TABULACIÓN DE RESPUESTAS RELACIONADAS A LOS PROPIETARIOS:

In what follows, I shall analyse how this study has positioned itself in relation to the central issues mentioned in the previous section.

To begin with, as a case study, this project – like all case studies – sought to give an in- depth and realistic description of the phenomenon under analysis. Additionally, a

78 reliance on qualitative data was deemed appropriate due to the fact that relevant aspects of school environments and the cultures of learning that prevail at them simply cannot be captured through quantitative data. Since these aspects of the environments naturally mediate how learners deal with academic work, such qualitative data provide an indispensable tool for understanding why learners may engage with academic work in one way rather than another.

However, due to this study’s main research goal – to measure the impact of an EAP course on the academic writing skills of economically disadvantaged matric learners – a controlled form of data collection was also used. According to Henning et al (2004), in such an approach data is typically collected and processed statistically via quantitative methods. In relation to this particular study, marking criteria and grades were used to generate clear-cut numerical data about the degree to which the students’ written assignments met with commonly accepted standards in academic writing. In addition to this quantitative data, a comparison between the learners’ early assignments and later assignments was used to provide an illuminating qualitative measure of the degree to which the course improved the learners’ writing skills.

Due to its reliance on qualitative and quantitative data, this study adopted a ‘mixed methods’ approach (see Creswell 2013). According to Clarke & Yaros (1988) a mixed methods approach is helpful due to the manner in which it generates multiple perspectives on complex social phenomena. Similarly, other researchers (Steckler McLeroy, Goodman, Bird & McCormick 1992) have noted that because certain case scenarios – relating to health and education – are invariably complex, “a broad spectrum of qualitative and quantitative methods” (Sale, Joanna, Holfield & Brazil 2002: 4) are required. In terms of the precise way in which the quantitative and qualitative data are mixed, this study will adopt what Creswell (2013: 208) refers to as an “embedded” strategy. When ‘embedding’ takes place a researcher has “a primary aim to collect one form of data (say quantitative) and have the other form of data (say qualitative) provide supportive information” (Creswell (2013: 208). Adopting a slight variation of the

79 embedding methodology mentioned by Creswell, this study used both quantitative (grade-based) data and qualitative (observation and interview based) data to support theoretical conclusions about a primary qualitative data source (the learners’ written EAP assignments).

As the previous section explored, due to the way in which case studies confine themselves to a particular social environment (or area of interest), it is arguably the case that their findings can be idiosyncratic and unrepresentative of the class of social phenomena that is being examined. For example, if a researcher conducts an ethnographic case study to understand the culture of drug abuse at a single no-fees school in the Western Cape, it could be argued that their findings provide no basis for understanding how the culture of drug abuse operates in most other non-fee paying schools in the Western Cape (let alone South Africa). This is because it is entirely conceivable that there could be considerable environmental variance between one non- fee paying Western Cape school and another, such that the factors contributing to drug abuse in one school differ from the factors that contribute to drug abuse in another school.

Although this is a legitimate concern, it presents no serious threat to the relevance of this study’s findings. In this respect, this study implemented the same intervention programme (i.e. an EAP course) at two research sites (i.e. two economically disadvantaged [township] South African schools) to diminish the chances that it would generate unrepresentative data. In addition, the researcher’s findings at both sites were strikingly similar. The considerable strength of this overlap suggests such results may obtain at other (similar) sites, as it seems plausible to suppose that a strong overlap is more demonstrative of a general pattern than a weak one.

Finally, it is important to point out that there are empirical reasons for believing that there is not a huge amount of environmental variance in South African townships schools. In this respect, there is much evidence that – in general – these schools face an

80 array of recurrent problems (e.g. poor teaching, low academic performance, lack of materials, poor maintenance, etc. [Christie 2008; Wilkinson 2015]). The uniform plight of poor (traditionally black) South African schools is further accentuated by comparative analyses of how primary school African learners compare – academically – to white and coloured student cohorts. In this respect, Spaull (2013: 14) for example notes

prePIRLS (2011) showed that Grade Four pupils from rural areas and townships are two to two and a half years behind urban children in reading. The National School Effectiveness Study (2007/08/09) showed that Grade Three pupils from former-white schools scored higher on the same test than Grade Five pupils from former-black schools, showing that already by the age of eight there are large inequalities in the educational outcomes of pupils.

Lam et. al (2011: 11 & 16) provide data on how these levels of academic inequality persist into high school, and manifest themselves in drop-out rates and matric results:

While 93% of whites who were in grade 8 in 2002 advanced to grade 11 or 12 by 2005, the experience of African youths […] is very different. Among Africans who were in grade 8 in 2002, only 36% had reached grade 11[…]. About 78% of Africans passed the [matric] exam on their first attempt, compared to 90% of coloureds and 99.6% of whites. [in addition] only 18% of Africans passed [the matric exam] with exemption, compared to 23% of coloureds and 59% of whites.

All this evidence demonstrates that – in general – black South African schools are characterised by low academic achievement (due to the factors mentioned earlier), and that this underachievement is so pronounced that it creates stark discrepancies between the academic performance of African, white and coloured students. Indeed, in 2013, in a parliamentary media briefing the basic education minister (Angie Motshekga) stated that“[t]he diagnostic test of the [National Development Plan] found] 80% of [South Africa] schools [to be] dysfunctional” (Wilkinson 2015). As the head of the civil rights group Afriforum – Ernst Roets – correctly notes, it is no secret that the overwhelming majority of these dysfunctional schools are located in South African townships (see Wilkinson 2015). Given this situation, it is not unreasonable to believe that townships schools – in many relevant areas – are quite similar to one another.

81 Due to the way in which this study implemented an intervention at two Western Cape township schools, it can, according to Yin’s (2003) typology be classified as a multiple case study. In line with Yin’s classification of multiple case studies, this study therefore sought to comparatively analyse qualitative and quantitative data from the learners at both schools. This was done in order to discover cross-case verisimilitudes and generate predictive theories on the basis of these similarities. Specifically, this study compared the learners’ pre-intervention writing samples, EAP coursework, attendance rates, course-evaluation questionnaire answers and interview responses to generate broad, predicative theories about the academic impact of the EAP course and the learners’ motivational psychology.

Finally, a case study design was deemed appropriate for this project due to potential entanglements between phenomenon and context [see Yin (2003)]. In this respect, the researcher decided that critical aspects of the learners’ educational psychology would either be altered or made invisible if the EAP course was conducted in a learning context that removed the learners from their typical schooling environment. In addition to the logistical difficulties of hosting the EAP course outside the learners’ school premises, it was also reasoned that if the researcher engaged with the learners in a novel learning environment, there would be less of a chance that the broader culture of learning at the schools would permeate the EAP classroom environment. Firmly situating the EAP course within the warp and weave of the learners’ ordinary school environment was important, as the researcher – for a host of practical reasons – anticipated that future versions of the EAP course could be most feasibly implemented at the same schools in which enrolled learners attended.