Running head: PRE-PROPOSAL

Pre-Proposal: A Qualitative Research on Students Perception of Ecological Awareness John Peterson Keiser University Dr. Andrea Thompson EDR810 Qualitative Research December 17, 2011

PRE-PROPOSAL Pre-Proposal: A Qualitative Research on Students Perception of Ecological Awareness I. Purpose of Study / Research Questions

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to gain an understanding of students perception of ecological awareness based on their lived experience in an ecological awareness program. Global warming and climate change are influencing our planet in an unparalleled manner, producing a need for better consciousness and answers to the environmental crisis (DeGalan & Middlekauff, 2008). Students attending college are the future leaders with the power to decide on the preservation of our planet, so it is fundamental that educational institutions ensure that students are environmentally aware. A qualitative study on this issue is relevant to this understanding, and this paper presents a study to describe the lived experience of being a student exposed to ecological awareness. This study addresses the following research questions: 1. What is it like being a student in an ecological awareness class? 2. What does it mean to be ecologically aware? II. Literature Review

Without doubt, the world is facing an environmental crisis. The primary causes are human-created environmental devastation, as Perlingieri (2009) explained, "massive destruction of habitats, unsustainable uses of fuels, logging, mining, and overfishing, to name some of the major ones. These are all done with gargantuan technologies that leave behind unmitigated devastation" (Perlingieri, 2009, para. 1). When combined with toxic pollution left by Bhopal, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, ThreeMile Island, Chernobyl, and other nuclear-related occurrences, which will not go away, there is a real danger to all the inhabitants of this planet (Perlingieri, 2009).

PRE-PROPOSAL Although there is not much research on the subject of students' perception on environmental awareness, some studies made a distinction by their relevance to the issues of scholarship. Keller's (2007) field research paper on an investigation of the environmental

awareness of students in the US and Europe, based on 14 qualitative guided interviews, is one of those. In this study Keller seeks to know "how the concrete actions of students correlate with what they said about their values before" (p. 4) being exposed to an awareness on the environmental crisis. In the field research paper Keller described American students acceptance of having a life experience in nature, and not giving value to environmental pollution, an acceptance stronger in boys than girls, mostly because boys liked camping (Keller, 2007). In addition, Keller described European students also connected to a value of environmental protection (p. 11) and enjoying nature through walks and hiking. This contact with nature is turning into a popular trend in education, especially in schools with disciplines catering to environmental awareness. For example, Nic Mink, visiting assistant professor of environmental studies at Knox College led a 10-day trip with nine Knox College students to canoe and camp through more than 100 miles of the Florida Everglades during winter break, gaining first-hand knowledge of the deep connection between people and national parks (Knox College, 2011). Storksdieck (2006) conducted a study in the role of out-of-school settings in education for sustainability, where the author described field trips in environmental education as, "an effective teaching tool in a variety of cognitive and affective learning dimensions" (p. 1) related to environmental learning. Storksdieck defended the idea that out-of-school environmental learning experiences strengthen the relationship between humans and their natural environment.

PRE-PROPOSAL In the author's point of view there is "a lack of global environmental science knowledge" (p. 4),

which drives the need for models that influence pro-environmental behavior (Storksdieck, 2006). O'Brien's (2007) thesis on "Indications of environmental literacy: Using a new survey instrument to measure awareness, knowledge, and attitudes of university-aged students" suggested that students, especially those in higher education, have a low-to-moderate level of environmental knowledge. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The theoretical framework of this study consists of how important it is for students to be aware of the current and potentially dangerous future ecological crisis and how they react to this ecological awareness. This proposed phenomenological study aims to understand students perception of ecological awareness based on the principles guided by Whitehead's Theory of Experience, which defends that the feeling of actual things by actual things to be absolutely basic to more high-grade and specialized experience (Muirhead Library of Philosophy, 2002, p. 268). III. Research Design

According to Hancock (2002), "phenomenology literally means the study of phenomena" (p.4). This study uses phenomenal methodology to understand the phenomena related to the integration of student awareness of the environmental crisis, in order to answer the research questions. Phenomenology is as much a philosophy as it is a type of qualitative research that emphasizes experience itself and how experiencing something is transformed into consciousness (Merriam, 2009, p. 24).

