Pilot Study

Following approval of the study by the ethics committee of the UNISA College of Education, Pretoria and the North West Department of Education, Dr Ruth S. Mompati, a pilot study phase was carried out at school E. The researcher conducted interviews with five in-school orphans aged 10 to16 years, including the two Life Orientation subject teachers who teach them, together with one social worker and one deputy principal responsible for discipline. The researcher conducted a few relevant observations on the behavioural patterns of orphaned learners. The researcher went on further to analyse a few documents used by the school such as attendance registers, class monitor sheets, report cards and disciplinary Committee‘s files to monitor the behaviour patterns of the in-schools orphaned learners. These procedures are in line with Strydom and Delport (2005:331), who stated that, in qualitative research, the pilot study is usually informal and a few respondents possessing the same characteristics as those of the main investigation can be involved in the study, merely to ascertain certain trends.

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The research site chosen is a neighbouring school which enrols children from the same community as the research sites for the main study. The main purpose was to determine whether relevant data could be obtained from the respondents. Many benefits were noted for doing this pilot study. First, it could allow the researcher to test certain questions enabling him to make modifications with a view to conducting quality interviewing during the main or actual investigation. Hence, the researcher assessed whether or not the wording of the questions was suitable for all categories of respondents. The researcher also determined whether the interview questions framed in the interview schedule were meaningful and clearly stated in order to bring to light possible wording ambiguities, disorganised sentences and illogical ordering of any of the questions. This enabled the researcher to check on possible omissions that could have been overlooked during the framing of the questions. Furthermore, to enhance the design of a quality research instruments the researcher handed in the designed research instrument to his research supervisor for analysis and for approval by the ethical research committee before it was used. The researcher finalised the construction of the research instruments taking the constructive ideas and feedback from all the above sources into consideration.

Additionally, the pilot study assisted the researcher to check for the validity and reliability of the research instruments in terms of question sequencing and possible content ambiguity, as well as to identify possible offensive or sensitive questions. Another benefit was that interactions were established during the interviewing process by the researcher. Third, the estimation of time needed to conduct the interview, which was 25-30 minutes, and the costs involved, were noted. Lastly, problems that could arise during the actual interview were pre-empted (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994:213). The above view is consolidated by Walliman (2005:282), who states that it is best to test the instrument on people of a type similar to that of the intended sample, so as to anticipate any problems of comprehension, or other sources of confusion.

4.3 Research Methodology

There are two research approaches, namely quantitative research and qualitative research. According to Sidhu (1997:245), quantitative research is used to answer

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questions about relationships among measured variables and testing hypotheses with the purpose of explaining, predicting and controlling the phenomena. It is research primarily concerned with identifying cause and effect. On the other hand, qualitative research is described by Cresswell (2003:181) as a type of scientific research that seeks to understand a given research problem or topic from the perspective of the local population it involves. Cresswell (2003:181) goes on to explain that qualitative research is especially effective in obtaining cultural specific information about values, opinions, behaviours and social contexts of a particular population.

Setati (2011:90) states that the decision that will finally influence the researcher to select a particular approach and research instrument will depend on what the researcher wants at the end of that particular investigation. In this study, the researcher seeks to establish the behavioural challenges of orphaned learners aged 10 and 16 years living in child headed households or heading these households – hence the qualitative research method is therefore an appropriate methodology. This approach yielded descriptive and narrative data that provided in-depth information that assisted in answering the research question and realising the aim of the study stated in paragraph 4.1.

There are many advantages linked to this qualitative methodology. One of the advantages is its ability to provide information about the ―human‖ side of an issue – that is; the often contradicting behaviours, beliefs, opinions, emotions and relationships of individuals (Merriam, 2002:91). The other advantage of qualitative approach is the use of open ended questions and probing that gives participants the opportunity to respond in their own words, rather than forcing them to choose from fixed responses (Mendelowitz, 2010:98). The author further states that open ended questions have the ability to evoke responses that are meaningful, rich and explanatory in nature for context, natural settings, participant observation, field study, descriptive data, emergent design and inductive analysis. Furthermore, qualitative methods also allow the researcher the flexibility to probe initial participant responses, that is, to ask why or how.This was common practice in this study. I listened carefully to what participants said during interviews, then engaged with them according to

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their individual personalities and styles and probed to encourage them to elaborate on their answers.

