Analysis on the Experiences of Working-Class Students in Higher Education

Data Analysis Project
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Data Analysis Project
Introduction
The overarching objective of the project was to investigate the experiences of working-class students in higher education and their impact on learners’ socio-cultural identities. Moreover, the study sought to understand the implications of working-class students’ experiences of higher education on their academic progress and how these experiences are gendered and ‘raced’. The project employed a mixed method design that comprised of surveys and ethnographic semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students from working class backgrounds in their first and second years of tertiary education. The study wanted to compare the experiences of learners in diverse Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): an elite university (Southern), a post 1992 university (Northern), a civic pre-1992 university (Midland), and a collage of Further Education (Eastern). More specifically, the study sought to answer the following research questions:
1 How do the social and cultural experiences of working-class students compare across different types of HIEs?
2 What is the impact of these experiences on working-class students’ learning and academic progress?
3 What is the impact of working-class university experiences on learners’ identities and academic progress?
This data analysis report will employ reflexive thematic analysis to develop, analyze, and interpret patterns across the qualitative dataset. It will apply reflexive discussion in discussing empirical findings and answering the research questions with the aim of improving theoretical understanding of social class and learner identities within college context.
Reflexive Thematic Analysis
The project’s primary qualitative data collection methods were ethnographic semi-structured interviews (involving the systematic study of working -class students in their learning environment to understand their perspectives of the environment around them) and personal observations. While conducting qualitative research, the investigators were careful to uphold the ethical conducts related to research integrity and honesty, confidentiality and privacy, informed consent, and beneficence. For instance, all interview sessions were recorded after obtaining consent from the respondent and confidentiality as well as anonymity was maintained by use of pseudonyms. Auto-transcription software was used to transcribe all interview materials. Data coding was applied to systematically categorize semi-structured data into themes for analysis. The project chose the inductive coding approach where themes are allowed to emerge from the raw data rather than from preconceived themes. In addition to the inductive approach, the study used a latent approach to interpret raw data and theorize meanings.
These two methods were suitable because the project wanted to explore the underlying meanings expressed by working-class students in the interviews. The study used reflexive thematic analysis to analyze qualitative data. Reflexive thematic analysis is a collaborative process where the investigators change, rem...