PRE-PROPOSAL Methodology The research question and the resources available for research will assist researchers in

selecting how to collect data (Devers & Frankel, 2000). Data is the information collected by the researcher originating in the findings of the study; qualitative data is nominal, differing from quantitative data, which is in most cases scalable. Qualitative researchers, over time, developed a variety of ways to study human behavior (Gall, Borg, & Gall, 1996). These different possibilities are coming from the disciplinary fields of anthropology, psychology, social psychology, sociology, and education (Creswell, 1994). A researchers role in qualitative research links to the nature of the study, which is interpretative research, and as such, there is the risk for his or her judgmental bias and values influencing the study (Creswell, 1994). Data collection will be through interviews. Seidman's (2006) recommended interviewing in order to collect qualitative research data. However, interviews take time and resources; interviewers have to be experienced in many different aspects of measurement instrumentation (McNamara, 1999). Devers and Frankel (2000) explained that in qualitative research the type of instrumentation used when collecting qualitative data has pros and cons. "In most qualitative research, the degree to which interviews and observations are structured varies. For example, when conducting interviews, the researcher could use a very detailed interview protocol" (Devers & Frankel, 2000, p. 267). The way people can openly discuss their thoughts characterizes interviews. McNamara (1999) explained that interviews are particularly useful for getting the story behind a participants experiences. The interviewer can pursue in-depth information around the topic. In

PRE-PROPOSAL addition, following up answers of responses on questionnaires and further investigating responses gives even a larger importance to interviews (McNamara, 1999). This study will adopt an in-depth, phenomenological based interview. According to Seidman (2006) this method associates life-history interviewing with focused, in-depth interviewing informed by assumptions drawn from phenomenology (p. 15). The interviews will be structured to follow a three-interview series, as proposed by Seidman. 1. The first interview will focus on a participants experience with sustainability and environmental issues as a result of their lived experience in an ecological awareness program. This will be done by asking questions related with their life experiences with the issues.

2. The second interview will concentrate on the details of the lived experiences described in the first interview. 3. The third and final interview will be based on the reflection on the meaning of their lived experience. This reflection is the fruit of a connection between their daily lives and their intellectual and emotional experiences in an ecological awareness program. Data Analysis Data analysis is the process of systematically applying statistical and/or logical techniques to describe and demonstrate, compress and summarize, and evaluate data. According to the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center (n.d.) at Northern Illinois University, "While data analysis in qualitative research can include statistical procedures, many times analysis becomes an ongoing iterative process where data is continuously collected and analyzed almost simultaneously" (para. 2).

PRE-PROPOSAL Hancock (2002) wrote, "Analysis of data in a research project involves summarizing the mass of data collected and presenting the results in a way that communicates the most important features (p. 16). In qualitative research, there is an interest in discovering the whole picture by using data to explain a phenomenon and to express and understand what it means (Hancock, 2002).

Cheng (n.d.) explained, "Data management and analysis in qualitative research are ways to store data, to categorize data, and "to make sense of the categories and to communicate the findings to readers". Storing data techniques is sometimes critical to data management in qualitative research. The actual data storing in qualitative research is initiated with the collection of data (Cheng, n.d). According to Cheng (n.d.), to hold data the following containers of data can be used:

The human brain Field notes Tape recorders Video recorders In qualitative research, whatever comes in frequently in a random way has to be understood

by the researcher (Cheng, n.d.). Fritz (2008) elucidated that the following are effortless steps to good data management: (a) Choose and follow a clear file naming system; (b) develop a data tracking system; (c) establish and document transcription/translation procedures; (d) establish quality control procedures; and (d) establish a realistic timeline (slide 4) . Data analysis tends to be a continuing and interactive process in qualitative research. Folkestad (2008) explained interview data analysis as a three-step process: 1. Data reduction, this starts at the very beginning of the research phase, when concepts and methods are developed and subjects/ phenomena selected.

