of experience that becomes the product of research’ Moustakas (1994) in Creswell (2009, p.13) and Fouche (2005, p.270). As Terre-Blanche and Durrheim (1999) observe, it would not be possible to discover and understand how people create meaning in natural settings without the researcher being personally involved.
reason for sampling is therefore feasibility taking into consideration factors such as cost, effort and time’.
Durrheim and Painter (2006) cautioned that sampling depends not only on the availability and willingness to participate, but that cases that are typical of the population are selected. For Strydom and Delport (2002, p.336) ‘the overarching purpose of the use of relevant sampling techniques in qualitative research is to collect the richest data.’ Somekh and Lewin (2005, p. 348) stated that ‘a sample comprises of the individuals who are included in data collection and who are selected from the entire population’. The purposive sampling was employed in this study as it was deemed suitable for the nature of this qualitative inquiry. Maxwell (1997, p.87) observes that ‘in qualitative studies purposive sampling methods mainly involve deliberately chosen individuals, groups or institutions for specific purposes linked to the research questions. They are defined as sampling whereby particular settings, persons or events are deliberately selected for the important information they can provide that cannot be gotten as well from other choices’. According to Neuman (2000, p.517) ‘purposive sampling is a type of non-random sampling in which the researcher uses a wide variety of methods to locate all possible cases of highly specific and difficult to reach population’. Morse (1998, p.73) specified several general criteria for a good informant especially for the interviews. Those who fulfil all the criteria are regarded as primary selection.
These criteria comprise of the following; they should be knowledgeable and have experience for answering the questions about issues being investigated; they should be capable of reflecting and articulating; they should be able to give of their time for the interviews and should be ready to participate in the study’.
Silverman (2001,p.104) points out that ‘in purposive sampling, certain participants are selected because they illustrate some process or feature that is of interest for the particular research, and that purposive sampling narrows down parameters of the population’. Creswell (2003, p.220) states that
‘criteria for the selection of participants need to be clearly identified and formulated’. Ritchie and Lewis (2003) further observe that purposive sampling has two principal aims: firstly, to ‘ensure that
all the key constituencies of relevance to the subject are covered and secondly, to ensure that within each of the key criteria, some diversity is included so that the impact of the characteristic concerned can be explored. ‘Purposive sampling is usually used when the research is focused on a selected group of respondents located in a particular context and who are studied in depth. It is also used when the sample size is small, where the focus of inquiry is already determined and where the sample has been chosen for a specific purpose (Tayob, 2010, p. 56).
For this particular study, the sources of information were Life Orientation and Life Skills educators currently teaching sexuality education to Grade 6 and 7 learners. Also the sample was chosen because of the participants’ willingness to be included in the study as they felt that the subject demanded more attention than it was currently receiving especially in primary schools. The sample/
participants comprised of five educators - two Asians, a Hindu male and a Tamil speaking female, two African females, an IsiZulu speaking educator and an IsiXhosa speaking educator, and one White Afrikaans speaking female. ‘Participants generally refer to the people being studied such as educators’ (Woolfolk, 2007, p.12). It was hoped that the diverse nature of this sample would provide rich data and a wide range of experiences as all the participants come from different cultural, racial and religious backgrounds. Also obtaining information from these sources yielded a clear idea of the different experiences and an understanding of how these educators have managed teaching the subject or sensitive topics.
3.5 Pilot testing of the research tools
Pilot testing was undertaken in one of the neighbouring schools which had the same characteristics as the research site but was not involved in the study. The results obtained from this pilot study were not included in this particular research. Three Life Skills and Life Orientation educators in the intermediate (Grade 6) and senior (Grade 7) phases were selected for piloting of the research tools.
Personal interviews with open-ended questions were conducted with the educators. Patton (2002) argues that by using open-ended questions the researcher and the respondents perceive the world in
a similar manner. This enables researchers to acquire an increased insight into perceptions shared by different persons. These questions were asked to obtain their personal experiences of teaching sexuality education to the same grades in their own school as the educators who participated in this research study. Observations were not conducted as the educators felt it was not appropriate. Also the written narratives were not requested from these educators. However they were very keen to show the documents they were using in their classrooms because they felt that they could come together as educators of this subject, form their own cluster, develop the learning materials, the work schedules and the assessments used for these grades, and also to share their views about their personal development.