3. Narrative Methodology: From Theory to Practice
3.5. Data Production Strategy
99 3.4. Ethical Considerations
I wanted to promise principals that I would protect their “anonymity” if they so desired but I was aware that it may be possible to identify the principals in this study based on my declaration of being a school principal and using purposeful sample of a particular circuit in this study. This was brought to the attention of all the principals. To my surprise, no principal objected to being identified and three of the six principals suggested that I use their real identities in this study. For the sake of uniformity, each principal was invited to choose an alternate name for themselves and for their schools and I have used these alternate names in this study.
I am also of the belief that research has to be of mutual benefit to the researcher and to the research participants. Researchers have an ethical obligation not to leave the research site without enriching it in some way. I knew that each public school was required to display the National Coat of Arms in their schools and I had noticed that no school in the sample had displayed it. I presented a framed copy of the Coat of Arms, individualised with the school’s name, to each of the principals. This was not an incentive for the principals’ participation but a very small token of my deep appreciation to the principals for the enormous trust that they placed in me and for the absolute privilege that they conferred on me by willingly agreeing to construct their personal narratives with me. I also offered each of the participating principals, access to the literature on school management and leadership that I would be using. Finally, I promised to make available the findings of this study to each participating principal.
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whether it is triangulated or not. Using this approach, it was not necessary to interview other stakeholders about the principals’ responses. The principal was the unit of analysis.
Guided by narrative methodologies, I chose semi-structured interviews with the principals as the main data collection instrument with which to construct narratives. The design process of the data production instruments took place at different stages. The first stage of this design is represented in Table 5.
Data collection Instruments
Data source:
Who will produce the data? What data will be produced?
Two sets of semi- structured interviews with each of the six principals in the sample
The “telling” is co-produced by the principals and
researcher (myself). Principals present mediated versions of their own experiences while I mediate my interaction based on the critical question, theoretical framing and my dual positioning as researcher and peer principal.
What principals say about…
- the influences in their lives, especially in the field of education?
- their philosophy of education?
- their practice and experiences of school leadership, especially in the thrust of “equity” and “efficiency”
issues?
“official school documents - EMIS, EC111 (internal pass rate)
Produced for the Department of Education. Based on a formal legislated relationship of hierarchical power. Data is mainly statistical, is verified by the Department and used to determine State resources to schools. This is secondary data.
Data used to contextualise the school. Provides the “official” story of the school.
Questionnaire. Principal answer
questionnaires on their own.
What principals predict their practice will be in several hypothetical scenarios of school leadership issues? What is the rationale provided for the predicted action / practice?
Table 5. Stage 1 of the Design Process of the Data Production Instruments
This was followed by stage 2 of the design process. This stage involved the refinement of the type of questions to be asked during the interviews. Table 6 represents this refinement.
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Broad Framing of Interview Schedule (questions)
What are the questions based on and what are the purposes of such questions?
Data elicitation: Categories of questions What is the purpose of this data (each cluster of questions)?
1.
Bio-details, History.
Personal history of the principal To explore the influences and background of the individual principal?
2.
Views of
desirable education systems.
Thoughts / ideology / beliefs/ views of a desirable education system including issues of educational policies and the role of the principal.
To explore what principals think school leadership should be?
3.
Views on
leadership practice
Views / claims /experiences of leadership practice: (transformational challenges, decision making processes, leadership style, role in governing bodies and in learner leadership issues)
To understand school leadership practices as articulated by the principals.
4.
Views on the context of change, namely policy imperatives relating to desegregation
and standards.
Views / claims on :
Admissions, learner diversity, inclusion and exclusion of learners in curricular and extra- curricular issues.
To understand the effects of the context of change and the implications that this has for leadership practice.
5.
Specific principals / schools.
Effect of personal issues and unique characteristics of schools on leadership practice
To understand the context of the individual principal and the individual school.
Table 6. Stage 2 of the Design Process of the Data Production Instruments
From my sampling choice and the differences expressed in the individual school profiles, it was clear that different questions had to be included to address the specific context of each principal / school. In stage 3, these questions were considered in the instrument design of the interview schedule as represented in Table 7.
