sustainability, and it turned out that we have a very good guide to our and external resources that in my opinion needs to be used more in our teaching. Additionally, my colleagues from the CSM Library have created an Eco-literacy Toolkit that aims to help us include climate justice in teaching. I wrote about it more in my blog here. My colleagues are planning to run a session on how to use this toolkit this term – I am looking forward to taking part in it and think about how I can use it in my teaching about evaluation of the library resources.

Reading about Critical Information Literacy 3

Reale, M. (2012) ‘Critical Pedagogy in the Classroom: Library Instruction that Gives Voice to Students and Builds a Community of Scholars’, Journal of Library Innovation, 3(2), pp. 80-88.

The article starts with the following statement that I felt inspired by and found very relevant to my research and studies.

“When librarians apply critical pedagogy in a classroom, they can both impart knowledge and ignite breakthrough thinking among students. By (…) decentralizing the “power” in the classroom, librarians can tap into knowledge that students already possess and encourage them to express their own ideas.” p. 80

The author very honestly describes her experience of teaching as a librarian. I can relate to many of her observations. I also find it difficult to employ critical pedagogy faced with the expectations of our audiences. In the case of library instructions or information literacy sessions our students are often surprised when we want to deliver a workshop instead of a lecture. They seemed to be used to the librarians talking to them, not with them.

Similarly, to the author I have tried to introduce a more relaxed way of starting the sessions by asking questions about the students’ current projects or their thoughts on their experience with the library and its resources.. And similarly, I had some success in engaging the students in the workshops, when they freely expressed their views and clearly enjoyed discovering new ways of researching.

I think what really transpires from this article and my own experience is that changes take time and persevering with adapting our sessions to the critical pedagogy premise can be and is rewarding. In the words of the author on encouraging interaction in the class:

“All the students make sense of the texts at hand and are free to express their thoughts and opinions. I benefit by witnessing the transformation and am able to better understand my own teaching methods. (…). It is through dialogue, relentless questioning, and the de-centralization of authority that a level playing field is created where students are encouraged to express their own thoughts and come to their own conclusions.” (p.86).

Reading on Critical Information Literacy 2

Smith, L. 2013. Towards a model of critical information literacy instruction for the development of political agency. Journal of Information Literacy, 7(2), pp.15-32. http://dx.doi.org/10.11645/7.2.1809

This article explains very well what critical information is and what its aims are.

Critical literacy is explained as a key feature of critical pedagogy that “teaches analysis and critiquing skills around the relationships between texts, language and power.” (p.15) This definition has helped me to focus my research topic and question. It placed my research within social justice issues and directed me to from general information literacy towards its critical pedagogy aspect.

The very important part of the text is the set of criteria and questions that can be applied to resources in order to implement critical literacy (in the case of the article it is in the context of political agency, but I feel it can be applied in different contexts too):

“Pragmatic practices: developing resources as a text user: How do the uses of this text shape its composition? What do I do with this text, here and now? What will others do with it? What are my options and alternatives?

Text-meaning practices: developing resources as a text participant. How do the ideas presented in the text string together? What cultural resources can be brought to bear on the text? What are the cultural meanings and possible readings that can be constructed for this text?

Critical practices: What kind of person, with what interests and values, could both read and write this naively and unproblematically? What is this text trying to do to me? In whose interests? Which positions, voices, and interests are at play? Which are silent or absent?” (p. 20)

The following quote from this text is a reminder for me of why I want to engage in information literacy teaching and make it a subject of this research project: “Those working in the library and information science profession have a responsibility to substantively engage with issues such as critical information literacy, especially during a period of mass privatisation (…)” (p.25)