Creswell (2007) contends that, in the choice of qualitative research, the researcher makes paradigmatic assumptions. He further states that these assumptions involve a stance towards the nature of reality, which is ontology, how the researcher knows what she knows, which is epistemology, the role of values in the research, which is axiology, the writing needs to be personal and informal which is rhetorical assumptions, and the methods used in the process, which is the methodology. A research paradigm or world view is a basic set of beliefs that guides research action and is a general orientation about the world and the nature of the research that a researcher holds (Creswell, 2009). The researcher’s beliefs influence the researcher in choosing the methodology.
Similarly, De Vos (2005) asserts that paradigms are a way of viewing one’s own research material and that they are systems of interrelated ontological, epistemological, and methodological assumptions. In addition, paradigms act as perspectives that provide a rationale for research and commit the researcher to particular methods of data generation, observation, and interpretation (Durrheim, 2006). In addition, Creswell (2007) identifies four different paradigms that one could use when doing research and these are: post-positivism, social constructivism/Interpretivism, participatory/advocacy and pragmatism. From amongst the four research paradigms, the interpretive has been chosen for this study. Creswell (2007) further maintains that researchers are bound to position themselves in research since they themselves hold a certain axiological perspective regarding the subject under investigation. This study was
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then founded on the interpretivist paradigm. As has been earlier mentioned, Creswell (2007) puts forward five philosophical assumptions that researchers foreground in their studies, and these are: ontological, epistemological, axiological, rhetorical and methodological assumptions. These are addressed in turn.
4.2.1 Ontological assumptions
As this study was imbedded in the interpretivist approach, its ontological assumption is that the researchers are in the continuous quest for understanding multiple realities. McMillan and Schumacher (2010) maintain that interpretivist researchers use systemic procedures but maintain that there are multiple realities that are socially constructed. Meanwhile, Creswell (2007) argues that interpretive positions provide a broad or wide lens or perspective on all aspects of a qualitative research project. Researchers have a sizeable number of participants, whose interpretations of their contextual experiences may somehow vary. The ontological perspectives of the participants about their context emerge as the researcher engages with the generated data. Meanwhile, the epistemological quest is to understand participants through enabling them to share their stories and hear their voices, thus revealing their ontological perspectives. There is a desire to know the context in which the participants address the phenomenon focused on by the researcher. This propels the researcher to collect data generated by talking directly to the people and seeing them behave and act within their context.
The foregoing assertion is a major characteristic of qualitative research, and occurs in natural settings, where the researcher has face-to-face interaction over time with the participants. It is through this engagement that the reality as understood by unique individuals, surfaces, hence the multiple realities emerge. With these epistemological assumptions, the researcher makes the interpretation of what the participants have shared in those interviews or other forms of data collection. Creswell (2007) argues that the use of themes and quotations in the qualitative study affirms the ontological perspectives that individuals in the same entity hold. The perspective on ontological assumptions empowers individuals to share their stories and hear their voices. It aims to minimise the power relations that often exists between a researcher and the participants in a study. In this study, both post level 1 teachers and school principals gave their varied perspective on the interpretation of their contexts. Though they operated in the same context, their ontological comprehension and interpretation differed. In reporting the findings, their
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most telling statements in relation to the study were used as quotations, to emphasise distinctions and similarities in viewing their context.
4.2.2 Epistemological assumptions
The researcher conducts the research with the view to get as close as possible to the participants being studied. The longer the researcher spends time with the participants the more they know what they know from the first-hand information (Creswell, 2007). The researcher uses various methods to solicit data from the participants, and it is a significant requirement that a good rapport is negotiated from the onset, for participants to willingly share their experiences with the researcher. Creswell (2007) contends that researchers gain access to generated data where the participants live and work. The data was obtained from both post level 1 teachers and school principals. They shared their experiences and perceptions as they made meaning of their context. As a researcher, I had to negotiate the venue and time for the interviews and time for the generation of data. I also pleaded for the access to the documents that the principals had at school that corroborated the data provided.
Axiological assumptions require that the researcher acknowledges that research is value-laden and that biases are present (Creswell, 2007). The researcher enters into research holding certain values that may interfere with the research findings, therefore, it is significant that the researcher reveals that in the study (Creswell, 2007; McMillan & Schumacher, 2010). In a nutshell, researchers need to disclose where they have positioned themselves in the study. Every study conducted has to contribute to the already existing knowledge. Therefore, this study is not unique and is not unrelated to the previous studies. As Yin (2014) posits, to strengthen the value of this study, the views of the participants that seem to be in agreement with each other should be used as quotations to corroborate each other. I made the interpretations of the quotations in my attempt to represent the participants’ voices. Employing various data generation methods assists the researcher in understanding different behavioural patterns of the school principals. Yin (2014) claims that the use of multiple sources of data generation addresses various behavioural patterns of the case being studied. Semi-structured interviews, as the main method, and documentary reviews, as a subsidiary method for triangulation purposes, have been chosen for this study. Therefore, this study uses a multiple case study to solicit various views participants who function from varied levels of operation within the same organisation.
