Documentary Review

The rationale for choosing documents as a supporting data source for this study is varied. Creswell (2012) asserts that documents are good sources for data generation. In addition, documentary reviews were an unobtrusive method that helped me elicit information about the phenomenon under investigation, the actors and the contexts in which they act. The review of documents put me in a better understanding of the new policies and decisions underpinning the NFLP, the curriculum and instructional materials that influence the facilitation of English learning by the facilitators.

In this study, data was obtained from education policy documents, instructional materials, training and monitoring reports as presented in Table 3.2 below:

Table 3.2 Analysis of Documents Reviewed

Document Content Issues

Education Strategic Plan (2010-2020) Vol. I & II (ESP I & II).

The ESP Links education to development Literacy is a skill

It has very well stated Policy Objective of ‘Improve equitable access to and participation in quality education at all levels’. Adult Functional Literacy has been covered in the ESP especially with Outline Strategy NF2 and NF13 which are very critical to this study.

The PO further has some indicative targets that have already elapsed such as revision and validation of national functional literacy by 2011; sampling 5% of adult population every 2 years from 2012 to determine adult literacy rate; literacy rate improved to 85% by 2020. PO 4 under non-formal education stipulates: Improve management of education service delivery in the sector. Its indicative targets cover among others reducing the % of untrained trainers from XX% to not more than 5% by 2015 and

Promotes only the autonomous view of literacy. Most of the deadlines have elapsed.

Responsibilities for the indicative activities not clearly outlined. Planing, Budgeting, Monitoring and Evaluation (PBME) Unit of MOE assigned overall responsibility with support of NFED, GES, COTVET etc. with Development Partners and NGOs as collaborators.

NF2 that states that ‘Provide conditions for universal functional literacy’. NF13 also makes provision for effective preparation, upgrade and deployment of non- formal trainers. These would include adequate financial and other resources.

There are shortfalls in the education policy documents concerning the NFE sector and adult functional literacy in particular, such as overlapping roles.

Most target dates have elapsed. For example, definition and validation of functional literacy to include other literacies has not been done, neither has mapping of potential participants done. No national tests have been done. Neither can it be told that the literacy rate has increased as stated.

secondly, the provision of motivation packages to non-formal trainers in hardship areas.

Mass Literacy and Social Change Policy Document (MASSLIP)

Context of start of NFED and NFLP Policy of non-formal education (NFE) Programme Scope and implementation strategy

Links functional illiteracy to underdevelopment

Only policy document on non-formal education Outlived its usefulness since it was published in 1987 Holds the autonomous view of literacy

Stresses functional literacy

Generated issue of neglect of other NFE due to high illiteracy rate in country at the time.

Facilitator’s Manual for the English Programme

Scanty contents on background of the English programme.

Instructions on how to facilitate very general. Expects the facilitator to be innovative and use the dictionary as well as consult experts.

Emphasises literacy as skills: reading, writing and numeracy.

Published since 2001.

No clear methodology for teaching English.

General instructions limited to being a facilitator of learning.

Overlooks contexts where these materials will be used e.g. Rural areas may not have language experts.

Does not outline qualifications and roles of English literacy facilitators.

Does not recommend qualifications required for leading English literacy acquisition and the need for a dictionary. Does not mention different conceptualisations of literacy. English Primers (4) Illustrations of Objects and initial letters,

alphabet of English language. Basic grammar and numeracy problems. Functional Primer: composite picture, some key words and paragraphs of text.

Three primers focus on teaching English grammar and structure.

Functional primer imitates local language primer Facilitator’s Manual and

Guide for the National Functional Literacy

Manual: Background to the programme; benefits of literacy; roles of facilitators; information for analysing and discussing

Very well laid out methodology and steps for facilitating and evaluating a lesson.

Programme (Local language)

functional topics; master lesson plan; do and don’ts of facilitation;

Guide: Framework for facilitating literacy and numeracy including instructional and assessment activities; framework for planning and evaluating development activities/praxis

Emphasises literacy as skills: reading, writing and numeracy but also stresses functionality.

Current Edition published 2001

However functional themes get confused with application of literacy-the social practice view of literacy.

Training reports Number of participants Number of days

Participants’ expectations and workshop objectives

Content and delivery methods Participation

Learning context

Daily evaluation by participants Workshop evaluation.

Reduced days promote combination and rushed presentation of topics.

Topics are diluted as the trainers cascade.

Lacks research and updating of content in view of changes in literacy discourse.

Monitoring reports Existence and location of classes, data on inputs received, supervision visits, general learning taking place

Not focussed on tracking facilitation and the instructive aspect of the programme.

Internal Memoranda Day to day administration and challenges Limited to administration Supervision reports Focus on lesson reached and statistics of

learners, class inputs and attendance

Aimed at generating reports for management meetings and not for evaluating facilitation and learning outcomes.

Class facilitation reports by ALOs

Focus of lesson reached and statistics of class inputs and attendance

Idealistic and lacks facilitation and learning evaluation feedback

Minutes of Senior Management Meetings

Focus on general management and financial reporting

The two policy documents analysed as in Table 3.2 indicated that the autonomous view of literacy was held adult functional literacy and especially the targeted dates set for achieving indicative activities in the ESP had elapsed. According to the Facilitator’s Manual, each facilitation session should last about an hour or one and a half hours. Facilitators are however expected to move at the pace of the learners. Next to be examined were the four Primers which detail the real content to be delivered. In addition, I also obtained data from reports on training conducted on the English project, monitoring visit reports and internal memoranda and documents about the NFLP and the English project in particular as outlined in Tables 3.1 and 3.2. Important here were reports written by the ALOs on their classes and those written on the activities of facilitators and their learners. Most of the reports were idealistic and only reported on the smoothness of operation and class statistics rather than focussing on facilitation and the instructive aspect of the programme. For example, a statement like ‘Classes are ongoing’ does not give the real status of what is done for facilitation and learning and whether or not the specified methodology is being followed. Reporting on such details could have been interpreted as failure on their part so they would rather focus on reporting good news. However, the data collection forms do not require them to give much qualitative reports. In addition, minutes of meetings and letters were examined to aid understanding (see Table 3.2).

Among other uses, the documentary review (Table 3.2) corroborated evidence that was gathered from the observation and interviews. Another advantage was that it provided content information that facilitated analysis of the other data sets and also served as a means of bringing in other perspectives. Additionally, the documentary review allowed for easy management and categorization of data for analysis.

One challenge that I contended with had to do with critically analysing my subjectivity and prejudice. Throughout the study, I needed to constantly remind myself that I was a researcher instead of an administrator of the NFED when reviewing these documents. To overcome this issue, my research questions were kept constantly in mind in interpreting the data as well as the context in which the data were collected (Creswell, 2012; Cohen et al., 2011).