Today I am testing my equipment in order to do a trial run of my video/audio recorded focus group with graduate students from Universidad Católica del Maule and Universidad Autónoma de Chile here in the Talca area.

I was very happy to be back in session at UCTalca today, following a week-long closure of the university in honor of the Chilean Independence Day (September 18th).  I wanted to ensure that all of my equipment would function properly and record both my video and audio data effectively prior to my traveling to Santiago in a few weeks.

I am excited about conducting my initial focus group trail with graduate students from the Talca area prior to conducting my data collection at the Universidad de Chile (UC).  My plans include participants at UNIACC, which will serve as my private for-profit institution, and UC which will be my public Chilean university.  Both institutions are located in Santiago where my research has shown the probability of my including participants with high ETS TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) scores are relatively good. 

Although the survey instruments are going to be initially tested in English and Spanish, the focus groups will largely be conducted in English.  At this point, it’s believed that the use of the Spiral Dynamics framework with the focus groups would be more manageable for me as the researcher, due in large part to the fact that my primary language is English.

Let’s get those Civic Engagement levels measured and described mixed methods style! 😉