Documentary Analysis

The research question (What Special Needs Education (SNE) policies does the Kenyan government (KG)espouse?) is considered a descriptive one and according to Silverman (2006) such research questions can be answered using official statistics, documentary analysis or observation. Documentary analysis (DA) was chosen over the other methods. It allowed the gathering of new facts to facilitate understanding about the Special Needs Education (SNE) phenomenon in Kenya. This question was important in addressing whether teachers are aware of the policy espoused by the KG. It would have been fruitless to study how teachers understand SNE without addressing the construction and interpretation of this government artefact. This study applies an interpretivist approach which seeks to understand the meaning of concepts in their specific set up in order to as stressed by (Lin, 1998) uncover the conscious and unconscious explanations people have for what they believe or do. Atkinson and Coffey (1997) point out that, documents actively construct the same organisations they purport to describe. Documents are recognised as social constructions, they construct specific kinds of representations using literary conventions (Mogalakwe, 2006).

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Therefore DA focussed on how organisational realities are reproduced through textual convention (Atkinson and Coffey, 1997). Organisations in the contemporary society produce documentary materials and it is important to pay attention to the forms and functions of such documents. In its own right, documentary work is the main method of qualitative research (Atkinson and Coffey, 1997) and this is a qualitative study seeking multiple realities. Atkinson and Coffey (1997) claim that documentary data from policies ‘enshrine a distinctively documentary version of reality’ (p47). Documents do not provide an obvious representation of organisational routines and decision making. They represent plans and aspirations for a possible future. Documentary analysis enabled me to determine the major stakeholders involved in the running of SEN and in retrospect information that was not available from other documents. The explicit and implicit emphases were also unpacked to understand key policy concepts.

The application of documentary methods refers to the analysis of documents that contain information about the phenomenon we wish to study (Bailey 1994). It is described as a procedure used to categorise, investigate and identify the limitations of physical sources in written documents both in the private and public domain. Educational settings are implicitly represented as devoid of written documents and other forms of textual recording. The analysis enabled me to understand how the government represents itself collectively and to others through the construction of documents. Silverman (2006) stresses that documentary constructions of reality depend upon particular use of language and lend itself to this sort of documentary analysis.

Documentary research methods have often been incorrectly considered to be dominated by professional historians, librarians and information science specialists, whilst social scientists rely on surveys and in-depth interview methods (Mogalakwe, 2006). Primary data was considered from interviews and documentary data policy details were considered as secondary. However, DA

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research is considered a useful and under-utilised approach that can be adopted by researchers in the full confidence that, like other methods requires rigorous adherence to research protocol. They have been written with a purpose and are based on particular assumptions and presented in a certain way or style and to this extent, the researcher must be fully aware of the origins, purpose and the original audience of the documents (Silverman, 2011). It must be noted that documents are not deliberately produced for the purpose of research, but naturally occurring objects with a concrete or semi-permanent existence which tells us indirectly about the social world of the people who created them (Payne, 2004).

The documentary analysis of the SNE policy focussed on the particular discursive practices of the written genre. In order to interpret the semiotic understanding, sharpen clarity of presenting the policy in general and to draw the most important aspects, I took account of forms of textual materials (Silverman, 2011) making sense of a range of different texts in order to interpret and draw partial understandings or representations to infer underlying patterns or state of affairs. I had to fill those ‘texts’ with common sense knowledge. I read between the lines in order to re-construct a picture of the SNE that is being described drawing on what I knew about typical departments, academic staff members and typical projects as referred in the literature review.

In interpreting the semiotic functioning of the document, I also paid attention to documentary form and language, issues of readership and authorship and the relationship and interrelationship between texts and how similar texts influence or differ from each other. Atkinson and Coffey (1997) highlight that documents cannot be treated as firm evidence of what they are assumed to report since they often provide nuances of a typically documentary version of social reality. Texts depend upon background assumptions so that they can convey more than they say because readers and writers apply a variety of social and cultural assumptions. While the SNE policy document offers guidelines, it is prescriptive rather than advisory. Atkinson and Coffey (1997) cautions that anonymity is not in itself adequate to add status to a text, rather it is achieved through interaction with

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different features such as organisational or bureaucratic contexts and status of teachers.

