4.9. Data gathering
4.9.2. Document reviews
138 et.al. 2006) through interviews, documents and visual data methods. Moreover, trustworthiness, the extent to which the evidence not the instrument is credible and authentic in supporting the argument, speaks to the degree to which the research conclusions are sound (Anderson & Burns, 1989; McNeill, 1990; TerreBlanche, et al., 2006).
Thus, in rightfully executing the above, creation of that degree of formality appropriate for this social interpersonal encounter helps get a ‗glimpse‘ into the ‗lived worlds‘ and ‗everyday conversation‘ of the participants in this case study. It further provides an avenue in how the participants in this case have experienced their classroom practice through the Dunn and Dunn (1978) learning styles approach to teaching.
The following section focuses on documentary reviews as used in this case. The interrogation of documents may be used in conjunction with other forms of data collection to compare how people have explained issues under study (Denscombe, 2007). Thus further to conducting interviews and for the sake of trustworthiness and triangulation, documents as secondary official data are reviewed in this study. Document data can be sourced from a wide range of written texts. These include newspapers, educational journals and magazines, curriculum guides, photographs, written reports, minutes of school meetings, student records and student work, yearbooks, published articles, speeches, personal files and video recordings (Johnson & Christensen, 2012).
More pertinently, document data may include lesson plans, district policies and school mission statements and policies as further examples of value (Boudah, 2011). All of these have been sourced to strengthen this study.
139 so, researchers can gain detailed insights into people‘s lives and the workings of an organisation through the use of documentary data (Gibson & Brown, 2009).
Documents are categorised into routine, regular and special documents, produced in the normal functioning of an institution, as a response to external factors and record of how an organisation responds to or copes with particular change respectively (Gibson & Brown, 2009). In this study three types of documents are consulted in order to establish authenticity and credibility to verbal data and to provide supplementary information in understanding and addressing the topic. In particular the following three types of documents are examined for the purposes of establishing validity and trustworthiness of the data, policy documents, school documents and teaching documents. Interview data are in the main triangulated with document, visual and artifact data of participants‘ experiences of why the Dunn and Dunn (1978) learning styles approach to implementing the NCS/CAPS (2012) was undertaken in this school, how curriculum practice was experienced through the approach and what possible contributions, complexities and contradictions of a learning styles approach to classroom practice may be understood. Analysis of documentary evidence provides insight into written records of decisions and processes undertaken in setting up structures at the school for a learning styles approach to teaching. Furthermore, planning, preparation and presentation of the approach is encapsulated in teaching documents of participants that serve to add to their views and experiences. Curriculum policy documents provide a framework of reference from which expected teaching principles and content emanate.
4.9.2.1. POLICY DOCUMENTS
The use of routine official documents is premised on the notion that analysis enables defining and understanding the official position regarding curriculum requirements for the Intermediate Phase. Here curriculum policy documents as in NCS/CAPS (2012) Intermediate Phase are sourced and framed against classroom practice of teachers. This analysis enables establishing how policy defines and shapes the process of curriculum implementation and classroom delivery through a learning styles approach.
4.9.2.2. SCHOOL DOCUMENTS
School documents comprise school newsletters and magazines, media reports and articles from newspapers, minutes of meetings and other related literature (McMillan &Schumacher, 2001; Henning, 2004). The use of regular school documents help to further answer the research questions (McMillan &Schumacher, 2001;
Henning, 2004). Here they are used to explore and understand teachers‘ experiences around what, how and
140 why the Dunn and Dunn (1978) learning style approach to teaching was used to implement and deliver the Intermediate Phase curriculum at this school.
4.9.2.3. TEACHING DOCUMENTS
Analysis of routine planning and preparation records found in teacher files, preparation, planning and other record books that capture how the approach to curriculum implementation and classroom delivery is planned and experienced are deemed teaching documents. Teacher records - classroom planning, preparation and assessment records, pupils work found in books, relevant to the research questions are significantly analysed as secondary data in this study.
Thus in analysing the data, general questions as to time of production, how long it took to be produced, how that timing relates to other key events, the author, purpose written for, audience, ownership and alterations (Gibson & Brown, 2009) are strategic and relevant to understanding and exploring teachers‘ experiences of learning styles. As a guide, none of the documents used are taken as arbitrary (Henning, 2004). Careful examination are undertaken to determine construction, lay out, standard and routine formulations used in specific forms (Henning, 2004). Having established personal and institutional intentions for their production, confirming their perspective and storage, the source and purpose for their construction, as well as their use and interpretation are part of the analysis process. Questioning omissions from the data, by whom and why, the social circumstances leading to their production as it relates to this research purpose and key question are imperatively conducted as a secondary method in data gathering.
The use of official documents here are premised on the notion that analysis enables defining and understanding the official position regarding curriculum implementation and institutional support within this site as regards delivery of the NCS/CAPS (2012) through a learning styles approach. Analysis enables establishing how policy defines and shapes processes and innovation and is grounded on the notion that they provide a truer indication of original meanings (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003). As these documents are part of the teachers‘ 'natural' situation, the core of their regular classroom practice, the use of these records helps to reconstruct events.
Selectively, therefore, the choice of primary sources of documents for this study is guided from interview data in the main. Drawing from Gibson & Brown (2009) the following questions are used as criteria to extract relevant and authentic data:
141
Are the records or documents complete, genuine, authentic?
Are documents dated and can they be placed on a time scale?
Why were they collected or generated?
Are authors believable / credible?
How relevant is it to research question?
Are they primary/secondary or tertiary sources?
What effects will they have on the credibility of the study?
Identifying and dealing with missing information in the text?
Have data been updated?
How were the original texts collected and filed, by whom and for what purpose?
In this study information is extracted according to the above from the aforementioned documents discussed on the basis of relevance, insight and triangulation with interview data according to the open coded themes identified in this case.
However, of necessity, as a caution, documentary data is not to be accepted at face value. The credibility of their sources is established for validity and authenticity (Denscombe, 2007). The following questions extracted from Denscombe (2007) are used to confirm validity, authenticity and credibility of documentary evidence in this study:
Is it genuine/ the real thing or a fake?
Does it satisfy what it purports to be?
Is it accurate, free from bias and error?
For what purpose was it written?
Who produced it, its status, how long after the event and in what context and climate was it documented?
Does it represent a typical instance of the event it portrays?
Is it complete, edited, and treated in context?
Are words clear and unambiguous? Are there hidden meanings? Are there things left unsaid within hidden inferences between the lines?
142 Advantageously, documents are generally easy and inexpensive to access with vast amount of information available as a method of getting data (Denscombe, 2007). They provide a permanent source of data in a form that is open to scrutiny by others (Denscombe, 2007). However, because they are a source generated for other purposes and not for the aims of the research and thus ‗can owe more to the interpretations of those who produce them than to an objective picture of reality‘ (Denscombe, 2007), evaluation of authority and procedures in respect of their origin is crucial. This is not always easy. Nonetheless, key to this and recognised in this study is building of trust through ensuring ethical soundness of the study and affirming that the sources are used sensitively and with respect (Gibson & Brown, 2009). Thus in this study both personal and institutional intentions for document production, ownership and storage are fully established and ensured.