The fieldwork resulted in 17 interviews with participants from the three different groups actively included in teacher education at two Croatian universities. The following table provides the overview of the interviewees and the research sites.
Table 1 Overview of the interviewees and research sites
Location Student Teachers Mentor Teachers University Teachers
Rijeka 5 2 2
Osijek 5 1 2
Total: 17
The subsequent sections provide more detailed explanations for the sampling and fieldwork.
Faculty of Teacher Education in Rijeka and “Nikola Tesla” primary school in Rijeka
My fieldwork started at the University of Rijeka in September 2011 and finished at the end of October 2011 at the University of Osijek. I made a decision to conduct the first part of the research at the university that I graduated from as a teacher and developed a deeper interest in teacher professionalism. Although I did not study at the Faculty of Teacher Education I was familiar with the organizational structure of the studies, I knew some of the university teachers and administration staff working at the faculty, as well as some students that studied there. Therefore I decided to turn to them for help in opening the administrative gates of the institution. Another reason for choosing the university in my hometown was simply to lower the expenses of the research since the project was self-financed.
The academic year at the institutions of higher education in Croatia starts on October 1st.
When I arrived at the faculty at the beginning of September 2011 the students had no lectures
29 and were preoccupied with exams so I started interviewing university teachers. Upon my first arrival to the premises I introduced myself to the administrative staff, informed them about the purpose of the research and presented them the introductory letter from the University of Oslo. They showed great interest for the research and offered their help by providing me with the lecture schedule, list of demonstration schools, telephone numbers, office hours of the university teachers and some useful information about the staff that I should have contacted in relation to my research topic. I visited the institution on several occasions while making the arrangements for the interviews.
The sampling for the interviews with the university teachers was purposive since I interviewed two teachers that held courses on how to use educational technology. The interviews took place at the faculty, during the office hours in the teacher’s office. They lasted approximately one hour.
In the second half of the September 2011 I also visited “Nikola Tesla” primary school where I interviewed two mentor teachers. I visited the school on several occasions to arrange and conduct interviews. The headmaster provided me with a list of classroom teachers that were also mentors to the student teachers. I randomly picked one mentor teacher whom I interviewed in a small room where the individual teacher-parent meetings take place. This interviewee introduced me to the subject teacher that holds “Informatics” as an extracurricular activity course and who was kind enough to talk to me as well. Both interviews lasted around 45 minutes.
Finally, the interviewing of the fifth year student teachers took place at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Rijeka at the beginning of October, 2011 once the new academic year started.
My first formal encounter with the entire group of around 45 student teachers in classroom education took place in one of the classrooms at the faculty on the first day of the new academic year and prior to one of their courses. I introduced myself, informed them about the importance of the research on teaching profession and the significance of their participation in such research. As master students they were already familiarized with the process of educational research through a university course and were supposed to conduct a small quantitative research for their final master thesis as well. I explained that I am conducting a qualitative research on graduate student teachers in classroom teaching and asked for five volunteers willing to give me an interview. All the interviews took place at the faculty, in the classrooms that were available so that we were undisturbed. Only at the beginning of each
30 interview did I introduce them with the topic and the purpose of the research. This sampling resulted with interviewing students that took specialization in both modules thought at the faculty. Each interview lasted approximately half an hour.
Faculty of Teacher Education in Osijek and “Retfala” primary school in Osijek The other part of the fieldwork started in Osijek during the second half of October 2011. It attracted me as a research site because of the long list of university courses connected to teaching and learning about, with and through ICT. In the course of my fieldwork in Rijeka I contacted the administration of the Faculty in Osijek and the person responsible for the creation of the new and improved curriculum in 2005 expressed great interest for the participation in my research.
Upon arrival at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Osijek I introduced myself to the administration staff and to the university teacher that I contacted earlier. This time I started interviewing students first since they were available. The same sampling technique and the same procedure were applied as in Rijeka. The interviews were arranged during the next few days and took place in the empty classrooms before, after or during the breaks in their lectures. Since I did not pinpoint that I am interested in ICT at my introduction to the fifth year class, the sample consisted of students being specialized in each of the three modules described earlier. I was very interested in the factors that influenced their choice of modules, the choice of elective courses and their experiences with ICT. Each interview lasted approximately half an hour.
The next step of the research was to interview the university teachers. Since the faculty in Osijek has many courses there are also several teaching assistants so I randomly picked one.
The interview lasted around half an hour and took place at the teacher’s office.
The next interview at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Osijek was with one of the head teachers I contacted via e-mail when making arrangements for the field trip. This interview took place in the teacher’s office as well and lasted more than one hour.
My final interview took place at the “Retlafa” primary school that I picked randomly from the list of the demonstration schools in Osijek. When I arrived to the school I introduced myself and the purpose of my research to the headmaster of the school. After a short discussion the headmaster agreed to include the school in the research and I randomly picked one mentor
31 teacher from the classroom teaching department. During the lecture break I introduced myself and the teacher agreed to be interviewed after work. The interview took place in the classroom after the pupils went home and lasted about 45 minutes.