Principal 1 Principal 2 Principal 3 Principal 4 Principal 5 Type of
3.4 SOURCES OF DATA
3.4.1 The questionnaire
As mentioned in section 3.2, the first phase of this research involved the use of questionnaires. I found a questionnaire suitable as it facilitated the collection of information of large amounts of data from numerous participants. Questionnaires are a convenient means of accessing many and widely scattered respondents (Youngman, 1984). Since the Eastern Cape is large, the questionnaire thus made it possible for me to reach the population that I could not reach in the case of interviews. Such a large amount of data could not have been collected using interviews.
Questionnaires are also suitable for the collection of information on views, experiences and opinions of the participants which was the focus of this study. The questionnaires for the different change agents were also meant to examine the extent to which their responses corroborated the information later given by the principals who were the focus of the study, since all these agents work and therefore interact on a daily and regular basis with the principal and are influenced by his actions and they also influence his or hers.
Because this study was mainly qualitative and aimed at examining the views of participants, the questionnaire also included a large number of open-ended questions which required respondents to express their opinions and experiences about the management changes emanating from their participation in the IP. Through questionnaires I therefore gathered quantitative and qualitative data.
While I acknowledged its suitability for collecting information on characteristics and general views of participants, I also recognised that the questionnaire does not offer
illustration and provides little detail about the context within which the respondents formulate their answers. To offset this, the questionnaire was followed with the interviews and the review of documents.
One questionnaire was prepared for each of the following: principals, key teachers and for members of SGBs although the one for SGB members could not be administered, as explained in section 3.4.1.3 below.
3.4.1.1 The questionnaire design
The questionnaires were drafted in April 2002. Each questionnaire was accompanied by information, which included the purpose of the study and instructions on how to complete the questionnaire. The respondents were assured that confidentiality would be maintained. They were instructed not to write their names on the questionnaires.
The respondents were informed that the questionnaire took about 30 minutes to complete, and were provided with a stamped, addressed envelope although it was planned that other options would be found to collect the questionnaires.
The formulation of the specific questions in the questionnaire was based on the research questions. The questionnaires for the principals and members of the SGB were designed to elicit responses on the following:
• personal particulars (A:1-9)
• nature and quality of the IP training (B: 1-6)
• systems and processes for teacher development by principal (C: 1-7)
• financial management (D:1-7)
• developing and managing school-community relationships (E:1-5)
• managing teaching and learning material (F:1-4)
• managing teaching and learning (G:1-5)
• General views on Imbewu and how it can be improved (H:1-9)
The questions in the questionnaire for teachers were designed to elicit responses on the following:
• personal particulars (A:1-7)
• nature and quality of IP training (B: 1-3)
• developing systems and processes for human resource development (C: 1-8)
• financial management and control (D:1-6)
• developing and managing relationships with the community(E:1-5)
• managing teaching and learning material (F:1-4)
• developing and managing relationships with teachers (G:1-5)
• managing and transforming teaching and learning(H: 1-4)
• general views on Imbewu (I: 1-9)
As mentioned in section 3.2, because the study was mainly qualitative, the questionnaire included many open-ended questions. Bless and Higson-Smith (1995) note that questionnaires are well-suited for exploratory studies. The disadvantage of questionnaires with numerous open-ended items is that they are often returned with many questions left blank. This is because it takes much more time and thought for the respondents to generate a written response than to merely check an offered response. However, Bless and Higson-Smith (1995) note that open-ended items may relieve the anxiety of participants of giving false answers since they express themselves freely. Moreover, there may be certain questions to which only an open- ended response seems reasonable (Baker, 1988). It was my view that, although they are difficult to process and analyse, open ended questions would help me collect views from a broader sample to supplement the interviews which would be limited to just a small sample.
