Mapping the study: Some guiding Principles
Part 2 5.8 In the field
5.10 Positioning myself as a researcher
5.9.1.5 Defining and Naming Themes
After generating and reviewing a satisfactory list of themes from the data, I defined and named them in a way they were to be presented as research findings. I also analysed the data within the themes to ensure the internal homogeneity and external heterogeneity of themes. Sarantakos (2005) describes refining themes as selective coding, which denotes the selection of higher-order themes with theoretical saturation and high explanatory power.
Patton (2002), Nieuwenhuis (2007b) and Bartunek and Louis (1996), also argue that the impressions and feelings of the researcher become an important part of the data to be used in an attempt to understand a setting and the people in it. To bracket off my understanding regarding sexuality education from the understandings of the research participants, a description of my position as a researcher is made here. Positionality in research is crucial in influencing how one looks at a phenomenon under study. Patton (1990) describes positionality as a form of self-reflection and self-examination which allows the researchers to gain clarity from their own preconceptions.
Thus, it is important for me to put my assumptions upfront. My first assumption is that different people always seek to influence the conduct of education in the school depending on their world view. As such, I believe the inclusion of sexuality, HIV and AIDS education in the Life Skills education curriculum to be a reflection of certain elitist ideologies that can be explored and theorised. Secondly, different understandings and disagreements about curriculum change render the curriculum a hotly contested space, making it difficult to get the curriculum beyond bureaucracy into practice. Lastly, for any proposed change to take root the interested parties should have a sense of ownership of the change; and the proposed change should take into account the context in which the change is supposed to be effected. The same applies to the curriculum change in sexuality education.
The duty of the public school is to teach children about their sexuality and how their choices can be implicated in their sexual well-being. Thus, the school is a vital space for the society to prepare children to make informed sexual choices and to live in harmony with people of different sexual orientations. Understanding human sexuality does not mean acceptance, endorsement or support of any unwanted practices. It does not mean promotion of promiscuity or perverted sexual practices. It means respect for others and an open mind (Weeks, 2003).
As mentioned in the preface, I am a Mosotho woman science teacher interested in the teaching of sexuality education in Lesotho schools. I have taught biology in Lesotho high
schools for twelve years and the biology syllabus requires that students be taught about the mechanics of sex and reproduction. This has over the years proven to be a big challenge for teachers. During the in-service training workshops that I have facilitated for Basotho biology teachers through the office of Science Inspectorate Lesotho16, the topic of sex and reproduction was always one of the topics in which teachers needed assistance in handling. Despite several workshops equipping teachers with the content and pedagogical skills of facilitating sex education, there was always a problem with the topic.
The teaching of sexuality education, which according to my personal understanding encompasses the social aspects of sex, has proven more of a challenge because it demands a more engaged approach dealing with relationships, sexual orientations, desire and pleasure. My work as a novice teacher educator has also shown that teachers are having problems with the teaching of sexuality education in other countries. While I believe in open sex talk in schools and communities, I am also a member of a society in which sex talk is still taboo. Thus I am very much aware of the influence of social constructions of sexuality in relation to masculinities and femininities on the teaching of sexuality education.
While I had an idea of the challenges of placing the self at the centre of inquiry, I was not prepared for the questions and the discomfort that sharing my story produced within the group. I found it unsettling when the participants were more interested in my experiences of having been a married woman and my divorce. It was even more problematic trying to answer their questions regarding my sex life during and after the marriage, which obviously did not relate to the research but which interested them all the same. I did my best to answer their questions because I needed them to also feel comfortable sharing
16The Inspectorate office holds in-service training workshops for teachers twice a year during school vacation. In these workshops, teachers are equipped with content and pedagogical skills as necessary.
Resource persons from different educational institutions are used in such training sessions. I was trained as an in-service trainer for Biology teachers in Kenya in 2004 at a training programme organized by SMASSE (Strengthening Mathematics and Science in Secondary Education), funded by JICA (Japanese International Cooperation Agency).
their stories with me. However I was not prepared for reliving my marriage and the trauma I went through.
The questions that I was asked by the women teachers forced me to relive some of the experiences which I had locked away in some dark room in my mind. I knew that I had to answer their questions because with each answer I gave they seemed to get encouraged to speak more about their own lives. The experiences were so vivid in my mind that it felt as if they were happening as I was relating them. I had never gone into any depth about my marriage experiences with any other person except a professional counsellor. Talking to these women teachers, other ordinary women like me trying to make their marriages work, made me feel saddened that they were not happily married women. At the same time I felt empowered that I had had the courage to get out of a dysfunctional marriage while they still felt bound to their marriages by factors such as culture and religion.
The women teachers also had to relive some traumatic experiences which surfaced when we discussed their drawings of how they saw themselves as women. There was evidence of suppressed anger and frustration in some of the women. I did my best not to break down in front of the women as they told their stories because so that my vulnerability could not be exposed. I controlled my tears even though I felt I would burst. However, as I went to bed at night I could not control the emotions anymore. I cried myself to sleep feeling the pain that was reflected in the women‟s stories. It was more painful for me because I had been through it all and could relate to their pain. Sears (1992, p. 155) observes that “as we peer into the eyes of the other, we embark on a journey of the self:
exploring our fears, celebrating our voices, challenging our assumptions, reconstructing our pasts.” This has been true for me and my participants in this study. Looking into each other‟s eyes and listening to each story we explored our fears.
I kept wondering how the women would cope after the data production stage was over. I had created a platform for them to reflect on their woman and teacher selves in a way that had transformed their thought processes, and thus I felt responsible that I had made them become more aware of the oppressive conditions in which they lived without providing
any solution for them. While I subscribe to the concept of research for social change (Schratz & Walker, 1995), my experience with the women teachers in this study made me more aware that change could be negative or positive. My hope and intention was for the women teachers to be able to change their personal and professional situations for the better. But then how do I guarantee that the change does become positive, how do I guarantee that whatever decisions they take in relation to their lives do not become harmful to them? This is one of the risks I have had to face in researching a sensitive and taboo subject such as sexuality, which I am still not sure how to work through.
On the other hand, Rager (2005) suggests self-care tips that researchers can use when dealing with emotionally taxing research, which I used. I recorded my emotions during the research in a journal and used peer debriefing to dispel anxieties that came up during the field work. I found myself relying on discussions with colleagues during cohort university research seminars and talked about how being involved in the research had affected my personal and professional lives.
Looking back on the journey we took, I do not regret conducting my study the way I did.
It was an experience that changed my life as well as my participants‟ lives. Schratz and Walker (1995, p. 137) succinctly sum up my feelings by stating that “we cannot understand who we are except through social action, and we cannot engage in such action without inviting change. None of us is an island entire.” Clandinin and Connelly (2000, p.
85) have also observed that “enhancing personal and social growth is one of the purposes of narrative inquiry.” Thus I am less fearful of my sexuality and am much stronger today because of my interactions with the participants.