ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an example of the sociological tensions and specifically, the issue of researcher identity and ethics, in conducting qualitative research. It uses the phenomenological phenomenographic methodology and in-depth interviewing to explore and graph the tacit conceptions of the Vice-Chancellors of Historically Black Universities in South Africa. The democratic process in South Africa has brought about renewed interest in the role of education as a major agency of the social change process. Higher education institutions in South Africa are, by their legislative mandate, public institutions and therefore, assets of the state and the leadership of these institutions are employees and agents of the state. In South Africa, the term transformation has become synonymous with processes of democratic change and has emerged as the popular mantra to describe all social change. Modern South African society, and in particular, the education sector, uses the term transformation liberally but diffusely.
