RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 6.1 Introduction
6.5 Methods of Data Collection
Taking into consideration the aims of this project and the research questions, both
secondary and primary data collection strategies were used. For the secondary data
collection some evidence could be drawn from my previous MPhil thesis where I have
already reviewed relevant education policies from Ghana. With regards to research
question 1, available literatures have been explored in establishing the connections
between school improvement and democratic education, putting some emphasis on
pupils’ views on schooling.
The strategies for primary data collection started with in-depth study observation of
whole institutions of one basic school and one teacher training college (further details on
selection and sampling to follow). The unique nature of observation as a research process
offers researchers an opportunity to gather ‘live’ data from naturally occurring social situations. In this process, researchers understand the context of the study, to be open
minded, to see things that might be unconsciously overlooked, to see things that
participants will be reluctant to talk about in an interview situation (Cohen et al., 2007).
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therefore observation provides a reality check. The other reason for the observations in
this study was also to locate entry points to more democratic practices in Ghanaian
schools and teacher education institutions.
Furthermore, mock school council meetings were held in six schools in Ghana, since
school councils do not exist in basic schools in Ghana. I called them mock school
councils because it is my own decision as a researcher to help pupils experience
democratic practice within the school context. Schools involved in the research were not
under any obligation to continue the council meetings after the study unless authorities
thought it would be useful for them. Pupils were able to experience the decision-making
process by electing representatives to represent them at these council meetings. The
number of pupils elected for the mock school council depended on the number of classes
in each year group from year 4 to year 6 in the Primary Schools and year 7 and year 8 in
the Junior High School (JHS). At the time of my fieldwork in May/June 2010, the year 9
pupils had left school after completing their national Basic Education Certificate
Examination (BECE) and hence they could not be covered.
Group interviews were then conducted with pupils in the six selected basic schools in
Ghana (Basic School is six years Primary School and three years Junior High School).
The interviews were conducted after the council meetings but pupils involved were not
necessarily the councillors. Teachers helped me in the selection process. In each school, I
conducted three group interviews (4 pupils in each group) and two individual interviews
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ended essay on their ideal school and how it could be achieved. In all the selected
schools informal observations and diary notes were kept (Bell, 2010).
6.6 Sampling
This study is qualitative and the collection of data involves semi-structured interviews,
‘purposive sampling’ was considered appropriate. In purposive sampling researchers handpick the cases to be included in the sample on the basis of their judgement of their
relevance to the study (in being typical, for example, or exemplary). In this way, they
build up a sample that is satisfactory to their specific needs (Cohen and Manion, 2007).
de Vaus (2001) argues that since cases are used for theoretical rather than statistical
generalisation, there is little point in selecting samples because they are in some sense
representative of some wider population. Nonetheless, there is still the need to use
strategic selection of samples in order to identify the research context, which has
particular characteristics.
In the context of this research, all the schools and colleges used were selected from the
Ashanti Region of Ghana. This region was chosen for two reasons: firstly Ashanti Region
is located in the middle belt of Ghana with Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana as its
capital. It serves as a transportation link to various locations in Ghana. Despite the
strategic positioning of Kumasi in Ghana most of the educational researches are done in
the southern part of Ghana where most of the universities dealing with education are
based or the northern part of Ghana where the most deprived areas are (for example,
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knowledge of the Ashanti Region as I have lived there from birth, through stages of
education to the teacher training level and then worked as a teacher for three years. I
bring into this study the perspective of the insider/outsider lens as I have been studying in
the UK for almost a decade. Four of the basic schools in this study were picked from the
city because of the typicality of the population in which one can find every ethnic group
in Ghana represented in various suburbs. Two of the basic schools were picked from a
rural township, to take into consideration the rural-urban differences that exist and to
ensure some balance of representation. The Regional Manager of an Education Unit
helped me to select the schools by giving me options to choose from. I presumed that
those schools might have been high achieving and well-organised schools in order to be
recommended by the Regional Manager. A College of Education was selected from the
city and the other was picked from a rural township. Below are brief descriptions of the
schools and colleges involved where pseudonyms have been used to represent them.
