IB-DP STUDENTS’ VIEWS OF ACADEMIC BUOYANCY IN TURKEY
Eren Benderli 201182106
MASTER’S THESIS
Department of Educational Sciences
Educational Administration and Supervision Master's Program
With IB Leadership Certificate
Advisor: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Gökçe Güvercin Seçkin
İstanbul
T.C. Maltepe University Graduate School
June, 2022
IB-DP STUDENTS’ VIEWS OF ACADEMIC BUOYANCY IN TURKEY
Eren Benderli 201182106
ORCID:0000-0002-7235-572X
MASTER’S THESIS
Department of Educational Sciences
Educational Administration and Supervision Master's Program
With IB Leadership Certificate
Advisor: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Gökçe Güvercin Seçkin
İstanbul
T.C. Maltepe University Graduate School
June, 2022
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JÜRİ VE ENSTİTÜ ONAYI
Bu belge, Yükseköğretim Kurulu tarafından 19.01.2021 tarihli “Lisansüstü Tezlerin Elektronik Ortamda Toplanması, Düzenlenmesi ve Erişime Açılmasına İlişkin Yönerge” ile bildirilen 6689 Sayılı Kişisel Verilerin Korunması Kanunu kapsamında gizlenmiştir.
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ETİK İLKE VE KURALLARA UYUM BEYANI
Bu belge, Yükseköğretim Kurulu tarafından 19.01.2021 tarihli “Lisansüstü Tezlerin Elektronik Ortamda Toplanması, Düzenlenmesi ve Erişime Açılmasına İlişkin Yönerge” ile bildirilen 6689 Sayılı Kişisel Verilerin Korunması Kanunu kapsamında gizlenmiştir.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I’m so happy to have reached the end of a long-desired process which was postponed due to some decision-making issues. Finally, I’ve completed my master’s degree. I’d like to thank those who have direct effect and contribution to my thesis and those who supported me throughout the process.
To start with, I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr.Gökçe Güvercin Seçkin who has been with me from the beginning till the end. She had great contributions not only with her wise recommendations but also with her positive attitude.
In addition, I owe a thank you to Jacqueline Einer and my colleagues in encouraging me to start my thesis and offered their support all the way.
Also, the teachers and the students who took part in my study with the information they provided deserve thanks. I would like to thank them one more time for their time and energy during the period of Covid-19 pandemic. They offered their contributions in their busy schedule no matter how far they are.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife and children for bearing with me during this hectic period.
Eren Benderli June, 2022
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ÖZ
TÜRKİYEDE IB-DP ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN AKADEMİK ENGELLERİ YÜRÜTME BECERİSİ HAKKINDA GÖRÜŞLERİ
Eren Benderli Yüksek Lisans Tezi Eğitim Bilimleri Anabilim Dalı
Eğitim Yönetimi ve Denetimi Yüksek Lisans Programı Uluslararası Bakalorya İleri Liderlik Sertifikası Danışman: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Gökçe Güvercin Seçkin Maltepe Üniversitesi Lisansüstü Eğitim Enstitüsü, 2022
Türkiye’de eğitim sistemi, öğrencileri küçük yaşlardan itibaren test hazırlığına yönlendirmekte ve dolayısıyla da daha fazla ezber temelli hale gelmektedir. Bundan dolayı öğrenciler, üniversite gibi daha yüksek seviyede kendilerini başarıya götürecek gerekli becerileri geliştirememektedirler. Yetersiz yüksek seviye düşünme becerileri ve diğer becerilerin yanı sıra öğrenciler bir öğrencide bulunması gereken temel özelliklerden de yoksun kalmaktadır. 2000 ‘li yıllarda ortaya atılan akademik engelleri yürütme becerisi kavramı, öğrencilerin gündelik yaşamlarında karşılarına çıkan akademik zorluklar ve engellerle başa çıkma becerisi olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Akademik engelleri yürütme becerisinin motivasyona dayalı 5 bileşeni bulunmaktadır ve bunlar akademik engelleri yürütme becerisinin 5C’si olarak adlandırılmaktadır (confidence, coordination, commitment, composure ve low uncertain control). Bu 5C özgüven, koordinasyon, bağlılık, sakinlik (düşük kaygı), ve kontroldem oluşmaktadır. Bu çalışma, Uluslararası Bakalorya Diploma Programı’nda öğrenim gören öğrenciler tarafından akademik engelleri yürütme becerisinin 5C’sinin kullanımını programda yer alan öğrenciler ve öğretmenlerin görüş ve deneyimleri ışığında araştırmayı amaçlamaktır.
Bu amaca ulaşmak için nitel araştırma yöntemi uygulanmış ve desen olarak fenomenoloji yaklaşımı benimsenmiştir. Veri toplama süreci, 13’ü farklı özel liselerde DP programında öğrenci olan, 7’si de farklı özel okullarda DP öğretmeni olarak görev yapmakta olan 20 katılımcıyla gerçekleştirilmiştir.Veri toplarken yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmelerden yararlanılmıştır. Bu görüşmeler Zoom üzerinden kaydedilmiş ve tematik analiz yöntemi kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir.
Sonuçlar, koordinasyon, özgüven ve bağlılığın DP öğrencilerin akademik çalışmaları açısından önemli faktörler oluğunu göstermiştir. Bunları etkileyen bir diğer önemli faktör pozitif öğretmen-öğrenci etkileşimi olmuştur. Akran etkileşimi de bir faktör olarak çıksa da diğerleri kadar önemli bulunmamıştır.
Anahtar Sözcükler: 1. Akademik engelleri yürütme becerisi; 2.Uluslararsı Bakalorya;
3. Diploma Programı; 4.Koordinasyon; 5. Özgüven; 6. Bağlılık; 7. Sakinlik; 8. Kontrol.
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ABSTRACT
IB-DP STUDENTS’ VIEWS OF ACADEMIC BUOYANCY IN TURKEY
Eren Benderli Master Thesis
Department of Educational Sciences Educational Administration and Supervision
With IB Leadership Certificate Advisor:Dr.Gökçe Güvercin Seçkin Maltepe University Graduate School, 2022
The education system in Turkey has become more dependent on test preparation and memorization from early ages. For this reason, students are not able to develop some necessary skills that will lead them to achievement in high level learning environments such as universities. Besides insufficient high level thinking abilities and skills they also lack some basic qualities of a student. Academic buoyancy is a concept which was coined in 2000s refers to students’ ability to cope with daily challenges that they face during their academic studies. There are five motivational components of academic buoyancy which are called the 5Cs of academic buoyancy which are confidence, coordination, commitment, composure and control (low uncertain control). This study aims to explore the use of the 5Cs of academic buoyancy by the IB DP students in Turkey through the views and experiences of IB DP students and teachers.
