Language Considerations

The Ethics Committee of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) requires that participants must be interviewed in their mother tongue or in the language that the participant is comfortable with and fluent in for ensuring unbiased and accurate representation of questions and participants’ responses. In this regard, the questionnaire was written in English and the participants and the researcher were Xhosa speakers. The researcher conducted the presentations and explanations of questionnaires in IsiXhosa, which is the mother tongue of the participants. As mentioned above, participants were encouraged to respond in IsiXhosa as much as possible. Some educators and principals preferred, on their own volition, to respond in English due to the fact that some of the terms they used were much easier for them in English than in IsiXhosa.

3.10 Ethical Considerations

Issues of confidentiality and privacy of personal rights of learners, educators and principals had to be protected. It was every participant’s democratic right to participate in the study or not. The researcher obtained permission to carry out the study from the relevant education authorities in the region and province.

The DoE in the Eastern Cape, in their letter of permission for research, (Point 2a) emphasised to the researcher that during and after research, institutions and participants must not be identifiable in any way from the results of the investigation. It is the responsibility of the researcher to ensure that research is done in an ethical and moral fashion, that each and every participant is protected and that his or her rights and integrity are guaranteed. In this regard, Mouton (1996:42) maintains that the domain of

research ethics is concerned with protection of rights and interests of research participants. To comply with ethical considerations, the researcher applied the following obligations.

3.10.1 Confidentiality

The researcher has an obligation to ensure that confidential information is protected. The researcher must ensure the integrity of research and the open communication with research participants and the protection of sensitive information obtained during research and thereafter.

3.10.2 Informed consent

Following the Declaration of Helsinki, informed consent has been viewed as a focal point in any discussion of research ethics, in either natural or social science. Individuals have the right to know what is happening to them. Gaining informed consent is a procedure that aims to support the principle of individual autonomy and is widely agreed to be a safeguard for the rights of people participating in research. The aim is to ensure that research participants are able to decide for themselves what is in their best interest and what risks they are prepared to take. In order for consent to be informed, the reason for the study, the requirements of participants and the potential risks and harm need to be explained in appropriate detail and in terms meaningful to participants (Seale 2011:66).

Informing people in the research setting of what one is doing, and eliciting their consent, is seen as good practice by most researchers. Diener and Crandall (1978) quoted in Gray (2009:411) suggest that fully informed consent should include:

 Describing the overall purpose of research;

 Telling the participants about their role in the study;

 Explaining the procedures, including the amount of time required;

 Clearly stating the risks and discomforts;

 Stating that the participants may withdraw at any time.

No participant was involved as a subject in this study without his or her informed consent. No undue influence or subtle pressure was put on any participant to take part in the research. To protect himself in this regard, the researcher provided each participant with an ‘Informed Consent’ form to sign ensuring that the participants had voluntarily consented to be part of the research.

3.10.3 Anonymity

Under no circumstances were the names of participants, schools or any other personally identifiable information concerning the research disclosed on the questionnaires and interview schedules given to the participants. Even if the information from participants will be used in future scientific and professional presentations, sources will be strictly disguised. At the beginning of the interviews, participants were implored not to mention any names of schools or individuals. On the questionnaires, no space for names of schools or individuals was provided in order to keep the information as anonymous as possible.

3.11 Conclusion

This chapter thoroughly explained the procedure the research design took. It outlined who the participants were, their profiles, the research methodology and the type of sampling that was chosen. The main aspects of research, like ethical considerations, have received much attention and prominence in this chapter. It is very important to pay attention to the ethical issue as units of analysis are always human beings and their rights, dignity and integrity should always be respected and protected.

Once this study proposal was cleared by the Ethics Committee of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), the researcher was ready to go and conduct research at the targeted schools. Chapter 4 reports on the findings.