67 Question one is designed to gauge perceived economic status as a subjective experience.
Question two indicates both economic status (ability of family/student to purchase phone) and social status of student in school (cell phones are a new, highly visible status symbols among adolescents). Question three is a measure of family socio-economic status used extensively in SES measurement tools.
A number of control questions were included in the background information section of the questionnaire based on possible influences on attachment identified in the literature:
1) Age – may influence uncommonly young or old students.
2) Gender – may show differences in the school climate aspects which have greatest influence on satisfaction levels.
3) Academic performance – may have influence in schools where academic performance is disproportionately valued.
4) Participation in extra-murals – representing the school in an activity and having talents/interests catered for may influence attachment.
5) Prior attendance of family members – “legacy” students may feel greater attachment.
6) Leadership positions – students with added responsibility may feel greater attachment.
7) Friends in school – having a majority of friends from other schools may affect attachment.
The effects of some of these variables are explored in chapter 5.
4.6 Limitations
68 dimension of diversity. This is regrettable given the growing body of research related to gender in the school environment and an expanding recognition of the vital part women play in both academic and social development.
4.6.3 Academic climate aspects
The decision to test the model presented by Cemalcilar resulted in the exclusion of academic aspects of the school climate.
4.6.4 Open-ended questions
As mentioned in 4.3, the initial research design intended the inclusion of six schools and an anticipated number of respondents over five hundred. In consultation with the research supervisor it was thus determined that the inclusion of open-ended questions would stretch the analysis beyond manageable levels. Open-ended questions would have certainly provided a rich source of data and enabled deeper understanding of the learners’ sentiments. This collection approach is recommended for further studies of similar design.
4.6.5 Respondents
The ethical restraint regarding the need for guardian consent may have biased the results.
Experience with high-school learners shows that certain kinds of learners are unlikely to fulfil the requirements for participation in the study. That is, learners who might be classed as
“irresponsible” or “uncooperative” are less likely to have the consent form signed and returned and thus would not be eligible to participate. The participating schools were unwilling to make the return of the consent form compulsory and the researcher was unable to provide any incentives.
4.6.6 Within-school versus Across-school Diversity
South Africa is undoubtedly a racially and ethnically diverse society; we have citizens of African, European, Asian and mixed decent. Our African citizens stem from dozens of ethnic groups and scores of clans. South Africa has 12 official languages and dozens more are spoken. Culturally, we are a rich nation. However, South Africa’s human diversity is not always represented in its social institutions, schools included. The demographic profiles of our schools seldom reflect the demographic profile of the nation. The reasons for this phenomenon are multiple and a full treatment is beyond the scope of the current study. It must be noted, however, that due to geographic distribution, population ratios, factors of
69 tradition, the legacy of racial separation and other realities our public schools generally host relatively homogenous student bodies in terms of population group, language, religion and socio-economic status. In short, while our policies allow for and encourage diversity, we still have “White”, “Black”, “Coloured” and “Indian” schools. Additionally, the option for
schools to charge fees through their Governing Bodies has in part maintained socio-economic division of our schools, a situation made worse by the abundance of private schools to which the wealthier sector of the nation prefer to send their children. These realities make it almost impossible to find schools that show true heterogeneity across any, let alone all, of the four diversity characteristics.
The evident tendency for homogeneity does however strengthen the justification for paying close attention to the effects of minority group status. In this context, minority groups of any nature constitute only a very small portion of the total school population, thereby making them theoretically more vulnerable to feelings of “outsider-ness” and increasing the probability that they will feel less satisfied by the various school climate aspects and, consequently, experience lower levels of sense-of-belonging.
The general need for greater diversification of learner populations in South African schools required to attain demographic profiles more representative of the national demographics, which has impeded the within-school analysis of the effects of diversity has, conversely, strengthened the validity of the across-school analysis. The fact that our schools continue to serve relatively homogenous groups implies that schools in different locations and contexts will differ considerably in terms of the predominant races, ethnicities, religions and socio- economic statuses. The statistical descriptions of the three participating schools and the analysis of diversity effects presented in chapter five illustrate this point.
70 Chapter 5
Results and Discussion
The data analysis was conducted in two stages. Section 5.1 reports and discusses the results for Cemalcilar’s structural model of school climate aspects effects on sense-of-belonging.
The primary aims are to test the model for the new context and identify the relationships between social and structural climate aspects and sense-of-belonging. The discussion of results includes applications of ecological and normative social control theory.
Section 5.2 explores the relationships between learner demographic characteristics, minority group status and diversity and levels of satisfaction with the various school climate aspects and sense-of-belonging. The first part of this analysis is aimed at determining whether the experience of the school environment is significantly dissimilar for learners from different or minority backgrounds. Diversity effects are addressed in part two.