To reach this qualitative research method was used for the study and phenomenology pattern was used to design the study. The data were collected from 20 participants 13 of whom are DP students from different high schools in Turkey and 7 of whom are DP teachers from various high schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants to gather data. The interviews were recorded on Zoom and analysed using thematic analysis. The results indicated that coordination, confidence and commitment were significant factors that played an important role in the studies of DP students. Another significant factor affecting these was to be positive student-teacher interaction. Peer interaction also came out as a factor but not as significant as the previous ones.
Keywords: 1. Academic buoyancy; 2. International Baccalaureate (IB); 3. Diploma Programme (DP); 4. Coordination; 5. Confidence; 6. Commitment; 7. Composure; 8. Low uncertain control.
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İÇİNDEKİLER
JÜRİ VE ENSTİTÜ ONAYI ... ii
ETİK İLKE VE KURALLARA UYUM BEYANI ... iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... iv
ÖZ ... v
ABSTRACT ... vi
İÇİNDEKİLER ... vii
LIST OF TABLES ... ix
LIST OF FIGURES... x
ABBREVIATIONS... xi
CURRICULUM VITAE ... xii
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1 Problem ... 1
1.2 Aims and Research Questions ... 8
1.3 Significance ... 8
1.4 Limitations ... 9
1.5 Definitions ... 9
1.6 Abbreviations ... 9
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ... 10
2.1 Academic Buoyancy- Academic Achievement ... 10
2.2 Academic Buoyancy- Student Engagement ... 15
2.3 Academic Buoyancy- The Role Of Teachers ... 18
CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY ... 20
3.1 Research Model ... 20
3.2 Participants of the Research ... 22
3.2.1 Participant Profile ... 22
3.3 Data Collection ... 25
3.4 Data Analysis and Interpretation ... 26
3.5 Trustworthiness and Validity ... 26
CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS ... 28
4.1 Qualities of Students Before Starting the DP ... 29
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4.1.1 Student Recruitment Procedure ... 29
4.2.2 Motivation ... 32
4.2 The Role of 5Cs ... 34
4.2.1 Planning ... 34
4.2.2 Persistence ... 37
4.2.3 Confidence ... 40
4.3 Outside Factors That Influence Academic Buoyancy Processes ... 44
4.3.1 Student-Teacher interaction ... 44
4.3.2 Peer Help ... 52
CHAPTER 5. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSION ... 55
5.1 Discussions ... 55
5.2 Implications of the Study ... 58
5.3 Limitations of the study ... 59
5.4 Conclusion ... 59
5.5 Recommendations ... 61
APPENDICES... 63
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 71
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.Profile of the Student Participants ... 23 Table 2.Profile of the Teacher Participants ... 24
x
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Academic Buoyancy Literature ... 10
Figure 2. Themes ... 29
Figure 3. Persistence ... 38
Figure 4.Confidence ... 41
Figure 5. Outside Factors That Influence Academic Buoyancy Processes ... 44
Figure 6. Positive Teacher-Student Relationship ... 45
xi
ABBREVIATIONS
IB : International Baccalaureate
DP : Diploma Programme
IA : Internal Assessment TOK : Theory of Knowledge
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CURRICULUM VITAE Eren Benderli
English Language Teaching
Education
Grade Year University / Institute
Graduate School 2020-2022 Master of Educational Management and Supervision/ With IB Leadership Certificate
University 1997- 2001 Istanbul Üniversitesi, Hasan Ali Yücel Eğitim Fakültesi İngiliz dili Eğitimi
High School 1989-1996 Özel Kalamış Lisesi
Employment
Year Position
2019 - Visiting Instructor – Samanic Üniversitesi 2008-2019 Instructor – Işık Üniversitesi
2006- 08 Instructor - Tüdev
2003- 06 Personal Tutor - Wall Street Institute
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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Problem
Taking the latest advancements in technology in the 21st century into consideration, education has become more vital not only for obtaining knowledge and experience but also acquiring the necessary skills in the digitalized environment. In the globalizing world, it is a necessity to get a high-quality education to acquire the skills that are essential for today. Considering the growing competitiveness and demands of the working environment, it is easy to say that high school diploma doesn’t have much value anymore. Consequently, the demand for university education has been rising, and more and more students have been pushing the limits to attend a university. Millions of students compete with each other to attend more prestigious universities.
There is no doubt that the requirement of the digital age is different from the years before 2000.The expectations from students have increased in terms of acquiring these skills and pursuing academic achievement. Therefore, curricula have been designed to meet these demands at every level. According to Alismail and Macguire (2015), the teaching and learning approaches which meet the requirements of the 21st century are problem-based learning, and cooperative learning. These approaches make it possible to use skills like creative thinking and critical thinking as well as relating the content into real life situations to enhance learning performance (153). Students have various tasks and responsibilities they need to fulfill every day. In addition, the changes that take place in education systems to adapt to the new age bring about new content to learn, hence new duties and tasks for learners. As a result of these changes in the educational approaches and the trends, the workload of learners is also increasing and becoming more complex.
The term academic buoyancy is the “students’ ability to successfully deal with academic setbacks and challenges that are typical of the ordinary course of school life (e.g., poor grades, competing deadlines, exam pressure, difficult schoolwork)” (Martin &
Marsh, 2008). Considering the distractors of the time like social media, online gaming, communication devices etc. not all students can succeed in organizing themselves while
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coping with these issues. Not addressing these issues before it is late may cause irreversible problems and there are a lot of students who find themselves in these situations. Students who have high level of academic buoyancy develop different aspects in their learning and study habits as well as their mental state. The attributes which academically buoyant students who can cope with everyday academic challenges are divided into 5 motivational components. 5Cs of academic buoyancy (Martin et al., 2010) are confidence (self-efficacy), coordination (planning), commitment, composure (low anxiety) and control (low uncertain control)
Confidence or self-efficacy is one of the key characteristics that learners need to possess. Self-efficacy is defined as the “beliefs in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations” (Bandura, 1995:2). According to Bandura (1995) a person’s self-efficacy beliefs are influenced by 4 main factors: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion and physiological and emotional states. In mastery experiences, successful attempts play an important role in developing self-efficacy. In contrast, failures lead to a fall which leads to discouragement. Consistent effort and perseverance are necessary to overcome situations and failure and adopt a new behavior. Vicarious experiences refer to the effort of others who are in a similar situation. Observing others who succeed increases the self- efficacy of an individual who has a similar goal. On the contrary, seeing those failing may have a negative influence. Social persuasion is to convince the individual that s/he has what it takes to be successful by making positive remarks on the capabilities of that person. This would give the strength that is necessary to show the necessary effort in other words contribute to self-efficacy. Physiological and emotional state reflects the resilience in the physical state or psychological readiness of an individual. For example, anxiety can be an important factor which may affect the success rate in a test situation, or a headache may be a similar factor in that situation.