PRE-PROPOSAL 2. Data display, this step seeks meaning on a limited part of the data (summaries, diagrams and text-matrices). 3. Conclusion, when the researcher compares, contrasts, and searches for patterns, triangulation etc. The researcher can check whether none, all, or some proportion of behaviors or events

occur under distinct circumstances. "The researcher can generate a preliminary model to explain the data collected. Explanations place particular social facts in reference to their environment. Further observations are then collected which can strengthen or weaken the researcher's preliminary model" (Saint-Germain, 2002). Throughout the entire process of qualitative data analysis, there will be an engagement in memoing (i.e., recording reflective notes about what is learned from the data). In addition, there will be a typed transcription of the data collected (from interviews, observational notes, memos, etc.) into word-processing documents. This study will analyze data with the assistance of the computer-assisted analyses of qualitative data (known by the acronym CAQDAS). Although not perfect the following advantages of CAQDAS justify this choice (Silverman, 2000): Speed when handling large amounts of data Better accuracy, as for example, searching deviant cases Assist in team research, especially when conducting coding schemes Support sampling decisions Themes and Categories Categorizing a study during its analysis is an efficient method of organizing information. Although different from quantitative research coding categories function with the same purpose,

PRE-PROPOSAL to help indexing the data. By reading the text in study researchers can identify themes that elaborate ideas, behaviors, concepts, interactions, terminologies, incidents, and phrase used.

Categorizing a study also has the advantage of helping to organize these categories in a coherent way bringing meaning and sense to the text. (Taylor-Powell & Renner, 2003). Validity and Reliability Reliability is linked to the quality of measurement (Trochi & Donnely, 2006), and "Construct validity refers to the degree to which inferences can legitimately be made from the operationalization in your study to the theoretical constructs on which those operationalization were based" as elucidated by Trochi (2006, para. 1). Merriam (2009) explained that the best way to achieve validity and reliability in qualitative research is through ethics. Validity and reliability are connected to the manner which research is measured, and has to rely in ethical integrity. It is very difficult for a qualitative researcher to maintain assumptions about investigation free of bias. An ethical code would greatly assist on that. Merriam listed "ten items to be considered when engaging in qualitative research" (Merriam, 2009, pp. 233-234): 1. "Explaining purpose of the inquiry and methods to be used" 2. "Promises and reciprocity" 3. "Risk assessment" 4. "Confidentiality" 5. "Informed consent" 6. "Data access and ownership" 7. "Interviewer mental health" 8. "Advice (who will be your counselor on ethical matters)"

PRE-PROPOSAL 9. "Data collection boundaries" 10. "Ethical versus legal conduct". Validity and reliability are major areas of concern in any research, especially in

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qualitative studies (Creswell, 2007). Perhaps all researchers have the honest intent of producing the best study they are capable of, having ethical believes and trust in results of investigations; however, it is crucial that some form of ethical guidelines are followed, after all it is the researcher's reputation on the line. This study will apply the following strategies to promote validity and reliability, as suggested by Merriam (2009): 1. The use of variation and diversity in sample collection to permit a larger spectrum of applications of the findings by consumers of the research (p. 229). 2. A well detailed description in order to provide readers an opportunity to examine if their situation match the research context (p. 229). 3. And a critical self-reflection by the researcher regarding assumptions, bias, theoretical involvement, and how close the researcher is to the study jeopardizing the research. IV. Dissemination and Recommendations

All features of the findings on the qualitative data will be taken in consideration when planning the presentation. Emerged themes and categories will be used to structure the results section of the research report, because the data are "subjective, interpretative, descriptive, holistic and copious and it can be difficult to know where or how to start" (Hancock, 2002, p. 22). Following Hancock's (2002) advice, the structure will be defined at the beginning, either as a list or in diagrammatic form. Then, the themes will be presented in sections with the categories as sub-sections. Presenting in this way allows the categories of data to be used to

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build the themes as the main findings of the study. In addition, as suggested by Hancock (2002), additional verification to support the findings will be provided by using direct quotations from respondents. Key quotations will be selected to illustrate the meaning of the data.

