Oralidad y comunicación oral

According to Punch (2000), limitations are those factors or conditions that are unavoidably present in the research. In my research, the first limitation was my capacity to source all necessary documents to inform the document analysis and subsequent in-depth interviews. Some critical documents were not made available by the schools under study, especially the underperforming schools. The limitation of having few available documents was compounded by the fact that my presence during observations was seen by some managers, teachers and learners as intrusive and this resulted in them behaving unnaturally. Another limitation of this research was the degree to which the participants contributed meaningfully and honestly to the research through semi-structured interviews. Specifically, the degree of respect and loyalty or friendship present within SMTs may have made SMT members less likely to reveal the truth about the operations and motivations of each other.

However, these limitations were sufficiently addressed by using multiple data collection techniques as other data sources, especially interviews, offset the anticipated challenge of having few documents. The reliability threat of interview data was overcome by using observations. By observing the members of the SMT interacting in a meeting or teaching lessons in classrooms provided me with an opportunity to identify behaviours exhibited by members of the SMTs that shed light on the kind of relationship that exist amongst the team members, and this allowed me to treat the emerging data with caution.

82 4.10. Delimitations of the study

Delimitations are the boundaries the researcher places around the study to ensure it remains manageable (Punch, 2000). In my research, these delimitations included: (a) limiting the examination of the phenomenon of moral purpose to only six secondary schools within two districts, namely, Capricorn and Mopani, with only fifteen SMT members interviewed, thus ensuring that a manageable amount of material was collected in terms of the time frame for the study (b) avoiding using my own school as a formal context for the research, as this would have run the risk of becoming subjectively involved, leading to my own bias getting the better of my observations (c) limiting the amount of data collection by restricting the examination of the capacity of the SMTs to the views of the principals, deputy principal(s) and heads of department and the principles outlined in the document analysis (Other possible sources of data in this research could have included teachers and learners) and (d) since unnecessarily longer interviews would have made them difficult to transcribe and analyse, the researcher limited the allocation of time for each interview to approximately one hour thus allowing for some depth of interview.

4.11. Chapter summary

This chapter presented a detailed description of the research methodology. Initially, the chapter explored the constructivist worldview as a means by which I attempted to describe my relationship with the participants in the study. The constructivism paradigm positioned the study as a qualitative research design. The purpose and justification of each of the three data collation methods were clarified within the broader qualitative research methodology. The data collection techniques included a series of semi-structured interviews, document collection and analysis and observations. The chapter included the data analysis process. It concluded with an exploration of the importance of credibility, transferability and dependability as important aspects of trustworthiness, an

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acknowledgement of the relevant ethical issues and an outline of the delimiters and limitations of the study. The next chapter explores the data generated by the research methods outlined in chapter four. The responses from participants will be organised accordingly and examined according to the four research questions that underline this study.

84 Chapter 5 The research findings

5.1. Introduction

This research was designed with a chief research question that seeks to answer how school management teams cultivate moral purpose in Limpopo secondary schools. This chapter examines the responses elicited from the four research questions. The data has been organised in accordance with the four research questions and categories. Within these four research questions, data was classified according to sets of interview questions as well as the emerging themes identified through close reading of the interview transcripts. Data from interviews was complemented by data obtained through document analysis and observations. As Table 5.1 indicates, responses to research question 1 have been organised around four themes. Two themes are explored in the discussion of the responses to research question two, while responses to research question three have been organised around one theme. Responses to research question four have been organised around one theme. Therefore, data was organised around a total of eight themes.

The table 5.1 shows the organisation of the themes. As it was analysed, data was classified according to these provisional themes, however, a number of initial themes were rejected as insufficient data was generated during the research process to justify their retention, consequently new themes were developed to take account of themes that arose during the data analysis process. These new themes were classified under categories. The chapter presents the data gathered through interviews, analysis of foundational documents, and observation. The interviews present the chief data, and the observation data and documents analysis data were reported where these were felt to be helpful to present a comprehensive portrayal of the phenomenon under investigation.

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Table 5.1 Research Questions and Emerging Categories and Themes

The following key was used to distinguish the participants from each other and their

Research Questions Category Emerging Themes Section

What do the members of

86 Apple High School’s Academic Tutor Orange High School Deputy Principal Orange High School Head of Department A Orange High School Head of Department B Peach Secondary School Acting Principal

Peach Secondary School Acting Deputy Principal Peach Secondary School Head of Department A Peach Secondary School Head of Department B Banana Secondary School Principal

Grape High School Head of Department A Grape High School Head of Department B Strawberry High School