Methods

Arriving at the methods section of the thesis process, it was clear that the easiest method in the participants’ view was some form of qualitative content analysis, much like the one used in the present study, where the data was collected via either questionnaires or interviews, and analysed

qualitatively. Using other methods on the other hand had caused trouble for students. It was agreed by all participants that writing about methods and choosing a suitable method for their own study was one of the most difficult parts of thesis work. Many reported that they had struggled hard with this section of their thesis.

(35) My methods are pretty simple (interview and questionnaire, content analysis). I don’t see it being especially difficult, but what I probably have heard the most is that writing about methods is the bane of our existence as English students. How do I formulate this so that it has been written scientifically, and what kinds of methods do I use to analyse my data. That is something that many people have had to fight with. (Leaf)

(36) Oh man, the research methods were difficult. That was probably the most difficult part. I feel like I still wouldn’t want to do that even though I’ve done it once. I have no idea what they mean and what use there is be forced to choose one and do the analysis strictly following some method. I still don’t really understand it. (Cuckoo)

The main reason for these problems seemed to be same as before in theoretical framework: the studies during the degree do not offer enough training in it. Students are not taught what kind of methods exist and which ones are useful for the different kinds of research that can be done.

It is also difficult for one to find suitable models of these methods from source literature without guidance, because students have no idea what to search for and what methods are good for the research they wish to do. While reading about the different methods was considered useful, it was also perplexing, because every book and source describe their methods slightly differently, and a novice researcher can quickly become overwhelmed and confused when reading about the different methods available. Even when finding a method sourcebook, the student did not have the tools to evaluate whether that particular method could be used in their research and how to use it.

(37) It was more difficult to find sources for those methods. As far as I remember I read some method literature in Finnish, and that was helpful. (Cattle)

(38) Every book has vastly differing methods. How am I supposed to choose just one? The seminar handled the topic quite generally, but all of those methods could have been inspected more, and why they are important, and why it has to be so clear, because the method of analysis may define what kind of data you collect, because you cannot do everything with every method, and you need to be aware of the method when you collect data. And when I started to read about tens and tens of methods, I discovered that they were all different. I used some Hungarian guy’s named Durek’s method, and my supervisor was like: “why are

you using this in your thesis?”, and I said that someone else had used it, and then the supervisor said that you can’t really use it like that. And I was just like “Uh-huh?”. (Cuckoo) The problems with methodology led many students to sticking with a method they had already used in their Bachelor’s thesis or using the qualitative content analysis method, because it was the most easily tangible one. Some said that they would have liked to try some other method but they felt that they were not well enough equipped to do so, and that adapting a new research method would merely increase the already high workload and make the thesis process more difficult for them. One student did not have a model for their method or analysis, which made the process much more difficult and time consuming, and another student who had attempted a mixed-method study said that they had struggled fitting the two methods together.

(39) Well I had some idea with the Bachelor’s thesis, but even then it was just like “okay let’s just take some method” and then somehow you managed to justify it and just go with it. So I felt like I have no toolset for this, so I didn’t even consider doing something like a statistics analysis or something else, I just thought to keep it somehow simple and such that I myself could at least understand it. (Cat)

(40) I was maybe nervous about jumping into something new, so I did not consider the interview method because of that. (Deer)

(41) And then I did not have a model for transcribing my data, so I had to figure it out on my own as I was using an unorthodox method and was handling my data with Elo software, which no-one but sign language personnel use. Analysing the data took an unholy amount of work and time. (Brook)

A light source for methods seemed to be to try to find other pieces of research that had conducted a similar study and see what kinds of methods had been used in them. This seems a recommended way of approaching the subject.

(42) It was only later after god knows how long I had been trying when I realized talking to my supervisor that I shouldn’t have approached it the way I had, reading all kinds of method works, but I should have read as similar research to mine as possible and see how they had done it. (Reed)

There are also some courses, especially at the advanced study level which do help with method use to some extent. Courses which require the student to think about methods and data collection were considered useful, and it was felt that there should be even more of those kinds of courses, so that the methods would not be completely foreign when starting the thesis process. Regarding existing courses about discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis

methods, one interviewee criticized the courses for not actually teaching to apply and use those methods properly. For those courses that do focus on improving the skills necessary for thesis writing, the course summaries could include a text in the course enrolment descriptions that this course is good for those who wish to develop the skills required for thesis writing.

(43) Those courses which have been most useful in terms of developing skills related to thesis writing have been ones where we have written course papers resembling research papers. “Language and social media”, and “Language as social practice” were good, because you had to already think about collecting data and how to use methods, so that those things weren’t completely foreign when starting the thesis process. It feels like courses and course descriptions don’t specify that they include useful training toward thesis writing. I think that would be very good, to bring it out that “hey, in this course we are developing skills that are very useful in a researcher’s work”. (Reed)

Many students expressed that the different methods available could be explored more fully in the thesis seminar, or in a separate course dedicated purely on methods. Learning to concretely use different methods could solve most of the issues, while also for developing tools for those who wish to pursue a career as researchers. Advanced level courses could even be profiled to teach the use of certain methodology along with their existing content.

(44) I think it would be good to have courses where one would complete some research piece thing where you would combine some views, like methods, which seem to generally be difficult for students. That would offer practice and a better understanding of how to choose methods and how to use them. I really wouldn’t mind if there was an actual course on its own where methods and their use would be discussed. And you could go for example to some workplace to carry out some kind of a small data collection. The methods should perhaps have more concrete practice and use at an earlier stage, because there isn’t enough time to discuss them thoroughly during the seminar. The methods are somewhat of a separate part of studies, and they are not much used on a practical level during our studies. (Reed) Another problem that method courses would prevent is to avoid misconceptions of what methods are suitable for which kind of research. This prevents the problem where a student may wish to use a certain type of method but will then discover that that particular method is not well suited for the type of research they are doing.

(45) At first I had thought that I wanted to do a conversation analysis or a critical discourse analysis or stance analysis, but then I fell for the qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis, because it was a familiar method to me, and was most descriptive of the issue I was

studying. So, I had a more ambitious goal with the method to examine the interaction in the comments more rigorously, but then I discovered that it did suit my topic that well. (Cattle) To summarize, it seems that the methods section was one of the most difficult parts of the thesis to write, because students had little to no experience of different method use. Teaching students to use different kinds of methods during studies seems to be the best solution.