INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
This section describes the foundation that supports the methodologies and creative climate investigations employed in this study.
Leedy & Ormrod (2001) define research design as a design that is the complete strategy of attack on the central research problem. It provides the overall structure for the procedures that the researcher follows; the data that the researcher collects; and the data analyses that the researcher conducts. Simply put, research design is planning. To demonstrate this planning the following figure demonstrates the strategic framework employed in this dissertation.
Figure 3.1: Basic format of the research design adopted in this study
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Sampling
*Purposive Data Collection
* Interviews
*Observations
* Analysis of documents Data J Analysis
Familiarization
* Themes
* Interpretation
Each facet of the research design will be discussed in the following subsections.
Constructivism and the nature of perceptions
The dissertation is underpinned by the constructivist learning theory, applied both to learning theory and to epistemology. Constructivism states that we organise the world around us perceptually, visually, intellectually, and with respect to behaviour from what is available to our senses and experience - that this is not a learned process from an outside source or other form of input, that we gather information via perception and assemble it in human terms because of our internal structure (neutral), which does not vary much from one individual to another (Bray 1999).
Since perceptions describe this study, in understanding the climate for creativity, the notion of constructivism is at the heart of this design. The relationship between the employees and the workplace is acknowledged and interacts with each other to shape the environment.
Therefore, any meanings or realities constructed in this environment depend on self-made constructs. Employees' perceptions of the climate for creativity at Thekwini FET College may be distorted or unerred depending on the nature of these constructs.
Constructivism within the workplace-learning context positions managers and non-managers as people who do not learn in isolation from the rest of their lives: these people learn in relationship to what else they know, what they believe, their prejudices and their fears. The social view of constructivism, exemplified by Vygotsky, posits that knowledge is co- constructed through social and cultural contexts,rendering reality non-objective. Knowledge socially constructed as reality is created during physical and social activity (Gibson &
McKay 2000). On reflection, research on the manner in which people learn in the workplace becomes clear that this point is actually a corollary of the idea that learning is active and social. Learning cannot be separated from people's lives. Billet (1993) indicates that although learning is a matter of personal and unique interpretation, it takes place within the social context. In addition, learning must be useful to the learner; intrinsic motivation emerges from the desire to understand, to construct meaning.
Research on how people learn in the workplace demonstrates that what is taking place is constructivist (Kerka 1997). Therefore, Billett (1993) argues that research findings support the value of contextualised learning that provides opportunities for knowledge acquisition and construction, practice and reinforcement, in "natural settings" such as the workplace.
Phenomenology
According to Rubin & Babbie (1993), the more philosophical term phenomenology is often used to emphasize a focus on people's subjective experiences and interpretations of the world. In particular, phenomenology has become a way of researching the gaps in the discipline, those areas that previously were not considered important to research because they had little to do with the public and the patriarchal world of geography (Campbell n.d.). Often we are surrounded by many phenomena such as events, situations, experiences and concepts of which we are aware but do not fully understand. Phenomenological research emerges with the recognition that there is a gap in our understanding of any lived experience and as a human response that awareness or clarification will be of benefit.
A major approach to this research study is phenomenology, which is a descriptive study of how individuals perceive and experience the creative climate (phenomenon) in the workplace. Leedy & Ormrod (2001) indicate that a descriptive study is often a very 'busy' research method: The researcher must decide on the population; choose a sampling technique; minimise the entrance of bias into the study; develop a valid means of collecting
the desired information; and then actually collect, record, organise, and analyse the data.
Descriptive research is thus a type of research that is primarily concerned with describing the present situation in detail according to the degree of the prevalent nature or conditions. The emphasis is on describing rather than on judging or interpreting (Landman 1988). The type of research engaged in this context does not necessarily provide definitive explanations but it does raise awareness and increases insight into ways that knowledge is constructed.
By describing the climate for creativity the researcher was able to look at learning styles and attitudes in the workplace and the recurring patterns of behaviour that interact with other variables such as organisational stimulants and obstacles.
3.3 RESEARCH PARADIGM