Generally, interpretivist researchers use interviews, informal conversations, observations, visual aids, personal and official documents, photos, drawings and artefacts, as data collection methods depending on the study design, the nature of the participants and the research problem, (Cohen et al., 2011; Wagner et al., 2012). This section describes the data collection methods and provides a discussion of the appropriateness of the choices. Nevertheless, “in qualitative research, data collection and analysis are often not seen as two distinct phases but may occur simultaneously” (Blanche et al., 2014, p. 289). This relates to the works of Hartley (2004), which affirms that data collection and analysis in a case study design are developed simultaneously in a continuous and sequenced manner, to facilitate theory development grounded in the empirical data. For this reason, document analysis is presented as a tool for collecting data.
4.6.1 Document analysis as a method of generating data
The document analysed was one purposively selected Learning Guide (LG), entitled ACT 4:
Teaching reading and writing in home language in FP. Only one module was analysed due to time factor and the scope of the dissertation. The findings of this LG analysis are detailed in Chapter Five. This LG comprises knowledge, skills, teachers’ learning activities (tasks) and reflection activities about reading and writing at the FP level. This information addresses the TK base and assumptions of effective literacy teaching and learning at the FP in the South African context.
By seeking answers to research question 1:
What domains of knowledge and assumptions about good literacy teaching are privileged in the ACT literacy curriculum which promote the effective teaching of EFAL at the FP?
The domains of teacher knowledge privileged in the LG 4 were identified. This process gave me insights about emergent literacy and theories of teaching reading and writing that the FP teachers are expected to acquire from the ACT programme. Guided by emergent literacy theories, precise categories for coding were generated from the principles of teaching EFAL in Module 6 (LG6) to analyse the classroom practice data.
87 4.6.2 Classroom observations
I observed teachers’ pedagogic practices over a period of 18 months in order to describe their teaching practices at the beginning, middle and end of their enrolment in the ACT programme.
The idea was to assess how the participants progressively changed (or did not change) their literacy knowledge base and their practice over this period. To enable the collection of such in- depth data, two classroom observations of literacy lessons for each teacher were conducted in February 2014 (phase 1), at the time that the FP teachers enrolled with the ACT programme.
The purpose of this observation was to gain insights into the teachers’ literacy knowledge base at the beginning of the learning, as a baseline to track any changes in their teaching practice during and at the end of the ACT programme. Moreover, this classroom observation provided a less intrusive opportunity for me to familiarise myself with the classroom contexts during this phase of data collection. (See details of data collection phase on table 4.2.)
To reduce distraction during the lessons, I sat at the teachers’ desk and observed the form of pedagogies, interactions and classroom environment management to attain insights into the teachers’ knowledge base about reading and writing in Grade 2. During each of the observations, frequencies of particular instructional strategies, interactions and situations were recorded as field notes. Any informal conversations were recorded and spatial maps reflecting classroom organisation were also drawn as part of the field notes (Cohen et al., 2011). With the teachers’ consent, the two classroom observations were audio recorded and later transcribed before phase 2 of the data collection. These transcripts were stored in marked folders for each teacher.
During phases 2 and 3 (August 2014 and October 2015) of data collection, I video recorded two English literacy lessons per teacher so as to investigate if there were any changes in the teachers’ pedagogies. The assumption was that professional learning from the ACT programme might have had impacted on the teachers’ practices. Video recording was used to reinforce the researcher’s observation, which had been conducted during phase 1. According to Cohen et al.
(2011), the most notable advantage of video recording is the ability to capture non-verbal data that the audio recording cannot, which is useful for a detailed case study. This relates to the researchers’ choices of video recording selected English as FAL lessons to capture the teacher’s behaviours, attitudes, regulative relations and classroom’s environment management, created during classroom interactions. It was essential to capture these real-life interactions, which
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enhanced the generation of a ‘thick’ description of what and how the classroom practices changed as result of teacher learning from the ACT programme.
In addition, the video recording method gave a clearer picture of the teachers’ instructional intentions in terms of content selection, sequencing and pacing of the lesson, which collectively contributed to understanding the teachers’ knowledge base (Ensor & Hoadley, 2004). During phase 2 and 3, the video recorded lessons were also transcribed. All the informal conversations and classroom notes were recorded at each phase as mentioned earlier. Spatial maps reflecting classroom organisation were also drawn as part of the field notes, with classroom changes noted over the time. Table 4.2 below shows the classroom observations/video recording schedules and interviews with the three teachers who participated in this study.
Table 4.2: The classroom observation and interview schedules during the data collection phase
The empirical data was generated from three teachers, in three phases from February 2014 to October 2015.The data collection started with two classroom observations during phase 1, followed by subsequent video recorded observations conducted for each teacher on two consecutive days in the succeeding phases. During phase 2 and 3, in-depth video-stimulated interviews were conducted on the second day after the video capture. I audio taped the observed lessons and together with the video recorded lessons, these were analysed.
The following are the advantages of video recording as explained by (Cohen et al., 2011):
Video materials are a superb medium for recording evolving situations and interactions, details that the observer may miss and non-verbal matters such as facial expressions and different types of behaviour.
It allows for repeated viewing and checking, although this extracts its price in terms of time required to watch and re-watch the video.
Data collection phases
School Term
Number of lessons to be observed/video recorded per
teacher Lessons Total interviews based on
observation/video recording 1.Feb 2014 1 2 classroom observations 1 and 2 1 interview x 3 teachers = 3 2.Aug 2014 3 2 Video recordings 3 and 4 2 interviews x 3 teachers = 6 3.Oct 2015 4 2 Video recordings 5 and 6 1 interview x 3 teachers = 3 Grand total 6 12
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Video images are powerful in a range of methodologies in educational research because they can catch everyday practices of participants and special events and hence, they capture the rich details of complex situations.