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Questions Regarding the Specific Context of each School
Context based on three criteria: Differences in pass rate, desegregation status of schools and the appointment status of principals.
Criteria Questions on … Principal School
Pass rate: History of high
achievement
Recently desegregated
Reason for desegregation, Role of pass rate and reason for high pass rate
T Renton S Mann
Meadow-field Secondary, New Era College Retained
previous race classification
Reason for non-
desegregation, Role of pass rate and reason for high pass rate
B Syed P Ingle
Orbital Secondary , Capell High Pass rate: Recently
improved pass rates
Recently desegregated
Reason for desegregation, Role of pass rate and reason for dramatic improvements, Significance of award
G Thembani R Naidoo
Excel Secondary, Boss Secondary
Appointment status of principal
Acting and
“new”
principals
Does the appointment status or experience of the principal make a difference to the experiences of leadership?
G Thembani S Mann T Renton
Excel Secondary, New Era College, Meadow-field Secondary Experienced
principals
R Naidoo B Syed P Ingle
Boss Secondary, Orbital Secondary, Capell High Table 7. Stage 3 of the Design Process of the Data Production Instruments
The interview schedules were based on broad conceptions of leadership and were intended to cover a wide spectrum of issues relating to leadership. The anticipated time to cover all these elements in an interview was between six to eight hours. This was too long for a single interview. I therefore opted to have two semi-structured interviews with each of the principals with the option of continuing at another time if needed. The first interview was based on a philosophical approach exploring the theoretical orientation of the principal to leadership in general, while the second interview was based on the espoused practices of leadership at each school. Both sets of interviews were “loose- tight” (DuFour & DuFour, 2003) in that they were clear and specific about the issues under discussion, yet they were loose enough to allow the principals to dictate temporal order, to backtrack, to repeat and to ask questions of their own. The actual interview schedules of both interviews are attached as:
Appendix 3.2. Interview schedule 1 Appendix 3.3. Interview schedule 2
103 Additional Data Collection Instruments
The EMIS documents represented comprehensive statistical analysis of individual schools. These statistics were used to profile the school and to verify the information given by the principals. During the interviews, the principals’ responses were based on the context of each principal’s own schools. Would the responses of the principals be different if the school context was hypothetically changed? Do principals’ experiences of leadership depend on the context? I designed and used a questionnaire to be able to answer these questions. This questionnaire is attached as Appendix 3.4. The aim of the questionnaire was to extend the understandings of school leadership of the principals in contexts other than that of their own schools. Table 8 represents the design outline of the questionnaire.
Five hypothetical school contexts were described with each one raising a specific issue of school leadership. Principals were asked to predict what their practices will be in each case and to
provide an explanation for their responses.
Case No.
What leadership issues are raised?
What implication does the principal’s response to this issue have for understanding leadership?
Case 1 Practice of admission of African learners into a school whose pass rate is already dropping
Relation between pass rate and admission of “African”
learners
Case 2 Personal convictions of principals regarding policies that are in conflict with the legal requirements of policy implementation.
Relation between policy formulation and implementation
Case 3 Challenges, if any, of temporary acting positions of principals as compared to permanently appointed principals
Relation between the professional experience of a principal over time and the experiences of leadership
Case 4
Personal convictions that conflict with new expectations of leadership
Relation between personal values of the principal and experiences on leadership
Case 5 Democratic decision making by previously autocratic principals
Relation between the mindset of the principal and legislation relating to democratic principles Table 8. Questionnaire Design
When designing the data collection instruments, I was aware that my data collection strategy, at first glance may seem to be limited. But these instruments were designed to produce rich and finely detailed data representing stories revolving around the complex nature of leadership. My professional connection (as a principal) with these stories
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added another layer of complexity to the data collection process. With this in mind, I was aware from the beginning that my study will focus more on the data analytical strategies. My concern about perceptions of the data set being limited turned out to be unfounded. The detailed analysis of the data from the interviews alone adequately answered the critical question. The EMIS documents provided some valuable data in foregrounding the school which was incorporated in the analysis. However, the extensive, additional data from the questionnaires that I had collected were not needed and I decided not to include this in the analysis.