Document analysis

Document analysis was meant to enable the researcher to assess if the disciplinary policy was in line with NEPA and to evaluate whether the disciplinary measures used in schools were in line with what was outlined in their policies. In addition to this these documents were requested to enable the researcher to access reports or statistical data that could help to identify trends, patterns, rituals and school values,

165 propose new questions or corroborate qualitative data. The qualitative data would help the researcher to study the nature of the offences and the perceptions around the offences and disciplinary practices. As aforementioned four schools could not provide the necessary documents and only one school (suburban) produced the documents, detention forms, code of conduct and the minutes of disciplinary meetings. The planned selection procedure for the learners was affected by the non- availability of documents. The available data was studied and analysed (Gelo et al 2008:276). The Code of Conduct of the suburban school had the following contents: preamble, objectives, school uniform, general weakness, disciplinary system, drug policy, testing for drug abuse, learner pregnancy rate and traditional circumcision policy. The researcher noted the following discrepancies from the documents provided by the suburban school:

 Recent documents were not given to the researcher - only an old file consisting of 2004 documents.The principal could not comment on the contents of those files because he wasn’t the principal at that time. The researcher could also not compare the contents of the report against the 2010 Code of Conduct.

 Christian principles are given an overriding precedence over the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) as the Code of Conduct notes that it is based on Christian principles, and this statement precedes the acknowledgement for the Constitution in the page for General Remarks (Code of Conduct, 2010:2). The Constitution of South Africa (1996) also notes that in public schools no religion should be given an overriding precedence over others but this seems to be disregarded by the school

 Although it was noted in the Code of Conduct that the contents were in line with the prescripts of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the Code of Conduct left no room for diversity or discussion as the rules were listed as “beads are not allowed,” “children must always be in school uniform,”etc., there is no provision for special cases so that the parents can approach the school if they need to do so.

 Measures outlined in the Code of Conduct are in contrast with the learners’ responses; some of the disciplinary measures reportedly used in the school

166 were not listed in the Code of Conduct, e.g. standing on one leg, carrying bricks whilst kneeling and standing in front of the class for the entire period.

4.5. SAMPLE

For the case study purposive sampling was used to sample the respondents and the participating schools as it guaranteed that crucial people or crucial factors were covered (Bernard, 2002 & Given, 2008). With the exception of the seniour secondary school and special schools that would not take part in the study, the population in this study consisted of 237 schools. From the 237 schools 5 schools were sampled as case study sites with twenty participants, four participants from each of the five schools. Case selection was based on the fact that the schools were supposed to come from the three towns of the Buffalo City Municipality and also they have to be from the five different contexts: farm, rural, township, informal settlement and suburb. The sampled schools are from the following towns: farm school: King Williams Town, rural school: Bhisho, township school: East London, informal settlement: East London and suburban school from King Williams Town. The study was made up of the SMT (principals, deputies and HODs) members, members of Disciplinary Committees, Guidance or Life Orientation teachers and two learners, a boy and a girl. Teachers in managerial positions, in post Level 1 and in discipline related programmes, were targeted. School grades, gender and the disciplinary profiles were also considered when sampling the learners. One of the determining factors became the issue of race, for all the five contexts blacks were a dominant race and whites were also a good number but coloureds and Indians were not featured, thus the choice of the suburban school in King Williams Town, which has both black and white students while coloureds are in the majority. Initially, only learners from Grade 7 were to participate in the study because learners from the lower grades were deemed unsuitable because they would struggle to speak as it would be expected from the participants, but the issue of the grade was overwritten as teachers chose learners who they knew could talk without necessarily being in Grade 7, so the learners interviewed ranged between grades 5 and 7. Because the interview questions were crafted with consideration for the survey results, according to Denzin and Lincoln (2000) purposive sampling was therefore the most appropriate method when data review and analysis would be done in conjunction with data collection.

167 From the population of 237 schools 125 schools were sampled for the survey and the targeted sample size was 250 participants, two participants from each school, a principal or a member of the SMT and a guidance teacher. Initially random sampling was supposed to be used to select schools for the survey, a random table was designed and a number was allocated to every second school in the school list and the questionnaires were supposed to be sent to those schools. Due to the change of plan, questionnaires being distributed by hand, in workshops and meetings, the questionnaires were given to whichever school was accessible, available or represented so convenience sampling was deemed the most suitable. Wellman (2005:60) defines convenience sampling as involving selecting haphazardly those cases that are the easiest to obtain for the sample. Except the change in the sample size, the change in the sampling procedures did not have a negative impact on the reliability of the study because the schools accessed also had the qualities that the researcher was looking for, i.e. primary schools with SMT members and LO or guidance teachers.

4.6 RESEARCH QUALITY

Toensure good quality in research one needs to consider a number of things, e.g. trustworthiness (reliability and validity), dependability and confirmability.

4.6.1. Trustworthiness 4.6.1.1. Reliability

To ensure or to estimate reliability of the instruments Cronbach’s Alpha (α) was used as the coefficient of reliability. According to Miles and Huberman (1994), reliability is concerned with the extent to which the research process is consistent and stable over time across researchers and methods. Marshall and Roseman (1999) argue that the universe is not static; it continuously changes and therefore people change and develop and also their points of view will evolve with time, thus, attaining absolute reliability can be problematic. In order to strengthen reliability the researcher kept a record of the interviews and different accounts occurring during the interview process (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Mkhize, 2003, Patton, 2002). The coefficient ranges in value from 0 to 1 and the higher the value the more reliable the generated scale is so a value of .70 or higher is considered as adequate or

168 acceptable (Maizura, Masilamani & Aris, 2009:219).When Alpha was run for all variables (c.f. Appendix D4) the result was a coefficient of .721 which is considered adequate. The Alphas for different sets of variables are also shown in table 4.1.

Table 4.1: Reliability: Internal Consistency

Variables Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

All 0.721 45

Offences 0.821 17

Disciplinary measures 0.076 22

Beliefs 0.785 20

Roles 0.757 10

The general picture from table 4.1 is that there was adequate to a high degree of reliability in the measures for the variables. Although the coefficient for Disciplinary Measures is rather low, that part of the research relied more on qualitative data from in-depth interviews in case study schools.

4.6.1.2. Validity

According to Golafshani (2003) validity determines whether the research truly measures that which it was intended to measure or how truthful the research results are. To ensure appropriateness and clarity of questions, the instruments were first piloted and the participants raised concerns and suggested some changes (c.f. Chapter 4: 4.3.3) and that reasonably suggests that the questionnaires used gave a reliable measure of what the researcher was looking for.