United Primary School: This school is in the city, one of the best schools in the Ashanti Region in terms of resources. It is located in a University Campus. Half of the pupils are
children of university staff who do not pay fees, whereas the rest of the students are
private and pay fees. The school seems to have better resources than all the other schools
I visited and situated in a beautiful environment. I selected this school myself because a
friend pointed out some good practices which would be of interest to the study. They
have more than 1800 pupils. They have eight classes in each year group and therefore 24
pupils were elected to represent each of the classes from year 4 to year 6 for the mock
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in each class the pupils nominated two candidates to be voted for and the winner is by
simple majority. The two main school prefects, the Boys Prefect and the Girls Prefect,
had already been nominated and voted for by their respective classes.
Wisdom Primary School: This school is located near the city centre and attached to a college of education as their practice school. It is a very popular school with a population
of 1100 pupils. They have three classes in each year group and therefore elected 2 pupils
from each class, plus 2 school prefects for the school council. At the same compound but
with a different headteacher, is the Wisdom Junior High School. It is another practice
school for teacher trainees. Most pupils here are products of the Wisdom Primary School
but pupils from the Wisdom Primary do not have automatic rights to be admitted. It is a
very popular Junior High School (JHS) with 527 pupils. In this school, they had three
classes in each year group. Two pupils were elected from each class in year 7 and year 8
for the school council. There were 12 representatives plus 2 school prefects.
Advanced Junior High School: This school is located in one of the densely populated suburbs of the city with people from diverse backgrounds. It was started as a private
school by a church but later adopted by the government. They have a small compound
and the school is surrounded by numerous local vehicle mechanics’ fitting garages. The student population was 337, three classes per year group. Two pupils were elected to
represent each class in both year 7 and year 8 that is 12 representatives plus 2 school
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Adom Primary School and Adom Junior High School are schools based on a rural township about 35 minutes drive from the city. They are sister schools adjacent to each
other with different headteachers. The primary school feeds the junior high school. These
schools were recommended to me by the Regional Manager of Education Unit which
presupposes that they might be good performing schools. Pupils’ level of English
speaking was good unlike typical rural schools in Ghana. Both schools had total
population of around 800 pupils. Adom primary had two classes per year group. Two
pupils were elected to represent each class, that is, 12 representatives and 1 school
prefect; the other prefect had already been elected. Adom JHS had three classes for year 7
and two classes for year 8. They elected two representatives from each class, totalling 10
pupils, plus 2 school prefects for the school council.
Colleges of Education: Two colleges of education were selected, one of them in the city and the other rural. I have used pseudonyms for both of the colleges; the one in the city
Royal College and that of the rural area Akwaaba College. I know Royal College very well and it was used for my previous research, and I wanted to know whether there had
been changes in terms of democratic practices since I visited in 2006. Akwaaba College
was located in a rural township about 45 minutes drive from the city. For the colleges of
education, their locations do not represent where the teacher trainees come from. In
Ghana, all the public teacher training colleges of education are boarding institutions
where trainees come from various places for their teacher education. However, from my
insider knowledge the rural teacher training college was picked because sometimes they
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their city counterparts. The teacher training colleges in Ghana are three years post-
secondary which is currently awarding 'Diploma in Basic Education'. According to my
previous studies, one of the respondents had an experience in a rural training college
where first year students were paired with the third year students. In this case the first
year students are supposed to serve the so called 'seniors' by fetching water and
sometimes washing their clothes for them while it is not like that in the other colleges in
the city (Agyemang, 2007). Traditional values are also likely to be more prominent in
rural areas (Harber and Davies, 1997).
Table 6.1 Tabular Representation of Respondents
Institutions School councils No. of members Interviews No. of respondents Open-ended essay No. of respondents Total
United Primary 24 12 (3 groups of 4)+2 8 46
Wisdom Primary 20 12 (3 groups of 4)+2 8 42
Adom Primary 13 12 (3 groups of 4)+2 8 35
Adom JHS 12 12 (3 groups of 4)+2 8 34 Wisdom JHS 14 12 (3 groups of 4)+2 8 36 Advance 14 12 (3 groups of 4)+2 8 36 Royal College 8 6 14 Akwaaba College 6 6 12 Total 97 98 60 255
The data collection processes involved the 97 pupils elected and took part in the mock
school council meetings in their various schools. There were 18 group interviews
involving a total of 72 pupils, 14 teacher trainees were interviewed individually and also
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pupils participating and 12 teacher trainees involved. The next sections explain why these
data collection approaches were used and the various processes involved. I made a
conscious effort to balance the gender representation in all cases in the data collection
process.