3.4.1.2 Piloting the questionnaires
After obtaining comments from the supervisor I revised the items of the questionnaire. A pilot study was conducted in 5 schools around Mthatha in September 2002 with 5 principals and 20 teachers selected from one cluster in the Mthatha
trainers involved in training principals and SGBs was also used as a source in terms of the content of the questionnaire. The pre-test was designed to refine the questions, to see if any were ambiguous or unclear and to establish the time required to complete the
questionnaire. Parahoo (1997: 262) stated that pre-testing increases instrument validity and reliability. The questions were then revised in the light of the responses from the principals and teachers in the pilot. The pilot study is an essential step in any research project because it enables one to improve the instrument format and to correct defects in the questions, the question layout, the instructions to the respondents, the answer categories and the question -numbering system (Oppenheim, 1992). It was difficult to find the members of the SGBs and their questionnaire was never piloted.
3.4.1.3 Administration of the questionnaires
The actual administration of the questionnaires began in February 2003. As mentioned in subsection 3.3.2, questionnaires were administered to 300 change agents who included 50 principals, 200 teachers and 50 members of SGBs who had participated in the Imbewu training. As will be mentioned later only personal information on 8 SGB members could be obtained through the questionnaire. The rest of the information was collected through the interviews.
I obtained postal addresses of schools whose district offices are housed in the Mthatha Department of Education offices. I then posted the questionnaires to these schools with self-addressed stamped envelopes for teachers and principals to return the completed questionnaires. However, it was still planned that where possible these would be collected. There is agreement among writers that the major disadvantage of the questionnaires as a data-gathering device is low percentage of return (Kerlinger, 1986; Cohen & Manion, 1989; Oppenheim, 1992). To offset this problem, I disseminated in person the questionnaires to most schools in the widely dispersed districts of Port St Johns, Libode, Ngqeleni, and Engcobo. The inclusion of so many districts that are far from each other and from me was necessitated by the fact that the first phase of Imbewu had selected a few schools in each district and the participants in different districts were trained by different people. It was therefore important to
me to obtain general views from participants exposed to different trainers and from different geographical and socio-economic contexts to ensure representativeness. The administration of questionnaires, therefore, involved travelling long distances as these schools were far from one another. In each school I identified one teacher who would collect the questionnaires for me and then I arranged to collect them from him/her.
This was possible because most of these teachers stayed in Mthatha and travelled home everyday. I maintained contact with these teachers telephonically to monitor their progress. For schools in Butterworth and Idutywa, I left the questionnaires in the district offices. When I explained the purpose of my study to the district managers they offered to give the questionnaires to the principals at a scheduled principals’
meeting and also to collect them for me. I asked a colleague in the Butterworth branch of the then University of Transkei (UNITRA) to collect them and bring them to me during his official visit to the UNITRA main campus in Mthatha where I worked. These two districts proved to be the easiest to deal with and I incurred less expense than in the others. I personally collected completed questionnaires from the schools in Tsolo, Qumbu and Mthatha. Few of those that were posted were returned.
Of the 50 questionnaires sent to principals, 33 were returned, giving a response rate of 66%. Out of the 200 questionnaires sent to teachers, 119 were returned, giving a response rate of 59.5%. The questionnaires for the SGB members were not filled in at all. Firstly, it was difficult to access the members of the SGBs. Secondly, even in the schools in close proximity to me that I was able to reach, most of them did not want to fill in the questionnaire. Some thought that I wanted them to report on their principals. The problem was that most of these had little or no schooling.
One of the problems experienced was that some questionnaires were not fully completed and this affected the reliability of the data. The second problem was that most respondents had forgotten some things about Imbewu as most aspects such as the training and the implementation had been done some time before. Remembering details of the implementation process on the part of the respondents therefore proved to be a serious problem. In addition, because this study is mainly qualitative, most closed items in the questionnaire were followed by open-ended items which were meant to validate the responses given. The poor responses could therefore be
opinions and perceptions on things that had happened some time before. Some of the respondents simply ignored the follow-up questions.