Chapter 3: Methodology and methods
Cultural Intelligence
Devitt’s article exploring the Cultural intelligence and the expatriate teacher brings a rich approach to understanding how CQ can be manifested from a diverse background. Notably, Cultural intelligence is a multifactor intertwined between cognitive, motivational, and behavioural capacities. The study should explore how the expatriate teachers can show their understanding and act towards the beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviours of Emirati women in various colleges give the cultural differences that change with various circumstances. Therefore, the methodology employed in the study has to consider reliability and applicability.
Various methods, such as interviews and focus groups were used in determining the teachers’ understanding of cultural intelligence by collecting qualitative data. The choice to interview various respondents is perceived as a noble way to acquire first-hand information from the expatriate teachers on their experience and adaptation to various cultural shocks and lifestyle. Working in the United Arab Emirates has attracted mixed reactions from potential employees based on the Arabic culture as well as the governance approach. Therefore, interviewing expatriate teachers will be a good chance to understand the various skill that has been acquired to help in dealing with women in the country. The women issue in the gulf region attracts its fair share of critics hence interviews will be viable.
On the other hand, using focus groups in data collection seems to be another good idea in this study. The approach is termed to be better than interviewing an individual on a given issue. The formation of a group welcomes a variety of views. As a result, these views can be used to determine the researched topic. The differences among the participants are the basis for making a better decision on the matter. The added advantage of forming a focus group after individual interviews is that the possibility of biasing is reduced as diversity in opinions. In this case, having various respondents discussing how expatriate teachers can enhance their CQ abilities. Therefore, Devitt’s article portrays a good combination of primary research data collection methods that will yield more informed decisions toward hiring expatriate teachers in the UAE.
The use of “Sternberg and Detterman’s (1986) multi-loci of intelligence theory, and Earley and Ang’s (2003) multi-factor construct of cultural intelligence” as the research design was a good approach in examining the respondents. The tools have a good approach when assessing human intelligence. Therefore, the four loci namely metacognitive CQ, cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, and behavioural CQ (Devitt, 2014). Each of these has an impact on defining the ability of these teachers in their CQ capacity.
Most of the theories in this study required qualitative analysis to make it an interpretive study. The presence of secondary data on the topic can be a source of quantitative data. Therefore, the qualitative data collected through interviews and focus groups were fundamental. The paradigm used can only be quantified through qualitative data despite having integration of quantitative data. In most studies, it is impossible to separate these types of data. The Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) adopted a positivist paradigm and it was critical to gather some quantitative predictive measures (Şentürk, 2019). Lastly, the research topic is a real-world issue and it was critical to conduct the study as interpretive research. Therefore, the qualitative data collected was crucial in gathering rich and intricate information based on the facts given by the respondents. Each has his or her experience and perspective of the UAE and women issues as depicted in the global front. As a result, there is a ‘participant observational research’ aspect from views collected during the study. The consolidation of all the views is given. More so, it would have been erroneous if the study had not used qualitative methods as interpretive research (Devitt, 2014). Qualitative data derived from the respondents are pivotal in demonstrating real-world issues. Further, each of the expatriate teachers has a personal view that may be contrary to others. The inclusion of every view would make the study more detailed and evoke further studies to get a better understanding of the problem cited in the research. Cultural Intelligent can be expressed differently among people and it is for this reason that it becomes crucial to use the instruments and methods found in the study.
Cultural Adaptation
Adaptation to a different culture can be a daunting task as culture shock and difference in lifestyle, food, and beliefs take long to assimilate. Therefore, the study by Hills, and Atkins (2013) on Cultural Identity and Convergence on Western Attitudes and Beliefs in the United Arab Emirates. It would require a methodology and methods that can yield real-life situations and how people working in the UAE have perceived the cultural changes. There is a difference between western attitudes and believes compared to the Gulf region such as the UAE. The ability to switch and adapt to different beliefs would take different times whereas the respondent’s attitudes will determine the interest to learn and adapt to new cultural activities.
This empirical study majorly used an original survey instrument. Surveys are known to have many advantages for some studies that require a wide range of opinions and participation. However, there are some disadvantages when considering using a survey. Various studies have revealed some important advantages applicable to the issues covered by Hills, and Atkins. The issue of Cultural Adaptation is a wide issue likely to attract different views from the UAE and other countries based on the trends witnessed on westernization. According to Khaled (2013), it was a good idea to study the above aspect using a survey because it offered the inclusion of a large population as people are invited to participate in the study. As a result, high participation was crucial in getting a wide pool of data that can be analyzed on various characteristics from a wider population aspect. More so, these surveys are cheap to conduct because all is required is to formulate the questions and administer it to the participants. The only cost incurred can be little or no incentives to participants.
