Research Process and Data Collection

The data collection process was framed in a flexible fieldwork plan which served as an effective tool for refining the research questions and narrowing the scope of the research project. This was occasioned through the continual process of collecting and reviewing the data.

The Field Work Plan

At first glance, and throughout its formation, my field work plan appeared to be straightforward and simple, with no perceivable obstacles. It consisted of three stages which were spread out equally over a nine month period of fieldwork in Barbados. These stages necessitated the collection of data from national archival sources, government ministries and departments, Hansard Reports and finally through undertaking elite interviews with policymakers involved in the IMF and World Bank negotiations and education reforms.

At the very outset, the first stage saw the collection of data from the national development plans and census reports. These were readily available from archival sources, mainly at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus’ main library, the National Archives Department and the Barbados Statistical Service. It was anticipated that these documents would provide the baseline information that would act as a roadmap for the research process, offering crucial information such as the rationale for the government's expanded education programme, the administration’s need to secure external funding, the state of the national economy, and a comprehensive overview of the highly esteemed education sector. Similarly, it was envisaged that the National Archives Department would have public sector administration files for the late 1970s and 80s, particularly the minutes of Cabinet meetings that would shed some light on the policy process and the various ministerial views that were canvassed and captured. I was also hopeful in

85 thinking that access to these documents would provide me with the opportunity to reconstruct the development and design of the government's education policy, and from which I could analyse any issues of conflict, consensus and conformity in the formulation of the education policies. One assumed that these documents would contain a wealth of information. A comparable view is held by Burnham et al (2008: 184) who noted that 'documentary and archival sources offer great opportunities for political scientists to develop novel accounts and interpretations of significant events'.

After the first three months I proceeded to the second stage of the work plan. This consisted of collecting data from various government ministries, particularly the Ministries of Education and Finance. From these sources I sought to gather information from past administrative files and reports related to the government's funding of primary and secondary education. It was imagined that from these files I would have access to the minutes of meetings held with World Bank and IMF officials, where the negotiations and discussions with key government administrators could be observed. A review of such documents, according to Lowe (2004), would 'provide the opportunity for researchers to contribute to wider discussions in social science, such as the agency/structure and principle actors debates (that) can make a significant contribution to understanding the workings of modern government and the conduct of international relations' (Lowe cited in Burnham et al 2008:177).

The final stage of the work plan was dedicated to collecting the Hansard Reports coming out of Parliament and then following these up with elite interviews to further explore and clarify key issues. With regard to the latter, it was expected that a pilot interview would be conducted first. The aim of this was to help distil the interview questions and to familiarise myself with the elite interviewing process.

86 Although I had a list of potential interviewees I was acutely aware of the fact that reviewing the administrative files might increase, reduce or even significantly alter the list. At first, I did not foresee the need for gatekeepers since I knew that most of the interviewees, except for a couple of persons, were all retired from the civil service or active politics. However, as it is explained in detail below, it soon became apparent that not only were gatekeepers required, but they had to be highly influential as well.

Initially, everything went according to plan, particularly since most of the data collected during the first few weeks was accessible to any member of the public. The national development plan, although quite informative, did not really throw up much unfamiliar information. From the data collected, the project was further refined, focusing only on the first, second and third World Bank projects and on primary and secondary education, particularly its relevance to national development.

It must also be pointed out that although the World Bank education projects were framed, negotiated and executed as separate entities, there are also acknowledged in the annals of central government as one continuous project. This is even though the official account, chronicled and formally documented in the Government of Barbados and World Bank files, speak of three projects, since three separate loan agreements were signed. However, in point of fact, the apparent contradiction - the one continuous project version as against the three projects - has been explained away by government officials that, in practical terms, the second project was a continuation of the first one in the form of additional funding to finish most of the capital work, and the third project was an extension of the second one, to include the construction of a greater number of secondary schools.

87 While accessing the data collected from the national libraries and the university proved relatively easy, the same cannot be said about getting approval to view the administrative files on the World Bank projects. It took approximately two months to gain access to the Ministry of Education’s files; and when permission was finally granted I was placed under the watchful eye of the Project Officer within the Education Project Implementation Unit. Although requesting on more than one occasion to get access to the Policy and Research Section, where I was told the education policy documents were stored, I was never granted permission. I therefore had to rely on the secondary analysis and data from other sources who previously had access to this section, while conducting their own research (Jones 1997)4. Nevertheless, with the benefit of hindsight, I realised that familiarising myself with the Ministry's organisational structure and filing system would have helped to expedite the research process.

After a few weeks of working under the Project Officer's supervision I was eventually given direct access to the department's files from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The irksome task of supervising my constant requests for documents housed in various locations in the Ministry of Education and in an annex on its compound might have influenced this decision, since tending to my requests disrupted the Project Officer's work several times throughout the day. These documents were mainly housed in make-shift storage, comprising two large shipping containers filled from floor to ceiling with World Bank project files, dating back to the project's conception in 1974 to its completion in 2001. Luckily for me in this instance, I was allowed to work in total solitude everyday in these two containers. These containers consisted of over 50 boxes of files,

4_{The reason for not being admitted to this section remains unknown. The one person whom I am aware of}

that accessed these documents was a teacher and an executive member of the Barbados Teachers' Union. I used his research data to supplement any gaps in mine, as it relates to the education policy reports.

