Blazing New Trails - Connexions

Principals and Teachers Stated Beliefs as Compared with Their Perceptions of Multiage Implementation 183
survey, they had two weeks to complete the survey. If they chose to have the survey
completed in paper form, the researcher forwarded the principal a paper copy of the survey
and a return envelope.
For the qualitative portion of the study a random sample was developed by selecting
25 percent of the population of the multiage schools to participate in the interview. The
telephone interviews were conducted with principals and teachers in Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. The random sample was developed by selecting 25% of the
population. There were 60 in the population; therefore, in order to have 25% of the
population, 16 schools were drawn for the qualitative research. Of the 25% that were
contacted by telephone, only 62% or 10 principals were willing to be interviewed. Each of the
10 principals invited two teachers to be contacted for interviews which resulted in a sample
size of 20 teachers. All of the participants were sent a follow-up email with the interview
questions. The sample consisted of one school from Minnesota, one from Wisconsin, two
from Iowa and six from Illinois. In order to avoid skewing the responses of the participants,
no prompts were suggested. Since prompts were not provided in the questioning, the answers
reflected the participants’ highest priority, not necessarily all their priorities in answering the
interview questions.
Qualitative Interview Questions
The qualitative portion of the research consisted of three interview questions based on
the Multiage Implementation Interview developed by Miller (1994). These interview
questions were: (1.) If you have had multiage in your school at least three years, how have
you monitored, evaluated, and modified your multiage programs over time? (2.) If you have
been doing this for more than three years, to what would you attribute your success? (3.)
Please describe difficulties you may have encountered in implementing this approach, in other
words, barriers or challenges that you have had to be overcome. After analyzing the
quantitative data and discovering areas where the participant had the least agreement with
Pavan’s assumptions about multiage education, the researcher utilized the Sequential
Explanatory Design (Clark & Creswell, 2007) to determine additional open ended interview
questions. This process allowed the researcher to determine if the information in the survey
was an actual belief or a misinterpretation of the question. After analysis of the data, the
researcher indicated areas where the respondents did not imply strong support. The
researcher, using this data, developed two additional interview questions which provided a
more inclusive synopsis of the participants’ assumptions. The two areas that needed further
investigation were, “Children formulate their own learning goals with guidance from the
teachers,” and “Sequences of learning were determined for individual students.” Two
additional interview questions were then developed which were: (4) How are students assisted
in developing their own learning goals? and (5) How are individual students’ needs addressed
in your multiage classroom or school?
Qualitative Interview Procedures
Based on the random sampling procedures and participants’ willingness to participate,
20 teacher and 10 principal interviews were conducted over the telephone at a time
convenient for each participant. Each individual was given an overview of the study
methodology and signed an Informed Consent Form prior to beginning the interview. If
participants determined they did not want to participate, the interview was not conducted. No