PRE-PROPOSAL References Bogdan, R.C., & Biklen, S.K. (2007). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theories and methods (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Cheng, K.M. (n.d.). Making sense of data in qualitative research. University of Hong Kong. Retrieved from http://www.ssrc.hku.hk/web/

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Creswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. DeGalan, J., & Middlekauff, B. (2008). Great jobs for environmental studies majors. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Devers, K. J., & Frankel, R. M. (2000). Study design in qualitative research2: Sampling and data collection strategies. Education for Health: Change in Learning & Practice (Taylor & Francis Ltd), 13(2), 263-271. doi:10.1080/13576280050074543 Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center (n.d.). Data analysis. Northern Illinois University. Retrieved from http://ori.hhs.gov/education/products/n_illinois_u/datamanagement/datopic.html Folkestad, B. (2008). Analyzing interview data: Possibilities and challenges. EUROSPHERE ONLINE WORKING PAPER SERIES. Retrieved from http://www.eurosphere.uib.no/knowledgebase/workingpapers.htm Fritz, K. (2008). Managing your qualitative data: 5 easy steps [PowerPoint]. Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved from http://ocw.jhsph.edu/courses/qualitativedataanalysis/PDFs/Session2.pdf Gall, M.D., Borg, W.R., & Gall, J.P. (1996). Educational research: An introduction (6th ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.

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Gay, L.R., Mills, G.E., & Airasian, P. (2006). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and applications (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Hancock, B. (2002). Trent focus for research and development in primary health care: An introduction to qualitative research. Sidney, Canada: Trend Focus. Keller, D. (2007). Field research: Comparison of the environmental awareness of US- and European students. Nordestedt, Germany: GRIN Velarg. Knox College (2011). Knox students to canoe in Everglades, study nature. Retrieved from http://www.knox.edu/news-and-events/news-archive/knox-students-to-canoe-ineverglades-study-nature.html Marshall, C., & Rossman, G.B. (1999). Designing qualitative research (3rd. ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. McNamara, C. (1999). General guidelines for conducting interviews. Minnesota, MN: Authenticity Consulting. Merriam, S.B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Muirhead Library of Philosophy (2002). The relevance of Whitehead. London, England: Routledge. Myers, M. (2000, March). Qualitative research and the generalizability question: Standing firm with Proteus. The Qualitative Report (4)3-4. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR4-3/myers.html O'Brien, S.R.M. (2007). Indications of environmental literacy: Using a new survey instrument to measure awareness, knowledge, and attitudes of university-aged students (Thesis). Iowa State University. Retrieved from Pro-Quest.

PRE-PROPOSAL Perlingieri, I.S. (2009, February 11). The worldwide environmental crisis gone missing: The precautionary principle. Global Research. Retrieved from http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12268 Saint-Germain, M. (2002). Data collection strategies II: Qualitative research. California State University Long Beach. Retrieved from http://www.csulb.edu/~msaintg/ppa696/696quali.htm Seidman, I. (2006). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press/Columbia University. Silverman, D. (2000). Doing qualitative research: A practical handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Storksdieck, F. (2006). Field trips in environmental education. Berlin, Germany: BWV. Taylor-Powell, E., & Renner, M. (2003). Analyzing qualitative data. University of WisconsinExtension. Retrieved from http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/g3658-12.pdf Trochi, W. (2006). Construct validity. Retrieved from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/constval.php Trochi, W., & Donnely, J.P. (2006). The research methods knowledge base (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning-Atomic Dog.

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