Data collection methods

3.2.4.1Interviews

Cohen et al., (2000) see interviews as emotionally engaged social interactions about people’s real experiences in constructing their personal accounts on a particular topic. Cohen, Manion & Morison, (2007) sees interviews as a powerful implement for researchers, but expensive in time. Semi structured interviews were conducted with teachers, performed after class visits. The main aim of the interviews was to discover their views on mathematics teaching in multigrade classrooms.

In order to collect the data, the interview checklist was developed. I used a one page questionnaire to collect each participant’s basic information which included: the region’s name, name of the school, date of visit, and the participant’s teaching experience in multigrade classrooms as well as their experience in teaching of mathematics. I also included the number of teaching groups or subjects taught, as well as the grade combinations which they teach.

An interview checklist with open-ended questions was refined after it was piloted in a multigrade school with the mathematics teacher. The refined checklist was then used to guide the interviews (Johnson & Christensen, 2004). It focused on teachers’ experiences in areas such as classroom management, planning and instructional strategies, designing of instructional materials, involvement of whole school and community in multigrade teaching, as well as challenges and opportunities for multigrade teaching.

One individual interview was conducted with each participant. This interview took between 40 minutes and 1 hour. With the permission of the participants, the interviews were tape recorded and transcribed, in order to avoid writing during the interview. During these interviews I continuously probed to elicit more information (Johnson & Christensen, 2004) from the interview participants.

3.2.4.2Piloting the Instrument

I intended to pilot the instrument at two multigrade schools in Otjozondjupa region but the teacher at the second school with multigrade teaching was absent during the visit. The pilot took place during the time the teacher was doing the revision of the examination paper. As a result, I could not do much analysis on the observed data, but I used the information to modify and fine- tune the interview checklist. Through listening to the pilot data records, I also realised the need to have an observation checklist. The observation checklist for Multigrade Schools Evaluation (MUSE) plan was adapted with little modification to suit this study (Little & Pridmore, 2003). It is valid to mention that piloting the instruments gave me the opportunity to come up with the data collection checklist (see Appendix A).

3.2.4.3Observation

Johnson & Christensen (2004) define observations as “watching the behavioural patterns of people in certain situations, in order to obtain information about the phenomena of interest” (p. 186). Cohen et al. (2007) stated that classroom observations are done to collect data on physical, human interactional and programme settings. It is against this background that I noted the layout of the observed classrooms. According to Anderson & Burns (1989) the classroom layout includes the classroom physical environment, the organisation, interactions and the resources found in the classrooms. The type of seating arrangement was also observed and noted as well as the type of group in which the learners work or learned.

Class observations were conducted (one per participant) to obtain information regarding the mathematics teachers’ practices in multigrade classes. The lessons were videotaped in order to limit the amount of writing during the lesson observation. The videotaping allowed me to review and analyse the lessons in my own time. The focal area for observation was on teachers’ classroom practice such as management, arrangement, and handling of two or more grades, as well as instructional strategies. These were some of the key areas of multigrade practice (Berry, n.d). I was a non-participant observer, detached from the activities that were taking place during the lessons (Anderson, 2000; Cohen et al., 2007). I also avoided the generalisation of data due to small number of participants selected.

3.2.4.4Document analysis

Documents were used in this study to supplement the data collected through interviews and lesson observations. These were: the teachers’ preparation notes and the notes written on the chalkboard. These notes contained written comments about anything I thought might improve my insight into the teachers’ practice. The analysis of these documents provided clarity on how the subject was dealt with by the teacher. All of these activities contribute to the teaching and learning of mathematics, which takes place in the specific multigrade classrooms. This document analysis data was triangulated with that from interviews and observations.

3.3Data analysis

As I mentioned earlier, this was a case study where qualitative data was collected through different methods. According to Cohen et al. (2007) there is no correct way of presenting and analysing qualitative data. But they defined data analysis as a process of grouping information to understand the participants. One can also create a data blueprint, grouping it and find regularities.

Both the interview tape recording and the videotaped lessons were transcribed. Then, based on the above definition, the data gathered through interviews, observations and document reviews were organised, categorised and analysed in order to discover the commonalities, differences and similarities. In order to report this data, a narrative description method was carried out in chronological order.

Two levels of analysis were conducted. In the first level of analysis, the data was presented individually across the instruments. The data was also contrasted in the second level of analysis to examine the applications of issues in order to identify possible good practice in multigrade teaching.

3.4Research ethics

Cohen, et al. (2000) mention that ethical issues such as informed consent, access and acceptance needs to be considered when one is conducting research. Ethical issues were considered during this study because they are fundamental to research.

Before the commencement of the study, I asked permission from the regions to conduct this study in their respective regions (see Appendix E). I also discussed this with the school principals so that they could explain to selected participants before I visited the school. This was done to describe the purpose of the study and to inform them on how the data would be collected. Before the commencement of interview, the participants gave me permission to videotape the lessons and also to tape record the interviews. The participants were also requested to complete the consent form attached to this report (see Appendix P).

3.5Limitations

Being an education officer, my position is in authority to teachers. This was the greatest limitation and teachers were not free in participating on the study. I tried by all means to overcome this, by giving the participants thorough explanations on the purpose of the study. This was done telephonically and physically by holding a meeting with teachers before the visit. Even so, these meetings could not convince one of the participants who withdrew because she felt I was going to check on how she was doing and report her to her supervisors. The participants who took part were also not at ease. One of them panicked, particularly at the beginning of the lesson. Another one was not at ease during the interview and she could not answer all the questions. Being a researcher and at the same time videotaping the lesson, it did not work well because I had little time for note taking. The results of this case study can also not be used for generalisation because the sample was too small and it does not represent all multigrade teachers.

3.6Conclusion

This chapter presented the research design where the sample, the approach and the methods used in data collection is described. It also describes the instruments used to collect data as well as the various methods used in analysis. The chapter also covered the limitations to this study and the ethical issues considered in the process of data collection, presentation and analysis. Anderson and Arsenault (1998) mentioned that a case study has limitations, as it cannot be generalised. I therefore avoided making generalisation of the observed cases. In the next chapter, I will present and analyse the data collected by using the instruments described in this chapter.

CHAPTER 4

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

Teaching in combined grade is done back and forth fashion – teaching one level while assigning individual work to the other level. Using this strategy, teachers may try to teach each level quickly, thereby failing to promote understanding or to motivate students adequately. As a result, students’ individual work may be inefficient. As well, teaching by alternation may isolate students by level, failing to build on the benefits of interacting with individuals of various ages and levels of development. (Lataille-Démoré, 2007, p. 1)

4.1Introduction

This chapter presents the analysis of data concerning the teaching of mathematics in Upper Primary multigrade classrooms in a sample of four teachers. The interviews, lesson observations and documents were analysed using both categories developed for the interviews and categories that emerged from the data. Thus, the categories used were as follows:

• Classroom arrangement and organisation • Multigrade planning and teaching strategies

• The mathematics lesson presentation in a multigrade classroom • Challenges and opportunities for multigrade teaching

Pseudonyms were used to protect the identity of the participants of the study as well as the schools where they are teaching. The pseudonyms used for participants are: Jatty, Janet, Shiwa and Bibi. The pseudonyms used for schools are: Mbushoye Primary School, Haitange Primary school, Nelao Primary School and Jacky Primary School.