parents and principals as partners in creating a culture of learning

[1071
a distinction between questionnaire content, question format, question order, type
of questions, formulation of questions and validity and reliability of questions.
5.4.2 Construction of the questionnaire
Questionnaire design is an activity that should not take place in isolation. The
researcher consulted and sought advice from specialists and colleagues at all times
during the construction of the questionnaire (Van den Aardweg & Van den
Aardweg, 1988:198). Questions to be taken up in the questionnaire should be
tested on people to eliminate possible errors. A question may appear correct to
the researcher when written down but can be interpreted differently when asked
to another person. There should be no hesitation in changing questions several
times before the final formulation keeping the original purpose in mind. The most
important point to be taken into account in questionnaire design is that it takes time
and effort and that the questionnaire will be re-drafted a number of times before
being finalised. A researcher must therefore ensure that adequate time is budgeted
for in the construction and preliminary testing of the questionnaire (Kidder &
Judd, 1986:243-245). All of the above was taken into consideration by the
researcher during the designing of the questionnaire for this investigation.
An important aim in the construction of the questionnaires for this investigation
was to present the questions as simple and straight-forward as possible. The
reasons for this were that not all members of the target population under
investigation might be adequately· educated to interpret questions correctly or
familiar with the completion of questionnaires. Questions were formulated in
English and Zulu in order to allow the respondents (black parents) to choose the
language they understood best. The accompanying letter and instructions were
also in English and Zulu (Appendix E). The two languages also had the advantage
that fully bilingual respondents, who were unsure of the meaning of a particular
question in one language, could check the other language for possible better