Using Mixed-Methods to Examine Teachers' Attitudes to Educational Change: The case of the Skills for Life strategy for improving adult literacy and numeracy skills in England

Abstract

This paper reports on a longitudinal study that examines how a national reform introduced in England in the field of adult literacy, language, and numeracy is affecting teachers. The paper focuses on the use of a mixed methodology to explore teachers' attitudes to the reform and how these change over time. The quantitative strand includes the construction and use of a Likert-type instrument for measuring the attitudes of a panel of 1,500 teachers. The qualitative strand builds on the quantitative results and includes focus groups and in-depth interviews with a subsample of teachers in the panel. As the study is still in its initial phase, the purpose is not to present findings, but to discuss how quantitative and qualitative evidence can be combined in evaluation research.

Notes

ESOL stands for English for Speakers of Other Languages.

A new sample of learners is drawn from the teachers' groups/classes each year.

A basic characteristic of this sector is that teachers often have multiple part-time contracts with more than one employer.