As you can see from these examples, you can collect data that is created as part of your regular practice, as Pam did, alongside your practice, as Fay did, and in addition to your regular practice, as Andrea did. Using existing data (with participants' consent) is an efficient way to incorporate data collection into your day-to-day practice.

If you need to generate data, think about what methods will help you collect the data as efficiently as possible. You'll want to be mindful of your own time and resources, and of the time and resources of others you might ask to participate. As we'll discuss later, you'll likely use more than one source of data.

Collecting data from people

Whether you use existing data or generate new data, your research will likely involve students, practitioners and other people. The following questions may help you decide who to invite to participate, and how. (Chapter 5 addresses ethical decision making related to research participants.)

Which people are likely to be able to provide information that will help you answer the questions?

As part of a project about moving research about violence and learning into practice, I asked literacy practitioners about their use of arts-based approaches in their literacy work (Norton, 2008). I wanted to gain a general idea of developments and perspectives in the field, and thought that practitioners could answer the questions I had. If I wanted to focus specifically on learners' responses to arts-based approaches, it would make sense to speak with learners as well.

It may not be possible to involve all the people you hope to include. For example, BC researchers planned to include student participants as well as practitioners in their study of effective ABE/literacy instructors. However, they received less funding than they had applied for and could not work with as many people as planned. After thoughtful discussion, they decided to focus on practitioners because

in ABE/Literacy research, instructors have rarely been looked at, while students have. That was part of the drive behind the project, to hear from the instructor's experience in the ABE/ Literacy field. We felt we needed to hear from other instructors to hear different voices, not just our own, to add to our beliefs about what makes instructors effective in their practice, and obtaining that from other instructors was the way to proceed.