In order to ensure internal validity and reliability transcripts were read by my supervisor and possibly other members in my cohort to maintain that the themes derived from transcripts were free of biasness in the outcome of the research and add value to the body of knowledge that this research study can extend in such that I could have missed something that could be picked up by my peers. In the interpretive paradigm any conclusions drawn must be backed up by the data and the researcher cannot make claims that cannot be substantiated and to a large extent should reflect the participants’ reality of lived experiences. Data recordings had to be carefully transcribed and re-reading of data were essential to provide clear and sufficient details of findings.
Reliability and validity are conceptualized and as according to Golafshani (2003, p.604) validity and reliability refers to something that is: “trustworthiness, rigor and quality” in qualitative paradigm. The research in essence should be valid or trustable. Many qualitative researchers argue that the term validity is not relevant to qualitative research and yet there is a need for some qualifying of work so the term trustworthiness is also used. According to Golafshani (2003, p. 604) trustworthiness depends on concepts of “credibility, dependability and confirmability” for example as I have chosen to use a mechanical form to record data.
The structuring of research and interview questions required careful consideration so that the research inquiry was carried out in a respectful manner and that questions provided participants with an opportunity to share adequate or more than adequate information.
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A written letter of consent (Appendix 2) for participation in this project was presented to participants before interviews could be conducted and participants were informed that they could withdraw at any point from the research study and that they were under no obligation.
Participants were informed that they did not need to answer any question that may cause them to feel sensitivity or make them feel uncomfortable even though that was not my intention and I explained any question they did not understand. Participants were informed of their confidentiality.
The use of pseudonyms was used to maintain confidentiality. During the interview process participants could have expressed personal experiences such as rape or even being HIV positive therefore my duty as a researcher was to remain respectful and understanding, and if the participant was comfortable enough to disclose something personal and sensitive to me I had to be sensitive. If the participant was willing I would have offered to refer her for counselling to youth counsellors that I know of and social workers who offer counselling services to the students. I had spoken in advance to a social worker in my family who would also be of assistance to me if the need arose.
This leads to ethics in qualitative research. It is important for all research studies to follow ethical principles. This study is located within a broader study but the same ethics are applied. Bertram (2010, p. 50) classifies ethical principles as “autonomy, nonmaleficence and beneficence”. “Autonomy” refers to the participants involved in the study that had to give signed consent, accepted voluntarily part of the study and were given the freedom to withdraw at any time. “Nonmaleficence” refers to no harm coming to another person as part of the study whether physical, emotional and social. All inquiry was carried out in a respectful manner. “Beneficence” means that the study should be of benefit to the participants and to other researchers or society at large. Careful consideration was taken by me as the researcher as to how I have benefited from this study and a close examination of what I have learnt from this study was critically considered for researchers should self reflect to understand their own transformation in the research process.
47 3.8 Limitations experienced during this study
The limitations of this research were mainly contributing from time as an essential factor.
Conducting interviews were challenging. Finding students to conduct interviews especially when reluctant took up useful time. Working out time to do interviews before students went on holiday, teaching practise or study leave was a setback. Many areas within the campus was noisy and distracting which had a disadvantage to the voice recordings – sometimes distorting or making it difficult for me to hear what the participant was saying.
I also had to put aside all my own opinions and maybe minor misjudgements I previously held about black African women as promiscuous, always more sexually active as other race groups and ignorant about the consequences of sexual risks. In the past, sometimes I did feel black African women were having far too many children than they could afford because I have one child out of choice so I could provide her with everything. Sometimes I saw this as a selfish flaw in other people who have many children they cannot afford but what I realised from these interviews that women in all race groups are exposed to similar challenges in relationships whether we like to believe differently but women in intimate relationships face many similar vulnerabilities regardless of race or culture.
Converting verbal data from voice recordings into transcripts were time consuming. The transcribing from verbal data into written data took me hours. It was exhausting as I first wrote every spoken word and then typed it out. However it was very interesting to capture the views expressed by the students.
There were instances where the participants expressed their lack of self confidence when speaking in the English language with me – they felt shy towards me and felt that perhaps I would laugh at them. This was overcome by me assuring them that I respect them and their opinions were important to me. Participants that were shy and lacked confidence to share their own experiences with me were reassured that everything they said was in confidence. I also felt that I could have perhaps probed more about the participant’s views about virginity. I was disheartened that I lacked in gathering information about that as I know it would have added more depth to my study. That was my own short coming well as my own inadequacy in speaking fluent Zulu for I know I could have gained more data from the participants if I could converse with some of them in their first language.
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As a mother, wife and teacher I found that balancing my personal life and academic life quite difficult. I moved into a new house that’s bigger and I found that finding time to commit to studies proved quite difficult at first but I eventually found ways to manage my time efficiently. I had some short comings during the year such as illness of myself, my daughter or other family member. I had many family commitments many of which I had to decline so that I try to work diligently and with more focus. I have learnt to say no to family members and pursued my work because I was determined to succeed and complete my masters.