In-depth interviews

De Vos, Strydom, Fouche and Delport (2011: 348) note of in-depth interviews that they are merely extends and formalises conversation. Such interviews are referred to as a “conversation with a purpose”. The purpose is not to get answers to questions, nor to test hypotheses, and not to “evaluate” in the usual sense of the term, but to honour the participants as knowledge producers, who are in authority, due to their ability to transmit the truth or knowledge about what they know or have experienced in their local environment (Bless & Higson-Smith, 2000: 1). Thus, at the root of in-depth interviewing is an interest in understanding the experiences of other people and the meaning they make of that experience as sources of knowledge.

In-depth interviews are focused and discursive, and allow the researcher and participants to explore an issue and thus were used in this study. In-depth interviews were conducted to determine the educators and the learning support educators’ perceptions, opinions, known facts and forecasts, and their reactions to the experiences of educators in management of English First Additional Language (FAL) in the Grade Six inclusive classroom.

In using in-depth interviews, this study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of educators and the learning support educators’ experiences, thoughts and feelings regarding the management of inclusive classrooms in terms of the three of the seven educators’ roles selected for this study. The participants were interviewed in their schools, according to the interview schedules agreed upon between the participants and the researcher. The interview protocol or

schedules were developed to ensure that the interviewer asked the same questions to all participants. See Appendix A for the interview schedules of this study.

The interviews were conducted for 45 minutes per participant, so as to give them enough time to answer the questions. Follow-up interviews were conducted with the same participants to cross-check the credibility and trustworthiness of data collection. The interview data were audio recorded to complemented note-taking by the researcher, which would ensure that data was captured in its natural form.

Audio recording was used to allow the researcher to devote her time to the interviewee and to probe in-depth to obtain an accurate verbatim record of the interviews, capture the language used by the interviewee, including hesitations and tone for details (Lewis & Ritchie, 2003).

3.3.2 Non-participatory observation

Observation is one of the “techniques that researchers use to see and hear what is occurring naturally in the research site” (McMillan & Schumacher, 2010: 350). My role during the field of observations was that of a non-participant observer. Non-participant observer refers to the fact that the researcher can record data without direct involvement with the activity or people (Creswell, 2016: 121). Bryman, Bell, Hirschsohn, Dos Santos, Du Toit, Masenge, Van Aardt and Wagner (2014: 244) highlighted that non-participant observer observes without participating or taking any active part in the social setting. The researcher visited the schools and observed the selected educators and the learning support educators during lessons or during break and the school context, in order to obtain a rich understanding of the experiences of educators in management of English First Additional Language (FAL) in Grade Six inclusive classrooms.

3.3.3 Official documents

Lewis and Ritchie (2003: 35) have noted that “documentary analysis involves the study of existing documents, either to understand their substantive content or to illuminate deeper meanings which may be revealed by their style and coverage.” Thus, official or non-personal documents imply those that are compiled and maintained on a continuous basis by large organisations such

as government institutions. Such documents are more formal and structured than personal documents.

In this study, official documents were analysed to gain an understanding of the educators and the learning support educators’ experiences in performing three of the seven educator roles in management of inclusive classrooms. The official documents included the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications (MRTEQ), Norms and Standards for Educators (NSE), Education White Paper 6 Special Needs Education and Training System, Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC), and the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (WPRPD) (Department of Education, 2011, 2000, 2001, 2004 & RSA, 2016). The researcher argues that these official documents have provided more insight on the experiences of educators in management of English First Additional Language (FAL) in Grade 6 inclusive classrooms.

3.4 SAMPLING METHOD

Straus and Myburgh (2002: 71) define sampling as a strategy used to select the sample of participants from the whole population in order to get information that could be generalised to the large group. In this study, purposeful sampling was used to select relevant participants. Purposeful sampling seeks information-rich cases, which can be studied in-depth. This means that participants were selected on the basis of purposiveness and convenience. The sampling technique led to the selection of experienced participants who have experience and the information in teaching and managing English First Additional Language (FAL) in the Grade Six inclusive classrooms.

