RESEARCH METHOD
This interpretive study has used IPA as a framework to conduct and analyse data from focus group interviews
and digital stories by final-year pre-service teachers from CPUT. As is dictated by IPA the focus group
interview participants were purposively sampled to participate in the conversations. Ten students from different
races who participated in the digital storytelling programme were sampled. We wanted different races so we
could understand how different people perceive and experience digital storytelling in multicultural classrooms.
In this study as already indicated above, we wished to analyse in detail the perceptions and experiences of the
final year teacher education students regarding digital storytelling in diverse classrooms. Focus group interviews
were used to engage in a flexible dialogue with the student teachers in the study. Interviews were audio-recorded
with the consent from the participants; the interviews were then transcribed verbatim. To establish
trustworthiness of the findings, the interviews were conducted by two different researchers. Again, the interview
data was triangulated by the participants’ digital stories about their choice for teaching career and how they
perceive themselves prepared to fulfill the seven roles of a teacher when they go teaching in the following year.
In the process of analysis, we did a detailed systematic qualitative analysis, case by case. We read and examined
the transcripts over and over, with each time annotating the text with initial comments. Then we extracted and
listed the themes. The themes were then clustered in a meaningful way by looking for connections between them
to develop super ordinate themes.
As researchers in a Higher Education Institution we obtained permission from the institution and the students
before the study commenced. Permission to use the students written reflections and to interview them was
obtained orally and in written form at the beginning of the project. We also obtained consent to record the
conversations from the students who participated in the focus group interviews. Privacy and confidentiality were
adhered to throughout the research process.