Bonnie Soroke (2003) used sculpture as one tool for data collection in her research about power and authority in a literacy centre. Bonnie used zippers, coloured telephone wires and other found materials to create sculptures to introduce discussion about educational experiences. Later, participants were invited to work individually or in small groups to create sculptures themselves. Bonnie found that:
The experience of creating sculptures together contributed to my deeper awareness about students' experiences at the Centre and Issues and stories emerged while talking about the sculptures that never came up during our conversations and interviews. (p. 52)
Ningwakwe/E. Priscilla George (2008) issued an open-ended invitation to literacy program impacting on you?" The responses included a drawing and a poem, a series of self-portraits, and two collages. One woman chose to respond orally.
Visual images can also provide a prompt to generate data. I have a collection of photographs (from cards and magazines) that I regularly use to open discussion on a topic or as prompts for writing. I have also used photographs in research. In an exploration about student voice in literacy organizations (Norton, 2005), I laid out a collection of images and asked participants to choose one that "said something" about what it means to have a voice. As with the questions I choose to ask, I try to be mindful that the pictures I select can also shape people's responses.
This section includes details about observations, interviews and questionnaires, and some suggestions for preparing tools for each method. It is important to test your data collection tools with some research participants or with people who are similar to the participants. It can also be helpful to have colleagues, students or others review your tools before you test them.
For example, when I worked on the Professional Development Project in Alberta (Norton, 2004), I drafted interview questions and prompts which my co-researchers and I revised. Then each of us tested the interview with one participant. As well as showing us that the questions collected information we were looking for, the testing gave us an opportunity to become familiar with the questions. (The transcribed responses to the test interviews were also included in our data.)