The low cost and huge participation of surveys yielded the high turnout witnessed in the study. The survey attracted participation from the UAE and the rest of the world. Notably, there were 166 participants from various Gulf Arabs nations such as “UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman and a small sample of Iranians,” the Mediterranean Arabs were 137 from Egypt and North African Arab countries. Further, there were two categories of Subcontinents denoted as A and B in which attracted 317 and 97 participants respectively. The countries involved included India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka (Hills & Atkins, 2013). Finally, the western countries that included Europe, Canada, United States, New Zealand, and Australia had 128 participants. This is good inaction that the authors managed to involve more than 840 participants by (Hills & Atkins, 2013). The high number of respondents could have been expensive if the study was conducted through interviews and focus groups.
Further, the use of the survey was more continent and offered statistical significance. These surveys can be sent to the participants through e-mail or fax and sent through the Internet, which is nowadays accessible and cheap in most countries (Palmer, 2015). As a result, it was easier for the author’s t reach most people globally at the comfort of their homes. The involvement of many people was key in Statistical Significance and Multiple variables analysis.
Conversely, the use of various convergent analytic techniques offered a vast way to gauge pervasive westernization in the gulf region. The multiple discriminant analysis to make comparisons on various identities on culture was achievable for the responses gathered from various cultures involved in the survey. The ability to include a wide variety of questions in the survey gave flexibility in including questions that may not apply to one participant but very relevant to another. Therefore, it was evident that the use of the survey was well designed.
Nevertheless, the study could have included more research methods to compliment the survey method. The methodology used in the study revolved around the survey alone. The survey itself was not free from some problems. The survey was much detailed and had 120 items to be completed by the participants. This was much work and may have discouraged some participants, especially if there were no incentives. Further, some participants may have answered all the questions with-it reading properly. As a result, there could be many cases of lies and biases. The differences in notions and myths about the topic may have influenced the answers given by the respondents.
Work Adjustment
According to Bunnell (2017), there has been a change among teachers in international schools. Concerns have been raised on whom exactly the non-corporate expatriate workers and expatriates are working as teachers in international schools. Therefore, Bunnell (2017) have coined various terms to depict the negligence in “middling actor” among the expatriate teachers. The issue covered in the study is not common as the trend is yet to be well documented and there are insufficient studies on the issue. Therefore, the choice of adopting a conceptual framework can be viewed as the most viable methodology to study the problem. The choice was key in understanding the natural progression of the work adjustment among expatriates working as teachers in international schools (Taiwan, & Na-nan, 2017). Therefore, the available data was the only source of information that can be collected to connect various concepts, and conduct empirical research and integrate theories that would help the author to justify the concerns. The methodology is known to be vital in conducting deductive and empirical research.
According to Siderits (2016), sometimes it is hard to separate inductive and deductive strategies as some questions come up during the study as both can be employed to get a solution to a problem. This study is both deductive and empirical and application of the conceptual framework was crucial in enhancing a better understanding of the Work Adjustment among teachers working in international schools. The confusion between the non-corporate expatriate workers and expatriates working as teachers required this approach to take a systematic understanding of various definitions and theories. For example, the author seeks to explore various aspects sounding the roles, society, working environment, and perception towards international school teachers. The need to answer the identity, distinctions, and perceptions from various stakeholders on these teachers evokes various questions that the study tries to answer through the conceptual framework of the “middling” aspect (Pencavel, 2018). Further, there have been issues surrounding these teachers as reflected by the students, other teachers, and the parents. For instance, one could ask who is superior between the expatriate and the native teachers. Some would argue that the expatriates are regarded with better respect whereas the locals should be accorded more privileges. Overall, these questions can only be well handled through a conceptual framework to mark the progress and change of events.
The conceptual framework is intertwined with some literature from various secondary sources, which helps the author to justify some sentiments. However, the lack of primary research in the study was a weakness. There should be inclusion of some interviews, or survey on whether there are some work adjustments as the study project that there should be more than 700,000 expatriate teachers by 2026 (Bunnell, 2017). The framework was instrumental in determining how the possible trends may change based on the current situation.
