INSTRUMENTS FOR DATA COLLECTION

The investigation is a case study because it studies a specific group of people over a specified period of time. As Gall, Borg and Gall (2003) assert, a case study is an in- depth study that is carried out on an individual, event, programme or group of people in a particular area over a specified period of time. This study was confined to the Mkhuhlu Circuit of Bohlabela District in Mpumalanga province. The female school principals were studied over a period of one year. The descriptive survey method was used as the method for soliciting and gathering data through oral interviews and questionnaires. Leedy and Ormrod (2010) argue that to enhance the validity and reliability of a research study, descriptive surveys involve the identification of the population, the sample and research instruments such as questionnaires, interviews and observations schedules. Gay and Airasian (2003) elaborate when they argue that the descriptive survey method aims at collecting data from the representative groups of people from which inferences may be drawn about a people as a whole. In this connection, the researcher believed that the sample of female school principals constituted a representative population from which inferences could be drawn.

Data was collected using in-depth individual interviews and questionnaires with open- ended questions to descriptively answer the postulated research questions as pointed out in paragraph 1.6.2.3. An example of the questionnaire used with this study to collect data on female leadership appears as Appendix D. To supplement data collected via the individual oral interviews with the ten school principals, a questionnaire consisting of five open-ended questions was completed by the ten participant members of the SMT of the ten research sites.

3.8.1 Questionnaires

A questionnaire was one of the two ways in which data was collected in this study. According to Rossouw (2003:127) the questionnaire as a data collecting instrument refers to different situations such as when the questionnaire is completed by an interviewer in a direct person to person situation, and when the questionnaires are

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mailed or handed to people for completion without the assistance of the researcher. The questionnaire as data collection instrument is less time consuming, and it can reach a large number of people (Rossouw, 2003:129).

For this study the questionnaires had five open–ended questions which were designed to extract relevant views from the research participants. The five open-ended questions gave freedom to respond more widely. The questionnaire was completed by the ten participant members of the SMT members of the ten research sites as pointed out in paragraph 1.6.2.3. The questions were aimed to allow the participants to freely express their views, attitudes, feelings, beliefs and aspirations uninterrupted as they were expected to individually complete them during their own spare time. The data collected through questionnaires was used to “fill the gaps” that may have been left out by the responses to the interviews.

3.8.2 Interviews

Face to face or oral interviews were carried out with the principal at their schools. The researcher used semi-structured interviewing as a data collection instrument. The interviews were conducted individually with the ten school principal participants at the ten research sites as highlighted in paragraph 1.6.2.3. All interviews were conducted in English. Individual interviews as a direct verbal interaction between the researcher and the interviewee allow interviewees to “speak their minds” and to lend themselves to in- depth investigation particularly with regard to personal accounts of experiences and feelings (Macmillan & Schumacher, 2006:97).

Rossouw (2003:143) points out that a research interview is a conversation between the researcher and a participant or participants with the specific objective of gathering information about a topic that is being investigated. Each female principal from the ten research site was interviewed individually. Hennink (2011:109) describes interviewing as a one-to-one method of data collection that only involves the interviewee and the interviewer. The interviews were recorded with the permission of the interviewees.

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The individual interview strategy was opted for because of the following reasons:

• The face to face interview has the advantage that the researcher is able to establish rapport with the interviewees. This is important as the researcher is likely to get their cooperation, trust and high responses as an interview is a special way of knowledge producing conversation. Christensen and Larry (2011:56) point out that an interview is where an interviewer asks the interviewee a series of questions, often with prompting for additional information.

• A face to face interview allows the interviewer to clarify and rephrase the questions when necessary. This helps in yielding valid and reliable responses from the interviewees. Further, probing also enhances the content and quality of views and experiences expressed. An interview is a form of social interaction (Welland & Pugsley, 2002:33).

• Unlike with questionnaires where some participants may fail to return them, oral interviews ensure a hundred percent extracting of responses from participants and it provides a quick and easy way of obtaining data, and is economical of the interviewer’s time (Dyer, 1995:58).

• An individual interview has its major strength of providing volumes of information about the interviewee (Greeff, 2011:342).

Although the oral interview has numerous advantages, its major “handicap” is that it is time consuming. Approximately one hour was spent with each interviewee. As pointed out in paragraph 1.6.2.3 and in line with the work of Macmillan and Schumacher (2006:97), an interview schedule was developed as a guide to refer to during the interviews so as to ensure that all important aspects were dealt with during individual interviews. The interview schedule appears as Appendix E.