This also shows itself as an important element in social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1999). Social cognitive theory is based on observing the behaviors of others and learning by imitating them. Learning takes place when individuals experience behaviors that they observed in real life conditions, and they develop their own behaviors and shape values by making changes if necessary. In every aspect of life, the belief in one’s abilities can
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be a key factor. It’s inevitable that the more one believes in capabilities the more they experience, hence they learn m9ore. From education perspective (Schunk, 1989), (Mahyuddin et al.2006), and (Ahmad & Safaria, 2013) have put forward that having high self-efficacy is related to success in different areas.
Coordination (planning)” requires students ‘construction of mental representations of their goals, as well as the organization and management of strategies for achieving them” (Eliam & Aharon, 2003). The term planning which usually comes up under self-regulation is related to students’ setting goals and make the suitable planning for the required tasks for achieving them and fulfilling them during application process.
“Self-regulation refers to self-generated thoughts, feelings and actions that are planned and cyclically adapted to the attainment of personal goals” (Zimmerman, 2000:14). These stages differ among individuals. Carver and Scheier describe this process as “People choose paths that are compatible with other aspects of their life situations (many current concerns must be managed simultaneously) and other aspects of their personalities”
(Carver & Scheier, 2000:42). In addition, time management is another crucial part of planning. It is shown by Razali & Rusiman (2015) that time management has a correlation with the performance of university students especially during the fast-paced life accelerated by technology and communication tools. Also, Jamet et al. (2020) found that even in tutorials learners were engaged in excessive multi-tasking activities which are not related to the focus of the lesson (6). In the long run, this habit may cause students to fall behind because they will either have to repeat the task or it will take more time because they are often distracted.
Commitment can also be interpreted as persistence. It’s the ability to move towards a target without giving up and losing focus. It’s an important factor especially in long-term studies. It’s important to establish commitment to avoid consequences which may even lead to school drop-out. Tinto (1997) states that students get involved in the academic environment of an institution and develop bonds when they are actively participating and working collaboratively with others (613). In addition, the research by Huescar Hernandez et al. (2020) shows a strong link between the social classroom environment created by the teacher and student self-determination (8). The final important factor that influences persistence is the peer effect. Healthy peer interaction and
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support not only enhances the perseverance of an individual learner, but it may have a possitive effect on the whole group as well according to (Gerharts & Gravert, 2020:13).
Gregory and Kaufeld (2015) relates learner grit with the social development theory of Vygotsky (1978) in terms of the role of classroom interaction in creating a free and stressfree environment, making goals clear to learners by providing guidelines and criteria, and delivering classes at a suitable level to the students to attract their attention;
in other words, keep them in the zone of proximal development (129-130). Vygotsky defines the zone of proximal development as “the distance between actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Vygotsky, 1978:86).
Composure which refers to low anxiety is another element of academic buoyancy.
There are various types of anxiety which may affect learning performance in a negative way. Vitasari et al. (2010) define study anxiety as “…situation that refers to anxiety condition during study in term of the perception that high level anxiety relates to obtaining of low academic performance.” (Vitasary et al.,2010) and explain the common anxiety types faced by university students which are exam anxiety, mathematic anxiety, language anxiety, social anxiety, family anxiety, presentation anxiety and library anxiety (191- 192). Developing one or more of these anxiety types is an important issue to overcome by any learner.
The final component of academic buoyancy is control (low uncertain control).
This happens when a learner can’t figure a way out of a situation where s/he is unsuccessful. Whether they have the potential or not, students can’t figure out a solution about failure. In these cases where students can’t find their own way to success, it’s important that they anticipate who to consult for help or what other sources may be of use to them towards getting over the situation. According to Aleven and Koedinger (2000) students’ awareness of when they need help is a metacognitive skill and they need to monitor their own learning (293). Therefore, it may require time and effort to build this skill. Martin (2007) puts anxiety and failure avoidance and uncertain control under the category of impeding cognitive dimensions and suggests three ways to overcome uncertain control: a) making it clear to students that there’s a link between their effort and
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academic outcomes b) steady and developmental feedback by teachers c) a fair and consistent reward & punishment system; otherwise, it is more likely that students will become disengaged and give up.
At this stage it’s necessary to distinguish academic buoyancy from academic resilience which has been a concept which is linked with the academic achievement of students. There are a lot of factors that hinder students from being successful. Some of these factors are really serious and have a huge negative impact on academic success such as divorced parents, having limited access to resources, being away from home etc.
“Resilience is a broad conceptual umbrella, covering many concepts related to positive patterns of adaptation in the context of adversity” (Masten & Obradovic, 2006). When we look at this definition, it’s clear that to be able to talk about academic resilience, there’s a need for an adverse situation. Wang et al. (1994) name the term as educational resilience and define it as the probability of students’ achievement at school and other aspects of life although there are adversities faced resulting from different conditions and experiences (3). Similarly, academic resilience was also defined as “an ability to deal with chronic and/or acute academic adversity (i.e. major adversity)” (Martin, 2013:489). The research on academic resilience is usually focused on these negative and disadvantaged conditions of the students. For instance, Vargas-Reighley (2005) conducted a study on the academic resilience of immigrants in relation to bi-cultural competence. Another study on resilience was on racial climates in colleges and academic resilience among black students (Mills, 2021). Another example can be the transition from face-to-face learning to online classes in Turkey during the covid-19 pandemic was a tough period for most teachers and students especially in the first 3-4 months. There were students with poor internet connections, or some students couldn’t follow classes properly due to technical issues. This is a case where the academically resilient students survived while many others were lost on the way or even had to drop out of school.