Flexibility importance – the video images are ideal for moving images. For instance, the researcher can easily change the point of focus, location and angle of the camera and edit the material during data analysis. The fact that the researcher is in situ also means that she/he has an opportunity to write down her/hi own notes about the lesson or situation.
The data from the video can be used retrospectively as a point of discussion, to ask video participants to reflect on the material, to substantiate data from other sources and to illustrate themes, issues or events (2011, p. 531).
However, video recording and observation have been blamed for contributing to the Hawthorne effect, which is the possibility of participants changing their behaviour to suit the researchers’
objectives. Also, some participants may be reluctant to be videotaped, as opposed to live observation and fear the possibility of video data exposure to a third party. According to Blanche et al. (2014), it is vital to have a co-researcher during the video shooting session. In this case, I acted as the main facilitator, and my research assistant concentrated on the video recording of the lesson. During the first phase (the observation sessions), the assistant researcher was not required in the classroom. This multi-method approach was adopted to enable collection of in-depth data from each specific case using specific instruments.
4.6.3 Interviews
Two categories of interviews took place during the three phases: a semi-structured individual interview and video-stimulated interviews. For both categories, a set of pre-determined, open- ended questions were used to guide the interviews (Bertram & Christiansen, 2014; Maree, 2012). A list of interview questions is found in Appendices 6 and 7. Nevertheless, most of the questions were designed and administered from a naturalistic approach which enabled me to engage with the real-world of the teachers (Wagner et al., 2012). For the purposes of focus and having less distractions from the young learners, all the interviews were conducted inside the classroom after the school ended at 2 o’clock. I used an audio recorder for all the interview conversations and any non-verbal prompts were noted as field notes, where applicable. This assisted me later with the transcription.
90 4.6.3.1 Semi-structured individual interviews
According to Cohen et al. (2011, p. 411), semi-structured interviews can be used with other methods to explore unexpected results or anomalies, to confirm alternative methods, or to examine the motivations of the respondents in depth. In this case, semi-structured biographical interviews were conducted during phase 1 of the data collection, in February 2014. The interviews focused on the teacher’s biographical information, as well as their perceptions and beliefs about teaching English literacy at the FP. The questions were modified during phase 2 of data collection in August 2014, and were used for the second round of the interviews to enhance the authenticity of the responses of interview 1. Guided by pre-determined open-ended questions, I was able to gain insights into the teachers’ background information, teaching experiences, values, attitudes and beliefs about teaching English literacy, their perceptions of teacher learning and more specifically, their expectations from the ACT programme (see appendix. 6).
4.6.3.2 Video-stimulated interviews
After the video-recording of the two lessons, each of the three teachers also participated in a video-stimulated, semi-structured interview for one hour (see appendix 7 and 8). A video- stimulated interview is a data collection method in which participants view a recorded video sequence of their teaching practice. I invited the participants to reflect on their decision-making and action processes during the video-recorded event (Nguyen, McFadden, Tangen, & Beutel, 2013). In this particular study, teachers viewed clips of their recorded lessons and were asked to confirm, comment or discuss why they made certain decisions or used specific instructional methods. Both the teacher and the interviewer were free to stop the video and attend to any questions whenever applicable. I used verbal prompts regularly to encourage the teachers to reflect deeper about what they were doing. The purpose of using the video-stimulated interviews in this study was to gain insights into why the participants chose to act or teach in certain ways. In addition, I had the opportunity to probe for more insights and evaluate the teachers’ values, preferences and beliefs and relate to their real pedagogical experiences.
However, Nguyen et al. (2013) argue that the rapid increase in the use of this technique in education research, especially in the developed countries, has generated several questions concerning the influences and biases of video-stimulated data. Therefore, to counter the
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theoretical and practical shortcomings of video stimulated interviews, Nyugen et al. suggest the following to researchers:
Prior to the interview, the researcher should explain the purpose for this technique and a rapport between the researcher and participants established, to enhance effective data collection. For this study, the procedures of the three data collection phases were explained, while the teachers signed consent letters which explained the purpose of the study (see Appendix 5). Briefing was also done on each of the days of video- recording and the subsequent stimulated interview.
The stimulated interview should always be conducted as immediately as possible after the recorded event to enhance validity. In this study, it was carried out after the video recording session, but after school ended at 2 o’clock, to counter any distraction from the learners.
An interview protocol has to be developed for the video stimulated interviews. The semi-structured questions guided the interview as much as possible.
With a longitudinal approach, teachers were not only able to justify their literacy lessons as they saw them, but were also able to describe and elaborate on any surfacing issues (Cohen et al., 2011). This helped to shape and strengthen the trustworthiness of the study. The next section is a description of how field notes and informal conversations with the teachers corroborated with other key methods of data collection
4.6.4 Field notes and Informal conversations
Spending more time with the teachers helped to establish friendly relationships and enabled them to elaborate on what took place in the classroom in a relaxed manner. I utilised field notes in conjunction with informal conversations and any other instruments whenever the need arose during the research process. Field notes contain descriptions of the researcher’s reflections regarding the conversations, interviews, moments of confusion and stimulation of new ideas during the study (Cohen et al., 2011; Maree, 2012). Therefore, for this study, field notes were able to capture a range of details noted during classroom observations and interview sessions.
Moreover, field notes corroborated with informal conversations, document analysis, teachers’
interviews, observations and video recording to enhance the trustworthiness of the study.
The next section focuses on the data analysis which involves procedures and methods used to organise, reduce and analyse the collected data.
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