In addition, I was keen to ascertain the way the young people responded to the topic and the questions asked in order to reflect on the suitability of the developing interview schedule in eliciting a richness of participant views. Reflections Out of the six participants originally identified there were only four who were keen to take part in a focus group, one of which dropped out before I arrived and no young people were interested in taking part in a 1:1 interview. This highlighted the importance of identifying a large number of potential participants that could be contacted to take part in the main research project. In addition, the invitation to take part had been passed on through a number of individuals; it would have been more beneficial for me to have spoken to the young people (with consent) directly, to explain what the activity would involve. On reflection, I realised that in my approach as an interviewer, I stuck quite rigidly to the predefined interview questions and using more prompts may have facilitated the young people to share their experiences further. In addition some of the terms and language used in my questions needed to be explained and checked out with the participants as their understanding match my intentions, for example I asked about talking to a didn’t always careers advisor but this was interpreted as a careers talk. Participants A sample of three participants took part in this research project. The individuals were selected based on the following purposive sampling criteria: Currently in year 11. Attending a mainstream secondary school in a particular Northern Local Authority Region. Planning on attending the same FE college in the following September.
In addition, I was keen to ascertain the way the young people responded to the topic and the questions asked in order to reflect on the suitability of the developing interview schedule in eliciting a richness of participant views. Reflections Out of the six participants originally identified there were only four who were keen to take part in a focus group, one of which dropped out before I arrived and no young people were interested in taking part in a 1:1 interview. This highlighted the importance of identifying a large number of potential participants that could be contacted to take part in the main research project. In addition, the invitation to take part had been passed on through a number of individuals; it would have been more beneficial for me to have spoken to the young people (with consent) directly, to explain what the activity would involve. On reflection, I realised that in my approach as an interviewer, I stuck quite rigidly to the predefined interview questions and using more prompts may have facilitated the young people to share their experiences further. In addition some of the terms and language used in my questions needed to be explained and checked out with the participants as their understanding didn’t always match my intentions, for example I asked about talking to a careers advisor but this was interpreted as a careers talk. Participants A sample of three participants took part in this research project. The individuals were selected based on the following purposive sampling criteria: Currently in year 11. Attending a mainstream secondary school in a particular Northern Local Authority Region. Planning on attending the same FE college in the following September.
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