The qualitative phenomenological case study made use of multiple research instruments once again involving triangulation in data collection. See data matrix in Table 3.
The 20 OVC were involved in some focus group discussion interviews (Appendices 12) and responding to an open-ended questionnaire (Appendices 9a and 9b). The questionnaire allowed each OVC some access to the instrument just before and during the interviews. Views of the District Education Officer, Social Welfare Officer, 4 school heads and 8 teachers were obtained through a stakeholder‟s interview guide (Appendices 10a and 10b). Teachers conducted observations (Appendix 11). The researcher had to train teachers as assistant researchers within their schools before the data were collected. This was in line with ethical requirements stipulated in Newcombe (2010) and the UNISA Policy on Ethics (2007).The teachers helped to observe targeted OVC as they taught them and made recordings on an observation checklist stipulated by the researcher. Here, participant-observation options were utilized. Observation procedures involved listening to orphan‟s case stories and learning problems and possibly interviewing them to probably get the extent of their traumatic and non-traumatic learning experiences.
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Prior to visiting the schools and CHHs, the researcher needed to obtain permission to do research in Chipinge district. Permission by UNISA had been granted tentatively on the onset when the researcher got registered for the D.Ed programme and the proposal was accepted. (See appendix 1a). Some senior Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) ministry‟s authorities had to be consulted, starting from the Chipinge District Administrator at the Chipinge Local Government Office, to seeking consent of the Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Sport, Art and Culture (MoEASC) at the Zimbabwe MoEASC head-office, as well as the Provincial Education Director in Manicaland and the Education Officer at the MoEASC Chipinge district office. Even if the Local Government ministry is not „education‟ it was prudent and necessary to first seek permission here to avoid instances where the research endeavors would be misconstrued as politically motivated. Permission was, however, granted without any challenges; first verbally through the phone, followed by written permission posted from each of the four offices that needed to give their consent for the researcher to embark on the study (See Appendices 1b, 2, 3, 4 and 5).
A baseline survey helped to check on the feasibility of the study within Chipinge district and to get an idea of the total target and accessible population of OVC within the CHHs and significant stakeholders in Chipinge district. Refer to sampling frames in tables 2(a) and 2(b). The gathered baseline data confirmed the research questions, the theoretical framework, and assumptions thereof (Desai and Potter, 2010; Cohen et al, 2011). The base-line survey also enabled the researcher to find out more on the ethical and legal needs of orphans in relation to their learning, cognition and research involvement. The collection of data began from interviews with OVC, to those with stakeholders and eventually the mounting of focus group discussions. Observations remained a continuous process up to end of data analysis.
A preliminary visit to some CHHs and schools was also necessary to establish the total number of schools visited as well as their distances apart. The preliminary survey helped to locate the greater prevalence of OVC in both urban and rural Chipinge district. Four out of the thirty four (34) secondary schools were purposefully picked up because details given proved that the greater numbers of the OVC found here were attending schools from CHHs. In each of the four schools (3rural and 1 urban); 5double orphans (making a total of 20), the school head (4 in all), 2
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teachers (8 in all), 1 Education Officer and a Social Welfare Officer were purposively selected to make a total sample of 34 participants.
An application letter was prepared for both the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) stakeholders who granted the researcher permission to work with OVC. A letter addressing participants was used as a cover note for each instrument. This was one other means of trying to enhance a conducive atmosphere for the fieldwork. Appointments to schools were confirmed through telephoning.
Pilot testing was done in two secondary schools in nearby Chimanimani district to check on the validity and reliability of research tools meant for the study. The pilot results from the interview schedule items indicated that most of the OVC who participated blamed both orphanhood and low socio-economic status variables as affecting their learning and cognition adversely. This was followed by a further blame on parenting responsibilities and loneliness that was caused by being parentless. Few amendments were done on the data collection instruments after the pilot study. The researcher needed to insert a column for comments on the observation guide. The results at pilot level also assisted the researcher to strategise best ways of presenting the results when the actual fieldwork was completed. Instruments were then sent to the research supervisor for overall expert validation before main data was collected.
After all the necessary corrections, modifications and further validation by the supervisor, instruments were reprinted and the actual fieldwork conducted. Working with OVC was scheduled in such a way that there was no major disruption of school lessons. The researcher targeted sessions meant for class study and extracurricular activities to save valuable time in the learning of OVC within the schools. Each focus group discussion, observation session and audio recording needed about 1 hour 45 minutes per day, outside data transcription times.
The idea of triangulation was utilized during data collection procedures to cross-check the various data sources enlisted. The use of more than one method of enquiry yielded substantial advantages (Fraenkel and Wallen, 2000). The triangulation of research procedures and techniques was necessary in researching real life situations as in the case of this descriptive
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phenomenological case study on the effects of orphanhood on learning and cognition of OVC from CHHs, because of the multiple causes that accounted for portrayed OVC behaviour.
The Tesch‟s open coding method of qualitative data analysis (Tesch, 1990 in Creswell, 2002), that makes use of data analysis to identify themes and categories, was used as the data analysis tool. According to Tesch cited in Yin (2003), Creswell(2002), and(White, 2005), the model is a systematic process of examining, selecting, categorizing, comparing, synthesizing and interpreting data to address the initial sub-problems.
The idea of carrying out the study`s fieldwork in closer consecutive dates was to ensure that the responses remained valid and reliable before the end of the fieldwork. It would have been unwise to allow too long gaps in between the fieldwork for there was a possibility of participants discussing and distorting participants‟ views and perceptions beforehand. Closer dates also catered for climatic conditions in which the researcher wanted participants to be exposed. The same climatic conditions for all participants was ideal, to ensure uniformity and no bias within the interviewing sessions (Denscombe, 2007), hence the use of warm afternoons in the schools. The sitting arrangement for focus group discussions necessitated a circular arrangement or a row-system to encourage sharing amongst participants during focus group discussions. Weaning of participants or termination of data collection procedures was quite easy and all participants cooperated because they had been informed right from the beginning that the research procedure was eventually going to be terminated after the debriefing processes.