P HASES OF THE S TUDY

Data collection involves the process of gathering information from various sources. Data for this study were collected in a variety of forms. This promotes trustworthiness by increasing validity based on the triangulation of information (Mc Millan & Schumacher, 2006: 28; Rossman & Rallis, 2011:143).

A literature study was conducted on the phenomenon of discipline in secondary schools during the background phase of the study; this is reported in Chapter 2. Policy documents of the school, such as the code of conduct, described in Chapter 4, were consulted by the researcher to gather information and gain entry into the field. Mixed questionnaires were completed by representatives during the exploratory phase. Interviews and focus groups with role players were conducted during the closing phase.

3.3.2.1 BACKGROUND

An overview was done of the available literature in journals, books, official documents and educational policies in order to explore the work of other researchers on the phenomenon of discipline in secondary schools, particularly as it relates to the secondary school’s current disciplinary system (Cohen et al. 2013:531). The literature review as reported in Chapter 2 offered various discipline strategies. The strengths and weaknesses of each strategy was reported and compared.

Taking into consideration the banning of corporal punishment and the search for alternatives, the implementation of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996 and inclusive education policies, documents and publications of the Department of Education had to be incorporated in this research. These documents form the basis of how a school system is run and prescribe guidelines for school management (Mc Millan & Schumacher, 2006: 356; Creswell, 2012:145).

67 3.3.2.2 ENTRY

Documents and artefact collections are tangible manifestations that describe people’s experience, knowledge, actions and values. It is a non-interactive strategy for obtaining qualitative data with little or no reciprocity between the researcher and the participant (McMillan & Schumacher, 2006:356; Cohen et al. 2013:531). As a point of departure, official documents including internal policy and papers, external communication and data were analysed. The background phase involved an analysis of external documents and policies and how they affect school governance. The entry phase focused more on internal papers such as the school’s code of conduct and other policies, which are specific to the school (Appendix iv). Internal papers include working papers of disciplinary codes and policies, which are formal documents that provide an internal perspective of the organisation (Creswell, 2012:145).

3.3.2.3 EXPLORATION

Open-ended questions are questions which focus on the participants’ perception or opinion of a particular phenomenon, in this case the discipline at a secondary school in Gauteng. These questions contain questions which allow for a large range of opinion- based responses. There is typically no right or wrong answer and usually the question asks for a motivation of the answer (May, 2011:103). Open-ended questionnaires are used to obtain information regarding different thoughts, ideas and opinions, that is, to identify different themes regarding a subject rather than to determine how many people share the same view.

Closed questions are questions that do not allow for an opinion, they typically ask participants to choose between predetermined responses. Structured questions are easier to categorise and are ideal to use when there is a large number of participants or items. They do however lose accuracy and variability and do not allow for alternative answers (May, 2011:103).

In order to overcome the disadvantages of structured questions, both structured and open-ended questions were used in this questionnaire. Certain questions were given predetermined responses from which to choose as is typical of a structured question, but participants were then given the opportunity to motivate the response, typical of an

68 open-ended question format (Mc Millan & Schumacher, 2006: 197; Bryman, 2012:627). In this way both qualitative and quantitative data was obtained. Rank order questions were also asked in order to gauge the value of each predetermined option relating to the discipline system (Appendix viii).

3.3.2.4 CLOSURE

Focus groups are a highly useful flexible technique for exploratory research that can be a starting point for more comprehensive quantitative research (May, 2011:137). Focus groups are a qualitative data collection method effective in helping researchers learn the social norms of a community or subgroup, as well as the range of perspectives that exist within that community or subgroup (Mack et al. 2005:52; Flick, 2014:242). Focus groups usually consist of between six and twelve participants who are representative in some way of the population (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011:545).

Responses to open-ended questions of group members may build on those of other members and the result of free-flowing discussion may be new information or perspectives. In this way each member in the group is stimulated by the different perspectives and ideas of others which increases the quality and richness of the researcher’s data (Silverman, 2010:129).

Focus groups are used to generate hypotheses to be tested quantitatively, to generate further information for modification, to provide general background information, to provide impressions for which little information is available, to obtain new ideas, to generate ideas for development, to interpret results or to obtain a better understanding of a problem (Cohen & Swerdlik, 2005:560; Bryman, 2012:500). In this study of the discipline system the focus groups served a dual purpose. The primary function was to confirm and expand on the findings of the questionnaires conducted in the exploratory phase and secondly to generate new ideas for development and further research (Appendix ix).

A principal advantage of focus groups is that they yield a large amount of information over a relatively short period of time. They are also effective for accessing a broad

69 range of views on a specific topic, as opposed to achieving group consensus (Mack et al. 2005:52; Denzin & Lincoln, 2011:545).

In-depth interviewing involves open response questions to obtain data of participants’ meanings, how individuals conceive their world and how they make sense of important events in their lives (Mc Millan & Schumacher, 2006:350; Flick, 2014:207). Both the informal conversational interview and interview guide approach were used in order to gain information on the perception of the discipline system from a representative of the executive staff in order to compare the findings with those of the learners from the representative council of learners. It was hoped that by comparing these findings we could bridge the gap between those who implement the discipline system and those who are affected by it. It also showed the importance of including learners in the decisions which will govern their behaviour at school. These types of interviews were both relatively conversational and situational (Rossman & Rallis, 2011:177) (Appendix x).

Based on the results obtained from the research study, a comprehensive report was drawn up as feedback and submitted to the Gauteng Department of Education, executive staff of the secondary school, the school governing body and the representative council of learners.