65 4.2.3 Rhetorical assumptions
Creswell (2007) posits that qualitative researchers tend to embrace the rhetorical assumption that writing needs to be personal and literary in form. Instead of quantitative terms such as internal validity, external validity, objectivity, etc., qualitative researchers choose to use terms such as credibility, transferability, confirmability, and dependability. Creswell (2007) further contends that the language of the qualitative researcher becomes personal, literary and based on definitions that evolve during a study, rather than being defined by the researcher. The study of this nature must be possible to be conducted in other field of study and should produce similar results. Again, if another study can be conducted in this field it has to be able to yield the same results. Most importantly, in qualitative studies, the use of terms such as respondent is not encouraged but “participant” is. The findings of the study need to be relevant to the case studied and also be representative of the phenomenon under study. For this study to conform to the forgoing assertion, principals and educators from township schools were identified as the participants, so that they share their lived township contexts. Moreover, this study referred to principals and educators as the participants, to conform to the conventions of qualitative research. This study sets out evidence that it would produce similar outcomes when conducted in a similar context, due to the nature of challenges that are manifesting themselves in township schools in particular.
4.2.4 Methodological assumptions
Creswell (2007) contends that the procedures of qualitative research are characterised as inductive, emerging, and shaped by the researcher’s experience in generating and analysing data. In clarifying the foregoing argument, Creswell (2007) points out that sometimes the research questions change in the middle of the study to reflect better the types of questions needed to understand the research problems.
This study used the interpretivist worldview. Interpretivism holds to the assumption that individuals seek understanding of the world in which they live and work. Individuals develop subjective meanings of their experiences and their meanings in relation to certain objects or things. This worldview propounds an ontological assumption that meanings are varied and multiple, leading the researcher to look for the complexity of views rather than narrowing meanings into a few categories or ideas (Creswell, 2009). Furthermore, Creswell (2009) contends that the goal of the research is to rely as much as possible on the participants’ views
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of the situation being studied. In the case of this study, the ethical leadership of school principals, in contexts with multiple challenges, was explored. It was the school principals who clearly understood the various challenges they faced which impacted somehow on their execution of the leadership roles. To elicit the challenges principals faced, principals themselves were the most directly affected people, hence they were best to explain their challenges and their responses to those challenges in the execution of their duties. Creswell (2009) asserts that interpretivist researchers often address the process of interaction amongst individuals, and they focus on the specific contexts in which people live and work. Furthermore, Creswell (2009) points outs that the researcher’s intent is to make sense of the meanings others have about the world.
In addition, interpretivist researchers often address the process of interaction among individuals, and they focus on the specific contexts in which people live and work, in order to understand the historical and cultural setting of the participants (Creswell, 2007). Moreover, Creswell (2007), as alluded earlier to, asserts that the researcher’s aim is to establish the sense or interpret the meanings others have about the world. Maree and van der Westhuizen (2007) assert that research is about understanding the world, and that understanding is informed by how you view the world, what you view understanding to be and what you see as the purpose of understanding. These lenses of seeing or viewing the world are labelled as epistemology, ontology and axiology respectively. Ontology describes how one sees the reality while epistemology is viewed as how one thinks social phenomenon should be studied (Strydom &
Delport, 2005). Creswell (2007) also asserts that axiology is about the role of values in a research. Similarly, axiology is about the values and beliefs that we hold (Cohen, Manion &
Morrison, 2011). Likewise, Creswell (2007) posits that all researchers bring values to a study, but qualitative researchers like to make those values explicit. In qualitative research, researchers admit the value-laden nature of the study and actively report their values and biases as well as the value-laden nature of information gathered from the field.
Similarly, Creswell (2007) points out that, with epistemology in this paradigm, the researcher tries to get closer to participants being studied. The intention is to find out what they understand to be the truth. Denzin and Lincoln (1984), and Creswell (2007) describe ontological assumptions as related to the nature of the reality and its characteristics. Further, Creswell (2007) asserts that, as the researcher, one engages in the navigation of the truth and embraces the idea of multiple truths or realities. The ontological assumption in this paradigm sees reality
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as subjective and multiple, according to various authors (Denzin & Lincoln, 1984; Creswell, 2007). The majority of researchers in this paradigm define research as value laden and recognise the possibility that it contains biases. The philosophical assumptions related to ontology, epistemology and axiology are central issues when choosing qualitative research (Creswell, 2007). The foregoing view corroborates that of Denzin and Lincoln (2000), who state that all research is interpretive and is guided by a set of beliefs and feelings about the world and how it should be understood and studied. Creswell (2009) contends that interpretive qualitative research is a form of interpretive inquiry in which researchers make an interpretation of what they see, hear, and understand. Further, he argues that the interpretations that researchers make cannot be separated from their personal backgrounds, history, contexts, and prior understandings. he reiterates that the researcher in this paradigm has the advantage of using various date generating methods to yield high quality and rich data which is representative of the participants’ perspective and can be used for triangulation purposes.