CHAPTER SIX RESEARCH METHOD
6.5 DESCRIPTION OF DATA COLLECTION MEASURES
A questionnaire comprising ten questions (A-J) was administered to this group of 208 pupils. These questions included the following scales: The Ethnic Attitude Scale, questions on Perceptions of Intimidatory Practices, The Acculturation Orientation Scale, The Stereotype Scale, The Social Distance Scale, The Peer Victimisation Index, The General Health Questionnaire, The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, a list of School Issues, and questions on Demographic Data. Permission was sought from authors where necessary to adapt and utilize their scales. A description of these scales follows:
6.5.1 Question A: The Ethnic Attitude Scale
This question consisted of The Ethnic Attitude Scale which measured interethnic attitudes of European, Maori, Pacific Island, West Asian (Indian) and East Asian (Chinese) pupils. It was adapted from a scale used by MelIor and Firth ( 1 983), which they adapted from a General Racism scale developed by Verma and Bagley ( 1 972, 1 975). They derived this scale from the Wilson-Patterson scale ( 1 968) for measuring interethnic attitudes in British teenagers. The scale includes 25 items shown in Table 6.6 below.
Table 6.6: The Interethnic Attitude Scale No. Item 1 2 civilized Asians 3 Colonialism 4 Asian 5 White 6 Maori
7 Kiwi morals and values
8
9 Ethnic
1 0 Pacific Islanders
1 1 for all
1 2 Schools without Asians
1 3 Ethnic 1 4 Asian 1 5 Multicultural education 1 6 East Asians 1 7 of races 1 8 Asian 19 Mixed 20
21 Exotic Asian culture
22 Maori tradition
23 West Asians
24 schools for ethnic
25 Asians back to their
The scale includes three subscales which are the Anti-European (items 1 , 3, 5, 7 and 20),
Anti-Asian (items 2, 4, 1 2, 1 4, 1 6, 1 8, 2 1 , 23 and 25), and Anti-MaorilPacifika (items 6, 8, 1 0 and 1 2) scales. The rest of the items are general items and pupils responded to these on a five point scale. Items 3, 5, 8, 1 2, 24 and 25 are negative items for which the scores are reversed only when seeking attitudes of individual respondents, for which a score is required out of a maximum of 1 25 points. Pupils were required to respond to this scale three times, once as they thought Europeans would answer it, once as they thought MaorilPacifika would answer it, and once as they thought Asians would answer it. One of these scales would pertain to themselves, thus they would be answering it for themselves.
6.5.2 Question B: Intimidatory Practices
This question consisted of 1 4 open-ended questions on Perceptions of Intimidatory Practices, and included two questions suggested by principals (last two). It required open-
ended responses to the questions in Table 6.7 below. The scoring for each question is as reflected in the table.
Table 6.7: Intimidatory Practices
Item Question: Write as much as you can about the Scoring
1 What do you understand by the word 'bullying'? (What 1 = good understanding of concept, does it mean for you?) 2= reasonable understanding,
3= some or little understanding, and
4= no at all.
2 What do you understand by the word 'ethnic'? (What Same as above does it mean for
3 Have you ever felt that you were not accepted by your I = No
schoolmates? YESfNO 2= Yes
4 List some of the things that have happened to you at 1 = not racial school that have made feel 2= racial
5 How often have these things happened? 1= similar to 'sometimes' 2= similar to 'quite often' 3= similar to
6 Why, do you think, have these things happened to you? 1 = not racial
2= racial 7 Who are the people who have done these things to you? 1 = not racial
2= racial
8 When have they done these things to you? I = occurrences before this year 2= occurrences during class time
3= occurrences during intervals 4= occurrences after school 5= occurrences all the time.
