This section is devoted to describing the ontological framework I used and detailing the qualitative methods of data analysis and interpretation. As I have said I approached this study from a poststructuralist, feminist perspective, and this gave me a powerful framework with which to analyses the data. I constantly sought to understand how power was situated in reward, how power was used to coerce certain behaviours, and how power legitimated acts of violence. I scanned the data for implicit meanings of power, and how it might be hidden, for example in the ways that teachers interacted with the girls and responded to their complaints
6 The phone numbers were sourced from the resource Directory for Pinetown Stakeholders Forum
103
of being harassed by boys. I looked closely at the girls’ reactions and responses as they or their peers spoke of sexual harassment, and this allowed me to see that they were not merely victims of gender violence.
My methods of analysis and approach to the data sets were influenced by a thorough perusal of gender, sexuality and gender violence studies.7 It was very important to me that I did not impose my own presumptions on the data analysis process. I initially attempted to analyse the data on the computer but soon found that hardcopies of the transcripts were much more effective for being able to identify themes. I carried these transcripts with me everywhere and read them again and again until I reached a stage when I could close my eyes and visualise the group discussions and the individual interviews. I used my participant observation field notes constantly, too. By using all my sources of data I found that I was able to arrive at a better understanding of the learners’ perceptions, methods of negotiation, and the nuances of language they engaged in during the interviews.
Analysing the focus group discussions, I paid careful attention to the dynamics in the group as these steered and influenced the conversations. During the fieldwork I had no
preconceived themes. However, during the data analysis stage, I looked for how power manifested in the data sets. This tightened my focus I read through the transcripts and I sought to make the connection between the different data collection methods and to capture something important (Braun and Clark, 2006) that was said or even what might not have been said and why. I was able to critically examine and analyse what was said in the focus group discussion and individual interviews and tie my findings with my observation notes. A pattern began to emerge and these patterns became themes and sub-themes. This flexibility proved advantagous as I was able to link what the girls said and experienced with my observations. My theoretical lens also helped me to stay on a path, thus rather than deriving many or multiple themes, I found that few themes advantaged the analysis and the
presentation of the data sets in a coherent and meaning way. I found that by tightening my focus and keeping my key research questions in mind, I was able to make the connection which included observing the respondents during the focus group discussions and individual
7 For example, Haavind, Magnusson and Hollway, 2014; Maxwell and Aggleton, 2010; Osler et al., 2006;
Renold, 2005; Sanhueza and Lessard, Sommer, 2013; Wamoyi, Wight and Plummer, 2010, and in sub-Saharan Africa, Dahn, 2008; Mojola, 2015; Muhanguzi, 2011; Parkes, 2015; Altinyenlken and Le Mat, 2018, as well as South African literature, including Bhana, 2012; 2016; 2018; Bhana & Pattman, 2011; Ranganathan et al., 2016;
Gevers et al., 2013; and Prinsloo, 2006.
104
interviews, I was very mindful of the theoretical positioning I had chosen to engage in, meaning, that I was watching and listening but I was keenly attuned to how gender, sexuality and power infused their experiences within the school. When I came to analyse the data, clear themes emerged, and at this point I went back to the computer and proceeded to organise my data into working sets. My intent was to establish common themes, patterns, terms, and ideas, and use these to work toward a deeper understanding of the girls’ experiences of gender and sexual violence in Westhills primary. This was a long process and I often sought out the girls to ask them to explain or verify something, or to get a clearer understanding of the isiZulu words and phrases they might have used.
One of the most fascinating focuses for me was interpreting the meanings the girls gave to the construction of gender, sexuality and sexual violence. I listened to the girls’ recorded voices and read the transcripts so often that I felt I had developed a holistic sense of the girls: their beliefs, thoughts, values, experiences, and could envisage them in the context of the
experiences that they described to me. I could ‘see’ and ‘hear’ their anger when they spoke about fights other girls, boys and boyfriends also picture their discomfort in the classroom when the boys picked on them. I proceeded to engaged in a discourse analysis. I looked for the type of language used and the nature of other data, such as the symbolic meaning in the drawings and the use of imagery, especially metaphors in language. When analysing the data transcripts I searched for signs of language that reflected the girls’ ways of making meaning within the discourse. I highlighted and clustered the discourse markers which involved the specific instances of the use of words or phrases that exemplified the discourse and the accompanying metaphors (Henning, 2004). I also sought out contradictions and ambiguities in the girls’ dialogue during the interviews. I then proceeded to identify discursive units of meanings which I then labelled and organised into themes on which I based my argument.
By engaging in discourse analysis, I was able to uncover social layers of meanings and multiple realities of the girls’, all of which was connected to their social location and their social context (Vaus, 2001; Groenewald, 2004; Creswell, 2006; Cohen and Manion, 2010) In order to engage the reader in the girls’ experiences represented in the dialogue, I have written the girls’ responses in the vernacular and natural language of the participant as Creswell (2006) maintains that ethnographers should. This ensured that the dialogue becomes especially vivid, to the both the reader and myself. I have also incorporated the girls’ use of metaphors as these provided strong visual and spatial image of them and further accentuated their agency,
105
Having identified the themes that were dominant in the data, my next step was to engage in discourse analysis. I looked for the type of language the girls had used, searching for signs of language that reflected the girls’ ways of making meaning. I highlighted the use of words or phrases that pointed to or alluded to gender and sexual violence. I also looked for emotions, such as laughter, anger and evasiveness (which I had picked up from the voice notes and recorded next to the data) and the accompanying metaphors that was expressed in isiZulu. I also sought out contradictions and ambiguities in the girls’ dialogue. Drawing on other studies (for example, Vaus, 2001; Groenewald, 2004; Creswell, 2006; Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2010) I then proceeded to identify discursive units of meaning which I organised into themes. In this way, discourse analysis enabled me to uncover layers of meaning, all of which were interconnected to the girls’ social locations and social contexts.
Although I have tidied up excerpts from interviews, as far as possible I have written the girls’
responses in the language that they used in order to help ensure that the dialogue is as vivid as possible. Inevitably I have had to pick and choose the data I present in this thesis, but through the process of data selection I sharpened my focus, I sorted out my data, I discarded repetitive and unwanted data and I organised the data into a meaningful pattern that enabled me to draw verifiable conclusions. Three core themes emerged: 1) sexual violence and sexual
harassment; 2) desire, violence and power in young girls’ heterosexual relationship, and 3) that sexual harassment is prevalent at Westhills Primary School.