Research methods

4.6.2.1 Quantitative method

According to Marshall (1996: 522), the researcher’s choice of the research method does not depend on his/her preference. It lies on the type of the research to be conducted. The main purpose of taking the quantitative approach in research is to test the pre-determined hypotheses, with the aim of producing a generalisable body of information. Studies of this nature are important in answering more mechanistic ‘what’ questions. On the opposite side, qualitative studies tend to provide clarification and an insight on the ‘complex psychosocial issues’, through humanistic questions such as, ‘why’ and ‘how’ (Marshall, 1996:522).

There was a need to implement the quantitative method because I was already aware of the ‘pre-determined hypothesis’, that, the number of young women is higher than that of young men in higher education institutions in South Africa. However, young women’s numbers are significantly low in the STEM fields, in those institutions. So, for this research, besides the abovementioned situation of young women, numbers were very important as they were at the centre of the hypothesis. Before I could understand the reasons that caused this disparity, as a researcher, I had to verify that information, which dictated the quantitative method right from the beginning of this study. Secondly, the aim of this research determined working with numbers, which also directed to the qualitative research method.

This method added a lot of value to this study since the number of young women in the STEM career fields in the researched universities were acquired and compared to that of young women who were enrolled in the social fields. To conduct the survey, questionnaires were used to determine what might inform a relevant and responsive programme, to encourage more young women to participate in the STEM fields than it was the case. That was necessary for this study since social transformation is a dependent variable of economic empowerment. In the same way, balancing between STEM and social fields in South African universities is a dependent variable to socioeconomic sustainability.

As indicated under sampling, the respondents of questionnaires were far more than the participants who were interviewed. This is supported by Erwin and Maurutto (1998:56) when they state that questionnaires are critical for covering socio- demographics. Davies (2007:82) adds to that by highlighting that questionnaires are intended to facilitate communication, are usually brief but always driven by the researcher’s own agenda. The responses provided should be treated as absolute, which assists the researcher to take decisions after considering them and the responses from a number of other questionnaires. In this study, the respondents to three different questionnaires were participants from different sectors within the STEM and university spheres, i.e. lecturers, students and administrator, who in their areas of operation managed to provide supplementary information that matched and contributed towards the research outcome.

4.6.2.2 Qualitative method

In addition to the quantitative method of data collection, there was a need for the use of qualitative method as well. This study had to find the in-depth understanding on all aspects, including the experiences of young women as well as the way they are perceived by society that influences their choice of careers, resulting in most of them choosing careers in the social fields and few in the STEM fields. Therefore, interviews were conducted as part of the data collection method.

According to Grix (2010:120-121), qualitative researchers work as philosophical interpreters, using methods that generate data as well as those that are flexible and sensitive to the social context in which data are produced. On the other hand, Naoum (2013:41) reports that this method is perceived to be subjective in nature since it emphasizes meanings, experiences, descriptions, etc. and is often verbally given, i.e. through interviews. Creswell et al. (2010) explain an interview as a two-way conversation in which the interviewer asks the participant or interviewee questions as a way of collecting data and learning about the ideologies, beliefs, opinions and behaviours of the participant in order to understand the world in which the participant lives. This study had to find out if young people in general and young women in particular, were aware of the skills that were critical to the economic market of the country as well as the fact that their socioeconomic empowerment is necessary for

their attainment of sustainable/holistic youth development. If these concerns were proved to be positive, i.e. young people were aware of them, it would mean that the reasons for young women choosing careers other than the STEM fields are caused by social stereotypes that these fields are meant for men and not for women. Semi- structured interviews were conducted as part of data collection for this study, as I wanted to understand the behaviours of young women, within the themes that were generated ahead of the interviews. However, this type of interview allowed the participants to provide more in-depth information guided by probing questions where they seemed to be derailing from the intended themes.

In their research, which is closely related to this study, based on their concerns about the lower number of young women in the STEM fields, Erwin and Maurutto (1998:56) used in-depth semi-structured interviews to explore the perceptions and principles to disclose the social concepts, experiences, beliefs and systems that influenced young women’s behaviour and expectations of universities as well as their gender relations. However, Bryman (2004:319–21) argues that unstructured interviews are open- ended, in-depth and designed to obtain detailed data from a participant using follow- up questions while semi-structured interviews are a method of understanding the behaviours of people without classifying them in advance, which could limit the scope of the research.

Davies (2007:29) states that semi-structured interviews stimulate reflection and exploration. As a result, the questions have to be simple. He claims that an interview is a tool concerned with people’s feelings and that it is good at enabling the researcher to learn, at first-hand, about people’s perspectives on the subject chosen as the project’s focus. It can therefore lead to significant advances in the theoretical understanding of a social reality.

Davies (2007:30) maintains that group interviews are used to identify trends of thoughts and feelings among the interviewees; the researcher’s own views should never become obvious. In summary, McMillan and Schumacher (2010) regard interviews in general as enabling the researcher to obtain information on how the participants perceive their world and how they explain and understand important events that are happening in their lives.

4.7 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION METHODS