methodology by arguing that method is about ‘techniques for gathering empirical evidence’ and ‘methodology is the theory of knowledge and the interpretative framework that guides a particular research project’ (p.2). In researching the HPS, I was challenged to consider a methodology that was theoretically aligned to the philosophy of developments within the HPS. Guiding objectives in this search therefore included finding a method that was accessible for all players in the HPS and that not merely provided research data for this thesis but also a worthwhile
experience for participants and opportunity for reflection by the school community on their journey towards becoming and being health promoting.
What emerged from the review of the literature was a strong imperative to make use of qualitative methodology with its aim to “understand the motives behind human action” (Mousley & Kortman 1996, p42), and to document the participants’ “voices”. There was also desire to portray the complex nature of schooling, particularly in regard to health promotion. The use of case study method derived from narratives with the overlay of commentaries became the logical method, if only because it required stories to be told in such a way as to invite multiple readings and interpretations. Such method and methodology rejects a simplistic notion of schooling as a controllable process for a predetermined product. Instead, it acknowledges the real nature of schools, the interrelationship between school community members, and the validity of each group’s perspective.
In writing on cases as methodology, Shaw (1978) reports on studies looking at the implementation of innovations in schools and describes ‘the obstacle course both in the intellectual transactions of discussion, planning and deliberation, most of which is unrecorded, and in the working actions of the teachers who implement it, these being more visible, easier to record, observe or remember’ (p.7). He raises the importance of exploring the micropolitical. ‘If the unspoken assumptions, the organization,
relationships and constraints are largely untouched, the innovation is likely to be merely supportive to existing structures, conservative and finite’ (p.7). This is echoed in Ball (1987), who presents change in schools as rarely, if at all, being politically neutral. ‘Interests are enhanced or threatened by change’ (p.78). The use of case study as a focus of research requires interpretation of what the participants understand and believe themselves to be doing as well as the choices they are making.
The use of case methodology allows ⎯ indeed demands ⎯ that events and instances be captured and the elements portrayed in such as way as to give meaning (Walker 1990). Case methods help to construct positions and local personal meaning by authors, audience and participants, and are able to
concentrate attention on the way particular groups of people confront specific problems, taking a holistic view of the situation. They are problem-centered, small- scale, entrepreneurial endeavours; ... the great advantage [is] that the raw material is personal knowledge and experience (Shaw 1978, p.2).
Indeed, the work of Apple (2001a, 2001b, 2003) critiquing the New Right has argued that as a hegemonic alliance it has successfully made use of liberal and democratic reform in schools. The New Right has commandeered and reshaped educational reform initiatives where those originally intended to redress social disadvantage now facilitate racist and sexist positions. Apple (2000a, 2001a) argues that the New Right has been successful in recasting itself as the ‘other’ and used reforms to assert its dominance. If this is in fact so, then schools as sites for social control should echo New Right positions, and so should the (self) reported experience of school
community members. Given my belief that the principles of the New Right and the HPS model have been melded, then New Right terminology and principles should be evident in the reporting of HPS activity.
In commenting on the democratic mode of case study, Walker (1990) also refers to organisational constraint, calling it ‘inherent inertia. [Where] any proposal that requires the support of multiple audiences before decisions are taken is likely to lead
to complication if not to confrontation’ (p.38). In the context of the HPS there is a clear recognition that the audiences are multiple. Not only are there very different interest/political groups within the teaching fraternity, as would be expected in any school, there is also a recognition of other audiences ⎯ health workers, parents, students and teachers. The recognition of multiple audiences is therefore one of the essential components of the settings approach to the HPS.
A dilemma lies in how support from these audiences is actually allowed and
measured, and in whether the notion of an HPS is a new means to maintain the status quo. Ball (1987), critical of the use of the term ‘community’ in policy documents that impact on schooling coming from New Right politics, argues that “(t)he members of the ‘community’ (teachers and others) seem to have little responsibility for the “community” themselves. The concept is not a set of practices among the members, but a principle to be managed. Community here ‘is used as a focus for order and integration. It embodies claims about consensus and collective endeavour. It is deployed as a rhetoric of control’ (p.101). The HPS research to date reflects hegemonic practice in that both its concept and its activity have been redefined to match New Right agendas; the research reflects a positivistic managerial
methodology.
If the research about HPS to date reflects this position, the use of case methodology has the potential to reveal the experience of the community – but on their terms. In the context of this thesis, the methodology is encapsulated in the notion of case method and the use of narratives; the method proposed is the use of combined narratives and commentaries. Both method and methodology will draw heavily on the work of L. Shulman (1987), and of J. Shulman and Colbert (1987, 1988), who in the course of their research published casebooks that
provide accounts of how a particular teacher/author experienced a problem, the problem, the analysis and strategies she employed, and the eventual resolution or stalemate that resulted. . . . the commentaries that follow add complexity to the case and offer other readings and additional views (Shulman, 1992, pp.11⎯12).
It is through the use of case method and narratives that the voices of the HPS community will be privileged and so, therefore, will their versions of the HPS experience.