3.4.1 Sample Size

A sample refers to a subset of participants drawn from the population to represent the whole population (Bless & Higson-Smith, 2000: 86). This implies that a sample is a number of individuals selected from a population to represent a large group from which it was drawn. For the purpose of this study, three primary school educators and three learning support educators were selected from the three primary schools.

Six participants were interviewed in this study. Three female educators and three female learning support educators formed the core focus of the participants as ‘information rich-key informants’ who are likely to be knowledgeable, informative and who could contribute significantly towards the study (McMillan & Schumacher, 2010: 350, Creswell, 2013: 94).

There is no single method for the selection of research participants in qualitative research but there is relative consensus amongst qualitative researchers that participants should be selected in terms of the contribution that they would make in terms of the research purpose (Grinnell, 1993: 153, McMillan & Schumacher, 2001: 169). Thus, the researcher selected the participants who acquired a teaching diploma, Advanced Certificate in Special Needs Education or degree in Inclusive Education and have been teaching learners who experience barriers to learning in English First Additional Language (FAL) in the Grade Six inclusive classrooms for more than 10 years.

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS

In qualitative data analysis, the researcher aims to gain new understanding of the situations and processes being investigated. Qualitative research requires logical reasoning and it makes considerable use of inductive reasoning, organising the data into categories and identifying patterns (relationships) among the categories (White, 2002: 82)

De Vos, Strydom, Fouche and Delport (2011: 348) note that data analysis is a method of categorising, ordering, manipulating and summarising data to attain answers to specific research questions. Data analysed was gathered by way of in-depth interviews with the Grade Six English First Additional Language (FAL) educators and the learning support educators of the three selected primary schools. Documents included educators’ learning programmes; lesson plans; intervention records support needs assessment forms; minutes and reports of the School-Based Support Teams (SBSTs) and departmental documents about Inclusive Education.

 after transcribing and coding of the in-depth interviews, field notes and document analysis, the researcher obtained a holistic sense by reading carefully through them all and examining the data (as discussed in Chapter 2);

 data was grouped into concepts and categories then compared and similar themes grouped together under conceptual labels;

 a list of topics from all the sources was made and similar topics clustered together, in a process known as ‘open coding’; and

 the categories were then integrated and refined.

3.6 CREDIBILITY AND TRUSTWORTHINESS

Trustworthiness involves convincing both audiences and the self that the findings of an inquiry are worth paying attention to or worth taking account of (Lincoln & Guba, 1985: 290). Following Lincoln and Guba (1985: 290) the following strategies were proposed to ensure the trustworthiness of the findings and inferences from the qualitative research: credibility, transferability of the findings, and dependability of the findings.

Schulze (2002: 79) credibility determines that the research was conducted in such a way that the phenomenon was accurately described. It is the most important component in establishing the trustworthiness of the findings and inferences from the qualitative research. To ensure trustworthiness of this study, credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability were considered to increase reliability in a qualitative study (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003; Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

Transferability, according to Schulze (2002: 79), is used to determine whether the results of a study can be generalised to other contexts. In this study, the researcher was not looking for results that could be generalised, but rather results that could be replicated in different contexts. Dependability was used to test the relevance of the data collected and analysed to the actual situation under investigation (McMillan & Schumacher, 1997: 404). In this case, the findings of this study were tested by comparing them to existing reviewed literature.

Triangulation is essential to ensure interpretive validity (Terre Blanche & Durrheim, 2004) and establish data trustworthiness (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001). Data triangulation involves using diverse source of data, so that one seeks out instances of a phenomenon in several different settings, at different points in time or space (Seale, 1999, Cohen, Manion, & Morrisons, 2007; Maree & Van Der Westhuizen, 2009). In order to ensure credibility of data analysis, audio-tape recorder was used to record the in-depth interviews to enable the researcher to cross-check the transcript repeatedly. The research report was further taken to the participants and their actions were recorded to that report to clarify the findings (Creswell, 1998, Cohen, Lawrence & Morrisons, 2001).

