Research Procedures

Because field work involves direct interaction with and observing the people being studied, the researcher had to strictly adhere to all ethical codes and be sensitive to the vulnerability of minors. The researcher thus first applied to the University of KwaZulu-Natal Ethics Committee for ethical clearance to conduct the study.

Upon receiving this committee’s ethical approval, the researcher contacted the receptionists at each identified school to set up appointments to meet with the school principals. The appointments were approved and the researcher was able to meet with the principals of each participating school on the scheduled times and dates. The researcher was introduced to the grade mentors who were responsible for selecting learners from each grade. These mentors were cooperative and provided me with all the necessary information on the daily proceedings of the school, the venue where the interviews were to be undertaken, as well as a suitable time for these interviews to be conducted. The researcher was sensitive not to impact on the teaching and learning processes.

4.5.1 Sampling

The population comprised senior secondary and junior secondary school learners and the sample was selected from the total number of learners from each school. It was important to identify the population first and then to select the sample (Ntuli, 2012:82). A purposive sampling technique was employed because, as Creswell (2009:178) advises, the idea behind qualitative research “is to purposefully select participants or sites (or documents or visual material) that will best help the researcher understand the problem and the research question”.

The two junior secondary and two senior secondary schools were purposively selected. One in each category was an orderly school with good infrastructure and one was a disorderly school with poor infrastructure.

The selection of schools with diverse disciplinary and infrastructural backgrounds was because it is generally assumed that orderly schools with good infrastructure and adequate resources tend to enable effective teaching and learning, while disorderly school environments, poor infrastructure and insufficient resources result in ineffective teaching and learning. Secondary schools were deliberately chosen for this study because the literature review had suggested that senior secondary

153

learners experience a higher rate of corporal punishment than junior secondary or primary school learners. Fifty learners within the Pinetown circuit were selected: 20 learners from the two junior secondary schools and 30 learners from the two senior secondary schools. Because it was found that most studies on corporal punishment had investigated the views of parents, guardians or educators, the learners were the key informants in this study that investigated the use of corporal punishment in an era when such a disciplinary practice has been outlawed. McMillan and Schumacher (2010:326) explain key informants as follows:

“Researchers search for information-rich key informants, groups, places or events to study; and these samples are chosen because they are likely to be knowledgeable and informative about the phenomena the researcher is investigating.”

A sample of 50 participants was selected from four co-educational schools in a township in KwaZulu-Natal. The 30 learners from the two senior secondary schools comprised 15 grade 11 and 15 grade 12 learners. In any secondary school, grade 11 is considered one of the most important grades as it prepares learners for grade 12, which is the exit point from basic education. In these grades, learners are expected to perform at their highest level in order to achieve the best results. However, anecdotal evidence and experience have shown that, in many township schools, these ‘best results’ are often achieved through the extensive use of corporal punishment in order to increase or maintain a high pass rate for the school.

Twenty learners were selected from two junior secondary schools (all were in grade 9, with 10 participants from each school). Grade 9 is considered as the ‘school leaving grade’ in junior secondary schools as this is the exit point (in terms of grade or age) when schooling is no longer compulsory for learners. Learners in grade 9 are regarded as seniors in the junior secondary school population and are expected to maintain an image of responsibility and maturity in the school. The same applies to learners in grades 11 and 12 where harsher forms of punishment are used as learners are expected to achieve the best results. The research was thus conducted among learners in grade 9, 11 and 12 as it had been assumed that these learners would have been exposed to the harshest forms of ‘discipline’. As was stated in Chapter One, this assumption was based on various snippets of information as well as exposure in the media. For example, in 2004 an incident occurred in one of the selected secondary schools where a 17-year-old boy died after being beaten by a

154

school principal for late coming. Recently, the community was shocked by the news that a 12- year-old grade 7 boy had been beaten by his teacher for ‘crossing out an incorrect word twice’. This boy sustained an injury to the palm of his hand.

Because it was impossible to trace all schools where corporal punishment had been exposed and to interview all the learners who had been involved either as victims or as peers/witnesses, the 50 participants were deemed a sufficient number to represent these four schools. However, the nature of the study was exploratory, and the sample was relatively limited and therefore the findings may not be generalised.

The purposive, simple random sampling technique was employed to select participants based on chance. According to Bruce (2001:47), this technique produces a representative sample that is sufficient for studies such as the current project. The process selects participants from an identified population in such a way that every unit in that population has the same chance (probability) of being included in the sample. In order to get a balanced view on the topic, 15 learners were randomly selected from each of the two senior secondary schools and 10 learners were selected from each of the two junior secondary schools. Bruce (2001:47) maintains that this form of sampling is sometimes referred to as judgmental sampling and that, “when developing a purposive sample, researchers use their special knowledge or expertise about some group to select subjects who represent this population”. The researcher was ably assisted by the grade mentors who had extensive knowledge of the learners and who could look after the interests of the learners as study subjects.

Table 4.1 below presents a summary of the study sample. For ethical reasons, the schools and all learners will be referred to by pseudonym and code in this study report.

155

Table 4.1: Summary of the study sample per school and per grade

SCHOOL NO. OF

PARTICIPANTS GRADES PARTICIPANTS AGE OF GENDER