Contributions of Social Research Methodologies to Social Change: Giving Voice to the Voiceless

Abstract

Historically, social research methodologies have been construed as being less significant in their contribution to social change. This perception emanates from those who view social research methodologies as an accessory to the natural sciences. Contrary to this view, this article, on the schooling experiences of children who have been left behind by their parents in Zimbabwe, is used to contribute to the debate. It seeks to present our experiences in the application of social research methodologies, including challenges and their contribution to social change. However, this change remains a contested issue in research because there is no consensus on how to measure it. The study followed a qualitative research approach, using an interpretive phenomenological study design. A purposive sampling strategy was used to select 12 secondary school children (12–18 years old). Data were constructed through two methods, interviews and document analysis. The overall finding of the study revealed that social sciences methodologies can make a contribution to social change. This was illustrated by the fact that when social methodological approaches were used, children were enabled to confidently express their lived experiences by creating a child-friendly environment such as child-centeredness, democratic participation and inclusivity. Consequently, the findings have shed some light on the way in which policy makers should develop policies with regard to left-behind children (LBC). On the basis of these findings, the article argues that social research methodologies can make a difference in social change, despite challenges that may emerge. The findings may have implications for social researchers and for our study. For example, the findings could minimise hermeneutics injustice by mediating what the marginalised groups, such as children, may express despite scepticism about their authenticity which is important for social change.

Introduction

The contribution by social research methodologies to social change is an issue that has been in the spotlight for years. Social research methodologies have persistently been perceived as less significant in improving social systems than natural sciences research. This was so until, as Lazzarini (2018) indicates, that research funders started to demand accountability from researchers with regard to social change. Since this mandate came to the forefront, several studies have looked at the role of research in social change and the way in which it can be measured (Bornmann, 2013; Brest & Born, 2013; Lazzarini, 2018).

Consequently, a plethora of studies have looked at how social research can contribute to social change and how to measure its impact (Pulido et al., 2018). However, the measurement of social change remains a contested issue. As Klofsten et al. (2019) indicate, the contest is as a result of the fact that the measurement of social change starts with one’s theory of change. If one holds a particular theory of change, for example, a behaviourist theory, that will determine the understanding and the interpretation of social change.

In this article, the intention is to contribute to the debate by exploring how children’s voices can be used to measure the impact of social sciences methodologies on social change. This was done in line with international conventions on the rights of children. They include the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Salamanca); the 1994 and 2000 World Education Forum Framework for Action; the 2008 Millennium Development Goals and the 2015 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Goals. We explored the views of left-behind children (LBC) on issues about their schooling experiences, without the support of parents in Zimbabwe and examined their implications for inclusive education. We used the theory of social change as espoused by de la Sablonniere (2017) where we adopted the incremental approach to social change. More on this is expounded in the subsequent sections.

Children’s voices are deemed suitable for this illustration as they are often relegated to the periphery and suffer from hermeneutics injustice. For example, natural sciences researchers often do not give children’s own meanings and experiences of having a voice and use methodologies that lead to misinterpretation of what children want to say because they do not give them a voice (Chan et al., 2011; Carnevale, 2020; Stafford et al., 2021). This misinterpretation may lead to a distortion that undermines the value of social sciences methodologies in bringing about social change. Having the correct information about children’s views is important to understand the role of social research methodologies in social change.

Also, such information may be useful in understanding the role of schools in supporting child development, social justice and social change as a whole (Osher et al., 2014a). It is against this background that this study was conceived. This was done by raising the following questions: One, what strategies do social sciences methodologies use to create space for children to give authentic responses? Two, how do social sciences methodologies handle children’s sensitive issues? Three, what can social sciences methodologies offer to researchers and participants on how to understand and manage social change as incremental?

Left-Behind Children, Social Research Methodologies and Social Change

The concepts of left-behind children (LBC), social research methodologies and social change are of importance in this article. Therefore, they require a brief exposition of what they mean and their operationalisation in this article.