3.7 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The following ethical principles were adhered to:

Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the University of South Africa College of Education and the Research Ethics Committee. Research Ethics Clearance Certificate, Reference Number: 2013 OCT /7409346/ CSLR was awarded. See Appendix F. In gaining access to schools, permission was obtained from the Gauteng Department of Education Research Ethics Committee. See Appendix G, for the Research Approval Letter, Reference Number: D 2014 / 242 A.

According to the principle of informed consent, the participants were informed that the research purpose was to investigate the experiences of educators in management of inclusive classrooms. The researcher obtained written consent from all six participants and the Principals of the three selected primary schools, two primary schools under Tshwane South District Office (D4) and one primary school under Tshwane North District Office (D3).

According to the principles of voluntary participation in research, the participants participated voluntarily and they were free to withdraw consent and discontinue from the research at any time without prejudice to them. The participants were informed that they may for example refuse to answer any question, and choose to be interviewed at reasonable times that are convenient to them.

According to the principle of deception, deception occurs in not telling the whole truth, telling lies or compromising the truth (Bailey 1994: 463, Cohen, Manion & Morrisons 2011: 95). The researcher was honest about the purpose of the study and where the risk of harm to the participants exists. In some cases, researchers do not tell the whole truth to the participants because they may not discover important information if they are completely honest. This was not the case in this study.

Debriefing may include sharing the results of the research (Cooper & Schindler 2001: 116). The results of the research were provided to the participants at the end of the research and during research session. A debriefing session assisted in minimising ethical dilemmas such as withholding information about the true nature of the research.

According to the principle of safety in participation, the participants of this research were not placed at a risk or harm of any kind. They were not exposed to any form of personal injury or humiliation, stress and embarrassment.

According to the principle of trust, in-depth interviews were collected in a manner that the participants gradually developed mutual trust and answer the questions without bias. This mutual trust was not exploited for any personal gain or benefit, by deceiving or betraying the participants in the research route or its published outcomes.

According to the principle of privacy, confidentiality and anonymity, the identity of the participants as well as information gathered were kept anonymous and confidential (Denzin & Lincoln, 2013: 134-136). Pseudonyms were assigned to participants to conceal their identity for example participant A, B, C, D, E and F were used.

Data was collected through in-depth interviews and the use of audio-tapes was permitted by the participants to adhere to the principle of privacy, confidentiality and anonymity. The audio-tapes were stored in a safe place and undertaken to be destroyed upon the completion of the study (Maree, Ebersohn, Eloff, Ferreira, Ivankova, Jansen, Niewenhuis, Pitersen, Plano Clark & Van der Westhuizen, 2007: 42, McMillan & Schumacher, 2010: 338-339, Hofstee, 2011: 118).

In this chapter, a detailed description of the research method was presented. The research design, sampling, data collection methods, data analysis and interpretation, quality assurance measures, ethical considerations and limitation of the study were discussed. The researcher also illustrated how evidence was constructed by integrating multiple data collection methods. This study therefore forms the pillars on which the following case study rest.

The following chapter will present the data obtained, and analyse it through the theoretical framework established in the literature review.

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter the findings of the study are discussed, based on the data collected during the in- depth interviews, non-participatory observations and document analysis, on the experiences of educators in management of inclusive classrooms. Revisiting the research questions and the aims of this study are the researcher’s point of departure for this chapter, used to assist in exploring the respective categories and themes.

Table 4. 1 Research question and purpose

Research question

What are the experiences of educators in performing the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications roles in management of inclusive classrooms?

Research purpose

To explore the experiences of educators in management of inclusive classrooms in terms of the three educator roles as outlined in the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications (MRTEQ).