The process of transcribing the interviews started during the fieldwork and helped me adapt the interview guide. I did not manage to transcribe all the interviews by the end of the fieldwork and the process continued through the following weeks.
Another experience that I gained through this research project is that qualitative research strategy is notorious for the amount of data collected and generated. The first three interviews were transcribed by using inductive approach, i.e. word-for-word transcribing. However, this resulted in huge amount of data that was to be analyzed and much irrelevant information as well. Since I did not intend to build a grounded theory, and I already had a general theoretical framework for the research as well as research questions, I decided to apply deductive approach to the transcription process. The objectives of this approach were to eliminate the
33 data unrelated to the research topic and purpose, reduce the amount of transcribed data to the units that were more manageable for analysis and therefore prepare ground for efficient coding (Bekele, 2011). This resulted in a text that took less space, was more convenient for the analysis and it certainly saved me a lot of time. On the other hand it was challenging to decide what was important and what was not. In order to make sure that all the relevant data was included I listened to each interview recording several times during and after I finished transcribing them. The interviews were treated not only as a sum of individual concepts but also as a whole with a deeper meaning relevant to the research goal.
Once the transcribing had been completed I approached to the data coding process by applying an inductive method. This approach is common in qualitative research whose purpose is to develop theoretical explanations in a grounded theory. Although this was not part of my research aim I believed that an open kind of coding could result in new insights not influenced by theory but which could then be built into the existing theoretical knowledge.
Consequently, the coding process consisted of three levels: itemization, conceptualization and categorization (Bekele, 2011). Appendix contains examples taken from the interviews with some participants in order to better illustrate this coding process.
The coding resulted in a list of external and internal factors obtained in the interviews with the three groups of participants. The internal factors are intrinsic and inherent to one individual’s mind, for e.g. individual’s feelings, attitudes, knowledge or opinions. The external factors on the other hand, come from institutions such as the educational ministry, university, faculty or school and exist independently of individual’s mind. In some cases the external factors can also stem from individuals and have influence on other individuals inside one or more institutions. The following tables offer the overview of the factors identified in this research as well as their definitions.
Table 2 Definitions of external factors
External factor Explanation
Hardware Hardware equipment, such as computers, overhead projectors, interactive whiteboards or network devices at the faculties or in demonstration schools, which are used to teach and learn about, with and through ICT.
34 Software Software tools, such as operation systems, individual program
tools or program packages installed to the computers at the faculties or in schools that are used to teach and learn about, with and through ICT.
Financing Financial resources provided by the local community, donors, schools, Universities of Rijeka and Osijek, by the Faculties of Teacher Education or the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports for equipping educational institutions with ICT.
Technical support A service or a team of individuals who provide assistance to pupils, students and teachers when having technical problems with electronic devices.
Mentor teachers’
stance towards ICT
Attitude and relationship that mentor teachers in demonstration schools have towards ICT, and which affect student teachers’
perception of ICT.
University teachers’ stance towards ICT
Attitude and relationship that university teachers at the universities have towards ICT, and which affect student teachers’ perception of ICT.
Professional education
Opportunities for professional development and gaining skills and knowledge about the use of ICT provided by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports or other educational agencies and institutions.
Cooperation Teamwork and partnership between different institutions i.e.
faculties and schools with the goal to integrate ICT into educational systems, and which directly affect the performance of the individuals.
Individual effort Effort that individual teachers and students invest in order to gain
35 knowledge about ICT and apply that knowledge in practice.
Feeling of disappointment
The feeling of dissatisfaction because of the lack of appreciation for individual’s work and personal efforts invested into integration ICT.
Attitude towards ICT
Positive and negative personal attitude that students and teachers express when it comes to ICT.
Attitude towards colleagues
Positive and negative personal attitude that students and teachers express when it comes to their colleagues who use or do not use ICT.
Knowledge Knowledge and skills about ICT that student teachers gain at the university and which they try to apply in practice.
Collective effort Effort that a collective of teachers invests in order to integrate ICT into educational system.
A more detail account on these factors is given in the chapter 4 on data analysis.