Teacher Induction
Being a teacher is a noble career full of expectation of moulding and sharpening future professionals. However, the first years of the career as in other jobs can be tough. More disturbing is a situation where one has to kick-start the career at foreign land characterized by different cultures. Therefore, novice teachers require a well-orchestrated induction and mentoring for them to find it easy to adapt in their workplaces (Wooldridge & Yeomans, 2019). This is well explained in a well formulated in Ibrahim’s article named ‘The learning needs of beginning teachers in the United Arab Emirates’.
The author used a self-administered survey towards the novice teachers as the targeted respondents. The decision to use a survey has become the most preferred method by many researchers based on the ability to reach a huge population and it is cheap as noted in Devitt’s article. In this case, the author does not target participants outside the UAE borders. He further zeros in on the beginning teachers. This was a well-formulated idea because the targeted participants are directly linked to the problem researched. As a result, the survey is likely to yield various ways these novice teachers ( first and second-year Emirati teachers employed in UAE government schools) have been treated in their quest to have a successful commencement of their careers and understanding what is required of them. Their views were critical in formulating the best approach to help the teachers, especially those who may not be very conversant with native languages (Tammets, Pata, & Eisenschmidt, 2018). The author further formulated the survey into two aspects of 29 multiple-choice and open-ended questions. The survey had standard questions and limited to ensure the respondents do not take much time. The multiple-choice is important in coming up with better quantitative data analysis because the outcomes are numerically based on the opinions of the respondents. On the other hand, open-ended questions are crucial in collecting data to be used in qualitative analysis.
The choice to use focus group meetings was critical as opposed to an individual interview. According to Hennink (2014), the focus group allows the participants to air their opinion on various issues. There can be agreements and disagreements based on the issue at hand. Therefore, they form a good starting point to argue is the novice teachers are inducted properly and what could be done to ease their working environment. Being a new teacher in a foreign country one would require a well-designed learning need such as on classroom management, coming up with a conducive learning environment, and ways to employ various strategies to have a class of motivated pupils when working In the UAE.
The involved participants had close contact with the researcher as they received telephone calls to ask them if they had any difficulties. Similarly, the targeted respondents were derived from, areas that were under school districts or educational zones, which are supervised by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Ibrahim, 2012b). Therefore, based on the inclusion of both quantitative and qualitative research methods backed by survey and focus groups made impossible to have a well-formulated study to understand the beginning teachers in the UAE understand learning strategies.
Any career requires a well-organized Induction and mentoring to ensure a good transition from one stage to another. Novice teachers have a lot to learn from their seniors in the profession. The research method used in this study was the Delphi technique .this approach is known to facilitate having a consensus on having the right approach to a certain matter. In this case, there was a need to have a scheme for the United Arab Emirates. Coming up with the right scheme can be a tiresome job. Therefore, it can be argued that the Delphi technique would be the most suitable way to formulating the right scheme that will help novice teachers during induction and undergoing a successful mentoring process.
The study implies there are various opportunities and engaging various stakeholders seems to be the most viable means. In this case, it should be noted that the induction programme must be in the UAE context. The local language is Arabic whereas there are many teachers from foreign counties contracted to work in the UAE, especially in teaching English. Therefore a consensus should be reached on how much teachers can be incorporated into the scheme and feel comfortable working in the UAE without any iota of fear or low esteem.
The author further makes the Delphi technique to be more understood through having some motivation and integration with other research methods such as questionnaires and surveys. In this case, an open-ended questionnaire was administered to some panellists. The Delphi tool was further modified as the survey questions were intertwined with some specific questionnaire items that were perceived to be components that could form a formidable scheme for an induction programme (Vankova & Videnova, 2019). The need to have a further category of the questions from these components was to ensure that the participants understood what is required in the scheme.
Integration of Qualitative and quantitative analysis is an indication that these two approaches are inseparable. The reduction to a survey of five open questions as noted in the Miles and Huberman’s was meant to make it easy to respond to the questions. In the process, three phases of data reduction, data display, and conclusions created a systematic approach toward deducing the most appropriate scheme. The author also was conscious of the sample size as the initial survey has only 100 educators (Ibrahim, 2012a). The sample had diversity to ensure differences are vital in making the final decision .therefore; the sample had respondents with different ages, gender, and job experience. The researcher further conducted a second and third survey as the number of participants reduced to 18 educators derived from novice, experienced, principals, supervisors, officials from Ministry, and education professors equally. Notably, the participants in the second and third surveys were from the first survey apart from the officials from the ministry (Ibrahim, 2012a). As a result, it yielded better results that could help in justifying the initial results.
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