Focus Group Discussion

It is a research method increasingly used for data collection, the source of data is the interaction in a group discussion and the researcher has an active role in creating the discussion. Hence, in the present study the participants were engaged collectively in meaning making where a specific phenomenon was focused. The process contributed to the researcher‟s understanding of how the group constructed meaning of a specific topic (Bryman, 2004). It was chosen because it allows for a dialogue among

participants and stimulates them to openly express their views on the issues raised of determinants of women‟s small scale business growth in Kicukiro and Gikondo sectors. Interest of the present study was to establish how women‟s small scale business explained their experiences in doing their businesses by discussing them. The information generated from focus group discussions were used to discuss the results obtained from the questionnaires (Appendix 1 and 2).

In addition, Babbie (2007) states that there are several major benefits of the focus group, mainly:

a) In the focus group method, there is less intrusion on those being interviewed as the semi-structured interview encourages interactions between the interviewer and the interviewees. This system of interview refers to the „dialogical action‟ that suggests that a dialogical communication is a major factor of reaching an agreement and a consensus – as dialoguers or communicators exchange views in interactive way; with humility and respect of the dignity of one another. Indeed, the main advantage of a focus group is that the members of the group respond to each other.

b) Those being interviewed can ask questions of the interviewer. In this way it can also function as an extension tool. (and is „dialogical‟ rather than a „one- way‟ process of „extracting information‟)

c) Using both individual and group interviews can optimize the strengths of both (Babbie, 2007).

The important of focus group discussion is the presence of several respondents in the same time, providing a certain synergy. For this method, the researcher brings to get her a small number of subjects to discuss the topic of interest. The group size is kept deliberately small, so that its members do not feel intimidated but can express

opinions freely. Focus group discussions were held with four groups with five women from each of the four cells of Kicukiro and Gikondo sectors were interviewed in the process of data collection. The composition of these groups was women engaged in different income activities in retailing, hairdressing in salon, tailoring and weaving cooperatives. Each focus group was comprised of the business women owner and this was conducted with the help of a research assistant and the researcher.

Focus group discussions were carried out over a period of four days in the both sectors of study area. Each sector was visited twice for the focus group discussions. Before undertaking the interviews, the women‟s small scale business were informed through local leaders and each sector was visited twice for the group discussions and each group discussion lasted almost between one and two hours. Through focus group discussions affected individuals and groups were able to speak for themselves. This provided knowledge that enhanced the capacity to understand the viewpoint of women‟s small scale business. Focus group discussions were undertaken to collect data regarding determinants of women‟s small scale business growth.

In addition, a total number of 20 women‟s small scale business in each sector agreed to take part in the focus group discussions. The participants were divided into 4 groups of at least 5 persons in order to facilitate the communication and participation of all the respondents. Groups had been allocated dates and time for the discussions. More comprehensive information was obtained from the focus group discussions. Some of the information collected from the women in the focus groups included strategies that were used during their small-scale business and their experiences.

Moreover, researcher conducted four Focus Group Discussion; tailoring, hairdressing and salon activities, retailing and weaving baskets cooperative from each of the two respective study areas. The following are examples of the issues discussed included the following themes:

a) Doing business experiences,

b) Reasons why they choose to invest in small-scale business c) Major problems in doing small scale business.

This helped the researcher to gather detailed verbal and non-verbal expressions from participants.

According to Joppe (2000) validity is all about determining whether the research truly measures that which it was intended to measure or how truthful the research results are. The validity of the research instruments was determined by undertaking a pre-test on one of the selected sectors. After the pre-test, the instruments were corrected for any errors, omissions and ambiguities while the reliability of a research instrument deals with the extent to which a research instrument can collect similar data applied to different respondents. A research instrument is thus reliable when it can collect similar data once used repeatedly on different respondents (Joppe, 2000).

Furthermore, questionnaires were tested on potential respondents to make the data collecting instruments objective, relevant, suitable to the problem and reliable as recommended by John Adams et al., (2007). Issues raised by respondents were corrected and questionnaires were refined. Besides, proper detection by a chief of weaving baskets cooperative was also taken to ensure validity of the instruments. Finally, the improved version of the questionnaires was printed, duplicated and

dispatched. The validity and reliability for this study were measured by using the initial discussion of the sample interview and questionnaire with other colleagues and modifications made accordingly.