A small pilot study was conducted to develop and refine survey instruments, questionnaires, one-to-one interview protocols, and focus group protocols and a procedure for a number of drawing tasks for children. Final Survey and Focus Group instruments were developed in the fall of 2003 and, once ethics approval was received from UPEI and two local school districts, the first set of Surveys for Volunteers were distributed. A Classroom Teacher Survey was distributed in spring of 2004, while the fall of 2004 and winter 2005 were set aside for a series of 11 Focus groups - six with teachers and five with volunteers. Six schools were used to meet with Grade 1-3 and Grades 4-6 groups of children for one-hour group interviews followed by time for the children to create two drawings in response to our research questions.
In the end, over 200 volunteers, close to 175 teachers, several principals, district administrators and 63 students were involved during the final data gathering stage in fall 2004. Interview and focus group participants were selected to be representative of the larger/smaller schools, urban/rural settings and geographic distribution across the province. Data was processed as it was accumulated and several numerical and visual representations of the data were developed.
As with any emergent research design, the door was open for unexpected and unpredicted themes and issues to emerge, particularly around the impact the Project L.O.V.E. program was having in areas other than literacy. As we explored the Open Forum sections of the surveys (where classroom teachers and volunteers were free to write their ideas), we found new themes emerged around the impact of this program. This was particularly evident as we organized six focus groups sessions with over 30 volunteers, five focus groups with 29 classroom teachers and 5 student focus groups with over 50 children from grades 1-6.
Over 200 volunteers, close to 175 teachers, several principals, district administrators and 63 students were involved during the final data gathering.