The study adopted a qualitative research approach that was underpinned by an interpretivist paradigm. According to Best and Khan (1986), if research is to be conducted in a public school, it is essential to acquire permission from the relevant stakeholders, namely the Superintendent General of Education, the school principal and the School Governing Body. For this reason, I wrote a letter (Appendix B) to the current Superintendent General, Cacius Lubisi, for permission to conduct the research in the selected schools under his jurisdiction. His subsequent approval of my request (Appendix L) enabled me to conduct the study in the identified schools. Further, the study participants, particularly the learners, were protected from any possible physical or psychological harm or danger that might arise from the research procedures.
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4.2.1 Ethical considerations
Bertram et al. (2003) argue that the collection of data often gives rise to ethical concerns. It is imperative that respondents’ rights to privacy be protected. Cohen et al. (2007) advise that the relevance of the principle of informed consent becomes apparent at the initial stage of the research project, which I adhered to. Bell (1999) advises that researchers gain permission to conduct a research project early. With fully informed consent gained, participants should be informed of the benefits of the research. The first stage would be to gain official permission to undertake the research in the target community. According to Durrheim and Wessena (2002), these principles of consent include: autonomy; non-malefic (non-harmful); and beneficence (doing well). I wrote letters to all selected participants (Appendices C, D and E) requesting them to participate in the research and received their written approval.
Further, Bertram et al. (2004) advise that the researcher must respect the autonomy of all the people participating in the research. I ensured that information supplied by participants was treated in the strictest confidence. Schools and participants were all allocated given pseudonyms. I explained to participants that their voluntary participation in the study implied their freedom to withdraw at any time. Also, I heeded the advice by Cohen et al. (2000) who suggest that researchers need to reflect an attitude of compassion, respect and gratitude without being too evasive.
When I received the ethical clearance and permission to conduct the research, I visited the selected schools to negotiate the conduction of the research and to select participants. I wrote letters to the selected participants, formally requesting their participation. Firstly letters were written to principals and SGB members of the schools requesting their permission to conduct the research at their schools. Another letter requested their participation in the research. A letter was also written to the learner’s parents requesting their permission for their children to participate in the research. Letters were also written to selected educators, parents and learners for their permission to participate. Provision was made to have letters translated into isiZulu where there was a need. When I received approval from participants, I then undertook the study.
Letters may be found among the appendices (C, D, E, F, G, H and I) at the back of the study.
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The data collection process spanned a period of approximately nine months. However, the initial interview process with parents and learners yielded inadequate responses as respondents seemed intimidated by my presence. This necessitated that I revisit the process. The second attempt enabled me to extract sufficient information that proved to be valuable for the purposes of this study.
4.2.2 Research paradigm
Bertram et al. (2003) allude to three key ways of understanding the nature of the world in research: a positivist approach, an interpretivist approach and a critical approach. In the positivist approach the researcher “…believes that the world is stable and that there are patterns and order that can be discovered in what they are researching. Generally, these researchers use a scientific method of research and they believe that the relationship between things can easily be measured” (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2000, p. 28).
Further, Cohen et.al, (2000) argue that positivists view social reality as external to individuals imposing itself on their consciousness from without. Haralambos (1980) adds to this explanation by stating that behaviour in the social world, according to his view, is governed by laws in the same way as behaviour in the world. Positivists therefore hold the assumption that both man and matter are a part of the natural universe and that the behaviour of both is governed by natural laws. Just as matter reacts to external stimuli, so man reacts to forces external to his being.
Social and natural behaviour are therefore determined and can be explained in terms of cause and effect. School leaders, who subscribe to the positivist view of social reality, would inadvertently support Skinnerian’s stimulus response techniques to manage schools by attempting to condition and manipulate people to achieve some predictable outcomes (Glencoe, 1986). This approach would, however, be in contradiction to the principles of democracy, freedom of choice, participation in decision making and volunteerism which formed the basis of this study.
According to Burrel and Morgan (1979), epistemology is that branch of philosophy which has to do with the nature of knowledge. Positivists view knowledge as hard, real and capable of being transmitted in tangible forms, whereas anti-positivists claim that knowledge is of a softer, more subjective, spiritual or even transcendental kind based on experience and insight of a unique and
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essential nature (Cohen & Manion, 1996). The critical approach/the critical theory/emancipatory theory, however, is not simply to describe or understand the way the world works, but also to change society so that it becomes a more equal and democratic place for everyone (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2000).
This particular study was located within the interpretivist paradigm. According to Terre Blanche and Durrheim (1999, p. 124), interpretive research “…relies on first-hand accounts, tries to describe what it sees in rich detail and presents its ‘findings’ in engaging and sometimes evocative language. This paradigm is used to research peoples’ behaviour, attitude, beliefs, and perceptions. These are things that cannot always be measured. People can think and interpret the world according to their experiences.” Social scientists work within an interpretivist approach, believing that the world is changeable and that it is people who define the meaning of a particular situation. They do not believe that it is possible to discover all the rules and laws of the social world, but that it is possible to understand how people make sense of the context in which they live and work (Bertram, 2004).
Interpretive research methods attempt to describe and interpret people’s feelings and experiences in human terms rather than through quantification and measurement. The interpretive approach is characterized by a particular ontology, epistemology and methodology. Researchers working in this tradition assume that people’s subjective experiences are real and should be taken seriously (ontology), that we can understand others’ experiences by interacting with them and listening to what they tell us (epistemology) and that qualitative research techniques are best suited to this task (methodology) Terre Blanche and Durrheim (1999).
Chetty (2003) argues that one’s view of social reality has a direct impact on how one engages with the world (albeit a school) at large in an effort to improve or develop it. She cites Barrel and Morgan (1979) who identify assumptions that people have about social reality. Two of these have relevance to this study, namely ontology (which focuses on the nature and essence of the social phenomenon) and epistemology (which concerns the very basis of knowledge – its nature and forms, how it can be acquired and how it is communicated to other human beings).
According to Mouton and Marais (1988), the term ontology refers to the study of being or reality. It is concerned with the question what IS.
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Parents have educational aspirations for their children and it is within their rights to participate in drawing up educational objectives rather than to respond to predetermined objectives. When the latter happens, the parents’ input in shaping their own reality is undermined. Parental involvement in enhancing learner achievement cannot be conceptualized without the subjective contribution from all relevant stakeholders. Berger (1987) supports this view and insists that human beings have the right to create their own world. Parent participation in enhancing learner achievement is based on the anti-positive stance believing it is the right of all stakeholders to recognize, create and develop their social reality within the education system.
The interpretive perspective leads to naturalistic research. Naturalistic research is conducted in natural, uncontrived real-world contexts with the researcher not being intrusive (Cohen et al., 2000). This means that social research needs to examine a situation from the view point of the participants. In this research, I used a case study to capture comprehensively the feelings, views, thoughts and emotions about parental involvement in the life of rural primary schools in order to determine whether their involvement enhanced learner achievement.