On the other hand, students do not always deal with these kinds of extreme adverse conditions during the normal course of school life. There are typical challenges related to school that almost all students face at one stage. This is when academic buoyancy plays a role in overcoming problems. While differentiating academic resilience and academic buoyancy, Martin and Marsh (2009) relate academic resilience with chronic under-
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achievement, high level of anxiety, debilitation against failure or anxiety, serious conditions such as depression and anxiety, attendance issues and reluctancy for attending classes and isolation or disruptive behavior against teachers whereas academic buoyancy is related with issues such as occasional poor grades and performance, everyday stress and pressure, coping with stress resulting from a low grade, low confidence, falling motivation, and dealing with a minor negative remark by a teacher (356). Martin also found that “academic buoyancy was more salient in predicting low-level negative outcomes (anxiety, uncertain control, failure avoidance) whereas academic resilience was more salient in predicting major negative outcomes (self-handicapping, disengagement) (Martin, 2013:496)
International Baccalaureate (IB) is an international organization that provides education to thousands of students from all around the world. The programmes offered are the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP) and the Diploma Programme (DP) and Career Related Programme (CP) for students from different age groups. The aim of the organization is to raise learners who possess the ten attributes which are called the IB learner profile (International Baccalaureate Organisation, 2013). These attributes are to be inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective. To be able to acquire this profile, the approaches to learning (ATL) are designed to promote thinking skills, communication skills, social skills, self-management skills and research skills.
When these ATL skills are analyzed in detail, it is possible to draw connections between the 5cs of academic buoyancy. However, the main ATL skill which is directly related to academic buoyancy is self-management. Self-management is divided into two sub-skill sections: organizational skills and affective skills. Among the organizational skills, there are significant similarities with the coordination element of the 5Cs. Setting goals and managing the necessary planning process towards reaching short-term or long- term goals come under this skill. Another sub-skill which stands out as a similarity here is time management which is related to planning. Along with planning, having awareness on one’s learning preferences and adapting efficient techniques to maximize learning performance come under organizational skills as well. It can be said that this skill is
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mostly related to the confidence component of the 5Cs. Affective skills which also take place under self-management covers a wide variety of the elements which are explained in academic buoyancy literature.
Perseverance is mentioned as a way to overcome the habit of postponing and keeping up with deadlines. Emotional management refers to students’ ability to take control over their actions thus, reducing stress and anxiety. This helps anger management as well. Another point related to perseverance (commitment) is the significance of student collaboration. Collaboration is a main component or education in IB and there has been an ongoing effort to improve it. Wright et al. (2013) conducted research on student collaboration in K-12 context and identified the successful collaborative processes in order to evaluate and analyze the IB curriculum documents regarding collaboration.
Although the term resilience is used to describe attributes like dealing with setbacks and challenges or ability to cope with low grades, IB has acknowledged the concept of academic buoyancy recently. Andersen et al. (2020) stated that academic buoyancy of the students should be supported by teachers and parents and one way to do this is to improve 5Cs in class practices (21-22).
A lot of schools in Turkey have been implementing the IB programme and this number is increasing every year. The education system in Turkey is mainly based on memorization and the aim of the students is to pass standardized tests after finishing primary school and high school. The scores from these tests determine which school students can attend. According to Kartal (2013) the main reason why the education system is based on memorization is this kind of testing system which uses multiple choice questions. Therefore, the teaching approach is shaped by test preparation methods. Most of the time, it’s one way teaching where students are passively listening and writing while teachers do most of the talking during classes. Student performance is regularly checked by tests.
When the traditional role of the teachers in Turkey is taken into consideration, teachers are dominant, and they are in total control of the class. In a culture where power distance (Hofstede, 1986) is strong, education is teacher-centred and classes are led by teachers (313). However, the teaching and learning approach is totally different in the IB.
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It’s a learner-centred approach where students take initiative in their own learning. They are encouraged to ask questions and go beyond the topics covered in class. Learner autonomy and developing higher order thinking skills like metacognition is one of the main aims of education. Considering that DP is quite a challenging programme with lots of projects and out of class assignments, it is likely that students face a lot of issues during their studies if they are not academically buoyant.
1.2 Aims and Research Questions
The main aim of this research is to explore the use of 5Cs of academic buoyancy in IB-DP context in Turkey in terms of students’ and teachers’ perspectives and experiences.
Towards this aim, answers to the questions below will be sought:
1- What buoyancy related qualities do IB DP students already have before they start the IB DP?
2- What is the role of 5Cs of academic buoyancy (coordination-commitment- confidence-composure-control) in supporting the IB-DP students while dealing with everyday challenges of school?
3. What are the outside factors that contribute to students’ academic buoyancy development process?
1.3 Significance
There is a continuous effort to increase the quality of teaching and learning all over the world. Schools have been trying to equip their students with knowledge and skills that will prepare them for changing needs of the 21st century. van Laar et al. (2020) discuss 21s century skills by adding a digital component with the names of information learning skills, communication digital skills, collaboration digital skills, critical thinking digital skills and creative digital skills (3-4). As a result, there is a changing trend in the education system. “… student learning outcomes and academic achievements traditionally define the effectiveness and the quality of their school experience, student
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well-being and students’ learning experiences – the quality of “learning processes” – have risen in value and expanded the focus beyond “outcomes” (OECD, 2019).
During this transition period, having the awareness of the notion of academic buoyancy and building ways to develop it will support all stakeholders. When students are more academically buoyant, this will help them in their efforts in becoming lifelong learners. Another significant outcome may be in in teacher learner relationships in Turkey. If developing academic buoyancy becomes a common practice not only in IB schools but in all schools, teacher roles may change hence improving the education quality in Turkey.
Finally, there has not been a study which focused on this topic so far in Turkey.
Having an insight on the processes of academic buoyancy may increase the awareness of teachers and school directors. It may also attract the attention of the researchers in Turkey, and it may lead to further research to be done on the topic.
1.4 Limitations
1- This research is limited with IB DP students and teachers in Turkey.
2- It is also limited with students who have at least one year experience doing the IB DP.
1.5 Definitions
Academic buoyancy: “an ability to deal with everyday academic setback and challenge” (Martin, 2014:1).
