RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

Reliability in research is concerned with issues of quality, consistency and accuracy of the research tools used in the study. Reliability is concerned with the extent to which this research can be replicated producing similar results (Bryman, 2008; Bush, 2007). In undertaking this research with five co-educational, state secondary schools in South Auckland it is recognised that the reliability of the research findings is questionable. If another researcher was to administer the tools at a different time in a different place, the findings may not be consistent with this research. Having said this, the literature review indicates that in different places around the world, similar issues to those highlighted by this research were also identified. This research generalises the findings to the population being studied and makes recommendations to educational leaders on the implications when designing induction programmes for OTTs. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007) state that “in qualitative research reliability can be regarded as the fit between what researchers record as data and what actually occurs in the natural setting being researched” (p. 149).

Creswell and Plano Clark (2007) and Bryman (2004) indicate that member checking, also referred to as respondent validation, is one way to check the accuracy of the information gained through the semi-structured interviews. In this research, once the interviews were transcribed, and before any analysis took place, the data was checked by participants. Semi-structured interviews are more difficult to ensure reliability as with each interview having many impromptu prompts it is unlikely this research could be replicated.

Research may be reliable but this does not imply that it is valid. Validity is concerned with the question of whether the tools employed “measure what they are supposed to measure” (Bush, 2007, p. 102). Validity was considered in two ways, internal and external validity. One way of ensuring internal validity is through triangulation of the data.

Triangulation in this study ensured a measure of validity primarily through the use of different research methods. “Triangulation involves the use of different methods and sources to check the integrity of, or extend, inferences drawn from data” (Ritchie, 2003, p. 43). The questionnaire, conducted at the same time as the documentary analysis, ensured that not only was the data rich and deep, but the questionnaire findings were cross-checked using the documentary analysis of the relevant school, union and government documentation. The researcher was able to be confident about the findings when “the more the methods contrast with each other, the greater the researcher‟s confidence” (Cohen et al., 2007, p. 141). As Denzin and Lincoln (2005) state, “the use of multiple methods, or triangulation, reflects an attempt to secure an in-depth understanding of the phenomena in question” (p. 5). Punch (2005) agrees and observes that “qualitative researchers study spoken and written word representations and records of human experience, using multiple methods and multiple sources of data” (p. 168). Quantitative research requires the views of a large sample to be collected and analysed and is not concerned with rich descriptions as they hinder the generalisations being made (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). In contrast qualitative research uses “samples that are small in scale and purposively selected on the basis of salient criteria” (Snape & Spencer, 2003, p. 5).

The semi-structured interviews allowed the researcher to gain different perspectives using similar interview questions bringing “to bear two or more viewpoints … with a view to characterising the occasion so as to accommodate, or account for, all these viewpoints” (McFee, cited in Bell, 2007, p. 100). Interviewing OTTs from each of the first, second and third year of teaching in New Zealand, as well as the principals and their induction co-ordinators, allowed for a fuller picture of the situation through the examination of the different viewpoints from different levels in the schools. The methods used in this study for the collection and analysis of data facilitated the triangulation of the data and ensured trustworthiness thus ensuring the quality and validity of the research. Bush (2007) agreed stating that “triangulation means comparing many sources of evidence in order to determine the accuracy of information … It is essentially a means of cross-checking data to establish its validity” (p. 100)

If the explanation can be sustained by cross-checking the data, this increases internal validity. In this research the truthfulness of the questionnaire responses can be judged by the documentary analysis and by the multiple representations of the phenomena in the semi-structured interviews of both the OTTs and the senior managers involved with their transition into New Zealand secondary schools. Bush (2007) cautions that “the main potential source of invalidity in interviews is bias” (p. 98). This is difficult to eliminate, especially in semi-structured interviews. The researcher was cognisant of this bias and sought to reduce it by pilot testing the interview guides and by ensuring that no leading questions were used to influence the responses of the interviewees.

External validation in qualitative research refers more to the credibility or confidence in the data rather than in its ability to be generalised (Cohen et al., 2007). The design of the study was considered with this is mind so that rich and deep descriptions could be detailed so “that others can decide the extent to which findings from one piece of research can be generalizable to another situation” (Schofield, 1990, cited in Cohen et al., 2007, p. 137). One threat to the generalisation of the research to another situation is in the small sample in this research. With only 25 participants taking part in the questionnaire and nine participants in the semi-structured interviews, it is not possible to apply any generalisations to the general population but it is possible to make recommendations based on the findings.