CHAPTER 4: THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4.7 Data collection methods and instruments
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in numbers marks the sequence for the respondents. CORSEO1 stands for correctional service education officer 1 (refer to Table 2 and Table 3).
The DCS strives to employ officials that can assist the studying officials and also employs people that can understand the dynamics of tertiary education. Table 2 provides brief demographical data collected from respondents in Brandvlei Correctional Centre. There were 16 respondents that filled out a questionnaire and the median age was 31-35 years of age. The respondents are coded such that R1 stands for respondent 1 and in numbers marks the sequence for respondents. FGDR1 stands for Focus Group Discussion Respondent 1 and also in numbers marks the sequence for respondents. The majority of the respondents have a single marital status, only one is married and they are all at university level with regards to education. The oldest respondent was a 47 year old murder offender. The youngest was between the ages of 23 and 26 who committed rape.
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du Plooy-Cilliers et al. (2014) define ‘survey’ as an information collection tool that has a series of questions created to gather information from participants. The questions were delivered in the form of interviews, questionnaires and sampling polls. One of the benefits of using survey research is that it was relatively inexpensive and flexible. Surveys can be administered in many ways: email, online, on paper and in face-to-face interviews. This gives the researcher the choice to reach remote or hard to obtain respondents like offenders, to answer paper surveys and to compile results into one data set. Furthermore, conducting research through a survey method provides the researcher and respondents with an option for more honest and unambiguous responses than in another research methodology.
A questionnaire was used to solicit the views of the respondents. A questionnaire refers to a survey tool used to gather information from participants about themselves or about a group entity.
According to Gillham (2007) questionnaires are one of many ways of finding information from people by asking direct or indirect questions. For the purpose of this study a descriptive questionnaire (see Appendix B) included closed and open-ended questions that were completed by the participants. The benefit of using a survey method is that some participants might be shy or might not have the opportunity to express themselves in a large group. This was a supervised self- completion questionnaire. It comprises of two sections: Section A asks for bio-data information from the participants and Section B asks questions related to the research questions. Gillham (2007) contends that open questions can prompt a greater level of revelation, however, their number and kind must be limited to legitimise the ‘cost’. Questionnaires were administered through paper surveys which were completed by 16 offenders during the first session of the meetings.
4.7.2 Interviews
du Plooy-Cilliers et al. (2014) define in-depth interviews as a qualitative data collection method that lets a researcher pose questions to participants with the goal of getting more information about their opinions and beliefs regarding a particular phenomenon. Interviews are normally administered in a neutral, informal but not noisy and easily accessible place where both the interviewee and the interviewer are comfortable. There are three different formats of interviews,
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namely structured interviews, unstructured interviews and semi-structured interviews (Creswell, 2009). One of the advantages is that it includes outcomes of gathering comprehensive evidence about research questions. In addition, in interviews, the researcher has to coordinate control over the primary information accumulation process and has an opportunity to illuminate certain issues amidst the process. This study employed a semi-structured interview collection method.
Longhurst (2003) describes semi-structured interviews as a verbal exchange in which a person, which is the interviewer, tries to obtain information from another person by asking questions. The author adds that even though the interviewer formulates a list of pre-set questions, semi-structured interviews may end up in an informal manner where participants are offered a chance to talk about issues that they feel and think are important. This method of the interview has structured, unstructured interviews and thus uses both closed and open questions (see Appendix C3).
Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with two managers of education and development from correctional services and three DCS officials who work closely with offenders enrolled in correctional education about the processes and challenges faced by the Brandvlei Correctional Centre in ensuring that prisoners are effectively accessing prison education. The researcher conducted five face-to-face interviews and if the interviewee was not available for reasons beyond the researcher’s power, telephone interviews were administered at a time suitable for the interviewee. The researcher used an audio tape, and transcribed the interviews. To ensure consistency with all participants, the researcher asked a set of pre-determined essential questions for direction, so that the same areas were covered with each interviewee. As the interview progressed, the interviewee was given a chance to expand or give more appropriate information if he chose to do so.
4.7.3 Document analysis
Document analysis is a system used to dissect information essentially through perusing different reports and comparing them to recognise the links and any examples that could be associated or verified (Johnson, 2015). As other analytical methods in qualitative research, document analysis requires that the information is analysed and understood to evoke importance, increase understanding and create experimental learning (Creswell, 2009). A document analysis process includes analytic procedures which entail discovery, choosing, evaluating (making sense of) and blending data in the reports. The advantages of using document analysis as a data collection
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method are that it is relatively cost-efficient since most documents are available on the internet, or one can get them from the library; they are easily accessible. Documents differ in quality, sometimes associated with the alleged significance of keeping certain data, however, a few types of documents can be very comprehensive and yield substantially more data than one would like to pick up from a survey or meeting (Creswell, 2009). Documents that were analysed for the purpose of this study included, the DCS Annual Performance Plan (APP), Annual Report, newspapers, journals, books, reports, government gazettes and the DCS training curriculum policy. The researcher has made an effort to ensure the authenticity of the documents and materials.
4.7.4 Focus groups
A focus group is an interview used to define the attitudes, actions, choices and dislikes of the participants who are questioned as a group (du Plooy-Cilliers et al., 2014). The group must be large enough to produce rich dialogue but not too big that some participants feel neglected (Eliot
& associates, 2005). According to McMillan and Schumacher, (2006) a carefully planned focus group discussion must take place in a safe space and a non-threatening environment and must be designed to encourage active participation and obtain the perceptions of all participants. Focus groups offer instant ideas for ways to improve specific problems or situations. Focus groups can be less time consuming and cost-effective for planning, conducting and analysing data than other data collection methods such as surveys and individual interviews. Participants can also be more relaxed, speaking freely in a group than in a one-on-one interview, leading to further discussions, therefore providing more information (Palomba & Banta, 1999).
The focus groups were conducted with the offender students, during two sessions with 7-8 participants in each group. The participants were provided with planned questions or topics for discussion. Consent requests were sent to all the participants and the necessary arrangements were made with the education and development manager of the Brandvlei Correctional Centre and the students. The focus group method was chosen because it gives information more quickly and at a lower cost than if people are met individually; groups can be gathered on shorter notice than for a more orderly survey. The researcher used a pre-determined focus group guide (See Appendix C1) but the participants were offered a chance to discuss issues that they feel were important. With the permission of respondents, a voice recorder was used to collect the data and the researcher transcribed verbatim notes of the proceedings.
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