1.6 Abbreviations
IB: International Baccalaureate DP: Diploma Programme
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CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
At this stage it is necessary to look at the literature and highlight the different areas which the research focused on. The studies about academic buoyancy cover a wide range of areas. These studies can be grouped under three categories which are academic buoyancy and academic achievement, academic buoyancy and student engagement, and academic buoyancy and the role of teachers as seen in figure 1.
Figure 1. Academic Buoyancy Literature
2.1 Academic Buoyancy- Academic Achievement
The research that stands out is about the correlations between academic buoyancy and academic achievement in different age groups. Some research covers specific subjects or learning contexts as well.
To start with, the study by Martin & Marsh (2008) assessed academic buoyancy in different dimensions. The study was done with 598 Australian high school students between grades 8-10. The academic buoyancy of the students was measured two times during the academic year- the first assessment was in the middle of the year and the second one was towards the end. Self-efficacy, control, engagement, anxiety and teacher- student relationship were measured specifically as predictors of academic buoyancy.
Later on, Roorda et al. (2011), Spilt et al (2012) and Lee (2012) found that effective teacher-student relationship has a positive effect on student performance. The study was
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conducted in the area mathematics. Academic buoyancy scale (Martin & Marsh, 2008) was used to measure the academic buoyancy of the students. It is a four-item scale which measures the ability of participants in dealing with everyday challenges of school life, coping with stress, coping with school pressure and dealing with a bad grade or negative feedback. Participators rate themselves between 1-7 from strongly disagree to agree strongly. The other tool used was the motivation and engagement scale (Martin, 2007).
The results show that anxiety is a significant factor in the explanation of academic buoyancy. Female students reported to be more anxious than their male counterparts.
Also, older students were high in anxiety compared to younger ones. Another finding was that the academic buoyancy of younger students was higher than older ones.
The most significant research on the 5Cs of academic buoyancy was conducted by Martin et al. (2008). Data were collected through a longitudinal approach to compare the initial status of the participants with the latest changes. Therefore, data were collected twice (a year later). 1866 Students were from six high schools in Australia. The students belonged to middle to upper middle-class families. To assess academic buoyancy, academic buoyancy scale (Martin & Marsh, 2008) was used and to assess the 5Cs of academic buoyancy; and (MES-High school) Motivation and Engagement Scale-High School (Martin, 2008) was utilized. The results showed that 5Cs were significant factors in predicting subsequent buoyancy. Also, motivational factors play a role in dealing with everyday challenges at school. Taking this as a starting point, it becomes important that these processes and components are investigated further to find out which ones are more dominant or used effectively and which of them are lacking and need more supporting.
Another finding of the research was that 5Cs has a mediating effect on academic buoyancy in a longer time.
Martin & Marsh (2020) investigated the relationship between academic adversity and buoyancy. The study was conducted with 481 high school students from Australia between the grades of 7-12. The students were from 9 different high schools two of which were boys’ schools. The research to assess the effects of adversity and buoyancy on each other took two academic years. The aim was to find out if academic buoyancy would have a decreasing effect on academic adversity or vice versa. Academic buoyancy was measured using the Academic Buoyancy Scale and adversity was measured through the
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Academic resilience and Risk Scale. The results indicated that academic buoyancy reduced adversity in the upcoming terms; on the contrary, adversity did not have a lowering effect on academic buoyancy. Moreover, even in the cases of facing adversity during the year, it did not affect academically buoyant students in the following academic year.
Research also indicated that “academic buoyancy was a small but significant predictor of first-semester college GPA (Strickland 2015:73). Interestingly, the results also showed that academic buoyancy was a significant factor in the GPA of male students in the first semester whereas the results didn’t indicate that it was a predictor for female students. The research also analysed how motivational factors combine with academic buoyancy as a predictor of student achievement in the first semester of the college year.
Uncertain control, failure avoidance and persistence stood out to be strong variables which were influential. Uncertain control and persistence were especially significant for male participants.
In a study with Australian high school students, Collie et al. (2015) put forward that although academic buoyancy wasn’t directly connected to academic achievement over time, it is probable and overlaps with previous research that it triggers motivational factors which leads to academic success. In addition, control has a critical role in linking academic buoyancy and achievement. When students gain control and show satisfactory performance, it leads to the expansion of control over their performance; hence results in greater achievement. Furthermore, there were similar results when tested over time showing that effects are long-lasting, and control is an important linking factor between academic buoyancy and achievement. This shows that more research is necessary to see how much effect other components of academic buoyancy contributes to achievement of students.
Putwain et al. (2020) found solid evidence that academic buoyancy protected achievement in the face of minor adversity in upper secondary students from England.
Minor adversity was divided into two behaviors which are non-chronic absence and misconduct. When some classes are missed, academically buoyant students find a way to close the gap like working harder. Likewise, occasional misconduct doesn’t affect the overall performance of students. These may include behaviors such as being rude to
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others. The ability to get over minor adversities and finding a source of motivation to go on have many different forms and more in-depth research is necessary to learn specific experience of students and teachers. Previously Putwain et al. (2012) had also concluded that students with high academic buoyancy had low text anxiety. Furthermore, Putwain et al. (2016) conducted another research on the relationship between academic buoyancy and cognitive test anxiety. The study was done with 325 English secondary school students who were going to take national exams at the end of an academic year after completing their final year. The results showed that students with higher academic buoyancy showed less signs of worry which resulted in more concentration on tasks. The average GCSE scores of the students with task focus were higher. This means that Academic buoyancy also contributes to test results in a positive way. In fact, it also affects student performance in general because Lotz & Sparfeldt (2017) found that despite being at different levels, students feel anxious about the upcoming exams during the semester.
There are examples of adapting the academic buoyancy scale into different disciplines. Academic buoyancy in English as a foreign language context is one of them.
First, Yun et al (2018) developed an instrument to measure buoyancy in L2 context. They suggested 6 predictors for L2 buoyancy. These predictors were self-efficacy, self- regulation, persistence, L2 anxiety, teacher–student relationships, and the ideal L2 self.