9 Where have these things happened? I = incidents in class 2= in corridors
3= on grounds 4= outside school
5=
1 0 What have you done about this? Why? 1 = ignoring it 2= telling friends 3= telling family 4= telling teachers 5= verbal retaliation 6= physical retaliation 7= silence due to fear, denial or frustration
1 1 How does this make you feel? 1 = not caring 2= being sad
3= being hurt 4= being angry
5= or ill
1 2 Has your school helped you with this in any way? I = school helps very much
2= helps quite a bit 3= helps a little 4= does not at all
1 3 What do you see as a strong point about your school with 1 = school is very good
to social 2= 3= 4= bad
1 4 How do you feel about, and cope with having people from 1 = like having them in school
countries you may not like in your school? 2= don't mind
3= don't care about it
6.5.3 Question C: The Acculturation Orientation Scale
This question consisted of The Acculturation Orientation Scale which measured the orientations of the five ethnic groups toward acculturation. This scale was developed by the researcher on the basis of Taft's ( 1 953) theory of assimilation which distinguished between three orientations, viz. monism, pluralism and interactionism. A fourth dimension that advocates a complementary orientation based on ethnic minority speculation was added. The scale contains a statement for each orientation, and required subjects to rate their degree of agreement or disagreement to each statement on a five point scale. Items 1 and 2 are negative items for which the scores are reversed only when seeking attitudes of individual respondents, for which a score is required out of a maximum of 20. These items are shown in Table 6.8 below.
Table 6.8: Acculturation Orientation
How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Tick one of the columns for each item.
I Immigrant students should try to become "Kiwi" when they come to New Zealand, and forget about their past
2 New Zealanders and immigrants should remain who they are and keep with their own groups
3 New Zealanders and immigrants should mix and, in time, become one big family with no differences
4 New Zealanders and immigrants should live side by side, learn the good things from each other and not lose their
individual cultures and identities
6.5.4 Question D: The Stereotype Scale
Question D consisted of The Stereotype Scale which is a free-choice scale that measured attitudes through stereotypes used by the different ethnic groups to describe each other. It gave subjects the opportunity to express how they perceived a particular ethnic group, and attempted to determine to what extent attitudes are influenced by stereotypes. The scale for use in this research was adapted from a scale developed by Bagley and Verma ( 1 975). It
listed 9 groups of people which were: 'Bullies', 'Europeans', 'Students', 'Pacific Islanders', ' West Asians', 'Maori', 'Teachers', 'East Asians' and 'Counsellors'.
Pupils were required to write three adjectives of their choice which best described each group. Descriptors were scored on a three point scale with one point awarded for positive descriptors, two for neutral descriptors, and three for negative descriptors. Thus, if individual attitudes were required, a high score denoted negative attitudes toward these peoples, and a low score denoted positive attitudes.
6.5.5 Question E: The Social Distance Scale
This question consisted of The Social Distance Scale which examined two components, the first of which was a racial distance scale, and the second component consisted of an occupational distance scale, and the items were arranged in descending order of intimacy. Table 6.9 below shows the items contained in each scale and their distance. The scale provided data on the degree and quality of contact and communication amongst pupils of the different ethnic groups. It was adapted by the researcher from the scale developed by Bogardus ( 1 925) to measure social distance or the degree of intimacy an individual would allow to members of outgroups, and was constructed particularly for use in the present New Zealand secondary school context. Pupils were required to rate the items for each of the five ethnic groups as well as for five additional groups which were; 'People from other cultures', 'Boys', 'Girls', 'People from my own culture', and ' Students my age'. This question required pupils to respond to the ten stimulus groups by selecting as many items as they considered appropriate, from the list of 14 contact and communication items in the combined racial and occupational distance scales.
Table 6.9: The Social Distance Scale
Distance distance Racial distance
I I most of leisure time with I to
2 I do homework with I often talk to
3 I eat lunch with I sometimes talk to
I at school with I would like to talk to
I sit in class with I am forced to talk to
6 I do not mix with I never to
6.5.6 Question F: The Peer Victimisation Index
Question F consisted of The Peer Victimisation Index which measured the extent to which pupils were victimised by their peers. This scale consisting of 20 items, was developed by Rigby ( 1 993) and includes the items shown in Table 6. 1 0 below.
Table 6. 1 0: The Peer Victimisation Index
Item
1 I like
2 I marks in class 3 I called names others
4 I soft kids a hard time 5 I like to make friends
6 I in class 7 I feel I can't trust others
8 I on others
9 I am of a that round others
1 0 I like to who are harassed
1 1 I like to make others scared of me
1 2 Others leave me out of on
1 3 I into at school
1 4 I like to show others that I ' m the boss
1 5 I share with others
1 6 I
1 7 I like to into a with someone I can beat
1 8 Others make fun of me
1 9 I hit and around others
20 I others
Pupils responded to these items on a four point scale. Scores for items 1 , 2, 5, 1 0, 1 5 and 20 which are positive items, are reversed when seeking a total score for individual respondents in order to detennine their degree of victimization.
