SELECTING THE VEHICLE FOR THE JOURNEY
4.8 Data Sources
4.7.3 Credibility
In a rapidly changing society such as South Africa, individuals are forced to make sense of competing ideologies, values and beliefs. In my life history research, which spanned six years (1998-2003), there were many changes that occurred in the lives of the respondents. Reinharz (1998) comments that in studies that are especially of long duration, researchers may have to find new ways of doing research; or may discover that the circumstances of people that they are studying have changed. This will require alteration of data collection plans and research methodologies. In this study some of the learners' circumstances had changed.
Thus to track learners and to keep up with the new 'data gathering' and action of the individual behaviour, meant that I had to use other methods to discover their experiences. As a researcher the multi-method approach allowed me to fill in some of the pieces of the jig-saw puzzle in my search for understanding critical women's issues. The multi-methods add new information by using one type of data to validate the other. I was able to increase the credibility of this research by ensuring commitment to thoroughness. In addition to writing their stories the learners were asked to bring along pictures or photographs that they could paste alongside their story to jog their memories or to assist them when words failed. In the next section I discuss the data sources that ensured transferability, credibility and confirmability.
4.8.1 Research Instruments
In this section I map out a work plan on how I used the various instruments, largely in response to the critical question, to define what has been done, why, when and how. My role as an adult educator and researcher meant that I had privileged insider information. According to Lincoln & Guba (1985), for meaningful human research to take place there has to be an authentic relationship between the investigator and the respondents. Only with the full co-operation and understanding of the respondents can the data uncover the truths about themselves. By being their adult educator and researcher, it was easier for me to gain their co-operation. The adult learners were able to communicate spontaneously because we had established a good rapport prior to the interview and this led to an authentic relationship. The researcher must seek to understand human experience and must be prepared to deal with conflict and contradictions.
As their adult educator, I was responsible for their curriculum and preparation for the examinations. This did not mean that as educator I drew up the curriculum independently of the adult learners. In constructing the curriculum the main factor was listening to the needs of the adult learners and attempting to provide a curriculum that could be relevant to meet their needs in real-life world. Although this seems easy as an adult educator I found providing such a curriculum much like doing a trapeze act on a tight rope. I was privy to some of the issues that affected the adult learners and facilitators at the institution.
There are also disadvantages of being an insider researcher. Having worked with them over a long period of time, I became close to the learners and in this way I could have jeopardized the 'objective' space needed between researcher and learners. Being a teacher and researcher meant critiquing my own lessons and this could lend itself to certain biases. However, in this study the main focus is on what sense the adult learners made of the adult English curriculum and how they applied it to their day-to-day lives.
4.8.2 Interviews
The interview and the autobiography were the two main data sources. The other data sources were used to triangulate the information so that trustworthiness could be established. One of the most important aspects of the interview is its flexibility.
As a researcher and adult educator I had the opportunity to observe the adult learners in the total situation in which they responded, i.e. their different environments. Doing the interviews at home meant that I could press for additional information when a response seemed incomplete or not entirely relevant. As a researcher I had time to reflect and process information within the interview situation itself.
I used mainly unstructured and semi-structured interviews because they had greater flexibility and freedom than the structured interview, which is too specific and lacks the freedom to explore deeper. Elliot (1991) adds that the semi- structured interview allows respondents freedom to digress and raise their own issues. The interviewer's main task is to ask questions in such a manner so as to obtain valid responses and to record the responses accurately and completely.
In order to ensure that adult learners' responses were accurately and completely recorded, a tape recorder was used in the interview process. The tape recorder is according to Lincoln & Guba (1985: 271), an unimpeachable data source. It assures completeness, provides an opportunity to review as often as necessary so that full understanding can be achieved. It also provides material reliability checks. Ethics demanded that I obtained permission before any interviewing could be undertaken.
As a researcher and literacy educator, it was difficult for me during the interview process to immediately remove myself and enter a research mode. I therefore had to have a warm-up session before recording. The interviews were conducted in English and this sometimes created a barrier to understanding the questions. The learner's home language is not English; therefore I had to often probe to gather
more information because the questions required elucidation. Although I had a semi-structured interview schedule, it was not always possible to follow it strictly.
All interviews were audio-taped, transcribed and analyzed. In transcription I provided a read as accurately as possible. The learners were not always clear about their ideas and at times it was extremely difficult to note everything that was being transmitted. Neverthless, I attempted to take down almost word-for- word that was tape-recorded. It was difficult to convey emphasis, gestures, and facial expression, which give additional meaning to the spoken word. It was important to note that:
Given that a transcription cannot represent everything featured in the original spoken language, it follows that any transcription is an interpretation by the transcriber of what is being said (Powney & Watts, 1987:153).
It is best to represent the whole interview verbatim as far as possible, including hesitations, pauses, laughs, sighs and so on. The interviews were sequentially developed where I interviewed the learners at the beginning of the ABET teaching programme, during their stay at adult classes and after they completed their ABET literacy programme. The following sections explain the purpose and the focus of the interview.
Interview Schedule One
In the first unstructured interview schedule, the learners were asked about their life history. The first interview schedule was broad to allow the learners to tell their story. It is the subsequent interviews that have more targeted information.
The first interview schedule was completed in 1999.
The purpose of the life history interview was:
• To gather background information on each learner
• To link ABET with their life worlds
• To identify the many roles that the learners play
• To probe how they made sense of the English language at primary school.
Interview Schedule Two
The second in-depth semi-structured interview was conducted after they completed their literacy programmes. All the learners had completed writing an Independent Examination Board examination.
The purpose of interview schedule two was to probe:
• What skills ABET had equipped adult learners for the adult world
• Whether ABET assisted in improving their English lessons
• Whether ABET assisted them as domestic workers
• Whether ABET improved their self-esteem
• Whether ABET 'empowered' learners as females in a gendered society
• Whether physical resources assisted in the teaching-learning situation and
• Whether examinations and portfolio assessments benefited the learners in any way
Interview Schedule Three
This interview was conducted after learners had completed their literacy programmes so that one might establish the impact the English literacy curriculum had on them. The interviews were conducted in the years 2002 to 2003.
The purpose of the interview schedule three was:
• To trace the impact of the English literacy curriculum on four adult female learners (post-literacy)
• Probe whether English literacy empowered them in the community;
family, employment and relationships
• Probe whether ABET fulfilled their desired needs
• Probe whether literacy skills helped them to change their vocation
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• Probe whether any literacy skills had developed
The interview may be used in conjunction with other methods in research. I have used the adult learners' autobiographies as a data source to triangulate information from the interviews.