III. Research Methodology

            A qualitative research design will be used in the current study. In-depth interviewing will be used, in particular. This method, as well as other qualitative research methods, are especially well suited to examining phenomena or issues in human services or nursing which are associated with the relevance and implications of experiences and to unravelling the intricacy of human conduct (Todd, Nerlich, Mckeown & Clarke 2004). Gaining more knowledge on the meaning of past and present experiences exposes itself to techniques like in-depth interviewing where in relationship, confidence, and empathy are fundamental if a person is to communicate feelings and ideas. Several issues expose themselves to methodical analysis in order to determine the processes which could be functioning in a specific organisation, group, or individual.  

A. Approach

            In-depth interviews are especially appropriate when the issue at hand cannot be studied directly. Hence they are the best way of identifying how individuals feel or think with regard to a certain issue. They also allow researchers to interact with individuals about episodes that occurred in the past and events that are yet to take place (Hesse-Biber, Gilmartin, & Lydenberg 1999). These contemplative and interactive components unravel a domain of experience that is inaccessible thru quantitative techniques. Hence, in-depth interview is the method chosen by the researcher to explore the experiences of informal or family eldercare givers, especially in relation to their experience with combining work and care giving obligations.

            It is vital for the researcher not to allow this opportunity to interact with family caregivers result in a superficial endeavour to nursing experience. The sole point of view that can be acquired is that of the present, regardless of the fact that the feelings, ideas, and episodes being considered have already taken place (Bryant & Charmaz 2010). The researcher can discover how a family caregiver feels at present about what took place before but this does not provide the researcher a way in to the past. The perspectives of family caregivers can only be embodied and reported in the framework of their own lives (Bryant & Charmaz 2010). The method of recounting their experiences as family carers of the elderly, and specifically in the perspective of the interview, will itself affect these informal carers’ understanding of their condition and experience. As claimed by Turner and Bruner (2001, 153):

Stories give meaning to the present and enable us to see that present as a set of relationships involving a constituted past and future. But narrative change, all stories are partial, all meanings incomplete. There is no fixed meaning in the past, for with each new telling the context varies, the audience differs, the story is modified...     

            The researcher should be extra vigilant in employing the in-depth interview because regardless of the attempt to condition the research design in order for the participants to have power over its course, there is constantly influence innate in the role of the researcher. Ultimately, in-depth interview permits access to what family eldercare givers say or believe in.        

B. Data Needs and Analytic Techniques

            Grounded theory method is an appropriate qualitative design for exploring the effect of family care giving obligations on labour market involvement, especially of women. Due to the differences in and bias tied to the way in which qualitative research is conducted, it is vital for the researcher to elaborate the mechanism of how a nursing theory was developed. Likewise, if grounded theory findings are assessed for care giving purposes, family eldercare providers have to search for the descriptions of the researcher of their investigation procedure.   

            The researcher will carry out an investigation where in family eldercare providers are interviewed about what they recognise as the definition or implication of voluntary caring for an elderly member of the family to their labour market involvement. This study will use purposive sampling because of the inherent difficulty in recruiting participants from South Africa and Canada, that is, family members that are both involved in eldercare in their families and in the labour market, and those that have made one of these decisions: (1) leave their jobs to stay home and provide full-time care for an elderly, (2) transfer to a part-time job to make more room for and spend more hours with eldercare activities, and (3) stay with their jobs and forego their eldercare obligations.

            The researcher decides to focus on a smaller number of participants to make best use of in-depth interviews. The researcher will post an invitation for the targeted participants in a local newspaper and in a popular Web site like Facebook or MySpace. The researcher will also try to acquire the needed participants through personal contacts and organisational affiliations. The sample will come from (the specific South African and Canadian location). There will be no required age, gender, socioeconomic status, or racial membership. But these factors will be taken into account in the data analysis and interpretation. After successfully recruiting the required number of qualified participants, the researcher will ask the chosen participants to sign an informed consent.           

            Data will be gathered through unstructured in-depth interviews. Face-to-face interviews will be carried out with each of the research participants during their vacant time. Interviews will last for 45 minutes to 1 hour and will be carried out at breaks amenable to the interviewee. The preliminary interview will be investigative and comprised of unstructured or open-ended questions. Open-ended questions will be asked at the beginning of the study so as to conform to the grounded theory technique position of controlling the effect of earlier theoretical interpretation of care giving on participants (as adapted from Bryant & Charmaz 2010).    

            Moreover, in the procedure of grounded theory, it is the received data from participants that hones the emphasis of the research question. Hence, the following broad research question and specific questions are introduced at the onset (Hesse-Biber et al. 1999). The general research question is what is the effect of family eldercare on the labour market of South Africa and Canada? The three specific questions will also be asked:

a.) Do women feel or think that they are more obliged to take care of the elderly in their families than their male counterparts?;

 b.) What is the typical age at which working women initially take up obligations of eldercare?; and

 c.) Do women decide to leave the work force if the obligation of caring for the elderly becomes onerous? These common questions will hopefully be successful in drawing out relevant and detailed accounts of the possible effect of family care giving on labour market participation in South Africa and Canada.

            Furthermore, the obtained data will be transcribed, analysed, and interpreted promptly. One rationale for this routine is that in the practice of grounded methodology the received data from participants establish the targeted information (Turner & Bruner 2001). This is called theoretical sampling (Bryant & Charmaz 2010). The next interview stage will be employed to confirm, adjust, simplify, and explain the obtained information in the preliminary interview. The additional questions, which will be founded on the data given by participants in the preliminary interview stage, will contribute positively to the evaluation of the content areas given and confirmation of the arising theory (Bryant & Charmaz 2010). The responses of the participants will be integrated into the theory when continuous comparisons of information showed the recurrent presence of particular issues in real participant information. In the system of grounded theory, this is called ‘constant comparison method of data analysis’ (Bryant & Charmaz 2010, 607). This method, in the current research, will be carried out by continuously evaluating new data against data obtained in the past. This will name data that is recurrently existent, and important to the research interviewees.  

            Two general issues will be raised to explore the transcribed information from the interviews: (1) the underlying nature of the data, and (2) the actions represented by each specific idea and occurrence. These two issues will be used to name (1) constructs, (2) connections between and within constructions, and (3) a major trend around which each and every other construct is clarified (Turner & Bruner 2001). By means of constant data comparison, constructs that required additional improvement and expansion will be determined and resolved.

 C. Summary

            One of the objectives of this qualitative research is to spell out, in perspective, the circumstances under which the effects of family care giving on labour market participation are present and transforms, and the behaviours and attitudes related with eldercare. As a result, as circumstances transform, it is anticipated that the theoretical perspective formulated will also transform so as to encompass new circumstances, various contexts and varied samples. Hence, one of the obvious weaknesses of the current research is what cannot be identified in the real data during the research process.