Working backstage: the challenges of data collection within the Algerian higher education context

Conducting research is not an easy task. A researcher's path is usually fraught with challenges, especially those related to data collection. When doing fieldwork, there is a large amount of data that is collected by working backstage, as it were. Backstage is an analogy taken from the theatre, it refers to everything that happens behind the scenes when conducting fieldwork including the backstage behaviour of research participants (De Munck, 2009; Leavy, 2014). What the audience see on the stage at the theatre is the final product of a particular performance. The audience, however, is not aware of the challenges that performers faced in order for the final product to come to fruition. Participant as observer observation style gives researchers the opportunity to get access to these backstage information (Johnson and Christensen, 2017). In the light of the aforementioned analogy, this presentation aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the challenges of data collection within the Algerian higher education (HE) context. This issue will be approached through semi-structured interviews with Algerian PhD students based in the UK who carried out their fieldwork in Algeria. The data obtained from the interviews will provide us with the participants' perspectives and experiences regarding the challenges of data collection in the Algerian HE context. In addition, such data would also allow us to understand the extent to which these challenges reflect or relate to Algerian teachers' classroom practices from the participants' perspectives. The findings will also help us to understand the extent to which these challenges relate to participants' research studies. My curiosity about what happens backstage was aroused by my own experiences and observation which occurred throughout four weeks during the data collection phase of my study in Algeria.