Bully and victim scales were extracted from the Peer Victimisation Index to detennine to what extent pupils were victims and/or bullies. The negative items were used to fonn these scales. Items 3, 7, 8, 1 2, 1 3, 1 8 and 1 9 were used to fonn the victim scale, and items 4, 6, 9, 1 1 , 1 4, 1 6 and 1 7 were included in the bully scale.
6.5.7 Question G: The General Health Questionnaire
Question G consisted of The General Health Questionnaire which was devised by Goldberg and Williams ( 1 988) for use as a measure of psychiatric disorder. It consists of 28 items each of which deals with a symptom of poor health, and contains four subscales which are: Somatic symptoms, anxiety symptoms, poor coping symptoms, and depression symptoms which are shown in Table 6. 1 1 below. Pupils were required to respond to this on a four point scale.
Table 6. 1 1 : The General Health Questionnaire
Have
Somatic
1 Been well and in health? 2 Been in need of some medicine?
3 Been run down and out of sorts?
4 Felt that are ill?
5 Been in head?
6 Been a of or in head?
7 Been hot or cold
8 Lost much over
9 Had in once are off?
1 0 Felt under strain?
1 1 Been and bad
1 2 Been scared or for no reason?
1 3 Found on of
1 4 Been nervous and all the time?
Poor
1 5 Been to and
1 6 Been over the do?
1 7 Felt on the whole were well?
1 8 Been satisfied with the carried out task?
1 9 Felt that are a in
20 Felt of decisions about
2 1 Been able to normal activities?
22 Been of as a worthless
23 Felt that life is
24 Felt that life isn't worth
25 Found at times couldn't do because nerves were too bad?
26 of the that do with
27 Found were dead and from it all?
6.5.8 Question H: The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
This question consisted of The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale ( 1 965) which measured the self-esteem of subjects. It is a 1 0-item Guttman scale designed to measure global positive or negative attitudes toward the self, and includes the items in Table 6. 1 2 below.
Table 6. 1 2: The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
No. Item
1 On the whole, I am satisfied with
2 At times I think I am no at all 3 I feel that I have a number of
4 I am able to do as well as most other
5 I feel I do not have much to be of
6 I feel useless at times
7 I feel that I am a of worth, at least on an with others
8 I wish I could have more for
9 All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure
1 0 I take a attitude toward
Pupils responded to this on a four point scale. Scoring for items 1 , 3 , 4, 7 and 1 0 which are positive items, are reversed when seeking scores for individual respondents to determine levels of self-esteem.
6.5.9 Question I: School Issues
This question consisted of the following list of items that referred to Issues concerning school : bullying, violence, name-calling, sexual harassment, ignoring, excluding, disobedience, discrimination, rudeness, noise, making fun of others, speaking foreign languages, pushing in corridors, prejudice, wearing make-up, talking in class, disrespect of teachers, wagging, racial harassment, verbal abuse, foul language, theft, wearing mufti, smoking, disrespect of students, tale-telling, drugs, disrespect of property, alcohol, vandalism.
6.5.10 Question J: Demographic Data
This question consisted of demographic and occupational background questions concerning pupils and parents.
6.5.1 1 Scale Reliability
The Interethnic Attitude Scales that provide measures of perceived social acceptance in respect of Europeans, Polynesians and Asians, and the Peer Victimization Index, the
General Health Questionnaire and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale all had a reasonable level of reliability in that the levels for Cronbach's alpha all exceeded 0.8 except for the Peer Victimisation Index with Cronbach's alpha at 0.78, as indicated by Table 6. 1 3 below. This suggested that these scales were well suited to the study population.
The reliability of the Interethnic Attitude Scales was excellent with Cronbach's Alpha value of above 0.80 for all three scales: Maori racism - Alpha = 0.82, European racism - Alpha = 0.88, Asian Racism - Alpha = 0.80. This suggested that there was probably sufficient communality in all 3 scales to justify their use. For this reason factor analyses were considered to be unnecessary. Missing values were computed for each item of these scales using SPSS's regression procedure. There were also significant positive correlations for these three scales, particularly in regard to Maori social acceptance and European social acceptance (r= 0.30, P< 0.00 1 ), and in regard to Maori social acceptance and Asian social acceptance (r= 0.34, P< 0.00 1 ). The plausibility of these correlations serves to further validate the use of these scales in this research.
