Data Collection Processes

6.7.1 Whole Institution Observation

Wisdom Junior High School: One of the four schools involved in the study was selected for in-depth whole-school observation. The choice of this school was due to the fact that

it is a demonstration school which is used frequently for teaching practice by teacher

trainees from the Royal College. I observed keeping in mind indicators of democratic

schools (see Section 4.3 in Chapter Four) and other general issues that come across in

schools. For example: the place of pupils in the school decision-making, relationships,

teaching and learning methods, daily practices in schools and hidden curriculum. Are

there any promising good practices of democracy? The observations were unstructured

and most of them were an informal observation of events as they occurred. However, I

formally observed four lessons in this school. I also checked for school prospectus,

punishment books, teaching materials, notices on walls and minutes from any committee

meeting if there were any.

Royal College, one of the two teacher training colleges involved in the project, was sampled as a case study for in-depth whole-institution observation. I selected this college

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there as a teacher and wanted to know how much had changed since I left in 1999 and

last visited for my previous research in 2006. I observed the daily practices of teacher

trainees in the college. I looked for specific things like their contributions to decision-

making processes, grievance procedures, teaching and learning methods and

relationships. Are there any good practices of democracy? Few lessons were observed

formally and most of the observations were informal in order to see phenomena as they

naturally occurred.

6.7.2 Mock School Councils

School councils as indicated in the literature review are one of the most useful structures

or entry points toward student participation. It is therefore relevant to discover whether a

similar structure will work in basic schools in Ghana. Whilst trying mock school councils

in all the six schools involved in the study, they were also used as a data collection

strategy where pupils’ views on school improvement were made known and how pupils could contribute to solve issues. I was also interested in how pupils can use and acquire

skills for the democratic process, for example, debating skills, tolerance to other pupils’

views and problem solving skills. The qualifying level to be part of the school council

starts from year 4 in primary schools and all classes in Junior High Schools. In each

school representatives were elected from each class as indicated in the sampling section.

The mock school council meetings did not follow strict procedures of formal meetings

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One school council meeting was held in each school. A set of questions were given to the

councillors to engage with while I observed and acted as a facilitator:

 How might school councils improve schools? Who would be on them, how might they be chosen and how would they work?

 If you are in the school council over the next year, how would you improve your school? What would you improve? And how would you do it?

 The council should come out with a minimum of five realistic recommendations on projects they will embark on.

I was present as a facilitator and observer in all the school council meetings. In each

council meeting I guided them to elect the chair and the secretary and explained their

roles to them. The meetings were very successful and the secretaries of each council

provided me with the minutes (written reports) afterwards.

6.7.3 Interviews Process

Robson (2002:272) points out that:

The interview is a flexible and adaptable way of finding things out. The human use of language is fascinating both as behaviour in its own right, for the virtually unique window that it opens on what lies behind our actions. Observing behaviour is clearly a useful enquiry technique, but asking people directly about what is going on is an obvious short cut in seeking answers to our research questions.

The process of interviewing respondents about their past and current experience takes

time and requires accumulation of understanding and rapport. Such intricate and

embedded phenomena are certainly not accessible by questionnaire or other survey

methods (Schweisfurth, 1999).

A semi-structured interview approach was used whereby answers given from the initial

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respondents to express themselves at some length, but offer enough shape to prevent

aimless rambling (Wragg, 1994). This is what Creswell (1994) terms the researcher

“control” over the line of enquiry. A major advantage to this approach of data collection is that it enables respondents to express their ideas on issues and contribute to how these

ideas can be developed, rather than imposing an external structure as is the case in

closed-question questionnaires (Barnett et al., 1995). This signifies that using interviews

to research education for democracy is a step in the right direction by making

respondents' views known without undue constraint. The interview process was initially

piloted by using telephone interviews of four pupils, two teachers and two teacher

trainees in Ghana. This enabled me to check my interview skills and the appropriateness

of some of the questions.

The interviews were conducted in their respective schools and colleges. The teachers and

teacher trainees’ interviews were conducted on a one-to-one basis for about 40 minutes on average. There were group interviews for the pupils up to 60 minutes in duration.

According to Cohen et al. (2007) interviewing children in groups helps them to interact

among themselves rather than give simple answers to adult questions and it is also less

intimidating than individual interviews. All interviews were conducted in English but

asked participants to feel free if there was something that they could express better in the

local language. All interviews were audio recorded. I did not want to waste their time

with unnecessary rambling and was fully prepared with all the interview questions and

the equipment to be used at hand. Robson (2002) points out that whenever feasible,

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you to concentrate on the interview. The respondents also had the right to refuse the

recording. The interview questions were designed in response to the research questions

and after consulting appropriate literature on pupils’ voice and democracy in education. There were some pre-specified questions which every respondent was asked (see

Appendix B for the detailed questions). The questions were followed by some probes

depending on answers given by the respondent.

6.7.4 Open-ended Essay Questions

In order to minimise the demerits of interviewing, pupils and teacher trainees were given

another way to express themselves freely without anybody controlling them. Cohen et al.

(2007:330) point out that an open-ended question can ‘catch the authenticity, richness,

depth of response, honesty and candour’ which are the hallmarks of qualitative studies instead of only ticking numbers and boxes. In the basic schools participants were

volunteers from year 4 to 6 who missed out on both the mock school councils and the

group interviews. Participants from the colleges of education were also volunteers.

Pupils, in their open-ended essay question, were asked to discuss things they most enjoy

in school and those they do not. They were also asked to describe their ideal school and

how such a school might be achieved. Likewise, teacher trainees were made to reflect on

their experiences at the colleges of education and in their open-ended essay were asked to

discuss things they most enjoy in college and those they do not. Teacher trainees were

also made to think ahead about their teaching career and describe the ideal school they

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This process of data collection gave other pupils and teacher trainees, who had not been

interviewed, a chance to express their views which then formed part of triangulation and

rigour of this study. The study aims to reach valid conclusions and therefore multi-

method approaches were very useful.