Unveiling Perspectives: Decolonising and Diversifying in Fine Arts at UAL
Image: cambridgeinsights.co.uk
In this section, I will review the methodology for my research:
My discussion with my supervisor revealed that the research method leaned toward convenience sampling. That means I randomly sampled from the pool of Fine Art students instead of randomly picking respondents from the general pool of 1800 Chelsea College of Arts population. According to Nikolopoulou, 2022 researchers often opt for convenience sampling in fields like education and social sciences, especially when they have convenient access to existing target populations. He highlights that this method is most effective when gathering people’s perceptions and attitudes. (Nikolopoulou, 2022). This was the case with my surveying. However, the analyses presented that sixty-seven per cent of the respondents were from year one. My sample inadvertently reached this group of cohorts the most. I intended to survey on four different days; instead, I opted to survey on one day. The distribution channel may have favoured the first years on this particular day. I opted for one day due to time constraints on my part.
Some questions left unanswered.
The survey highlighted that all respondents left all the open-ended questions unanswered.
There are a few speculations as to why; one possibility is that the questions were complex or ambiguous for the respondents to answer. Bradley, C., Sven Smit and Hirt, M. (2018) state that ‘open-ended questions are analogous to the essay or short answer questions you probably dreaded as a student and close-ended questions are analogous to the multiple-choice questions’… I opted for 84% of the questions to be close-ended questions for multiple reasons; it speeds up the responses, giving the participants a sense of making progress – which means they are answering more questions on the broader range of questions. As a parent, I can attest that giving my children to choose one option among several alternatives is better than asking for unstructured decisions.
Also, Bradley, C., Sven Smit and Hirt, M. confirm that close-ended questions about attitudes and behaviours are used to answer simple questions. Having closed-ended questions increases respondents’ enthusiasm for returning a completed questionnaire.
Shiksha Study Abroad published that UAL is home to ‘21,092 students from 130 different nations and more than half of the students are international’. So, approximately 10,546 students are not native speakers. In light of this, I could have paid more emphasis on the wording of the questionnaire more closely to make it even more inclusive and opted for quantitative surveying as well.
The finding highlights the importance of pilot testing the questionnaires. Baker 1994 outlines the importance of conducting a pilot study to provide early indications of potential pitfalls and amendments to the questionnaires that could have taken place. I also considered including staff in the survey, but due to time constraints, I opted against it. I can appreciate the importance of how it can alter the survey results, but I need to consider some factors for future research.
References
Baker, T.L. (1994). Doing social research. New York: Mcgraw-Hill.
Bradley, C., Sven Smit and Hirt, M. (2018). Strategy beyond the hockey stick : people, probabilities, and big moves to beat the odds. Hoboken (New Jersey): John Wiley & Sons.
Nikolopoulou, K. (2023). What is convenience sampling? | definition & examples.
[online] Scribbr. Available at: https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/convenience-sampling/.
www.Shiksha.com (2023). Shiksha.com. [online] Shiksha.com. Available at: https://ask.shiksha.com/what-percentage-of-university-of-the-arts-london-students-are-international-qna-7825839 [Accessed 27 Jan. 2024].
Image reference
Anon, (2020). The art of reflection to develop our leadership potential. [online] Available at: https://cambridgeinsights.co.uk/the-art-of-reflection-to-boost-leadership/.