The following sections provide an overview of the research design and methodology employed for this study.
1.12.1 Social constructivist paradigm
This is a qualitative study situated within the social constructivist paradigm. The social constructivist paradigm, according to Creswell (2017), is an interpretive structure that enables individuals to explore their environment, thereby deriving meaning that tallies with their knowledge. Social constructivism originated with Socrates, who proposed that children could only construct and interpret their learning when they worked in collaboration with an educator (Amineh & Asl, 2015). Social constructivism claimed that an individual acquires knowledge and understanding through his or her interactions within society (Gealy, Tinney, Macdonald, & Waters, 2020). The social constructivist paradigm employed in this study contrasted with the positivist paradigm, which attempts to falsify a hypothesis or predict situations, and differed from the critical paradigm, which aims at liberating or emancipating the oppressed. Cohen et al. (2011) and Bertram and Christiansen (2014) defined social constructivists as those who try to understand social behaviour, and how people make meaning of their experiences in the challenging contexts in which they function. They further stated that the social
constructivist paradigm enables the researcher to give meaning to the subjective world of those being researched. In view of this, this study aimed at examining the use of music to teach communication skills to children from birth to four years, and the impact it had on their language development.
My reason for choosing this research paradigm was that it enabled me to gather in- depth information from the ECCE educators on their day-to-day interactions with the children using music as a teaching strategy, and the effect or impact it had on the children’s language development. The study’s qualitative design enabled me to observe and exist in the real world of the participants, and to thereby acquire a deeper understanding of their lived experiences (Denzin & Lincoln, 2009; Myers, 2013). In this study, the ECCE educators and the caregivers were purposefully engaged in order to explore their experiences and their skill in using music to teach communication skills.
1.12.2 Case study
This study was a qualitative case study situated within the social constructivist paradigm. Rule and John (2011, p. 4) explained a case study as a “systematic and in- depth investigation of a particular instance in its context to generate knowledge”.
Nwokedi (2015) concurred, stating that a case study is employed in research to examine a specific situation in depth. The purpose of a case study is to provide a detailed explanation of a case or human experience in its real setting. Babbie (2013) stated that a case study enables in-depth examination of a specific situation that eventually produces an explanatory background, which thereby provides clues to the structure and procedures of the situation.
In case study research, the emphasis is placed on the context of the participants’ ideas and experiences. Rashid, Rashid, Warraich, Sabir and Waseem (2019) mentioned three distinct types of case studies: intrinsic, instrumental, and collective. An intrinsic case study is a study in which the researchers focus on a specific case in detail in order to acquire a deeper understanding of the case, rather than trying to make broad generalisations from the study. An instrumental case study focuses on a particular issue
and examines cases to explore this issue in depth to redraw a generalisation, and researchers choose their cases for the purpose of developing and/or testing a theory. A collective case study is a product of several instrumental case studies and, according to Tracy (2019), it can be used to generalise and construct theories. This study is an intrinsic case study that focuses on a specific group of six ECCE educators from two centres.
1.12.3 Research sampling method
For this study I used purposive sampling to obtain accurate and authentic data. Bertram and Christiansen (2014) explained research sampling as the process of selecting people, events, settings, or behaviours to include in a research study. Knechel (2019) asserted that the purposive sampling method is appropriate for qualitative research as it allows the researcher to choose participants that are convenient to access and yet have relevant information. I therefore purposively selected six ECD/ECCE educators from two ECD urban centres to share their experiences in using music to teach communication. I visited the centres, established cordial relationships with the educators, and briefed them on the purpose of the research. Thereafter, I selected the educators who were interested and who willingly volunteered to participate in the research. Glenton, and Lewin (2019) stated that purposive sampling involves making decisions about people, groups of people, or organisations (such as schools), who have rich information that can be used to answer the research questions. Thus, the reason for employing this sampling method was to purposively examine how these ECCE educators in urban centres were using music to teach the children communication. Furthermore, qualitative case study research focuses on a few cases, since the intention is not to generalise the findings or predict a situation but rather to understand how knowledge and experiences are created. Hence, six ECCE educators were chosen from two centres in an urban settlement. Data generation was conducted between July and December 2019.