Left-Behind Children

The left-behind children concept may mean different things to different people (Osher et al., 2014b). For example, Osher et al. (2014b) explain it as accountability for the achievement of all social groups of children. Khan et al. (2017) refer to it as children who were left behind due to migration caused by wars, COVID-19 pandemic and other pandemics. In the same vein, Lu (2014) refers to it as children who have been left behind because of parental migration. In this study, we have adopted Lu (2014)’s definition which refers to children who have been left behind in Zimbabwe because of the economic meltdown.

Social Research Methodologies

Social research methodology is an approach that provides guidelines for designing and conducting evidence-based research in social sciences and interdisciplinary studies, using both qualitative and quantitative data (Mohajan, 2018). It involves research that draws from social sciences for conceptual and theoretical inspiration, based on social sciences methodologies and ideas about how to formulate research topics and issues, and how to interpret and draw implications from research findings (Bryman, 2016). Furthermore, it is an inquiry that is used to identify, explore, describe, understand, explain, evaluate and predict social phenomena involving human behaviour (Mohajan, 2018). Consequently, the social research methodology is an approach that the researcher uses to do research whereas social research methods are tools that the research uses to construct data. They include interviews, observation and documents. In this article, we used the qualitative approach to identify, explore and describe the experiences of LBC in Zimbabwe, and its contribution to social change. Methods used are interviews and documents.

Social Change

On the other hand, social change involves alterations of the social order of society including changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations (Haralambos & Holborn, 2013). It refers to a change of any aspect of social processes that may involve patterns, social interactions or social organisations. It may also refer to a way in which human beings interact and relate in transforming cultural and social institutions over time and the impact thereof (de la Sablonniere, 2017).

The impact of social research methods on social change is the issue that has vexed society for many years (Liebenberg, 2018). This is as a result of debates about their appropriateness and the continued scepticism around their ability to contribute to social change. It is, therefore, not surprising that literature on the impact of social research methods on social change abound (Bornmann, 2013; Cox et al., 2008; Ho et al., 2015; Koen, 2021; McLeod & Thomson, 2009; Mukherjee, 1970; Thomson et al., 2011). This literature can be grouped into five themes. The first theme consists of the criticisms against social research methods with regard to their impact on social change (Lewin et al., 2016) The second comprises the challenges of social research methods in their contribution to social change (Pettit, 2010), and the third strategies that contribute towards enhancing the impact of social research methods on social change (McLoughlin & Young, 2005). Theme four includes the benefits of the impact of social research methods on social change (McLoughlin & Young, 2005) and theme five, consists of the debates about measuring social impact (Bornmann, 2013) and the explanation of societal impact.

Criticisms against social research methods with regard to their impact on social change have received much attention. Some have argued that such research is irrelevant and not responsive to social issues (Neuman, 2014). They say that concepts used in social research are often unclear or contested. In addition, they argue such methods depend on the participants and the researcher’s interpretation (Porta & Keating, 2008); and that in some instances, they may lead to the construction of data from sources that are not credible, are biased and may have no knowledge about the subject of interest. This may contribute to negative social change because such research may be based on false impressions and findings (Bhattacherjee, 2012). However, there are strategies that can be used to improve their impact on social change. These strategies include collaborative modes of interviewing methods (Hense, 2015), self-reflexivity and spending more time in the field (Hashim, 2015). Furthermore, social researchers may use methods that enable them to do research with the participants and not on the participants (Du Plessis, 2016).

These criticisms notwithstanding, the benefits of social research methods do have an impact on social change. Such benefits include the exploration of hidden reasons behind complex social issues (Bhattacherjee, 2012), guiding change in behaviour based on research (Lowe et al., 2013) which may lead to the improvement of society (Pulido et al., 2018).

The vexing issue on the impact on social change relates to the measurement of social change. Bornmann (2013) indicates that the problem starts with the definition of societal impact of research. This is due to the fact that different concepts are used to refer to societal impact of research. Bornmann (2013) says that this includes third stream activities, societal benefits and usefulness of public values, knowledge transfer and societal relevance. He further suggests that these are all meant to measure social, cultural, environmental and economic returns of funded research. In this study, we used Bornmann’s (2013) explanation of the aforementioned impact by focussing on the social, cultural, environmental and economic returns of the research undertaken when scrutinising the experiences of children left behind by Zimbabwean emigrating parents. In the ensuing section, we present information on how we used a social methodology to give voice to the voiceless.