The reliability of the Social Distance Scale has been reported to be as high as .90 (Shaw &
Wright, 1 967). The reliability of the Peer Victimisation Index is moderate, Alpha = .777 1 ,
and the reliability of the Bully and victim scales which were extracted from the Peer Victimisation Index is moderate with a Cronbach Alpha of 0.79 for the bully scale and 0.76 for the victim scale. The reliability of the General Health Questionnaire is excellent
(>0.80), Alpha = .9520, and the reliability of the Self-Esteem scale is excellent (>0.80),
Alpha = .8436.
Table 6. 1 3: Correlations for scales: Significant correlations in bold print (Sig. < 0. 05)
Scales
of Racism in:- Scales that measure
Europeans Maori Asians Peer Bad Health Self Esteem
( 1 ) (2) (3) Rejection (4) (5) (6) Cronbach 0.88 0.82 0.80 0.78 0.95 0.84 's Alpha Correlation (1 ) 1 .00 0.30 0 . 1 8 0. 1 1 0.03 -0.07 (2) 0.30 1 .00 0.34 0.25 -0.02 -0. 1 1 (3) 0. 1 8 0.34 1 .00 0.31 0. 1 0 -0.08 (4) 0.1 1 0.25 0.31 1 .00 0.31 -0.34 (5) 0.03 -0.02 0 . 1 0 0.31 1 .00 -0.41 (6) -0.07 -0. 1 1 -0.08 -0.34 -0.41 1 .00 6.6 PILOT STUDY 6.6.1 Survey
A draft version of the Social Acceptance Opinion Questionnaire was administered to a sample of pupils to determine the efficacy of the questionnaire as an instrument measuring social acceptance, and to test task facility and item appropriateness and discriminability. A small core class of twenty pupils from year 9 in a school similar to the test schools formed the sample for this pilot study. The class comprised nine European, one Maori, one Pacific Islander, three East Asian and six West Asian pupils. These pupils were informed of the purpose of the research and their role in testing the questionnaire, and were asked to request help from the researcher if necessary while completing the instrument. They were also asked to comment (on the last page of the questionnaire) on the suitability and usefulness of the questionnaire and the degree of ease or difficulty with which it was answered, in particular question A which had to be responded to three times, and to provide reasons for this.
All participants provided useful comments which indicated that they had experienced no problems in understanding or answering the questionnaire. Comments on the usefulness of such a study indicated that these pupils felt there were issues related to social acceptance which needed to be addressed. A few queries about instructions on the questionnaire enabled the researcher to eliminate ambiguities pertaining to these. The study also enabled the researcher to gain experience with administering the questionnaire, to confirm the efficacy of the instrument, and ascertain the time required to complete it. Analysis of the draft questionnaire data enabled the researcher to recognize and eliminate redundancies and to develop more effective analysis strategies.
Administration of the revised Social Acceptance Opinion Questionnaire in the main study resulted in data being available from a total sample of 208 pupils.
6.6.2 Interviews
Pilot interviews were conducted with two pupils of Asian origin to test the efficacy of the interview schedule. One pupil was a year 1 3 West Asian female, and the other was a year
1 1 East Asian male pupil . The purpose of the interview was explained, and the pupils were asked to point out difficulties and suggest revisions during the course of the interview.
Both pupils found the interview to be effective and thought-provoking as it brought to the fore issues of non-acceptance that they had previously, either consciously or sub consciously, concealed even from themselves. When asked how they felt about being interviewed on the topic, they said that the experience was almost cathartic. It had provided them with the opportunity to talk about issues that they normally found difficult to talk about. They appeared to look relieved after having shed a burden that they had carried for so long. Both pupils requested adding questions about the attitudes and behaviours of teachers which they believed contributed significantly to matters of social acceptance in schools. On the strength of these tests, some adjustments were made to the questions, collapsing some and adding a few.
This response appeared to indicate that the instrument had generally worked effectively, consequently, after the revisions mentioned above, the interview schedule was confirmed.