However, a disadvantage commonly levelled at the qualitative approach of inquiry is that it fails to adhere to the principles of validity and reliability which will be discussed in section 4.6 of this chapter. For example, Merriam (2002:101) describes qualitative research as undisciplined and sloppy because every researcher brings with him certain personal values, opinions, choices and power relations to the research situation. In the process, every research situation is unlikely to be exactly the same as previous ones. In spite of this weakness, in their defence many qualitative researchers argue that human knowledge is not irreducibly subjective. It must grasp the meanings of actions, the uniqueness of events and the individuality of persons which to them is strength and not a weakness (Henning 2003:6). It must be noted that qualitative research comes in different research designs and these are discussed in the next subsection.

4.3.1 Research Design

Speziale and Carpenter (2003:43) define research design as the consideration and creation of means of obtaining reliable, objective, generalised and valid data by means of which a formal announcement about the phenomenon may be confirmed or rejected. The two authors further indicate that the research design is a plan that will be applied during investigation in order to answer the research questions, and aims at trying to ensure that answers to questions are accurate. A research design therefore encompasses the methods and procedures employed by researchers to conduct scientific research. It also defines the study type. According to Mendelowitz (2010:99), qualitative researchers carefully select research design options that are congruent with their objectives and the phenomenon that they are studying.

There are many qualitative research designs used by researchers in scientific research. These include case studies, biography, ethnographic study, narrative analysis, grounded theory and phenomenological study, to mention the major ones. In this study, the researcher used the case study research design. A case study research design has many characteristics. One of the key characteristics is a focus upon particular individuals and groups of actors and their perceptions (Mendelowitz,

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2010:100). In other words, the sole criterion for selecting cases for case study should be, ―the opportunity to learn‖ from them (Stake (1995), cited by Strydom and Fouche, 2005:272). The research study focused on schooling orphaned children aged 10 to 16 years. It also included other categories of research participants who had educational knowledge about the orphaned learners. These included their Life Orientation subject educators, school based support team (SBST) members, social workers and School Management Team (SMT).

.It must however be noted that according to Marks (1996:219) cited in De Vos, Strydom, Fouche and Delport (2005:267), there are three types of case study all with different purposes. These include the intrinsic case study, which focuses solely on the aim of gaining a better understanding of the individual case. The purpose for this case study is merely to describe the case being studied. Another type of case study is the collective case study, which examines groups of cases, comparing cases and concepts, and also extending and validating existing theories. The third type of case study is the instrumental case study, which was used in this study and will be discussed in the next subsection.

4.3.2 Instrumental Case Study Research Design

According to Marks (1996:219) cited in De Vos et al (2005:267), the instrumental case study is used to elaborate on a theory, or to gain a better understanding of a social issue. The case study merely serves the purpose of facilitating the researcher‘s gaining of knowledge about the social issue. Given that the aim of the study was to address the behavioural challenges of school 10 to 16 year old orphans living in child headed households with the intention to develop a psycho-educational programme to enhance academic achievements, an instrumental case study design was the ideal method of inquiry. Johnson and Christensen (2008:408) state that in the instrumental case study design, the researcher chooses the case to develop and/or test a theory or to better understand some important issue. Explanation of the issue under investigation becomes a key goal in instrumental case study design. The researcher chose the instrumental case study design because he was generally interested in understanding the educational needs and challenges of schooling orphans in child headed households in terms of their academic performance,

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behavioural, emotional, and social schooling patterns. In other words, the case study served the purpose of facilitating the researcher‘s gaining of knowledge about the cited issues under investigation with the view to design a psycho-educational programme to support the orphaned learners.

The case study design plays a pivotal role in research. Lincoln and Gobi (1985), argue that the case study approach has many potential advantages for the naturalistic inquirer. First, this approach creates a lot of scope for the researcher to accommodate the multiple realities encountered in any given study. Second, the researcher can employ a re-check to determine adequacy of either behaviour performance or output through the use of multiple methods of data collection. Added to that, the present study had the additional feature of being a multiple case study. The researcher collected the data from different respondents/or participants, located at four different sites. Multiple case studies offer scope for greater variation across cases and a greater range of interpretations (Merriam, (1998:40). This practice has far reaching implications. According to Miles and Huber man (1994:29), researchers can ―strengthen the precision, the validity and the stability of the findings‖ through analysing data across cases, though it also has a potential challenge of management of the data. This can be over-whelming (Creswell, 2009:24). This will be discussed in greater detail on the section on data collection and analysis. Meanwhile the next discussion focuses on sampling.