A questionnaire was created to assess these predictors. The study took place with Korean students who were at college level from 6 universities in South Korea. The result led to constitute 5 buoyancy profiles for L2 students which are the thriver profile, the engaged profile, the striver profile, the dependent profile and the disengaged profile. This result can be significant for all universities all over the world. This research can be applied to different L2 learning contexts for preventing problems before they occur. Institutions can develop early alert systems for providing support for the students in need to enhance learning performance and reduce the early drop out cases. Another important finding of the research is that self-efficacy, self-regulation and the ideal L2 self were the most influential factors on buoyancy. However, anxiety didn’t prove to be a negative factor on buoyancy which conflicts with previous research. Second, Jahedizadeh et al. (2019) created an instrument to evaluate the academic buoyancy of students who are studying English as a foreign language in higher education. The study took place in Iran with
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students who were studying translation and English language teaching. The instrument was a 27-item survey with a 5-point scale from one to five, and it was designed around four constituents which are sustainability, regularity adaptation, positive personal eligibility and positive acceptance of academic life which led to L2 buoyancy. The study proved that the new instrument was suitable to measure L2 buoyancy. The second finding was when students have a positive approach towards their assets and academic life, their learning performance in language learning becomes better. Another result was that there was not a difference between genders. However, results have not been consistent in terms of gender variable. For example, Datu & Yung (2016) conducted research in the Philippines to evaluate the psychometric applicability and gender invariance of the academic buoyancy scale using construct validation approach. The study was done with 402 Phillipino students in a private institution. According to the results, male students were more academically buoyant compared to female students.
Language is not the only context where academic buoyancy is investigated specifically. Neumann et al. (2020) developed a tool to measure academic buoyancy in mathematic-specific context with university freshman students. They used a self- evaluation survey to identify the academic buoyancy level of the freshman year students at Kiel university in Germany. The survey proved to be successfully measuring the buoyancy of the students in the subject of mathematics. The study was valid in predicting the early dropouts from the course.
In Turkish context, Aydın & Michou (2019) did a study on the link between self- determined motivation and academic buoyancy and achievement in university students who are on their prep years studying English as a foreign language. Their first finding is that there’s a strong link between high need satisfaction in the prep program and developing academic buoyancy. Negative factors such as need frustration had an adverse effect. Also, self-determined motivation is a necessary factor in coping with academic setbacks. The research was done with 436 students who were in their first year of tertiary education taking intensive classes to prepare for university department classes. In another study, the relationship among academic resilience, academic buoyancy, reconceptualized L2 motivational system and the academic achievement of tertiary level students were investigated (Çelen, 2020). The findings of this correlational research showed that there
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is a significant relationship with academic buoyancy and the midterm averages of the students. In addition, the study also showed a significant relationship between academic buoyancy and ideal L2 selves of the students.
Research on the effects of academic buoyancy on the future life of students also exists. Rachmayanti & Suharso (2018) investigated the relationship between academic buoyancy and career adaptability. The study was done with 9th grade students in Indonesia from two junior high schools. Academic buoyancy scale and career adaptability scale (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) were used to measure the relations. The results revealed that there is a positive relationship between academic buoyancy and career adaptability.
Students can carry 5Cs of academic buoyancy up to their working life as habits to deal with daily challenges and tasks at workplace. Other studies with postgraduates who started working recently could be enlightening to see how much the gains of buoyancy are contributing to them to maintain their careers.
2.2 Academic Buoyancy- Student Engagement
Students’ engagement and academic buoyancy is the second subject of research.
According to Rodrigues and Magre (2018), the link between academic buoyancy and student engagement is significant in Indian secondary students. They analysed student engagement in terms of family types of the students and the school types they attended such as single-sex schools, and co-education etc. The results showed differences in genders and school types. Students in nuclear family showed higher academic engagement whereas students in joint families weren’t as engaged as them. Also, students who are in boys’ schools were less academically engaged than the students in girl’s school. However, boys in co-educational schools were more engaged compared to their peers in single sex school. Since there is a direct link between buoyancy and engagement it can be said that girls in secondary schools in India are more academically buoyant. As mentioned earlier, cultural factors may be a significant factor in these differences and the experience of students should be explored more in detail. Similarly, Azemi et al. (2021) conducted a study with Iranian adolescent students on their academic engagement through academic buoyancy. The results indicated that students with goals are academically more buoyant than the others. There is also a positive connection between
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academic buoyancy and social-emotional learning. Most importantly, academic buoyancy influences engagement in a positive way.
Another area which research focused on is the role of academic buoyancy and student wellbeing. Miller et al. (2013) did a study on Northern Irish primary school students’ wellbeing, academic buoyancy and achievement. The results show that besides being a predictor of academic achievement, academic buoyancy also has a role in building wellbeing. However, conflicting with the previous research no direct relationship between buoyancy and gender was evident in the research. Gender differences in different cultures is another area that more research is needed, and different approaches and habits can be analyzed to show how academic buoyancy differs between genders. Khaksar and Javeryand (2020) similarly found a relationship between academic buoyancy and engagement which leads to higher life satisfaction of students. The research was done in Iran with male students from state high schools. Coping with everyday school pressure and fulfilling duties of school related issues help developing self-efficacy and being more successful in exams thanks to low anxiety, it also helps to build confidence. As a result, the feeling of relief in students and the sense of achievement increase their life satisfaction. This is also consistent with Bandura’s (1995) self-efficacy model.
In addition to these studies which are focused on one country in particular Martin et al. (2017) conducted a cross-cultural study to compare the levels of academic buoyancy of students who were aged between 12-16 in China, North America and Britain. The results indicated that Chinese students reported higher level of buoyancy compared to the others. Hence, the adaptability, engagement and motivation level of the Chinese students were higher.
Hirvonen et al. (2019) investigated the role of academic buoyancy and the emotional state of learners on their behaviors and performance expectations. The research was conducted with Finnish primary school students. The results showed that high academic buoyancy of primary school students increased the likelihood of having more fun and hope which lead to low failure expectations. Also, a better task-oriented planning is achieved when there is high hope and low boredom. Furthermore, academic emotions contributed for buoyancy to enhance learning outcomes. On the other hand, feelings of pride, anxiety and shame did not have a role in developing buoyancy. Anxiety processes
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need to be analyzed further with firsthand experiences of learners about the types, effects and coping techniques to see the roles in buoyancy developing processes.
