Research Process 29 

The research questions that were developed following discussions with interested practitioners included: What goals did this group of teachers set for themselves and why? What challenges and opportunities did these participants face both professionally and personally after they returned to school? What strategies did they use to negotiate these challenges? The research process was underpinned by two overlapping phases of data collection.

3.5.1 Phase One: Questionnaire

Phase one of this research consisted of the collection and analysis of a detailed written questionnaire. The questionnaire, according to Cohen, Manon & Morrison (2007), “is a widely used and useful instrument for collecting survey information, providing structured, [and] often numerical data” (p. 317). The questionnaire used in this research project contained a combination of factual, dichotomous and open-ended questions. Cohen, Manon & Morrison (2007) state it is the open-ended question that “is a very attractive device for smaller scale research or for those sections of a questionnaire that incite an honest, personal comment from respondents”. Responses to open-ended questions “might contain ‘gems’ of information that otherwise might not be caught in the questionnaire” (p. 330). Participants were sent an 18-page questionnaire (see Appendix 5) seeking demographic information and information about influential learning experiences that participants had encountered on the Summer School and Hōaka Pounamu programme that they might wish to transfer into their classrooms. The questionnaire also sought to elicit information about the participants’ use of te reo Māori prior to and after completion of the Hōaka Pounamu course and also information about their participation in cultural activities within their respective whānau, hapū and iwi settings. This information provided a foundation for discussion during the second phase of the data collection when individual interviews were carried out.

3.5.2 Phase Two: Interviews with participants

The second phase of the data collection process was carried out using a semi-structured interview schedule (see Appendix 6). This provided a more in-depth investigation of data collected in the first phase and enabled the identification of additional sources of data. The objectives which guided this second phase included a further investigation of the significant challenges and opportunities the interviewees identified after a year in the classroom, and a consideration of the strategies they used to negotiate these. The goals that these teachers had, set for themselves were considered and reflected on.

These semi-structured interviews enabled participants to share their experiences of the first 12 months back at school. Burns (2000) suggests that such “illustrative data provides a sense of reality” (p. 423) that indicates what an informant feels and perceives in a specific point of time. The interview technique also allowed participants the freedom to comment on

specific content of the research without being confined by overly structured wording or format.

I chose to interview the participants because, as Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007) suggest, the interview process provides a “flexible tool for data gathering” and because “the order of the interview may be controlled while still giving space for spontaneity, and the interviewer can press not only for complete answers but also for responses about complex and deep issues” (p. 349). More specifically an elite interview or ‘key informant interview’ according to Anderson (1999) is valuable when directed at a respondent “who has particular experience or knowledge about the subject being discussed” (p. 191).

As Smith (1999) and Hemara (2000) suggest, the opportunity to kōrero ‘kanohi ki te kanohi’ (face-to-face) is often found embedded within the broad framework of kaupapa Māori methodologies. This, accordingly, allowed me to conduct this research in a culturally- responsive manner. Interviews were conducted at a suitable time and venue of each participant’s choice and took approximately 60 minutes to complete. With the permission of participants, all interviews were audio-taped with the assistance of a Sony ICD-UX60 IC Recorder, transcribed and returned to the participant for verification and correction. This process, known as ‘legitimisation’ is important because as Bishop (1998) suggests:

The kaupapa Māori position regarding legitimisation is based on the notion that the world constitutes multiple differences and that there are different cultural systems that legitimately make sense of and interact meaningfully with the world. Kaupapa Māori research, based on a different world-view from that of the dominant discourse, makes this political statement while also acknowledging the need to recognise and address the ongoing effects of racism and colonialism in the wider society. (p. 12)

The focus of the interviews was twofold. Firstly, I focused on a deeper investigation of the teachers’ pedagogical experiences after they had returned to the classroom, as well as the challenges they faced incorporating kaupapa Māori into their teaching environment. I also sought to investigate the strategies that these participants used to negotiate the challenges they faced. The interview schedule (see Appendix 6) consisted of seven questions.

Each interview was audio-taped, recorded and transcribed for thorough data analysis. To conduct this analysis, I read each transcript and noted patterns of recurring themes among the transcripts. I then compared the findings and identified a number of dominant themes in the interview narratives.