This was a comparative case study, using learners from three tertiary schools to establish issues related to the comprehensibility of the three different print IEC materials used in the research, namely: a poster, pamphlet and magazine. The study also intended to establish the learners’ reactions to and how they generally felt about these materials and communication issues that appeared to enhance or hinder learning from them and the impact of the discussions on learners’ attitudes. It also sought suggestions from learners on how these materials could be
103 improved, so that they would contain accurate health related text and images for targeted audiences.
Jegede (1995: 73) describes research design as “a direction towards testing the hypotheses… a specification of the most adequate operations to be performed in order to address a specific question or to test specific hypotheses in given conditions”. Some people equate a research design to a “plan or strategy” in the research study (Henn et al., 2006 and Gravetter and Forzano, 2009) because it outlines the approach to be employed and goals of the study.
According to Ralise (1997), there are many different research designs and a few are discussed here. These include participatory research design which is used to solve problems through collective efforts. Action research used to generate knowledge in order to reflect on the cause of action or alternative solutions to a problem. Historical research collects information through description and analysis of physical sources and documentary sources. Case study is
undertaken to deeply probe into a particular case or similar sets of cases in order to explain their special features. Survey is concerned with certain patterns of behaviour in the
community that need to be described in order to confirm acceptable explanations of events or provide alternative meaning of events. Experimental research is based on the researcher manipulating certain controlled conditions in order to identify the relationships between particular variables that it is hoped will explain cause and effect relationships.
This study drew on qualitative research through a case study of three forms of print IEC materials and the learner responses to these materials from three different tertiary institutions.
A case study, according to Stake (1995: xi), who adopts an interpretive stance, is ‘the study of the particularity and complexity of a single case, coming to understand its activity within important circumstances’. Some authors refer to a case study design as an in-depth study of a single individual or a small group done for the purpose of obtaining a detailed description of that individual or group’s daily concerns or issues (Gravetter and Forzano, 2009; Henning, Gravett and van Rensburg, 2005).
104 Rule and John (2011: 3-4) argue that a case study may have many definitions, depending on the happening(s) that caused a ‘case’ under study. They indicate that a ‘case’ may refer to at least three different things. For instance, “a case may refer to a particular instance” and because of their singularity and distinctiveness, cases differ in size and scope, depending on the person, thing or action’s condition. A case may therefore be “a circumstance or problem that requires investigation” and can be identified by its characteristics. A case can also refer to
“the body of evidence that supports a conclusion or judgment” where there is tangible
evidence that can be used to “make an argument or present a case for a particular view”. Rule and John (2011) also give four instances where a researcher may choose to use a case study design: 1) to generate an understanding of and insight into a particular instance by providing a thick, rich description of the case and illuminating its relations to its broader context; 2) to explore a general problem or issue within a limited and focused setting; 3) to generate
theoretical insights, either in the form of grounded theory that arises from the case study itself or in developing and testing existing theory with reference to the case and; 4) to highlight other similar cases, thus providing a level of generalization or transferability. In this study the IEC materials that were used for the research can be referred to as the ‘cases’. Then a
comparison was made of the responses towards them from the three different institutions for potential generalization or transferability. They became the cases because they were
investigated in terms of their influence on the learners’ attitudes, as the purpose was to generate understanding and insight into the relationship between these materials and the learners’ responses to them.
Merriam (1998) agrees with Rule and John that a qualitative case study has many faces. It is fastidious, that is, it focuses on a particular situation. It is descriptive, in that it presents a rich, thick description of the phenomenon under study. It is heuristic, because it enlightens the reader’s understanding of the phenomenon under study, and leads to the discovery of new meanings. Furthermore, Merriam (1998) says a case study can be used as a process of studying a case, a unit of study or as a product of an investigation. The case study method is confirmed to be useful in that it provides an in-depth description of a small number (less than 50) of cases (Mouton, cited in Endresen, 2010). The case study method was chosen here
105 because this study used a qualitative research approach with a small number of cases, although a variety of data collection methods and sources (covering three different institutions) was used, where each of the learners had their own institutional context. These made it a comparative case study. This method was also important because it helped to generate an understanding of and an insight into learners’ responses from different geographical zones of Lesotho to the print IEC material’s efficiency and appropriateness in fighting the spread of HIV, which could not have been achieved through other methods.
Nonetheless, the limitation with this method is that there is a danger of distorting information (Bell, 1987), as it is difficult to crosscheck information gathered in all cases. Again, it can sometimes be influenced by the particular sources that are consulted, since at times
respondents may tell researchers what they think they want to hear. Thus, researchers may end up getting completely different results if other methods of research are used for the same questions.