Research setting and sampling

The time and the resources that were available naturally influenced the methodological decisions for this study. To delineate the sample, a set of inclusion criteria was used to specify the attribute that each young woman must possess to qualify for our study, that is, she had to be a Shona female aged between 18 and 30 (an age range mature enough to respond to questions related to both cultural and formal sex education), had a religious background and had to be from any part of Zimbabwe. The cross-cultural nature of this research project gave an initial sample heterogeneous nature of eleven (11) young Shona women (A1-A11).

Unfortunately, A1, A3 and A6 had to be excluded from our sample as they failed to respond to at least fifty percent of the interview questions due to personal reasons known to them.

Failure to collect enough data from these three young women contributed to the reason of their exclusion.

3.2.1 Sampling method

The fieldwork took place between August 2015 and December 2016 where the study aimed at a sample of different ethnic Shona groups from different religious backgrounds in Zimbabwe. The study focused on the Shona culture that is predominant in Harare.

Due to the local knowledge the researcher had, the nature of the study and the sensitivity of the context at hand, the intention was to mainly use the opportunistic or emergent sampling.

During the field work, theopportunity sampling was eventually grouped together with other incidental types of sampling such as ethnographic and purposeful sampling (combination sampling). Consequently, the researcher conveniently used the young women she came across with and that were available at that moment in time, in other words, availability sampling was used by randomly approached ordinary young women on the streets, at the market, in the neighborhood and from other different corners of Harare. Before approaching any young woman, the researcher first looked around the area to identify those who more relaxed who did not look too busy. After approaching them, the researcher presented herself in a very friendly manner and ask if they had time to spare and be interviewed. This was quite a challenging part because she had to surreptitiously intrude into the young woman’s personal lives to explain the purpose of the interview and the subject matter at hand which is a taboo and an unmentionable topic in the Shona culture. Due to the nature of the study and the subject, convenience sampling made it easier for me to get a required sample.

The practical reality during the field work however lead me to alter the sample size within the agreed parameters. According to some researchers, the size of the sample when conducting interviews, should be large enough to collect as much data as possible until no new phenomena or concept emerge (Silverman, 2010; Boddy & Boddy, 2016). It was therefore important for me to realize that I had hit the peak of my data and that I had not left out anything missing.

To gurantee the research ethics proceedings, the research was based on participants' freely volunteered informed consent. The researcher had the responsibility to explain fully and meaningfully what the research was about and how it would be disseminated. Participants

were made aware of their right to refuse to participate; to understand the extent to which con-fidentiality would be maintained; to be aware of the potential uses to which the data might be put.

3.2.2 Participants for in-depth interviews

To characterize the research sample, the following information about the eight interviewees is presented as follows: They all claimed to be Christians and they all echoed that they were brought up under strict Christian norms.

Three of the women (A5, A9 and A11) had an urban upbringing and the other five A2, A4, A7, A8 and A10) had rural backgrounds. This was a true representation of the characteristic urban migration in Zimbabwe. Urban migration is regarded as a process that involves the movement of people from rural to urban areas in search of greener pastures or better living and employment conditions and opportunities. As expressed by Munyoro, Kabange and Dzapasi, (2016), the rural urban migration in Zimbabwe increased considerably and was triggered by natural disasters such as drought and famine. This explains the fact that five out of eight of the participants had migrated from rural areas.

Five of the young women (A4, A5, A7, A9 and A10) were married all with children from their marriages, yet another evidence on the importance given to marriage and procreation in the Shona culture. Whereas A2, A8 and A11 were single and claimed not to have any sexual history, indirectly implying that they were still virgins, a typical response expected to be given by any single well cultured young woman. According to the Shona culture, this an epiphonema of a young woman who is marriage quality that shows how virginity is still a determining factor for any woman who intends to enter into matrimony the correct way.

The youngest woman from the sample was twenty years old and single, and the oldest was thirty years old and married with two children. Interestingly enough, none of the married women had more than three children, reflecting the fairly low fertility rate in Zimbabwe (2.80 children). Comparing to the demographic results published by the Oxford institute of population in 2015 of other African countries that were as follows; South Africa, 2.40, Botswana, 2.80; Mozambique, 5.80; Angola 6.0 Nigeria, 5.30 and Senegal 5.60 (Machiyama, 2010).

The young women who participated in the interviews, came from different Shona ethnic groups, i.e. Zezuru, Ndau, Kore kore, Karanga and Changani. According to Solano-Flores (2009), people from the same culture have common beliefs, experiences communication patterns, common set of values, teaching and learning skills and even epistemologies. In this study, these ethnic groups stemmed from urban settings and they showed to be cultural variations due to the very different experiences in their lives. These differences were influenced by the different multicultural community around them and their different religious and family backgrounds. In Zimbabwe, ethnic groups in urban settings (in Harare in this case), can be strongly influenced by the sacred and the spiritual material areas of life.

As field notes, it was noted how the young women characterized and understood their sexuality. What is going on with their sexuality? What assumptions do they make? Field notes were also noted. These notes helped to visualize what was going on with their sexuality especially when asked very sensitive questions? The field notes were very useful in getting a better reflection of what had been recorded i.e. facial expressions, body language, gestures of discomfort or embarrassment.

Interpretative research methods assume that researchers create and associate their own subjective and intersubjective meanings as they interact with the social world around them (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). The approach was appropriate for this study because it helped to understand the processes underlying the influence that religion and culture has on formal sex education in schools. This was achieved through accessing the values and meanings that the young women assigned to sexuality in Africa. In addition, this was very valuable as it allowed the collection of data rich in attitudes, beliefs and values associated with sexuality. The information gathered was therefore not constrained by rigid data collecting frameworks that may have limited the ability to capture cultural, religious and social paradigms that influence formal sex education in schools.