Comprehending the Macro Through the Lens of the Micro

Abstract

The South African Grade 4 learners had the lowest achievement mean of all participating education systems for the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006. Further investigation was required to explore the potential reasons for the low performance. Although traditionally, secondary analyses of the data for international comparative studies of learner achievement have involved quantitative procedures, the mixed methods research design used for this study with emphasis placed on the qualitative phase was a unique departure from this methodological status quo. The aim was to explore schooling conditions and teaching practices for Grade 4 learners’ reading literacy development across the range of South African education contexts. In the first phase of the research, teacher and school survey data linked to a nationally representative learner sample ( n = 14,299) for the PIRLS 2006 were used for description of Grade 4 teachers’ instruction practices and schooling conditions. This description took place on the basis of the reclassification of the teacher and school survey data according to class language profiles and average class performance as aligned to each of the achievement benchmarks of the PIRLS 2006 and further benchmarks created to describe the performance levels of the majority of South African learners. Thereafter, in the second phase, seven qualitative school and teacher case studies from each reclassification subsample were purposively selected to add illuminatory depth to the study. The sampling strategy allowed for scrutiny of cases with high PIRLS achievement profiles against cases with poor achievement profiles, and the comparisons afforded a far greater understanding of the problem. This article reflects on the methodological rationales, processes, and outcomes associated with this methodological choice.