Theory of Social Change

In order to understand what social methodologies can contribute to social change, we used the theory of social change as espoused by de la Sablonniere (2017). De la Sablonniere (2017) purports that social change can be categorised into four contexts. They are stability, inertia, incremental social change and dramatic social change. For social change to take place, there is a need for society to be stable. Without stability it may be difficult for change to occur. Inertia is a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged and therefore not much change can occur. As far as the incremental change is concerned, it means that change may come in small amounts, building up to a larger change. Lastly, it is the dramatic social change, which occurs abruptly.

Of these four categories of change, we located our study within the incremental change category. This was selected because the social conditions of the LBC incrementally contribute to the country’s social, cultural, environmental and economic setup. For example, their lack of support in their school work may lead to them dropping out of school, which in turn may have dire consequences for the social, cultural, environmental and economic environment of the country.

Methodology

Design

This study adopted a qualitative research approach within an interpretive phenomenological research design to understand the experiences of the left-behind children (Larkin et al., 2006; Leedy & Ormrod, 2013). In qualitative research, individuals are selected on the basis of their experience of a phenomenon (Streubert & Carpenter, 1999). The issue of left-behind children could thus be best captured in a qualitative way where knowledge, feelings and even perceptions are freely expressed in a manner that enhances the account of their experiences. This was appropriately done by using a phenomenological study design. As Groenewald (2004) indicates, this type of design helped us to explore the phenomenon by focussing on the lived experiences of the individual participants regarding their schooling experiences. Furthermore, we were able to interact with the participants and giving them a space to voice their livid experiences from their perspectives in their settings without cohesion or artificial inducement. This would have been difficult to do had we selected other designs such as the survey.

Context of the Zimbabwean Schooling Experiences

The schooling experiences in Zimbabwe post-2000 was characterised by instability due to political upheavals (Crush & Tevera, 2010). This political instability led to the greater part of society immigrating to other countries in search of greener pastures: employment opportunities and better livelihoods. By the late 1990s, many factories closed down, unemployment and retrenchments increased and standards of living plummeted. Under such conditions of increasing poverty and rising unemployment, emigration from the country also increased dramatically, resulting in many parents leaving their children behind.

These children face many challenges, particularly in education. Challenges include lack of access to quality education and lack of parental care to support their education. Such experiences require social sciences research methodologies that could give children a voice to express their own lived experiences, which may include violations of their rights that could undermine the provision of quality education and address their other vulnerabilities.

Sampling

Participants in the study were sampled through a purposive sampling strategy. They were selected on the basis that they would be able to provide adequate information on their schooling experiences. All of them were selected from two secondary schools in Harare. As the capital city of the country, Harare has experienced and continues to experience high emigration rates as parents leave the country for international destinations. The two schools were designated School A and School B. School A was in a low-income residential area and School B in a high-income residential area. The selection of the schools from different income areas was designed to capture varying experiences of LBC as these schools provided different enabling environments and enrolled learners from comparatively different socio-economic status backgrounds.

We selected six LBC from each of the two schools, two from each grade. The sampling frame, at both schools, consisted of all learners with both parents living in the diaspora, aged between 12 and 18 years and in Grades 8 to10. The total sample size was 12 learners, designated L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, L6, L7, L8, L9, L10, L11 and L12. The parents of nine of these learners had emigrated to Botswana, South Africa and Namibia, while the parents of the other three learners were in the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Australia, respectively. All the parents of the sampled learners had been out of the country for a minimum of 5 years.

Data Collection

Data was collected through in-depth face-to-face single interviews and document analysis. The interview schedules were translated into the local vernacular so that the participants would easily and fully understand the questions. The participants shared narratives on their challenges and interactions with teachers, hence providing an in-depth understanding of this new phenomenon of LBC and how it impacted on their schooling. Permission to interview the selected learners was sought from and granted by the guardians of the children.

Guidance and counselling teachers were on hand to provide any counselling or support and the district child psychologists could be called upon if required to assist children who showed signs of distress because of their participation in the study. The Turfloop Research Ethics Committee (TREC) granted ethical clearance for the study after we requested permission from the guardians. Permission was also sought from the respective districts and individual schools.

