The researcher obtained permission to conduct research from the Research Ethics Committee at the University of South Africa. Using this letter, permission was granted to conduct both the pilot study and the main study by the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Head Office
63
in Harare (Zimbabwe), the Mashonaland East Education Provincial Office, the District Education Offices, and from the Heads of the schools. Appendices G, H, I and J include copies of these letters. The researcher held meetings with the school Heads and the participating grade 7 teachers to brief them on the purpose of the study and to build trust. After this first meeting the researcher visited the six schools once more to familiarise himself with the procedures of the schools, and to build rapport with the participating teachers. Then the interviews and lesson observations were conducted.
3.3.1 The questionnaire
The researcher distributed ninety (90) questionnaires to eighteen sample schools by personally delivering them to the teachers at these schools. Attached to each questionnaire was a letter which explained the nature and purpose of the study, requesting the teachers to sign if they were willing to participate in the study (see Appendix A). The teachers were not forced to participate.
The respondents were allowed a period of one week to complete and return the questionnaires. For anonymity purposes, each respondent was asked to enclose the completed questionnaire into the envelope supplied, seal it and drop it in the sealed box provided in the school office. The researcher then visited the schools again to collect all the questionnaires. This method was preferred because it ensured a high return rate of the questionnaires, and the one week interval enabled the teachers to complete the questionnaires freely and in their own time. Asking people to complete questionnaires while you wait raises validity questions because they either write anything just to get it done, or they may be unwilling to give certain kinds of answers if they are to return them directly to you, the researcher (Lawson & Philpott, 2008).
3.3.2 Lesson observation
The researcher observed six grade 7 teachers teaching mathematics, using the Step in New Primary Mathematics Grade 7 textbook. The teachers were drawn from six different schools, two each from a rural, a peri-urban and an urban district in the Mashonaland East Province. How
64
each teacher used the textbooks was recorded on the observation schedule, which included taking notes on the aspects listed below, namely
the teachers’ frequency of making use of the tasks in the textbook; the section or page of the textbook used;
what it was used for, or the ways of using the textbook; whether the teacher restructured the textbook task; how the teacher restructured the textbook task; and
whether the teacher used materials other than the textbook, and if so, what materials and how they were used.
Both the lesson observation and interview proceedings were also audio-recorded, with the consent of the teachers. All the verbal and non-verbal behaviour in respect of the use of the textbook were then transcribed literally. Observations were done in classrooms at the sample schools, and during the grade 7 mathematics lessons. Each teacher was observed once. Class visits were arranged in advance so that the lesson observations did not clash with test periods or other school activities. This was done in recognition of the ethical requirement to respect the study sites.
3.3.3 Interviews with the teachers
At the start of the interview the researcher explained the purpose of the study to the participants, guaranteed their confidentiality and anonymity, and allowed them to ask any questions or express any concerns, as well as letting them decide on suitable venues for our interview sessions. These interviews were held with the same six teachers whose lessons were observed. Both pre-and post-lesson observation interviews were held with the teachers. The purpose of the pre-observation interviews was to ascertain what the teachers said they used the textbooks for, how, and why. Each interview lasted thirty minutes on average. These interviews also sought to establish the participants’ perceptions of the textbooks after having used them for approximately two and a half years, the problems (if any) they were experiencing in using these textbooks, the support that they received from their district/province offices, and whether they were using other
65
materials besides or in addition to the Step in New Primary Mathematics Grade 7 textbooks.
The post-observation interviews helped to follow up on the teachers’ decisions relating to the use of the textbook as observed in the lesson, and also to follow up on information arising from the initial interview. The nature of the post-lesson observation questions varied from one teacher to another, depending on the issues that emerged during the lesson observation. The post- observation interviews lasted between ten and fifteen minutes. The tape-recordings were complemented with note-taking for observed behaviours or gestures (body language) that could not be audio- recorded. This approach helped the researcher to capture the entire conversation.
The quantitative and qualitative data for the main study were collected concurrently over a three week period. In support of this approach to data collection Ivankova, Creswell and Plano Clark (2013) argued that it takes less time than, say, the sequential design.