nurturing servant leaders in religious education - Scholarly ...

Chapter IV: Methodology
The objective of this chapter is to make transparent the methodology used throughout
the research cycle. The chapter begins with a discussion of the research design. I will
then detail the knowledge paradigm within which this study lives. I discuss reasons
for choosing the qualitative structure of the project, followed by a breakdown of how
data analysis took place, and explore how the chosen methodology is appropriate to
the overall design of the project.
Research design
The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore relationships of service through the
concept of nurturing the human spirit in organisational contexts. Specifically, the
study seeks to explore how servant leaders are nurtured in one religious educational
unit, that of the Church Educational System of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
Day Saints in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The central research question for the study is:
How does the CES nurture servant leaders?
The case study approach allows for exploration in context as Carens (2000) has
described,
A contextual approach offers three interrelated advantages. First, it can clarify the
meaning of abstract formulations. Secondly, it can provide access to normative
insights that may be obscured by theoretical accounts that remain at the level of
general principle. Thirdly, it can make us more conscious of the blinkers that
constrain our theoretical visions when they are informed only by what is familiar
(p. 2).
To carry out the qualitative methodology three CES full-time directors participated in
in-depth interviews answering open-ended questions relating to servant leadership,
and more specifically, their experience of servant leadership inside the CES and in
relation to their cultural context. Second, three groups of volunteer teachers
participated in focus groups at CES institute locations throughout Tāmaki-makau-
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