Theoretical framework
3.3 Data Collection
Constructionist analysis makes use of unstructured, open-ended qualitiative materials, where the data is collected in context and with hardly any interference in the natural setting.
What follows is an account of the variety of data collection methods which I employed, and the period of time framing the collection. Holistically, the data was
collected with as little disruption to the natural setting ( the classroom) of the participants, and makes use of first-hand accounts of actual experiences.
3.3.1 Dialogue Journals
In 1999, I incorporated dialogue journals as part of my teaching methodology with a grade 8 class of 45 pupils. ( see 1.1). This was a system of communication between my learners and me, in an attempt for me to understand them better, and to consequently improve my teaching methods and to utilise more appropriate texts in order to assist them with their learning. Dialogue journals have many pedagogical benefits, some of which are outlined overleaf:
• Students can articulate problems they are having with course content and get help
• By exchanging ideas with their teachers, students gain confidence, make sense of difficult material and generate original insight.
• Keeping journals can lead to more productive class discussions
• Journals create teacher-student and student-student interaction beyond the classroom
(Nunan, 1992: 120)
However, keeping the channels of communication open proved quite difficult in practical terms: it was not possible for me to respond to learners' entries on a daily basis, and they often badgered me to respond almost immediately after they had handed in the journals! In an emotional sense, I found it difficult to distance myself from many of the issues affecting them in their personal lives, and many learners expected me to offer substantive advice or used me as a confessional.
Notwithstanding these challenges, the journals impacted positively on my teaching and on the learning of the children. At this stage, I had no idea that I would register for an MA the following year, but intuitively knew that the journals were important and decided to store them temporarily.
After registering for the MA degree in 2000, and deciding on my research area, I retrieved the journals and read them again to get a sense of what the home lives of Coloured adolescents was like, what they thought about, their activities outside school, and their perceptions of school. In this sense, they formed a part of this study with information gleaned from them informing my thinking as I conceptualised the later research.
3.3.2 Negotiation of research relationship
My next step was to obtain permission from the school principal and the learners themselves. Social constructionsts are guided by the principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence and beneficence ( TerreBlanche & Durrheim, 1999: 66) and in this respect, I had to ensure that my informants were aware of the confidential nature of the research, and that they could withdraw from it at any stage, without giving reasons. Because of the sensitive nature of the information, I was aware that the participants could be harmed if they were seen to be divulging information to do with gangs, their homes, or concerning educators (nonmaleficence). I raised this issue with them, and reminded them that they would remain anonymous, but again, that they were free to withdraw at any time(autonomy). Finally, with regard to the issue of beneficence, I was optimistic that much of the research would assist in improving
teaching practice at schools with similar dynamics, and resolved to share my findings with my colleagues.
During class time, I explained the purpose of my research to all 5 classes that I teach, asking the learners to assist me in my studies. I emphasised the confidentiality of the study, reminding them that I needed them to be as open as they could in order to gain an insight into their home and school lives seemed very eager, almost proud that I was including them in the research. I did not mention that I was focussing on the Coloured learner only, since at this stage I was not certain of the extent of my research, and was also apprehensive about the racial exclusion becoming an issue.
3.3.3 Reflective Writing Tasks
• reflections on home and school
• diarised week-end activities
• reflective essay on gangsterism
To begin with, I reviewed all the dialogue journals from the previous year, trying to get a sense of the home lives of the Coloured learners. I summarised the issues presented in the journals (see Appendix 1), and decided to check whether the circumstances had changed since 1999 by setting two reflective writing tasks. The first of these was an informal writing task for all the grade 9 learners. I asked them to reflect on aspects of their home and school lives that made them better or worse students. The learners did not write their names on the scripts. However, I numbered the scripts according to the class lists, and later extracted the scripts of the Coloured
learners that I identified by checking the numbers against these class lists. I then numbered the scripts of the Coloured learners (numbers 1-17).
