Kurebwa mercy thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for doctor of philosophy

3.2 RESEARCH PARADIGM

These persuasions share the goal of understanding the complex world of lived experiences from the point of view of those who live in it .The goal is variously spoken of as an abiding concern for the life world, for the emic point of view for understanding meaning, for grasping the actors’ definition of the situation, for verstehem. The world of lived reality and situations specific meanings that constitute the general object of investigation is thought to be constructed by social actors.

The constructivist recognises the importance of subjective human creation and is built upon the premise of social construction (Baxter & Jack, 2008). The approach enables the collaboration between the researcher and the participants ‘while enabling the participants to tell their stories’ (Crabtree & Miller 1999:10 in Baxter & Jack, 2008). Furthermore, knowledge is established through the meanings attached to a phenomenon studied; researchers interact with the participants of study to obtain data; inquiry changes both the researcher and the participants and knowledge is context and time dependent (Coll & Chapman 2000; Cousins 2002). The researcher has direct contact with and gets close to the people, situation and phenomenon under study; the researcher’s personal experience and insights are an important part of the inquiry and critical to understanding the phenomenon (Patton, 2002). The researcher does his/her work to capture the thinking of the participants from the participants’ perspective as accurately as possible as opposed to the researcher reporting what he/she thinks (Fraenkel & Wallen 2000). Through these stories the participants were able to describe their views of reality and this enabled the researcher to understand participants’ actions. This tied with the focus of the research as its purpose was to gain a deep level of understanding of the perceptions of specific teachers on problems of assessments in the primary schools. Interpretive research attempts to understand phenomena through meanings that people assign to them (Trauth, 2001:219).

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  flexibility to follow unexpected ideas during research and explore processes effectively;
  
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  sensitivity to contextual factors;
  
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  ability to study symbolic dimensions and social meaning;
  
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  increased opportunities;
  
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  to develop empirically supported new ideas and theories;
  
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  for in-depth and longitudinal explorations of assessment phenomena; and
  
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  for more relevance and interest for practitioners.
  

The researcher is the primary instrument for data collection (Thomas & Nelson, 2003:9; Patton, 2001: 14). Qualitative researchers seek to understand the context or setting through visiting this context and gathering information personally. In this particular research, the researcher visited the schools to collect data by way of individual interviews, focus group observations and document analysis. Through interviews, rich descriptions of problems faced by teachers, influenced by their unique circumstances were generated.

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  The researcher is an integral part of data (Wimmer & Dominick, 2000).
  
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  The design evolves during the research; it can be adjusted as the research progresses (Wimmer & Dominick, 2000).
  
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  The researcher conducts studies in the field, that is natural surroundings, trying to capture the normal flow of events without controlling extraneous variables (Keyton, 2000; Fraenkel & Wallen, 2001; Patton 2001; and Wimmer & Dominick, 2000).
  
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  The researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis (Thomas & Nelson, 2000; Keyton, 2000).
  
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  Theory is ‘data driven’ and emerges as part of the research process, evolving from the data as they are collected (Keyton, 2000).
  
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  Data are collected in the form of words and pictures rather than numbers (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2000).
  
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  Qualitative researchers tend to analyse data inductively (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2000). Data is descriptive and interpretive (Thomas & Nelson 2001).
  
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  The focus of qualitative research is on participants’ perceptions and experiences and the way they make sense of their lives (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2000).
  
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  Researcher places more emphasis on tacit and intuitive knowledge (Borg & Gall, 1989).
  

In summary Cassell & Symon (1994:7) give the following list defining characteristics of qualitative research in contrast with quantitative research

A focus on interpretation rather than quantification; an emphasis on subjectivity rather than objectivity; flexibility in the process of conducting research; an orientation towards process rather than outcome; a concern with context—regarding behaviour and situation as inextricably linked in forming experience; and finally, an explicit recognition of the impact of the research  process on the research situation

The justification of interpretive research in this study was that it would be employed to probe everyday working experiences of teachers and through interviews rich descriptions of their problems in assessment, influenced by their unique circumstances were generated. These descriptions provided data from which perceptions regarding the teachers’ assessment problems could be used to inform professional policy as well as on-going skills development of the professionals.