Dahal et al. (2017) studied academic buoyancy from the perspective of different culture and belief systems. The survey was done with international students who are studying or have studied at a university in Sydney Australia. Most of the participants were from Asian countries with different cultural backgrounds and religions. The main aim was to see the effects of the culture and belief systems on the motivation and academic buoyancy of the students. This study focused on the minor adversities that students face in their academic life because there is also the likelihood that they face more serious negativity which would be analysed under academic resilience. Therefore, a questionnaire was prepared by the researchers to address minor issues. The results indicated that culture has a positive effect on self-efficacy but didn’t affect engagement. Belief systems, however, has a role in increasing self-efficacy, engagement and perceived control. As the world has become globalized this research can be done in different countries to compare results because not all host cultures would be like Australia. According to Hofstede (2011:10), uncertainty avoidance is a society’s reaction against ambiguity. He categorizes these reactions from weak uncertainty avoidance to strong uncertainty avoidance. There are some major differences between societies in terms of the perception of handling issues, behaviors and values. For example, the role of the teachers both as an authority and source of information is seen differently. In a society with weak uncertainty control, teachers are seen as facilitators for learning while in a society with strong uncertainty control, teachers know all the answers to the questions. As a result, further research could be useful for both the schools of the host countries and the students who want to study abroad.
Bowen (2010) developed a model to investigate buoyancy and resilience in more depth. In his model, parental attachment is connected to self-efficacy, then it is divided into two paths. On the first path, there is engagement and on the other one there are negative factors which are anxiety and control. These two paths combine again to result in academic buoyancy. He measured each of them separately with different instruments.
The research included a 203-item questionnaire and was conducted on 232 volunteer undergraduate students who are 18 or above. The participants were invited via internet
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and completed the survey anonymously. The results showed that components of the model were consistent internally. As a result, parental support can be regarded as a contributor to academic buoyancy in further research.
2.3 Academic Buoyancy- The Role Of Teachers
Most of the research is focused on the academic buoyancy of students, but there is few on the teachers. Although Martin and Marsh (2008) highlighted the role of teachers in developing academic buoyancy in students, teachers’ experiences and views were not analysed in depth in regard to how much awareness teachers have or how they can be trained. Abedi & Kalantaree (2020) worked with primary school students and teachers to investigate the relationship between teachers’ emotional maturity and academic buoyancy of students. The research took place in Iran, and it included both teachers and students.
The results showed that academic buoyancy increases as teachers are more mature emotionally. Being emotionally mature was described as not showing negative or inappropriate behaviors- for example, feelings of instability, such as bad-temper, aggressiveness, stubbornness, being self-centered etc. Considering the age group, the research was conducted with the judgement of primary school students may not be that reliable in terms of assessing these emotional behaviors in teachers. Also, teachers’
openness and directness are open to discussion because it is difficult to admit that one has emotional and behavioral weaknesses as a teacher. Another attempt to involve teachers in the process was to have teachers evaluate how academically buoyant their students are.
Previous research mostly used Academic Buoyancy Scale (Martin and Marsh, 2008) for measurement, however Verrier et al. (2018) used an adapted version for teachers by rewording the questions and making it suitable for teachers. The study took place at an Academy in England with students around the age of 15 and teachers from the same school. Both students and teachers completed the scale. The results showed that teacher- reports and student-reports didn’t correlate and differed slightly. A possible reason for this is that teachers cannot evaluate students objectively after spending some time together in class. Instead of rating specific students, a more detailed focus on which specific area students are better at and what they lack in terms of developing academic buoyancy could be beneficial so that schools and teachers can be prepared and take the
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necessary precautions to prevent problems and offer help in those areas to enhance adaptation and achievement.
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CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY
In this section, what methods were used for data collection and how the data were analysed are introduced.
3.1 Research Model
In this study, qualitative research method was adopted. The approach to collecting data was phenomenology. The Participants were among IB DP students and teachers from different schools in Turkey. The data were collected via semi-structured interviews. The interviews were done using the online meeting platforms Zoom and Google Meets. Then, the data were analyzed and interpreted through thematic analysis. In this section, these steps are explained in detail.
In Turkey, the purpose of education is to pass standardized test at the end of middle and high school to be able to attend a prestigious school or university. Therefore, students try to prepare for these tests from early ages. Inevitably, this test preparation become the axis of the education system. Although standard curriculum and classroom materials aren’t designed for this purpose, the demand from students and parents push schools and teachers to integrate test books for each subject. This leads to test-oriented education where memorization is the core of it. One alternative of high-quality education opportunity for students and parents is the International Baccalaureate programme. This programme offers learners to get internationally recognized education where they can develop their learning skills as well as social skills. Students who graduate from this programme are able to attend universities all over the world. However, the diploma programme of the IB can be quite challenging for Turkish students who are not used to this kind of education where questioning, exploring and problem-solving skills etc. are the core of learning. As a result, students need to be academically buoyant to be able to deal with the challenges and the requirements of such a programme. The motivating factors of academic buoyancy which are called the 5Cs or academic buoyancy (Martin
&Marsh, 2008) which are confidence, commitment, control, composure, and coordination can be the key to understand the processes and the experience of the IB students in Turkey. To be able to understand this process may be significant in terms of shedding light to what problems students face and the stages they go through.
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For this study, qualitative research methodology was used. “Qualitative research is an umbrella term for a wide variety of approaches to and methods for the study of natural life” (Saldana, 2011). Since the aim of the research is to have an in-depth perspective of the students’ first-hand experience with the 5Cs of academic buoyancy, it is important that information is obtained through how they experience it from their point of views. Paying attention to details in how they reflect experience may provide valuable insight for the future. “Attention to human forms of life, to the subtle details of people’s talk and actions, to human bodies in material surroundings, can open our eyes to unnoticed aspects of human life and learning, unexplored characteristics of the relation- ship between humans and the world we inhabit, and unsuspected ways in which we could improve our lives on this planet” (Packer, 2011). Or “the focus turns to understanding human beings’ richly textured experiences and reflections about those experiences”
(Jackson et al. 2007:22).
Even though almost all recent research on this topic used quantitative, the researcher chose to collect data using qualitative methodology to grasp the similarities and differences between the perception and the adoption of the 5Cs among students. The paradigm of the research is constructivist. Guba & Lincoln (1994) explained constructivism in terms of its ontology, epistemology and methodology. Their view on ontology is that realities are mentally constructed by individuals, and they are based on experiences. This constructed reality may change from person to person. Epistemology is described in a way that the researcher and participants construct finding in interaction with each other as the research process continues. Methodology the individually constructed realities come to surface through the interaction between the researcher and the participants and hermeneutical techniques are used to interpret data and analyse them by comparing.
