Being observed or being involved? An innovative approach to research methodology.

This paper discusses multidimensional concept mapping research methodology used in a research project conducted for a UK government agency, Becta. In this study, 45 teachers with expertise in primary, secondary and FE were invited to work through questions set by Becta around the theme of Digital Tools for Future Teachers. The results benefit from the overall focus on teachers’ collaborative judgements about the value of ICT tools and resources. This collaboration was achieved by applying a research methodology in which the teachers were engaged as co-researchers who work together, face to face, in a community of practice to develop collaborative judgments about the value of ICT tools and resources.
Engaging the teachers in this way as active agents in the aims and objectives of the research project is significantly different from eliciting their solitary responses remotely in a questionnaire and analysing the results from an objective standpoint. This collaborative judgment technique also differs from focus group research when the participants do not usually know what questions the researchers are investigating. In these focus groups the researchers are observers of professional attitudes, whereas in this study, in contrast, the researchers encouraged these professionals to be explicit with each other and agree on their statements as a group. This involved deep thinking, absorbing new information and defending a position. These were promoted as elements of good teamwork and professional sharing that model the way professional decisions are made in a social context.
A three-day residential workshop was set up in order to engender these high levels of trust in a community of practice atmosphere. A range of team building techniques was used to create professional trust between the participants: key techniques were critical incident performance and collaborative concept mapping. Forty-six expert practitioners engaged in a series of group sessions in which each of the questions about ICT tools and resources were considered in depth. The teachers then split into their appropriate phase to consider the questions from the following perspectives:
• subject tools and curriculum resources,
• assessment and accountability software,
• communications between people locally, nationally and internationally,
• time and space
The paper explains in more depth how the methodology was developed and how the results were triangulated with data from other communities of educators: face to face with international experts in ICT in Education from the US and Australia and the conducting of a review of discussions on popular ICT online forums to identify what issues were preoccupying the teachers who use these forums.

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