Narragating’ the labyrinth of a qualitative, narrative approach
4.4 Situating and contextualising the research
4.4.2 Selection of schools and teachers: a purposive sample
My study aimed to examine teachers’ subjectivities and emotionality, and how these influence their teaching about HIV and AIDS education. At this juncture I believe that it is of utmost importance to distinguish the sampling strategy of schools and teachers for my study from that of the larger research project. I adopted a purposive sampling strategy. This is in keeping with Cohen, Manion and Morrison’s (2011, p. 156) contention: researchers adopting purposive sampling “hand-pick the cases to be included in the sample on the basis of their judgement of their typicality”, thereby selecting a sample suitable for the specific purpose(s) of their study. Creswell (2007) maintains that narrative researchers, in particular, need to reflect further on the purposeful sample because besides having a greater understanding of the research problem(s), the sample should also be willing to tell tales of their lived experiences.
As mentioned earlier, the larger research project team grouped schools into two clusters. In total, these two clusters comprised six primary and three secondary schools. The principal of one secondary school in the urban area, which comprised predominantly Indian learners, did not grant permission for his school to participate in my research study. The reason he proffered was that teachers had already sacrificed time for participation in the larger research project, and at secondary school level his teachers could not afford to sacrifice more time.
Two deep-rural schools were a considerable travelling distance away - more than 70km - and could only be accessed by 4x4 vehicles, and so, for reasons of safety and convenience were therefore not included in my sample. Of the remaining six schools, I decided to purposively select three schools, each representing a different context: urban, semi-rural and rural. And so, my sample of three schools comprised one urban school within Cluster One and two schools, semi-rural and rural, from Cluster Two. Added to this, I considered convenience, since these three schools were easy to access by car and not more than 55 km away.
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I addressed teachers collectively in each of the three schools selected; outlining the purpose of my study and the time period I would be observing and video recording lessons. Teacher participation in my study was voluntary. My sampling strategy of teachers was purposive, since I had already made the decision that only teachers teaching about HIV and AIDS education would be included in my sample. Seven primary school teachers indicated that they would be teaching about HIV and AIDS education in the stipulated time period, and were also willing to participate in my study. I am certainly aware of the possibility that some primary and secondary school teachers, who would be teaching about HIV and AIDS education in the stipulated time period, were nevertheless, not willing to participate in my study. Project-fatigue, perhaps, could also account for teachers in the larger project, having already sacrificed time for interviews and lesson observation, not being willing to sacrifice more teaching time. Indeed, a point of clarity: while all teachers in the nine schools within the two clusters may have agreed to participate in the larger research project, they were however not compelled to participate in my study. Additionally, I did not restrict the sample to only Life Skills or Life Orientation teachers; supporting the principle of curriculum integration, I invited all teachers teaching about HIV and AIDS education in any learning area or grade to participate in my study. I hoped that this would firstly allow more teachers the opportunity to participate and, secondly, provide a better picture of HIV and AIDS teaching across a wider spectrum of topics and learning areas.
The seven teachers that volunteered to participate in my study, upon further scrutiny, displayed the following characteristics:
Gender: four females and three males Ethnicity/race: five Africans and two whites Ages: early 30s to late 40s
Religious backgrounds: Christians
Home languages: English, isiZulu, Xhosa Marital status: single, married and divorced
An important point of clarity, nevertheless, is that the above characteristics were neither pre- determined by me nor used as criteria to select my sample of teachers; but instead represents the characteristics or biographical make-up of the seven teachers who volunteered their participation. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that there were discrepancies in terms of gender,
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ethnicity/race, age and home languages within this sample, which I believe did not influence data generation or analysis procedures negatively, since I did not intend to develop generalisations. The following table summarises the sample of teachers and schools.
Name of school* Name of teacher* Learning area/s taught Grade/s Lavender Primary
(semi-rural)
Zibuyile Natural Science 6
Thabile Natural Science 4
Nombu Mathematics 6,7
Petunia Primary (rural)
Sandile Life Orientation, Human and Social Sciences
6
Themba Language, literacy and communication
4
Rose Primary (urban)
Andrew Natural Science, Mathematics 6,7
Mary-Ann Language, literacy and
communication, Life Orientation
4,5
Table 3: Summary of sample of schools and teachers (*names of teachers and schools have been changed to ensure anonymity and confidentiality)
The purpose of the brief school profiles which follow is twofold: firstly, to highlight the contextual differences between the urban, semi-rural and rural schools selected; and secondly, to provide biographical information about the learner and teacher population as well as the diverse socio-cultural contexts. Moreover, the reader is not only offered a glimpse into the everyday life of the schools, but also given an outline of characteristic features of the buildings; ethos and leadership, the aim of which is to present richer descriptions of diverse school contexts. Given that I adopt a narrative approach, invoking a post-structuralist lens, I believe that such issues of context are, indeed, very pertinent in co-construction and narrative analysis. The information in these school profiles is based on my observations during visits to schools as well as interviews with teachers. I selected the names for the schools.
Lavender PrimarySchool is situated in a semi-rural area of the Midlands town with a learner and staff population comprised of only Africans. This co-educational school comprises a brick building of about 15 classrooms and an office building. One of the
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classrooms serves as the staffroom for teachers during the lunch breaks. Classrooms are furnished with old desks and chairs, with a few classrooms having broken windows.
Although the entrance to the school is not tarred or paved, it is kept clean. During my visits, I often saw dogs, goats and chickens roaming in the school yard. I was particularly impressed to see learners planting and watering the vegetable garden. From my observations and according to the teachers interviewed, the principal is dynamic and committed, and enjoys excellent relationships with her teachers and learners. When this research was being conducted at this school, the learner population was approximately 600, and staff complement was 17, comprising 14 teachers, one administrative clerk, one deputy principal and the principal.
Petunia Primary School is located in a rural area and also has teacher and learner populations comprising of only Africans. The school comprises a dilapidated building of about seven classrooms, many with broken doors and windows, as well as one classroom that had been burnt down during violence. The principal is male and, according to teachers at the school, is involved in community work and departmental responsibilities, resulting in him often being called away for meetings. In his absence, the Head of Department is mostly responsible for ensuring that learners are in the classrooms and that teaching is taking place.
However, when a teacher is absent, the Head of Department mentioned that due to insufficient relief teachers, male learners play soccer while female learners wander around the school. There is a teacher’s cottage to accommodate teachers appointed from distant, out- lying areas. At the time the research was conducted, the learner population was approximately 130, and the staff population was five, comprising three teachers, one of whom was the Head of Department, one administrative clerk and the principal.
Rose Primary School is a large, ex-Model C school situated in an urban area, with a learner population comprising diverse racial groups. Prior to 1994, the learner population comprised only white learners. There are boarding facilities for both teachers and learners and the gardens are always well maintained. This is the only school in the sample that is well- resourced, offering a range of sporting and cultural facilities. During my visits to the school, I observe learners playing soccer or netball matches or training during the lunch breaks. The sounds of the choir or flute lessons also ring out during the lunch breaks. When this research was being conducted, the learner population was approximately 900, and the staff population
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was 30, comprising 26 teachers, two administrative clerks, one deputy principal and the principal.
Having sketched the sampling strategy of schools and teachers, as well as the geographical and socio-cultural contexts of the three schools selected, next I elucidate the process and techniques that I employed to collect data and give teacher participants opportunities to tell tales of their lived and HIV and AIDS teaching experiences.