To fit this type of methodology, phenomenology approach was used while collecting data. The individual learning experiences of Turkish IB DP students were investigated and how they reflect on it was aimed to be revealed. By using these experiences, links will be drawn with the 5Cs of academic buoyancy to be able apprehend the process. “From the philosophy of phenomenology comes a focus on the experience
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itself and how experiencing something is transformed into consciousness” (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016:25).
3.2 Participants of the Research
A student’s academic experience including class work, homework, performance have multiple dimensions. Besides other factors, teachers have a crucial role in students’
academic struggles. Teachers spend a lot of time with students in class and know their characters and abilities. They are the firsthand witnesses of their students learning experience. Thus, to make the research more information rich, similar interview questions were designed to get the views of the teachers on the 5Cs of academic buoyancy of their students. In this way, it can be possible to see whether the students and teachers have similar thoughts and experiences about the use of the 5Cs. As a result, data were collected from IB DP students and teachers who are chosen randomly from different IB schools in Turkey. While selecting the participants, purposeful sampling method was used since they can give a lot of information and insight about being a student or a teacher in the IB.
“Purposeful sampling requires access to key informants in the field who can help in identifying information-rich cases” (Suri, 2011:66).
3.2.1 Participant Profile
In this section, the background of the participants will be described. As can be seen in Table 1, Thirteen students were interviewed and six of them were female and seven of them were male. They were in an age span of 18-23. Seven of the participants are doing their second years in the IB DP now, and five of them graduated from the programme and they are studying at a university in a foreign country as freshman. Three of them are in the Netherlands and two of them are in Switzerland. One of the participants quit the programme after the prep year and graduated from the national programme and studying at a university in Turkey. The student participants are from 8 different private schools in Turkey. 11 of the students were from private schools and 2 of them were from an international school.
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Table 1.Profile of the Student Participants
Student Participants
School Type
Private 6 f 5 m
International 2 m
Current Status
Student 4 m 4 f
Graduate 3 m 2 f
Total: 13
* m: male
** f: female
The seven DP teachers interviewed in the study are working at five different private schools in Turkey which are located in 5 cities. As shown in table 2, four of them are male and three are female. One of the teachers is also the IB coordinator of the school and one of them is also head of department. Two of the teachers are Turkish Language and Literature, while two of them teach mathematics and the other two teach Theory of Knowledge (TOK) classes besides being English teachers. The final participant is a physics teacher. Their teaching experience range between one year to eighteen years.
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Table 2.Profile of the Teacher Participants
Teacher Participants
School Type
Private 3 f 4 m
International
Current Position
Teacher 3 m 2 f
Coordinator 1 m
Department head 1 f
Subject Taught
Turkish 1 m 1f
Physics 1 m
TOK 1 m 1 f
Mathematics 1 m 1 f
Total:7
The distribution of the participants are as follows:
Five participants (three students and two teachers) were from the same school.
Four participants (two teachers and two students) were from the same school. Three participants (one teacher and two students) were from the same school. Two students who were twin brothers were from the same school. The rest of the participants were from different private schools.
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3.3 Data Collection
In this study, two semi-structured interview guides (Appendices A&B) were used to collect data from students and teachers. The reason for having interviews with two groups is that along with firsthand experiences of students, views and experiences of teachers would provide valuable data for the research because teachers are also witnessing how their students are dealing with everyday challenges in their academic life.
Furthermore, they have been observing the study habits from outside as an observer and they generally try to improve those skills and work closely to them. For this reason, interview questions varied for the two groups although they were designed to collect data on the same topics.
Semi-structured interviews “…are generally organized around a set of predetermined open-ended questions, with other questions emerging from the dialogue between interviewer and interviewee⁄s (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2006:314). The basis to the interview questions are the academic buoyancy scale (Martin & Marsh, 2008) and the student motivation scale (Martin, 2001). The focus areas in the academic buoyancy scale are about students’ ability to deal with stress, pressures of school, and how they cope with bad marks and negative feedback from teachers. Martin (2001) divided motivational factors which affect students’ resilience into two categories: Boosters and Guzzlers. The boosters of motivation are self-belief, value of schooling, learning focus, persistence, and planning and monitoring. The guzzlers are anxiety, low control, avoidance and self-sabotage. These focus areas from the two scales are parallel with the 5Cs of academic buoyancy, therefore the interview questions were designed within this framework. The focus is to understand how and to what extent IB DP students in Turkey can use 5Cs of academic buoyancy in their everyday school life. The interviews went on until the data saturation (Patton, 2002).
After designing the questions, two experts who are experienced in the field were consulted to get feedback and make the necessary changes. After that, two pilot interviews were conducted to make sure the questions are appropriate and also to enable the researcher to familiarize with the interview procedure and gain more experience on it.
Finally, upon the approval of the Ethics Committee of Maltepe University (Appendix C),
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the interviews started. They were done online via “Zoom” or “Google Meets” and they were recorded after taking the consent of the participants or their parents (Appendix D).
3.4 Data Analysis and Interpretation
To analyze data thematic analysis (TA) method was utilized because it is suitable for the objectives of the study. “TA can be used to identify patterns within and across data in relation to participants’ lived experience, views and perspectives, and behavior and practices; ‘experiential’ research which seeks to understand what participants’ think, feel, and do” (Clarke & Braun, 2017: 297).
The interviews were first transcribed and copied on word documents. Then, the collected data were coded following the open, axial and selective coding strategy to reach meaningful outcomes. “Importantly, the open, axial, and selective coding strategy enables a cyclical and evolving data loop in which the researcher interacts, is constantly comparing data and applying data reduction, and consolidation techniques” (Williams &
Moser, 2019: 47). During the coding process, the data were color coded on Microsoft Excel. And these codes were categorized under themes and sub-themes. While presenting the findings, the names of the participants are hidden for privacy. Also, the names of the cities and schools are not mentioned for the same purpose.
3.5 Trustworthiness and Validity
Because of the nature of qualitative research, there have been discussions about establishing reliability among researchers. In this study, the notion of trustworthiness (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) will be used instead of reliability. Lincoln and Guba (1985) also established a set of criteria to achieve trustworthiness under four components: credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability.
According to Merriam and Tisdell, researchers are trying to answer three questions when dealing with credibility (internal validity): “. How congruent are the findings with reality? Do the findings capture what is really there? Are investigators observing or measuring what they think they are measuring?” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016:242). The aim of the researcher in this study is to try to avoid any biases that may occur during the data analysis process and to make sure what the participants expressed
