Approaching the start of my data collection is scary. The ARP is an ambitious and meaningful project which has the potential for considerable impact, however at the same time, there is limited time to actually carry out. When I first embarked on this unit, I was aiming for triangulation – a robust set of survey data and in-depth findings from focus groups. This new primary research would then be compared with data sets from PTES, specifically from 2023/2024. Thanks to my tutor Karen and my peers, I was nudged to reassess what is realistic and manageable given the short timeline. Therefore I decided to drop my focus groups and reconstruct my survey to include qualitative free text – where participants would have the ability to write long or short form responses. This was seen as a good “compromise” as I would still be able to engage with thematic analysis and compare to my PTES results and free text.
I began my survey with an explanation of my research, my contact details, and a statement connecting my approach to the UAL Code of Practice on Research Ethics. I did not receive any further questions on my survey from participants and having used judgment sampling, participants were willing to share their thoughts and enjoyed contributing their opinions.
After providing an explanation to the research, I shared an agreed upon definition of belonging from the Cambridge Dictionary. There are multiple interpretations of this but I wanted to use a source which goes beyond an academic community. To begin the survey, I asked general details as to who the participants are – what nationality and age – and this was followed by questions via a Likert Scale. My tutor was helpful as originally my survey started off with text answers however starting with “quick” responses would help with response rate. Starting off with a long long form question may be an incentive to click out of the survey! Only at the end of the survey did I include free text answers and participants could write however long or little they wanted to.
Attached to this blog post is a PDF copy of my survey using Microsoft Forms.