1.12.4 Method of data generation
Bertram and Christiansen (2014) and Wahyuni (2012) explained that data generation is a systematic and logical approach employed by a researcher to generate and analyse
data by using specific techniques and tools. Tracy (2019), and Rule and John (2011), who are well-respected qualitative researchers, refer to it as “data collection”; however, I prefer to use the term “data generation”, since the aim is to generate facts from participants through questioning and observation. Nwokedi (2015) mentioned different methods of data generation in qualitative research, which included focus group interviews, reflective activities (such as life histories), observations, interviews, focus group discussions, and visual media. In this study, I confined myself to three methods of data generation commonly used by qualitative researchers: learning environment observation, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews. The educators expressed their views, beliefs, ideas, and experiences as they related to their use of music to teach language and communication skills, and the impact music had on their ECCE children’ language development. The methods of data generation are presented below.
1.12.4.1 Semi-structured interviews
Mannay, Staples, Hallett, Roberts, Rees, Evans, and Andrews (2019) explained that semi-structured interviews enable the participants to talk freely about their experiences, and about their views in relation to the research topic. Brown and Danaher (2019) described semi-structured interviews as an instrument of data generation that is used to discover and extract people’s opinions, feelings, and actions during conversations between the researcher and the participants. The semi-structured interviews enabled the researcher to explore the interviewees’ feelings and opinions about how they use music to teach language and communication skills to ECCE children, and the impact music has on their children’ language development. The questions were structured to be open- ended, to enable the researcher and the participants to discuss and debate their feeling about their experiences. In the semi-structured interview sessions, the synergy allowed for a wide range of information and ideas, and afforded the researcher the opportunity to generate information to enable triangulation. Semi-structured interviews also enabled the researcher to follow up on issues that needed clarification, and therefore several visits were made to the centres for further verification of the ideas presented.
1.12.4.2 Learning environment observations
Observation is a research method that enables researchers to see, witness, and record people’s behaviours, actions, and interactions in a systematic way (Queirós, Faria, &
Almeida, (2017). The method also allows researchers to obtain a detailed description of the social settings of events, in order to situate people’s behaviours within their sociocultural context (Queirós, Faria, & Almeida, (2017). Through learning environment observations, the researcher acquired knowledge about the activities of the educators under study, and about how their children participated in those activities.
In addition, observing the educators during their learning environment teaching and learning activities helped the researcher to verify the authenticity of the ideas provided during the interviews. Data generation through learning environment observation was conducted in the learning environment within outside and inside. The observation was conducted on both the six educators and the children aged three, and four in order to establish the use of music by the educators and the children’s response. Visiting the centres to observe how the educators used different types of music in teaching listening and reading skills to their children constituted an ethnographic method of data generation. The responses of the children and the impact of music on their language development was also observed. The researcher used an observation schedule (see Appendix K) to structure and guide the observation process, and took detailed notes.
Thereafter, these notes were scrutinised and analysed.
1.12.4.3 Document analysis
Document analysis is a method of qualitative research that enables the researcher to examine relevant documents to support and test or challenge the previous information generated. Document analysis is the examination and interpretation of secondary data to gain more meaning and to develop empirical knowledge on the research phenomenon (Bowen, 2009). Including document analysis in this research allowed for triangulation.
The relevant documents — such as lesson notes, daily working notes, the working guide for the term, the NCF (National Curriculum Framework) documents, the children’s music workbooks, and other documents relevant to this research work — were analysed.
1.12.5 Data analysis
The generated data was analysed thematically, using deductive and inductive reasoning, using the approach designed by Miles and Huberman (1994). Data analysis is a framework of approaches that help a researcher to define facts, identify patterns, and provide details on the data generated to get answers to the research questions (Roberts, Dowell, & Nie, 2019). “Thematic analysis is a type of qualitative analysis used to analyse classifications and present themes (patterns) that relate to the data” (Alhojailan, 2012, p. 40). Inductive analysis involves selecting codes and categories based on the data, whereas deductive analysis involves using a theoretical or conceptual framework to structure the study in the analysis of data (Bertram & Christiansen, 2014). Thematic analysis is conducted through the process of coding in six phases to create established, meaningful patterns. These phases are: familiarisation with the data, generating the initial codes, searching for themes among the codes, reviewing the themes, defining and naming the themes, and producing the final report.
Familiarisation with the data entailed reading and re-reading the data generated from the participants’ reflections to ensure it was understood. Generating the initial codes involved identifying recurring patterns in the data set and organising the patterns in relation to the research questions. The data was scrutinised to ensure that only relevant information was used. The researcher then searched for themes among the codes by clearly identifying emerging themes from the data and classifying them into groups.
These themes were then reviewed and critically examined to extract relevant information. The themes were then defining and named according to the conceptual framework (Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory) to confirm the emerging categories.
Finally, the researcher identified the themes that provided relevant information for answering the research questions, and developed them. These became the final themes, and formed the basis for the presentation and discussion of the research findings.