Data Analysis

The analysis of qualitative data can be a very demanding process. As Miles et al. (2014) indicate, it involves the reduction of data into manageable state. In this study, we started by going through the transcripts to familiarise ourselves with the data. This was followed by the reduction of data where it was displayed and thereafter we were able to draw conclusions. The data was then processed by developing codes. As Creswell (2013) indicates, this involved the fragmentation and classification of data text to form explanations and comprehensive themes in the data. We coded data on a data matrix where codes and labels were assigned to the different texts in the form of words, sentences or paragraphs. The codes helped us to analyse what children said and the language that they used. The process helped us to develop themes that have been used to categorise data. Themes developed included social science methodologies strategies as appropriate to get children’s authentic voices, usefulness of social science methodologies in handling children’s sensitive issues and the contribution of social science methodologies to social change as incremental.

Trustworthiness

To ensure the dependability of the study we conducted a systematic documentation of the process of data construction. For example, individual interviews were constructed by one of us (the first author of this paper), who was able to speak the language of the participants. She was able to moderate the interviews and take detailed notes during each session. The interviews were conducted in English, but the meanings were not conveyed clearly. To address this, she code-switched to Shona, the native language of the children. Credibility was ensured by using more than one method, for example, the children’s classwork books and assignments were checked to establish whether what they said in the interviews could be collaborated by the school work. The findings of this research study were not meant to be generalisable to all the schools or LBC in Zimbabwe, or elsewhere in the world. However, to ensure the transferability of the findings, we have provided a detailed description of the context in which the study was conducted. Furthermore, we also ensured that we get a permission from the guardians before speaking to the children who were assured that their identity would be kept confidential. Learners were also protected from harm by being sensitive to the manner in which questions were phrased.

Findings and Discussion

Based on the results of the study, there is evidence indicating that social sciences methods to contribute to social change even though it may be incremental. This becomes more evident when discussing each of the identified themes which are social science methodologies strategies as appropriate to get children’s authentic voices, usefulness of social science methodologies in handling children’s sensitive issues and the contribution of social science methodologies to social change as incremental.

Children’s Authentic Voices

In order to under to understand the role that social sciences research methodologies may play in bringing about change in society, we made use of the conventions on the rights of children with regard to education. These conventions have made moving appeals to governments to equalise the provision of quality education for all children regardless of differences. Such education is expected to be inclusive and to accommodate the needs of all children.

Studies of users' views of child development and interventions have rarely explored the means by which children construct their experiences of education (Moore & Seu, 2011). In our study, the children were afforded a voice to construct and assess their experiences. The ages of the children affected the construction and evaluation of therapy and the positions taken up in relation to adults. Older children demonstrated more independence from parents. Like adults, the children adopted a variety of stakes. Their sophistication increased with age, suggesting a developmental path towards full membership of adult discursive communities. Recognition that children are active in construing therapy should enhance therapists' insights and facilitate positive therapeutic relationships. In this article, children were given the space to express themselves freely and that became a therapeutic opportunity that some of the learners cherished. L3 in school two expressed this succinctly, by stating that: ‘My uncle really takes good care of us. I do not call him uncle. I call him Daddy. That is why when we started this conversation, I told you that I am staying with my daddy’. The expression indicate that even though this learner was not staying with the parents, but the method used to construct data, created a space for the expression of emotions that evinced therapeutic encounters. This is in line with Groenewald’s (2004) observation who found that unique or minority voices are important counterpoints to bring out deep emotions of the researched.

We also noted different issues with regard to the voice of children. We noted that all the children were initially shy and reserved and did not want to open up. This was to be expected as the interviewer was perceived as a stranger. But, after she had reassured them of their anonymity and the confidentiality of the information they were relaxed and opened up. Some boys at first did not want to open up much, which may be due to cultural beliefs that boys should be strong and that it is not masculine to open up about challenges (Pattman, 2005). However, during the interview process, creating a friendly environment and probing helped a great deal towards getting two of these boys to open up. What this data tells us is that cultural nuances such as this cannot be easily captured by employing survey methods.

