The Choice of Methodology

The objective of this study was an exploratory one: to determine how the policy on community participation in schools had been translated at the local level in terms of the relationship between community and school. This required the soliciting of the individual experiences of schools and communities in terms of their engagement in the

administration of schools, and in the context of decentralised education management. It was therefore necessary to adopt the qualitative research approach that most suited this objective to gathering the relevant data.

A qualitative research approach has been described as:

One in which the inquirer often makes knowledge claims based primarily on constructivist perspectives (i.e. the multiple meanings of individual experiences, meanings socially and historically constructed, with an intent of developing a theory or pattern) or advocacy/participatory perspectives (i.e. political, issue-oriented, collaborative, or change oriented) or both. It also uses strategies of enquiry such as narratives, phenomenologies, ethnographies, grounded theory studies, or case studies. The researcher collects open-ended, emerging data with the primary intent of developing themes from the data (Creswell, 2003 p18).

This approach was thus necessary, in view of the fact that the study sought to explore the experiences of individuals and groups who were part of the engagement between the school and the community, and unravel the stories behind these experiences. Creswell (2003 p30) again observes that:

One of the chief reasons for conducting a qualitative study is that the study is exploratory. This means that not much has been written about the topic or population being studied, and the researcher seeks to listen to participants and build an understanding based on their ideas.

The choice of a qualitative research approach was also informed by the need to gain deep insights into the complex relations between the community, as defined by its geographical location, and the school within the community. In this regard, an attempt was made not only to explore individual experiences, but also the varied meanings and interpretations of the different actors in the field, using relevant strategies and techniques to elicit the necessary information.

A criticism levelled against qualitative design is the issue of validity. This is due to the high level of subjectivity and the difficulty in determining the authenticity of findings. However, Miles & Huberman (1994) observe that the meanings emerging from the data have to be tested for their plausibility and „confirmability‟, thus ensuring validity.

In addition, triangulation in qualitative research design controls the margin of error and ensures validity. This is usually done by obtaining descriptions, judgements and assessments of critical phenomena from several different points of view, several different observers and by two or more different methods. This process is adopted to reduce the likelihood of any misinterpretation, redundancy or oversight that could occur during the procedure of data collection, while also acknowledging that no observation or interpretation is perfectly repeatable (Stake, cited in Denzin & Lincoln, 1994 p241). Indeed, replication of the same methods; the same sample; the same social situations and conditions; the same analytical constructs and premises cannot be achieved in naturalistic inquiry (Cohen et al., 2001 p119).

Cohen et al. (2001) argue that reliability is not only a matter of replication but includes fidelity to real-life context and situation specificity; authenticity; detail; honesty; depth of response; and meaningfulness to the respondents (Cohen et al., 2001 p241). For Kvale, the quality of the „craftsmanship‟ of investigation, which includes continually checking, questioning and theoretically interpreting the findings, lies in how validity is ensured in qualitative design (Kvale, 1996). This also represents the integrity and trustworthiness of the researcher.

In this study, I made it a point of selecting respondents „rich in information‟, whose views were critical in addressing the research questions. These were people who by the nature of their function had been involved in the life of the school or community as the case may be, and who over the years, had accumulated a wealth of knowledge based on their own experience and that of those around them. Thus, they may have had their own opinions and perceptions based on these experiences.

The main groups sampled were members of the SMC and the PTA. However, with the intention of voicing and fairly representing the multiple and sometimes conflicting viewpoints of other stakeholders and actors in the field, (namely, community members and parents), some members of the wider community were also sampled in order to provide further insights into the subject matter and also for triangulation purposes.

This was considered necessary since I thought there could be instances – as indicated in the conceptual framework – where some of these informal relationships between the school and the larger community might have far-reaching consequences with regard to education service delivery and the relationship between community and school.

For example, the MEPT is mainly composed of retired educationalists and others of good academic and social standing living in the community, who interact with the schools and the education office on a regular basis. They help with the planning and preparation of school performance improvement programmes (SPIPs) and provide various support for the school, as well as performing advocacy functions on behalf of the school and the District Education Office (DEO) when intervention is necessary.

The MEOC is the highest education supervisory body in the municipality. With their backgrounds and the kind of information the people in these groups held, and considering the exploratory nature of the study, I considered it expedient to interview a range of individuals in order to gain various perspectives on community–school relations. As retired education officers and other accomplished individuals living in the municipality, I believed that their views and experiences would be devoid of loyalty to either school or community. Moreover, in hindsight, I realised that they were in a better position to reflect more deeply on such a relationship and proffer ideas on what and how it was shaped.