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Chapter 4: Methodology
Introduction
In this chapter I outline the research methodology and procedures that I used in the
study. Included in this chapter are descriptions of the conceptual framework, selection
and description of the site and participants, procedure for data collection, how the data
was analysed and reported, and the limitations and ethical considerations that were
taken into account during the study.
Theoretical position
The topic of the study, “Talanoa: A contribution to the teaching and learning of
Tongan primary school children in New Zealand”, proposes a qualitative methodology
to conduct the research. Denzin and Lincoln (1994) offer a definition of qualitative
methodology:
Qualitative research is multi-method in focus, involving an interpretive,
naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative
researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make
sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring
to them” (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994, p. 2).
Qualitative research is based on the assumption that individuals living and interacting
within their own social worlds construct ‘a reality’ (Marshall & Rossman, 1999).
Qualitative researcher’s main interest is in understanding how people construct meaning
from their life experiences and how people make sense of the world that they live in.
Patton (1990) explains:
Qualitative research is an effort to understand situations in their
uniqueness as part of a particular context and the interactions there. This
understanding is an end in itself, so that it is not attempting to predict
what may happen in the future necessarily, but to understand the nature
of that setting – what it means for participants to be in that setting, what
their lives are like, what’s going on for them, what their meanings are,
what the world looks like in that particular setting” (Patton, 1990, p. 1).
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