MacMillan & Schumacher (2006) state that “since educational research deals with human beings, it is necessary to understand the ethical and legal responsibly of conducting research”.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal requires that researchers submit recommendations for ethical clearance. Ethical clearance was conceded to me subject to an arrangement of conditions which I needed to conform to before setting off to the field (see Appendix B) for points of interest on the moral leeway allowed for this study). One of the moral issues to address was to ensure that I followed proper procedures for gaining access to the schools, and that all participants in my study gave informed consent to participate in the study (see Appendix C). Further, I asked for participants‟ parental consent to work with their children (see Appendix D).
135 I then went to request permission to conduct my research in the schools. The principle was that such schools should be a primary school, operating from Grade 1 to 7 and have girls and boys that were willing to participate in my study. In selecting the two primary schools and research participants I used convenience sampling as the two schools I used were not far from my residence and I thought were likely to yield rich information for the questions under study (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007). I first spoke to the principals of the schools, and after they had signed a letter of informed consent (see Appendix A) I arranged with them when I could have chance to request permission from parents and girls and boys in Grade 7. In both schools I was given the opportunity to present the aims of my research to all Grade 7 learners and parents in a meeting. In these meetings I indicated to the parents what I would expect from them and from the girls and boys, and how I thought my research would benefit them. I also told girls and boys that they were allowed to choose not to take an interest in the study or could withdraw later if they wish, reassuring them that this would not affect them in any negative way.
I wanted to address educators about the aims of my study because I could notice they were concerned to see me coming to their school every day. To make it worse, some of them knew me. However, both principals decided that they will address them on my behalf during their staff briefing meetings since they were busy with assessments. I requested parents to allow their children to participate in my research by signing letters of informed consent. For this I had to wait for parents‟ meetings to be held in the schools. Most parents signed letters of informed consent indicating their willingness to participate and allowing their children to participate in my research. Children whose parents did not sign letters of informed consent did not participate in the study. The principals also introduced me to the School Governing Body (SGB) members who
136 also consented that I may conduct research in the schools. I went an extra mile in also requesting children themselves to participate in my research indicating that they might decide to withdraw if they decide to do so, regardless of whether their parents or teachers still wanted them to participate.
In this way I was illustrating that I accept children as responsible human beings who can make their own decisions. I also wanted to rest assured that children were not coerced by parental authority to participate in the study. This only referred to those whose parents allowed them to participate in the first place, not the ones who would not have taken part from the beginning.
Once I had procured informed consent of willingness to take part in the study from all the participants, I began full scale data collection and production. But I was afraid to emphasize that even the whole school may decide to withdraw from my research later, as I only had that time to do data collection. I feared that would have huge time implications for the entire research project especially knowing that I was only granted two weeks‟ study leave, however I knew that giving girls and boys cameras would excite them and motivate them to actively participate. The following schools participated in the study:
• uZalo Primary school
• Isibaya Primary School
I made it clear to all the participants that interest in the exploration was wilful and they were allowed to pull back whenever in the event that they had to pull out (Cohen, Manion, and Morrison, 2007). After taking time clarifying the whole research, girls and boys were clear about
137 the contents of my study. The parents of the participants and the principals of the two schools signed consents letters granting me permission to work with participants a week before the study started. Pseudonyms were used as a part of the study to secure the secrecy and namelessness of the schools as well as the girls and boys in the study (Cresswell, 2007). Girls and boys were given chance to pick pseudonyms were utilized as a part of this study. They (girls and boys) felt extremely unique about picking pseudonyms on their own. That increased more certainty and arranged to consider each task that needs to be done important.
Interviews were voice recorded and each participant had an opportunity to listen to the audio tape before it was translated into English. Transcripts were also given to girls and boys to validate that all the information was not tampered with.
4.11 ANALYSING INTERVIEW NARRATIVES, DOCUMENTS, PHOTOVOICE AND