The SNE policy seems to link together several practices and discourses typical to the social life of teaching. However, the DA does not describe the passage of time so the socio-historical or pre-existing discursive formulations which impact the SNE discourse were considered separately at the beginning of the analysis Although qualitative data is descriptive I went beyond simple description and provided an interpretation of the data. Being analytical is central to being a researcher (Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007). The following steps were taken:

 Obtain the SNE policy from the Ministry of Education in Kenya without any prior plan. My aim was to understand the contents of the policy relating to SNE structure.

 What public and institutional discourses are important in terms of SNE knowledge and what has been stressed.

 Established how many sections and how they are arranged and in what texts the discourses appear.

 ‘Technical’ words and how or whether they are defined.  Repetition and how different sections relate.

 Iteratively question and refine the constructions of connected understanding across the collected information. A set of questions asked pertained to what is defined as problematic and by implication what is not. Explanations or theories provided and any explanations or solutions omitted or rejected.

 It was important to question what a critical reading of the policy document uncovered in terms of: Ascertaining the nature of the document.

 Range of explanations provided

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 What control situations were reported.

 I would then compare with the literature review and education reports seeking to ask question about the audience addressed and whom the policy represents. Such information was evaluated, interpreted and condensed.

 Twin concepts of ‘deconstructions and reconstructions’ were central to this analysis.

 Deconstruction involved breaking down of knowledge into its own elements. This involved collection of empirical data and the examination of such data in relation to the abstract constructs that constitute knowledge.

 Reconstruction involved re-examining the constructs in terms of the wider social structural arrangements which underpin and sustain it. For example, provision, gender, access, identification, participation, disability and inequality. This was accompanied with reading and reflecting upon SNE and looking into ways in which language used and values involved and portrayed subject of discourse. Theories and knowledge embodied in policy and institutions were examined and considerations of power deep-seated in such theory and knowledge underscored.

I therefore looked beyond separate texts and how they relate. Any system messages, documents make sense because they have relationships with other documents. The literature review formed a brief preview about SNE practice and these details provided a good basis for the interpretation. It involved an examination of assumptions underpinning any account and considering what other possible aspects are concealed or ruled out. It can also involve moving beyond the documents to cover a critical analysis of the institutional and social structures within which such documents are produced (Silverman, 2011).

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By the time I obtained the hard copy there was no soft copy available. This affects accessibility and readability.

Conforming to the interpretivist approach enabled the researcher to uncover relevant practices that seemed to matter and other factors which affect the operation of SNE policy. This provided general concepts and insights and perspectives rather than unearthing causes. Therefore the method of analysis involved reading and reflecting and is not exclusively a critical reading of the text but is also a challenge to the text. It is solely concerned with ‘communication’ with the text. Individual texts were interrogated, unpacked, adapted and informed by critical sensibilities (Mogalakwe, 2006). In order to enhance the quality of connections the multiple pieces of information were explored, questioned, reflexivity used and updating with the recent literature done.

The SNE policy document provided data, processes and events which were not available from the questionnaires or interviews. Documentatry Analysis provides material for study to researchers especially where policy being studied is new without distorting the meaning of the contents. It also informs other stages of the research process. Policy analysis is not vast in Kenya and I envision that these insights and perspectives are significant in terms of the broader focus of SNE. Arguably, the researcher is the principle tool of data collection. Researchers need to be reflexive by recognising their role in the research process to minimise bias and enhance credibility (Creswell, 2009). Thinking through the process from inception of the research idea to the presentation of the report entailed continuous reflexivity.