International Journal of Indonesian Studies Volume 1, Issue 1 | Page 7

International Journal of Indonesian Studies, Vol 1 2013
the one that responded most swiftly to the letter. After receiving their response, I visited
the school and talked with all English teachers. In the beginning, I imagined it would be
more beneficial to have the three of them take part in the study but out of three teachers,
only one teacher volunteered: Bagas.1 Apart from the teacher, this study also involved
his Year 11 class consisting of 39 students. Based on regular English tests conducted
in this class, students‘ English language proficiency in this study may be categorised as
basic to intermediate. Students‘ English responses in this article were written as they
were, including grammatical or spelling mistakes. English translation is provided under
students‘ responses in Indonesian language.
Teachers‘ decisions not to participate in educational research, especially in literacy
education, is nothing new as reported by O‘Mara and Gutierrez (2010) and Comber and
Kamler (2008). Daily teaching routines as well as administrative roles seem to give
teachers little time to take part in the research. Moreover, as this project requires
teachers to be involved in professional learning, the teachers at the school were
concern ed with rescheduling the classes they missed as they attended the professional
learning. Furthermore, in action research projects, the study often involves a change in
the teachers‘ practice in order to improve their teaching; consequently, resistance can
spring from teachers‘ ‗unreadiness‘ to accept new ideas (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1990).
Data formation and analysis
Data collected in one semester included classroom observation, interviews with both
the teacher and students, and students‘ reflective journals. The classroom observation
was in the form of video and audio recording as well as field notes. The interviews with
the teacher and students were audio recorded and conducted twice: once in the middle
and once at the end of the project. Students‘ reflective journals were collected once
every two weeks. These journals were read, commented on by me and the teacher and
returned to the students.
Different methods of data collection were employed within the study to enrich the
validity of the research (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). For example, students‘ behaviour and
their responses in the class were verified and compared with their journal or interviews
in order to provide richer and more meaningful information. Another method employed
1

All names are pseudonyms.

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