Handling Children’s Sensitive Issues

The study also revealed that dealing with the LBC is a sensitive issues. This became more evident during the discussions some children became emotional, particularly girls, especially when they were talking about their challenges. While interviewing them the interviewer would give them time to express their emotions. The use of phenomenological approach, enabled me to allow this flow with little interference because I wanted them to vent their feelings. But, thereafter one of our team members tried to calm them down. The sensitivity of the LBC issues were emotionally expressed by L4 in School A and L2, in School B, when they said that: ‘Despite an improvement in my material condition, the freedom and the maid doing almost everything for me, I miss my mother so much’. (L4). ‘Some people might not understand it, but it is a difficult situation. I miss my father. Parents should always be there for their children’. (L2).

The quotations, indicate that the two learners were deeply affected. Consequently, we had to later refer them to the Counselling and Guidance teachers for further emotional support, since the interview process had affected them. This was possible because to prepare the students for the interviews, we had enlisted the services of guidance and counselling teachers, who were meant to attend to any issues that could arise thereafter. The primary concern for this was the safety of the research participants. Wolf et al. (2017) advise researchers about the importance of fostering formal and informal partnerships in preparing for interviews, especially where the relationships are diametrically opposite such as between adults and children or researchers and the researched. Social researchers are able to provide this leverage because of their ability to be sensitive to the feelings of the researched, especially the vulnerable.

Social Change as Incremental

The use of the phenomenological approach has us to have interaction with the participants in the study. Informal aspects that emerged during the interviewer’s interaction, without any prior guidelines or regulations, incorporated proximity and receptiveness and built a close connection with and established the confidence of the learners. This epitomised what social researchers can contribute to social development. Our formal interaction with the learners provided a caring, respectful relationship consistent across accounts of their experiences. Formal aspects, on the other hand, included structured ways of sustaining a rapport with the children. This collaboration encouraged learners to participate freely.

It also interesting to note that in contrast to those children who showed resistance in opening up, other children were happy and eager to air their feelings and encounters. It looked as though they were happy to have a listening ear, someone hearing their concerns. This has underlined the fact that qualitative research methods are able to reveal and understand the experiences of children better. Qualitative methods thus allowed us to explore how decisions are made and provided us with a detailed insight into how interventions may alter children’s lives. To develop such insights, qualitative research is appropriate because it provides data which are holistic, rich and nuanced, allowing themes and findings to emerge through careful analysis (Barrett & Twycross, 2018). This is a contribution to social change even though it may be incremental because when children realised that they are being listened to, they gained confidence to talk which is a very important aspect in their development towards adulthood.

Implications of our Findings

Implications drawn from this study may not be directly for policy makers but rather for our own study. We are of the view that given these findings, social researchers, like their counterparts, quantitative researchers, have an obligation to change the world. Rather than just being preoccupied with accurate information about what goes on in the classroom, they need to address social injustices as well. One such a focus is on inclusive education, where all children are listened to. We have, through these vignettes from our study, provided evidence that social researchers can make a meaningful contribution to social change. Our study contributes to understanding the complexity of cross-cultural interviews, in particular, the impact of positioning processes on the establishment of inter-subjectivity and data construction; which is the strength of social research.

Conclusion

Social researchers, by endeavouring to give a voice to the voiceless, can make a significant impact on societal change. We argue that they could provide a unique opportunity to minimise hermeneutics injustice by mediating what the marginalised groups like the LBC seek to express. However, our findings are not to be generalised as this is not our intention. We are cognisant of the fact that the question of rigour always emerges when findings like ours are presented. How we measure rigour in social research has been the subject of debate for a long time now, as reflected in the literature section of this article. Whereas the post-positivists look at it from the position of generalisation to a wider population, we have looked at it from the theory of social change, which indicates that change may be stable, inactive, incremental and dramatic. We adopted the incremental meaning of social change, despite criticism, that may be levelled against social research methodologies. Therefore, we conclude that social research methodologies can make a contribution to social change even though it may not be dramatic but incremental. The voices of the LBC helped to illuminate how social methodologies can contribute to an understanding and management of social change.