Principal 1 Principal 2 Principal 3 Principal 4 Principal 5 Type of
3.4 SOURCES OF DATA
3.4.2 Interviews
3.4.2.3 The Interviewing process
Before I started each interview, I asked permission from each principal and each teacher to record the interview and I explained the importance of this. They had no objection to my recording them. I started each interview with a statement describing the time, the place, and the person being interviewed. I followed this with a declaration that I was going to keep this anonymous and confidential and that I was using his or her name for the sake of being able to make a follow up, if and when the need arose. I took all the phone numbers of the interviewees and told them that if they needed a clarification on something I would phone.
Before each interview started I would try to help the interviewee to relax by assuring him/her that this was my personal research, which would not be prejudicial to him/her and might possibly make a contribution to the school and the broader education system. I assured each one of them that it would be very important for him/her to be as honest as possible to ensure that the findings were genuine. I would start by mentioning the topic that we were going to discuss and then pose the questions, for example I would say “let’s talk about the IP training, what was your opinion of the
quality of the trainers- would you describe them as good, average, or poor?; what aspects of the IP have become part and parcel of the life of the school?”.
I had already included some follow-up questions in the interview schedule but as the interview proceeded I also had to do a lot of probing by asking them to justify their responses or explain. I also observed their facial expressions and after the interview I would write notes about their attitude and reception and what had happened in the setting. For example, as we were busy with the interview with P4, break started and we were inundated with noise. This incident was written as part of the field notes.
Interviewing was done according to Glaser & Strauss’ (1967) technique called constant comparison (cited from Base & Blasé, 1999). The constant comparison method is the process of moving back and forth between data collection and analysis with data analysis driving later data collection (Leedy & Ormrod, 2005; McMillan &
Schumacher, 2001).
As I collected data from the interviews, I discovered issues and questions as well as challenges some of which created a need for further interviewing and observing. For example, K11, an HOD, seemed to be one of the most responsible teachers, attending most of the IP workshops on behalf of the school. She was the only teacher who differed from all the others about the relationship with the principal. She openly described her as dictatorial, emphasising that change depended much on the character of the principal. She suddenly started crying, explaining that she had been trained at the IP workshop for the intermediate phase but was simply moved to the senior phase without any explanation by her principal. She alleged that the change of class made her feel that she could not use her knowledge effectively. This episode prompted me to observe closely the way the principal related to her teachers and helped me to notice things that I would not have if this episode had not taken place. I myself experienced difficulties while conducting interviews with her (the principal). In one case when I was interviewing this principal (P4) in a car, she simply opened the car window and shouted at a man who was walking in the school premises and told him to go to the staffroom. I needed a lot of patience to handle this rude interruption as I felt that the man had not even seen her and could have found the staffroom anyway. I felt that she did not show any respect and patience for what I was doing. My
observation was that she was creating the impression that I was wasting her time and that she was too busy. This was entered in the field notes. Those interviews that took place at my residence in Southernwood, Mthatha, went smoothly because there was no disturbance and on all occasions it was just the interviewee and I.
One of the major challenges regarding the interview process was language. I noticed that when I let the respondents stick to English when responding to my questions, they struggled to express themselves and I realised that this would limit the detail and depth of the data. When I allowed them to express themselves in their home language, they tended to go on and on. Code switching proved to be time-consuming, as I had to translate the interviews back to English after transcription.
Another challenge was the limited classroom and office space in all the five schools for conducting the interviews. Because of this I conducted the interviews with four of the principals at my home in Southernwood but one principal (P4) refused to be interviewed either at my place or hers alleging that I was violating her privacy. This and most of the interviews with teachers were therefore conducted at the school while others were also conducted at my home. The interviews at the schools were all conducted in my car because there was no other space. This was very uncomfortable because we had to close the car windows to avoid any distraction and noise yet most of the time it was hot. Sometimes when we were still busy with the interview the school break would start without me being aware and I would be flooded with unbearable noise. This made listening to the tape during the transcription very strenuous and time consuming.
The interviews with the members of the SGBs were the last to be conducted. As indicated, accessing members of the SGBs was difficult. With school 3 the principal made the appointment for me with a member of the SGB. On the appointed day I went to collect him from his place and we conducted the interview at the school. This was the only member of the SGB who agreed to be tape-recorded. With all the other SGB members I conducted the interviews at the member’s home. This was usually a much better environment than the school where I had to conduct the interview in my car with principals and teachers some of whom were recalcitrant.