RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.1 Introduction
4.3 Methodological approach
This study adopted a qualitative methodological approach that triangulated data collection techniques and data sources within a case study. Each data source was addressed in terms of its uniqueness and mainly to support further understanding of the environment. The study explored what Yin (1981:59) and Creswell (1998:61) refer to as a “bounded system” in research because the research strategy (case study) was systematically delimited to select setting in terms of location and time. The data collection was also bound to the use of interviews, focus group discussions, observations and documentary analysis as data collection was underataken within a qualitative case study.
The systematic procedure of obtaining a research permit; gaining access to the study site; participant selection; data collection and analysis further buttress the systematic nature of this study. The following discussion outlines how these activities were carried out.
89 4.4 Research permit
Acquiring a research permit was done in phases or sub plots that were helpful and very informative on issues related to the national ICT environment. The initial introductions were made through email and telephone communications. For example, email (dated 30/ 10/ 2012; Appendix 3) was sent to the Ministry of Science and Technology. A similar e-mail was sent to, the Botswana National Library (30/ 10/ 2012) as a follow up of telephone consultation with the Director. The procedure for acquiring a research permit seemed very unclear to all the ministries or departments that the researcher sought assistance from. The initial introductory communications therefore included an inquiry on how to get a research permit.
The second phase of getting the research permit was characterised by several informal but very informative discussions with different officers at different departments and organisations. Due to what seemed to be unclear procedures of getting a research permit, the researcher visited several offices related to ICT access and usage in Botswana. The research permit was ultimately issued by the Ministry of Transport and Communication on 13th November 2012.
Before the permit was issued the researcher was invited to present the research proposal in a meeting with both the Director in the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services and the National Coordinator, Information and Communications Technology. From this meeting the researcher was motivated to collaborate with the team that was set to assess the ICT public access centres under the second phase of the government rural connectivity programme popularly referred to as Nteletsa II. The word Nteletsa is a Setswana word that literally translates as “call me” to denote that there is telecommunication connectivity in the area. Nteletsa is part of the rural connectivity programme that was cited earlier in the introductory chapter as some of the ICT initiatives in Botswana.
The researcher also had two follow up meetings with the Deputy Director and another with the Chief Communications Officer, who served as the leader of the team that was
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tasked to assess the Nteletsa II. Although the objective and scope of the just stated assessment differed with those of the present research, they were complementary. Establishing a working relationship with the ministry also helped in easing access to both the study site and more data sources. This collaboration also played an important role as part of what was referred to earlier as informal “peer reviewers”.
In the process of getting a research permit, the researcher built a strong working relationship with the Botswana National Library Services (BNLS) under the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture. In one of the meetings at BNLS, the researcher presented and discussed the research goal and objectives. The Head of Projects and the Head of Public Libraries attended this meeting. As a result of the cultivated working relationship, the Letlhakeng Public Library then served as the main host at the study site.
Dispite the good relationship that the researcher had built with both the Ministry of Transport and Communication and the department of national library services, the researcher embraced Wang‟s (2013: 763) advice to be attentive to the relationship between the researcher and all other people who play different roles in the study. As part of the desire to present an authentic and credible study, the researchers ensured impartiality by independently collecting and analysing data. For example, the researcher identified an information rich case while sitting in as an observer i the meeting between the government research team and the informdiary at Kaudwane. This identified participant was not part of the just noted discussion. The researcher then independently followed up this user at a later date for an interview.
The researcher also independently identified the stand-alone centres in the village, although the librarian did not know about them. These examples demonstrate the researcher‟s commitment to ethical objectivity that was pledged in the first chapter. 4.5 Research method
Before a detailed discussion of the data collection processes, it is important to recall that the second chapter of this study explained the researcher‟s choice of an interpretivist approach and why the researcher adopted what Dobson (2002) describes
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as an interpretative approach with a critical realism. As Bryman (1984) asserts, the adopted theoretical framework, coupled with the research question, as stated in the first chapter of this study played an important role in both the data collection and how it was analysed. In the second chapter, it is explained that the adopted approach brought in elements of social constructivists that call for an understanding of social and technical factors of access and use of the technologies that are offered through the public access centres (Evusa 2005: 137). It also important to reiterate Mortari and Harcourt (2012: 235) and Wang (2013: 769) observation that at times there is a need to step outside the confines of the already set codes or frameworks so as to obtain data as it emerges. For example, data was gathered from non-users through individual interviews or discussions that were guided by a research tool that was designed for a focus group discussion. In some cases the participants‟ ages were not stated and in some cases impromptu discussions were held with minors without the gaurdian‟s consent.
This also study contends, as does Leedy and Ormrod (2005:94) and Mottier (2005:5), that reality is constructed through the lens of both the community being studied and the researcher. The study therefore sourced information from the infomidiaries, users and non-users as members of the information society. It therefor took the form of an end- user study, which as Pickard (1998) notes, is a common trend within Library and Information Science (LIS). Pickard attests that such end user studies assess experiences of a community as it interacts with the different ICT public access centres. The discussion that follows shows how the data collection was made with minimal alteration of the participant‟s programmes or what Hernandez-Limon (2009: 4) and Kalusopa (2011:144) observe as the naturalistic approach or the “real world setting”. 4.6 Data collection
The following discussion focuses on the actual data collection in terms of how the participants were selected and how the data was sourced from the various sources. Although the approach was predominantly a naturalistic inquiry that rolled out as and when data emerged, the overall field work was in strategic phases or within the “bounded system” as stated by Yin (1981:59) and Creswell (1998:61).
92 4.6.1 Broad data collection phases
During the different phases of the data collection, there was also what Pickard and Dixon (2004) and (Evusa 2005) refer to as a constant comparative data from the multiple sub-cases. As shall be seen in the next chapter, the broad data collection phases had many other interrelated sub plots that called for a very flexible triangulation of research techniques.
Figure 2: Data collection phases
The field work, which mainly borrowed from Pickard‟s (1998) guide, was also in line with Tellis‟s (1997); Creswell‟s (1998:61) and Yin‟s (1981:59) idea of a “bounded system” in research. A structured segmentation of the field study is also illustrated in Hernandez- Limon (2009: 48) where the first phase entailed observation of Latino women as they used computers at a studied community ICT access centre followed by an in-depth interviews and discussions with only eight selected participants. Wang (2013:764) also follows a similarly structured approach in a case study of international students in a