The second task was for all the learners (grades 9 and 10) to keep a diary of their week-end activities (see Appendix 2). The aim was to triangulate all the data from the dialogue journals, the reflections of home and school life and their week-end activities, in order to ascertain the type of discursive practices which they participated in, in their primary and secondary discourses. Again, I removed the Coloured learners' diaries, and numbered them (numbers 1 - 36).
3.3.4 Questionnaires
InOctober 2000, before the essay task, I administered a pilot questionnaire to a class of grade 9 pupils. They were chosen for practical reasons - I was able to use one of their periods during the absence of a teacher from school. Once more, I discussed the reasons for the questionnaire with my learners, explaining the purpose of my studies, and asked for permission to use their answers in my research. I used the same system of coding as for the previous exercises, selecting the questionnaires from the Coloured children only (8), and checked for questions that needed rephrasing. Since I was their English teacher, and had been for the past two years, it was easy for me to separate the data along racial lines, since I knew them so well.
Three days later, I administered the questionnaire (see Appendix 3) to the rest of the Coloured learners in the 4 remaining classes, after school hours, since I did not want to include all the learners from the five classes that I teach. I explained to the African
learners that I had already conducted a study on a group of African female learners in grade 10 earlier in the year (as part of another module of the MA course), and that I now intended to do something similar, but focusing on the Coloured learners this time. They appeared to be happy with this explanation. On that day, some of the Coloured learners were absent. I ended up with 40 returned questionnaires. I did not include the pilot study questionnaires in my analysis, since some questions were omitted and others were added.
3.3.5 Essays
After a content analysis of these writing tasks was done, I decided to investigate the media reports on gangsterism amongst the Coloured community, and discovered that between 1995 to 1999, there were 31 reports in The Natal Witness (see Appendix 4).
Gang members were identified by name, as part of a gang that appeared to be notorious in the area. The final reflective writing task extended the discussion on this topic, using one of the newspaper articles as a stimulus and asking for personal reactions to it. The article was dated 26 January 1999, and was headlined : Gangsters give up old ways, turn to God. A photograph was included in the article, revealing the smiling faces of three gang members, holding bibles. (see Appendix 4).
Once more, only the essays of the Coloured learners were kept for the purposes of this study.
3.3.6 Interviews
In November, I conducted semi-structured interviews with SIX groups. In social constructionism, the researcher regards the interview as a window into the subjective views of participants' experiences, and will try to create an open and trusting environment. The fact that I had taught them over the last two years facilitated the interview process, and, I believe, made it easier for them to relate experiences to me.
However, my role was not purely facilitative: in line with constructionist thought, I was also mindful of the fact that whatever meanings were created in the interview, would be the result of a co-construction between the participants and myself. That is, that within the parameters of these interviews, we would negotiate meaning which would possibly not be negotiated had another interviewer or other participants been in that particular context at that particular time.
Using convenience sampling (a selection of accessible participants), as wen as trying to get maximum variation, I chose to have 6 groups: (group 1: Grade 9 (2 girls);
group 2: Grade 10 (1 girl); group 3: Grade 9(2 boys); group 4: grade 9(1 boy); group 5: Grade 9(3 girls); group 6: Grade 9(1 boy), Grade 10(1 boy & 1girl)). I hoped to get a representative sample from grade 9 and grade 10, along the lines of gender and personality, from the more subdued and introverted to the very outspoken learners. I also included learners who gave divergent accounts of the impact of gangsterism on their lives, who came from different family backgrounds, some who did wen at school, and those who had less success. Having taught them for the last 2 or 3 years respectively, and gleaned a lot more about their home lives and personalities from the journals, reflective writing exercises and questionnaires, I had a fair idea of their
abilities to engage In discussion on Issues which I hoped to deal with In the interviews.
Appendix 5 is a list of the issues that I planned to cover during the interviews. I taped the interviews and transcribed them later. They are included as Appendices nos. 6 -
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