RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.5 THE RESEARCH PROCESS
3.5.4 Data collection
The Research Instrument
I compiled an interview guide, which was used to collect data from the participants.
The interview guide covered nine areas, namely: Demographic details, Living
conditions, Household financial situation, School issues, Safety issues, Psychological and emotional impact, Support structures, Coping strategies and possible solutions.
An interview guide with semi-structured and open-ended questions was used both to allow participants to give more specific answers and at the same time to allow participants to give as much information as possible freely and elaborate on issues where necessary.
According to Mark (1996) in semi-structured interviews the general nature of the questions is specified in advance, keeping the research purpose in mind. The researcher may determine the specific wording of questions and their order. Mark (1996) further argued that this allows for a naturalistic or informal interview in that the interviewer is free to ask questions. In semi-structured interviews, the questions to be asked in an interview are not standardised, but the researcher formulates broad areas of focus. In this study I focused on five broad areas, which were covered in the interviews, and the questions were generated out of those broad areas. The interview guide ensured that all the intended areas were covered and to give direction to the interviews.
In these kind of interviews, "the interviewer has to control the process in order not to let the speaker deviate from the topic and also to make sure that no leading questions are asked and that there is no "contamination" of any kind" (Henning, 2004:53). This helped to ensure that time was not spent on issues unrelated to research questions. The interview guide helped to give the interviews some structure although there were no standardised questions set before the interviews. This helped to ensure that interviews are not time consuming as I gave direction during the interview process.
The process of data collection
Appointments stating dates, times and venues of the interview sessions were organized with the help of the Institution Support Team coordinators of each selected school. All interview sessions were held at the schools during school hours and these sessions were scheduled to ensure that they did not disrupt participant's school routines. It would have been appropriate to interview the participants in their homes so as to get the feel of their living conditions, but my working conditions prevented
me from doing home visits as contact with school children can only be done during school hours on the school premises. This however was an advantage as it was easy to meet the participants in their respective schools, as it would have been difficult to locate their homes as most of them lived in rural areas and informal settlements with no proper street names. This also made things easier for the participants as they needed to rush straight home after school to prepare dinner for themselves and their siblings. It also helped those who needed to catch taxis or buses home not to miss their transport. This saved time for the participants and me. As pointed out by Bell (2004) that interviews are time consuming, as they require careful preparation, much patience and considerable practice if the eventual reward is to be a worthwhile catch. I provided sandwiches and juice for participants, especially for high school participants, as there is no nutrition programme in their schools. I felt that it would be unfair to expect children to concentrate while they are hungry. This helped a lot especially when interviews were held during break time.
The interview process consisted of two sessions except for two participants whereby I needed a third follow-up session to clarify some issues. The third follow-up session took approximately fifteen minutes. In the first session, which took about forty-five minutes, I introduced myself to the participants, and clarified the purpose of the study.
The demographical details were discussed during the pre-interview session referred to in (section 3.5.3).
The second session consisted of the actual interviews, which took approximately one hour, per participant. The interview process involved face-to-face interviews with all fifteen participants. All interviews were conducted in Zulu and were recorded in English. In order to avoid misunderstandings and distortion of information due to language, I met with two participants to clarify some sections of the study where there were uncertainties. Interviews were used to get the participants' views of their lived experiences. At the beginning it was not easy to get the full participation of the participants. The study focused on children who were orphaned and were heading households, but not necessarily those orphaned due to HIV and AIDS related deaths.
However, some children disclosed that their parents died of HIV and AIDS complications. Initially some of the participants were reserved during the interviews,
and ambivalent about sharing experiences especially those whose parents disclosed their HIV status before they passed on.
More time was needed to establish rapport and a sense of safety and comfort before they could open up. The use of the tape recorder made things even worse and most participants were reluctant to open up fully when knowing that the interviews were recorded. Only three participants agreed to the use of a tape recorder. Because of the overall discomfort, I decided not to use the tape recorder. I took notes during and after each interview and copies were made and stored safely for data analysis. Each interview lasted approximately 60-75 minutes.
According to Bell (2004), a major advantage of the interview is its adaptability.
Interviews provided opportunities to probe responses and investigate motives and feelings, which a questionnaire alone can never do. During the interviews, I was able to observe the way the response was made, for example, the participant's tone of voice, facial expression, hesitations, anger, sadness, hopelessness and helplessness.