Pilot Study: Lessons Learnt and Next Steps

This is a pre-recorded presentation that is part of the 5th London Metropolitan University Student and Staff Research Conference: 'Past - Present - Future'. The conference takes place across the 2nd and 3rd July 2024.
'Pilot Study: Lessons Learnt and Next Steps' by Mareen Ruwandi Perera
My research explores the role of unlearning in developing lecturer identity among part-time higher education lecturers (PHELs) in the private higher education sector of Sri Lanka. My presentation is on the lessons I learned from the pilot study conducted and how it has helped me refine my data collection and plan the next steps of my study.
My research aim is to understand the unlearning practices and experiences of PHELs when developing their lecturer identity and find recommendation avenues to help them grow in terms of their lecturer identity without being hindered by previous perceptions of teaching and learning, and their professional occupations outside of teaching.
I use phenomenology as an approach based on a qualitative methodology in the form of focus groups and in-depth interviews. Before collecting data, I conducted a pilot study to test the feasibility of a group setting to discuss unlearning and lecturer identity development. I selected six educators to gather their views on unlearning for identity development and aspects such as the discussion setting, format, moderation, discussion guide, requests for recording and duration.
I gathered many learnings, the most significant being that I must limit my study to unlearning and lecturer identity development, without also trying to gather data on educators’ preferences to practice unlearning in communities of practice - something I was keen to study early on but which I removed from my scope. Other learnings include, - the need to streamline questioning strategies. - the need to practice active listening and patience. - overcoming the challenges of being a moderator. - the importance of reflexivity in qualitative research.
I believe that this presentation aligns with the theme of the conference since this pilot study has been instrumental in planning my methodology chapter and fine-tuning my data collection plan for the future.
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