RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
3.2 Qualitative approach
3.2.1 Practice – led research
The research approach is practice – led or practice – based. Practice - based research derives its meaning from its affiliation with that which people do as they go about their professional businesses. Its principal purpose is to seek to understand the complexities of practice in order that improvement can take place (Sullivan, 2010:42).
Figure 3.5 illustrates Smith and Dean’s model of creative and research processes, which accommodates practice-led research and research-led practice as well as creative work and basic research. The structure of this model integrates a cycle and several sub-cycles (illuminated by the smaller ovoids and larger circle) with a web (the crisscross, branching lines across the circle) built from many points of entry and transition within the cycle. The importance of the model is the concept of iteration that is fundamental to both creative practice and research processes. In a practice phase its choice can be technical or aesthetic; in a research phase it is regarded as a selection created by a theoretical fit or empirical data (Smith & Dean, 2009:19). With reference to Smith and Dean’s model, it helped me to manifestly understand the process of practice-led research. A creative researcher or practitioner can start at the process with a concept or even play with materials to generate ideas. This is followed by the selection of possibilities that could be ideas that are pursued by research or investigation (Smith & Dean, 2009:21). These recommendations will form part of my chosen methodology for this research.
51 Figure 3.5
A model of creative arts and research processes: the iterative cyclic web of practice-led research and research-led practice
(Smith & Dean, 2009:20)
Thurber suggests that “qualitative research methods address questions directed towards a deep-seated comprehension of social phenomena, thereby providing abundant, detailed descriptions of settings and participants in a specific context”
(Thurber, 2004:489). With this in mind, I needed to gain insight into the participants’
worldviews, background and creative practice, as well as their motivation behind continuing with traditional design or techniques. Therefore qualitative methods were selected to collect data for this research study. I also needed to examine the marketing opinions of 60 parent participants (30 in South Africa and 30 in China) with children in the 2-7 year-old age range. This data enabled me to broaden the scope of the research and to add to the body of knowledge. The findings of the in-depth interviews conducted with traditional African textile designers and Chinese folk artists revealed details of each particular cultural background, as reported in Chapter Five.
From the findings concerning cultural background that emerged, a broader understanding of traditional design and technique seen against this background led to the identification of two further aspects of qualitative research: exploratory research and ethnography. According to Rubin and Rubin (1995:19), qualitative interviews can differ in the degree of emphasis on culture. In qualitative interviews, culture could be regarded as a way of making meaning of the world by developing shared understandings. Also, participants and interviewees have the opportunity to learn jointly and to find common ground. They would be able to negotiate around issues of how phenomena should be represented and would find agreement in terms of the interpretation of behaviours in particular situations. Bless and Higson-Smith (1995:42) describes exploratory studies as a tool to investigate a given set of circumstances or an event, a society or an individual.
Burrell and Morgan (1979) analysed social science by referencing the ontological and epistemological tool-kit of the philosopher and developed four paradigms of understanding organisations from a social perspective (see Figure 3.6). These social paradigms produced are radical humanist (change-subjective), radical structuralist (change-objective), interpretive (regulation-subjective) and functionalist (regulation-objective), which define various fundamental perspectives for analysing social phenomena (Burrell & Morgan, 1979:23). In this study, methods are philosophically related with the radical humanist and interpretivist paradigms. For instance, the ethnography being produced from a data-base of semi-structured conversational materials collected during participant observation and ethnographic interviews, and the research described not only the formal processes of presentation but also the personal experiences of participants.
53 Figure 3.6
Four paradigms for the analysis of social theory (Burrell and Morgan, 1979:22)
In the socio-cultural theory of Vygotsky (1978), the mechanism of individual development incorporated the biological (internal) and the social (external) in the process of development. To understand this, Vygotsky suggested the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which is defined as “the distance between the actual level of development as determined through solving a problem independently and the potential developmental level as determined by problem solving under the guidance of adult or with more capable peers collaboration” (Vygotsky, 1978:86). This method is regarded as a more accurate relative indicator of cognitive development than simply measuring what children are able to accomplish alone. For example - imagine that a child is having difficulty with reading a book, but with the help of the parent, who reads the book with interest and teaches the child unstudied words, this same child is able to make progress.
Vygotsky also emphasised the importance of cultural tools in the development of socio-cultural awareness. Mechanisms for creating cultural consciousness include accessibility to traditional activities, books, and computers that teach children about the group’s expectations. Through using the social tools and participating in the cultural events, the children learn the importance of preserving and respecting their culture (Vygotsky, 1978:137). It confirms and supports the objective of my study which is to provide a basic understanding of African textile motifs and Chinese folk
fabric craftwork for children, to cultivate their interest in these traditional cultures and to prevent the further loss of irreplaceable skills that have been handed down through generations.