Ethical Issues, Triangulation, Reliability and Validity

The researcher drew on the research of Hunter-Lowe (2007, p. 51) who described the resources, permissions, techniques, strategies and programme management that she utilised to conduct her research.

4.6.1 Ethical issues

According to Bryman and Bell (2003, p, 536) it is crucial to be aware of the ethical principles involved and of the nature of the concerns about ethics in business research. They point to four main areas: whether there is harm to the participants; whether there is a lack of informed consent; whether there is an invasion of privacy; whether there is deception involved. The ethical stance that the researcher has taken is a univeralist one (p.538) where the ethical precepts should never be broken. She upholds the view that

infractions of ethical principles are wrong in a moral sense and are damaging to social research.

The researcher followed the guidelines of the university, which Bryman and Bell (2003, p. 537) state are often based on or influenced by codes

developed by other professional associations. They point out that the ethical guidelines and ethical committees of universities are there to protect

research participants as well as protecting institutions, so that the

researchers will be deterred from behaving in ethically unacceptable ways that might rebound on institutions. The researcher assured the CEO of her organisation that participation in the research would be totally at the discretion of school secretaries and other stakeholders as to whether they choose to participate or not and that confidentiality and their identity would be kept anonymous and respected at all times. Ethical approval was received from the ethics committee of the university in February 2009 following a request for minor amendments to her research proposal.

The researcher found the initial stage of the interview very important in explaining the ethical link between the interviewee and the researcher. She explained how the interviewee did not need to answer any questions that they felt uncomfortable with. All interviews began with a formal

introduction of the research and the purpose of the interview that was

contained in the plain language statement (Appendix B). The questions were asked in a non-threatening way that aimed to discover how participants view and think about the role that was later compared with other data that was collected. Each participant signed an informed consent form (Appendix C) as part of the research, which was collected and filed in a secure location to protect the confidentiality of all participants. The researcher respected the rights of each participant by transcribing the transcripts herself and storing transcripts, surveys and interview tapes in a locked room during the data collection and analysis process (Hunter-Lowe 2007, p. 41).

4.6.2 Triangulation

Triangulation is a powerful technique that facilitates validation of data through cross verification from more than two sources so that diverse viewpoints or standpoints cast light upon a topic The purpose of

triangulation in qualitative research is to increase the credibility and validity of the results. Cohen and Manion (1986) define triangulation as an attempt to map out, or explain more fully, the richness and complexity of human behaviour by studying it from more than one standpoint (Olsen, 2004, p. 3).

The use of several sources of data collection in this study were essentially an effort to triangulate the different perspectives offered on the role of the ‘school secretary. The data examined the skill and knowledge required and the way, in which the role was viewed in the organisation and how it was projected to organisational members (Fearfull, 2005, p. 144).

Casanova (1991, p. 119) descried how a high degree of congruence across data in her study would favour confidence in the accuracy of the description of the role of the school secretary. She also described how there was a high degree of congruence across the data generated from the school secretaries themselves, whether in their survey responses, interviews, or as a result of direct observation. She described how this was also the case with the data gathered through interviews with the school principals.

4.6.3 Validity and Reliability

Joyce (2010, p. 71) describes how the translation of the terms validity and reliability with their underlying assumptions to qualitative research are believed to be more aligned to the interpretive perspective. Qualitative validity means that the researcher checks for the accuracy of the findings by

employing certain procedures, while qualitative reliability indicates that the researcher’s approach is consistent across different researchers and different projects.

On completion of transcribing the transcripts the researcher checked that they did not contain obvious mistakes and sent a copy to each of the

stakeholders who were asked to amend the transcript if necessary (Creswell, 2010: 190). She discussed the emerging themes following each stage of the analysis with the participants. A report on the comparative study in the USA was discussed with the Chairperson of the ‘school secretaries’ chapter of UFT and a copy of this report was then sent to her. A copy of the

transcribed telephone interview was sent to the Chairperson of the School of Educational Administration in the UK that was followed up with further telephone conversations where an amended report was returned to the researcher.

Validity is one of the strengths of qualitative research and is based on determining whether the findings are accurate from the standpoint of the researcher, the participant and the reader (Creswell, 2009, p. 191).

Discourse analysis (DA) allowed the researcher present as many meaningful and justifiable inferences from her research sample (Creswell, 2009, p. 191) and Yin (2009, p. 115) that was genuinely based on a critical investigation of all the data collected that did not depend on a few well chosen examples Silverman (2000, p. 176). Smyth (2004) cites Bryman (1988, p. 77) who expressed concerns of how there is a tendency towards an anecdotal approach to use the data in relation to conclusions or explanations in qualitative research and referred to brief conversations, and snippets from unstructured interviews that are used to provide evidence of a particular contention. Throughout the thesis, the researcher attempted to demonstrate integrity and rigour of research and has strove to make it possible for others to judge its trustworthiness by laying an audit trail of the process (Joyce, 2010, p.75).

4.7

Conclusion

This chapter explored the researchers philosophical assumptions and reasons for selecting a qualitative interpretive research methodology. She outlined her philosophical stance as an advocacy or participatory worldview and her reasons for using a critical theory approach to the study. She

examined the issues of research design that involved qualitative interviews with school secretaries, principals and other stakeholders that the ‘school secretary’ interacts with during the normal course of their work. She

described how the literature review on professional development for ‘school secretaries’ encouraged her to carryout a comparative study with ‘school secretaries’ in New York. She described her research in the UK with the Chairman of the School of Educational Administration and the

qualifications and professional development for school administrators working in the schools in the UK. The final section of the chapter discussed issues relating to ethics, reliability and validity that will guide the researcher in conducting her research and analysis.

The following chapter of this study will outline the research in detail and discuss the research analysis.

Chapter 5