Data Collection Methods

The adoption of a mixed methods approach which blends both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods (Rubin & Babbie 2014; Creswell & Creswell 2018), gave me the flexibility to rely on four data collection methods. These were in-depth interviews, documentary analysis, observation and Q methods. Using a combination of data collection methods was a good option because some of the methods were used to validate each other. There was greater triangulation between the in-depth interviews and the Q method because some of the grey issues that came up during the Q method were clarified and validated when I was doing the in-depth interviews.

The data collection came in two parts where each part was seeking to answer some particular research questions. The thesis had the colonial historical part and the policy implementation part. In-depth interviews and Document analysis were used as the main data collection methods to gather data to answer research questions one to three while Q methods were used to get the views of the respondents in regard to the educational policy implementation and answer research questions four and five. The first field work which combined both in-depth interviews and Q-methods spanned from July to October 2016 whilst the second lasted from September to November 2018. The second field work took the form of follow-up in-depth interviews to fill data gaps and validate the findings from the first field work. Thus, in all, it took seven months to collect the needed data for this thesis.

3.2.1 Interviews

Interviewing is one of the commonly used data collection methods in qualitative research as well as in mixed methods. The fundamental role of interviews in a research is to get a better import of the social world in the perspective of the research participants in order to see and understand the world as they perceive it (Gordon 2016). As the participants could not be observed directly especially when the research questions sought to elicit some historical information, it was appropriate to use interviews as one of the main data collection methods in this study. The interviews allowed me to validate and triangulate some pieces of information that had already been gathered from secondary data for more clarification and authentication. This helped in enhancing and getting a better understanding of the role of colonialism in the regional inequality of education in Ghana.

The first attempt of the interview data collection was field entry where I sought to book appointments with the individual respondents who were no more in active service on a more personal note. I made phone calls and visits to book appointments with them. However, it was not straightforward dealing with the institutions that I had pencilled to take part in the study. Prior to my departure from Humboldt-Universität-zu Berlin, and anticipating respondents would like to know whom I was

and the purpose for which I was doing the research, I got a letter from my professor introducing me to whoever I may be meeting in the field. When I showed the letter to the formal institutions they were hesitant at first but compromised later when they got a permission from their immediate bosses. On the part of the headmasters/mistresses, I produced my introductory letter⁵ based on which the regional directors of education wrote letters introducing me to the various schools before I got access to them.

In all, 31 in-depth interviews were conducted comprising respondents with varied backgrounds and experiences as shown in Table 2. As it was not easy to identify respondents with the required data that was being sought (because it required people with the requisite historical knowledge), I relied on snowballing to find them. The researcher is sometimes allowed to suitably select a sample based on what he or she knows about the population and what the research aims to address (Rubin & Babbie 2014). Snowball sampling is the situation where ‘’the researcher begins with one case and then, based on information about interrelationships from that case, identifies other cases and repeats the process again and again’’ (Neuman 2014: 13). Despite the fact that I identified some potential respondents in the literature review, they were not many to make an acceptable sample size for the study. The first participant of the study suggested some people which they also in turn suggested others and the ball rolled on. I did not just take proposals from people and worked with them without verification. I made background checks of anybody that was being proposed to make sure I was dealing with people with the right information that could answer the research questions. The interviews ended when I had no more referrals to potential interviewees from those interviewed earlier, hence a point of saturation had been reached.

In the second phase of the field work, after the Q methods were carried out, semi-structured interviews were used to elicit responses concerning the historical causes of educational inequality in Ghana. Each interview lasted from 45 minutes to 60 minutes.

It was good that all the respondents were educated and spoke good English

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which did not need any translation. All the interviews were therefore tape-recorded and later on transcribed for the analysis.

Table 2: Study Participants and Data Collection Methods

Category Status Number Sampling Data

method Collection

Retired Former Director General 1 snowballing Guide Educationists of education Service

Former director general Purposive/ Interview

of education 1 snowballing Guide

Former education 8 Purposive/ Interview

directors snowballing Guide

Former directors of Purposive/ Interview

education /Politicians 2 snowballing Guide

Ghana Interview

Education Headmasters/ 13 Purposive Guide

Service Headmistresses Officers

Project Coordinator: Purposive Interview

Northern Network for Guide

Staff of Civil Education Development 1 Society (NNED)

Organisations Project coordinator 1 Purposive Interview

(Oxfam IBIS) Guide

Staff of the Scheduled officers for 2 Purposive Interview

Scholarships the NSS Guide

Secretariat

Others Experienced 1 Purposive Interview

Lawyer/policy Guide

beneficiary Source: Author’s Own

3.2.2 Document Analysis

A mixed methods approach to research offers the researcher the leverage to use many data collection instruments such as interviews, observations, videos, documents, drawings, diaries, memoirs, newspapers, biographies, historical documents, autobiographies and many others (Corbin & Strauss 2008). Document

analysis is almost indispensable in this type of research where there are a good number of historical documentations to be analysed. The method thus enriches as well as cross-checks whatever information that was gotten from the in-depth interviews. As John Scott pointed out, documentary investigation was the principal data collection technique of sociologists like Marx; when he made use of reports from factory inspectors, just as Weber and Durkheim employed religious tracks/pamphlets and official statistics of suicides respectively (Scott 1990).

In this study, I relied on documents such as books, parliamentary archival material, Newspapers, colonial reports, memoirs, letters and other on-line sources.

The fundamentals of social science research is how trustworthy the evidence being used is (Scott 1990). During the document analysis, the main challenge was how to identify documents that were genuine and can be used in a scientific study like this. In surmounting this challenge, I used John Scott’s four quality control criteria to sieve the documents for use. According to him, the four criteria to use in filtering the documents are “Authenticity, Credibility, Representativeness and Meaning’’; where he argues that the quality of data from both documentary and non-documentary sources can be assessed by those criteria (Scott 1990: 19-35).

Table 3 shows how I overcame challenges regarding authenticity and credibility in my document review process.

Table 3: Quality Control in Document Analysis

Criterion Characteristics Solution

I verified who the

Authenticity The document should author was and

be genuine and of whether he or she unquestionable origin. was an expert in the

field. I checked the reliability of the source of the document. That is whether it was an original or a copy and devoid of errors.

Criterion Characteristics Solution

The document should I used other be free from error of secondary sources to

Credibility distortion. corroborate and

cross-check the Information

The document should I checked which field be typical of its kind, the document was and if not, it should coming from and Representativeness show the extent of its which audience the untypicality. author was targeting

I read the The document should document on a

Meaning be clear and couple of times

comprehensible to get a full grasp before using it.

Source : Adopted and modified from Scott (1990: 19-35)