Teachers' priorities and beliefs : a venture into beliefs, methodologies, and insights

PhD thesis in Behavioral research.This thesis is accompanied by the following paper: Thorsen, Arlene Arstad (2006): "A pathway to understanding Q-methodology". I Journal of Human Subjectivity, Vol. 4, No.2, s. 33–53, http://www.kssss.org/head_search.htmlThis study focuses on Norwegian preschool- and schoolteachers’ priorities, beliefs and their subjective opinions about discipline and behavior management, group/classroom practices, beliefs about children, and teachers’ instructional and disciplinary self-efficacy beliefs. The theoretical foundation of this study is on general and developmental systems theory and social cognitive theories with a major focus on beliefs, developmentally appropriate practices, and also the background and context in which teachers in daycare and school work in Norway. Several methods are combined to study teachers’ beliefs, but the main emphasis is on Q-methodology. R-methodology was chosen to seek knowledge of teachers’ views of self-efficacy among 254 respondents. Qmethodology was used to gain an understanding of teachers’ subjective feelings and beliefs about the other themes mentioned above. Analyses of Qdata were conducted on two subgroups of teachers (20 from daycare and 20 from school in each group) drawn among the 254 participants. In addition follow-up interviews were conducted with six participants from the cohort. Research has established that beliefs play an important part in the life of individuals and groups. Teachers are expected to adhere to regulations and expectations stipulated by laws, policies and curricula, and to participate actively in relationships with children, parents, colleagues, and others. How this is done is strongly influenced by personal and formal knowledge, beliefs, understandings, and values that guide our choices. In addition teachers with a high sense of efficacy about their teaching capabilities can motivate children and enhance their cognitive development. Results from both subgroups in this study point to strongly shared beliefs in an authoritative teaching style when dealing with discipline and behavior management. One almost identical operant factor emerged in both subgroups pointing to a caring, accepting and child-centered view on beliefs about children. Results here may represent teachers’ existential beliefs independent of children’s age. The results concerning group/classroom practices are more varied with two factors (A and B) in Subgroup 1, and three (C, D and E) in Subgroup 2, but with some similarities between subgroups. Factors A and C represent a relational learning orientation, factor B an academic learning orientation, factor D a structured learning orientation, and factor E a model and community learning orientation. Results concerning self-efficacy show no reports of low instructional self-efficacy. In the whole group of teachers (254) 65.8% of them report to have a medium degree of instructional self-efficacy, while 34.4% use high values to indicate their own efficacy. There were statistically significant differences between teachers in daycare and teachers in school at the p< .05 level in favor of teachers working in daycare. There were no statistical significant differences between groups concerning disciplinary self-efficacy. Teachers working in school had a higher mean score (M = 7.26) than teachers in daycare (M = 7.13), but there were more teachers in daycare (66.3%) that reported to have a high degree of disciplinary self-efficacy than teachers in school (62.7%). There is a statistical significant correlation (r = .63**) between instructional self-efficacy and disciplinary self-efficacy, indicating those teachers who report to have high instructional self-efficacy will also report to have high disciplinary self-efficacy. Comments from the interviewees help substantiate and shed light on results from Q themes and self-efficacy. Becoming aware of personal subjectivity and how beliefs, knowledge and action interrelate in our contact and communication with others, can give a deeper personal insight and understanding of relationships between teachers and children and the intentions teachers have for teaching and children’s learning. In combination with being a critically reflective practitioner, this can lead to a higher degree of openness and motivation to review and revise current beliefs and practices and lead to positive changes for both children and teachers. The possibility for such change has relevance for teacher education, in-service teachers’ continuous growth, and for implementation of new curricula. One efficient means of tapping into operant subjectivity is by use of Q-methodology

Young children’s participation in a Q study with visual images: Some comments on reliability and validity

In this study we discuss various aspects of the participation of young children as informants in research relating to their own adjustment and behavior. We ask whether it is meaningful to include young children as participants in this kind of research, and if Q methodology using visual images is a suitable research method that may give reliable and valid results. An example is given through a study of 20 children aged five. The conclusion is that this may be a suitable approach, and that there are indications that the results are both reliable and valid. However, more research is needed to explore the usefulness of Q methodology with visual images in studies of very young children

Family narratives through the eyes of an adult child of divorce

In the present study the authors explore an adult’s retrospect recall of viewpoints of his parents divorce by applying Q methodology. The study design consists of a single case study where the authors apply Q methodology with various conditions of instruction. By applying Q methodology the authors seek to explore various family narratives in an attempt to look for coherence or divergence between significant people surrounding the subject “Magne” and himself. All viewpoints are studied according to the way Magne himself believes he and other people understood the divorce process. The Q sort consists of 28 statements selected ‐ ‐ to represent both child and adult viewpoints, and also viewpoints regarding both the divorce process and child living arrangement. The Q‐sort 4x7 matrix ranges from – 3 to + 3. The factor analyses resulted in three clear‐cut factors. Results show some coherence and some diversity between the viewpoints of significant people in Magne’s life. Magne’s viewpoints as a child and his viewpoints as an adult seem to be very similar. Q methodology seems to be an efficient way of studying family narratives. Among other things the method clearly helps to give an impression of similarities and divergences between the various family narratives from one person’s standpoint

Revealing Children’s Experiences and Emotions through Q Methodology

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. It was originally published in the journal Child Development Research.Over the last two decades, there has been a greater readiness to view children as competent contributors to our understanding of children’s lives and experiences. As a consequence of this, we have witnessed an increased focus on including children in research. When research aims at revealing children’s perspectives, experiences, and emotions, we need to employ methods that are easy-to-use means for obtaining their stories. In this paper, we argue that Q methodology is particularly suitable for facilitating children’s participation in research. We will give a brief presentation of the methodology and demonstrate its relevance for research with children.We do so by presenting two research examples aiming at revealing children’s experiences and emotions in challenging life circumstances. In the first example, Q methodology was used with five-year-old children where the research topic was divorce. The second example is a study on family perceptions among adolescents in foster home care