88 with at least six bulky files in each box. From these files I obtained information on the project loan agreements and the aide memoirs and other correspondence between the Government of Barbados and the World Bank, as well as the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education. However, these administrative files sometimes had missing information which was recorded on other files elsewhere.

As it relates to conducting public sector research, the surprising and unexplained absence of critical documents seems to be a familiar refrain, as Robinson (1987) also notes that 'many important papers written for internal circulation have either perished or are difficult to find' (Robinson cited in Burnham 1987: 290). To Robinson's obiter dictum I wish to add that not all meetings were recorded, and not all relevant information was located in the internal registry; neither was it accessible from other relevant departments.

What the files did throw up, however, was that some of the technocrats who were highly recommended to be interviewed were not integrally involved in the projects. They might have played a peripheral role at some stage, but nothing substantial. Instead, the administrative files revealed the main actors and key players in the project negotiation process. These individuals were not the politicians previously thought of, instead they were senior civil servants and surprisingly some trade unionists, particularly from the Barbados Union of Teachers, who should have been earmarked to help put the spotlight on what had transpired decades ago. That clarification was quickly undertaken and the interviews requested and obtained.

Although having to go through the official procedure of writing to the Ministry of Finance for permission to use its library, I was not subjected to the unnecessary, daily, rigorous scrutiny and superintendence as obtained with the Ministry of Education. At the Ministry of Finance I was

89 given permission to freely peruse the Ministry's collection of World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Central Bank of Barbados reports and publications, as well as the estimates of expenditure. On reflection, I believe that the latitude granted was probably related to the previously disclosed particulars of the projects and the ‘open-door policy’ the current government has enunciated, especially with its planned Freedom of Information Act, where it is proposing to make official documents accessible to members of the general public after a specific period of time had elapsed.

It was, however, disappointing to ascertain that three of the documents that I thought were critical to the research were missing. These were the IMF loan agreements for the stabilisation programme of 1982 and the agreement for the structural adjustment loan in 1992, as well as the IMF’s Article IV Consultation Report of 1992. These documents were essential since they included details of the stabilisation and structural adjustment loan agreements which the government had entered into with the IMF. Nevertheless, I was not unduly discouraged by this discovery because I anticipated that the Central Bank’s library and/or Parliament’s library would have records of these documents. Another disappointment was my inability to gain access to the files that dealt with the IMF negotiations. Thus my journey to the Central Bank of Barbados' library proved futile. That Bank does not allow World Bank or IMF documents to be photocopied, and since time did not allow me to review the documents in great detail I was forced to take copious notes and hope for better success with the Parliament’s library. Eventually, I requested and received the documents directly from the IMF's external affairs department via email.

Having obtained most of the desired data, I had reached the final stage of my fieldwork plan. Up to that point all of my data had been digitised and collected with only the Hansard Reports to be

90 obtained and the elite interviews to be conducted. Making digital copies of the documents with a small flatbed scanner increased the efficiency of my data collection by reducing the time spent in the field. It also provided the opportunity to have the documents available for future reference and analysis, thereby reducing any errors that might have occurred through manual note taking.

I took a scheduled break from data collecting to conduct a preliminary analysis of the data that I had obtained up to that point. This first review of the data reinforced the emergence of the critical role of the teachers’ trade unions, particularly the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT). It further highlighted the influential part which the unions played in acting as a watchdog over the government’s commitment to financing the education sector and to the design and implementation of education policies and programmes (World Bank 1995; BUT 1985). In possession of the new information, I started to refine my interview questions which now took on a new focus. I also shifted the centre of attention of my research slightly to consider the new influences of power and control which were not previously identified in the data. That is, the strength of the trade unions.

This new focus led me to the Barbados Union of Teachers headquarters to review its published works, particularly the Union’s annual reports. These reports contained lots of information, giving insight from a different viewpoint: the workers' perspective on the government’s policy in the education sector. In addition to offering information on the issues of conflict and consensus, which shaped the policy process, the reports also provided me with the name of key players throughout this period who should be interviewed. I collected the BUT annual reports from the late 1970s to 1994. These documents, as with the Hansard Reports, the interviews, the development plans and census data, enabled me to put the various pieces of the policy puzzle together, and to get a better appreciation and understanding of the issues and events which

91 shaped Barbados’ education policy, and which either reinforced or challenged the government’s commitment to the sector and by extension the country’s development model. As with the other data collected up to that point, digital copies of the BUT’s annual reports were secured for further analysis.

In approaching the final stage of my work plan, the final steps to take were to obtain the Hansard Reports and conduct the elite interviews. Accessing the Hansard Reports proved to be a relatively simple process since the documents were in digital format. I managed to obtain copies of the parliamentary debates from 1974 to 1995. These documents were not reviewed at the time of collection and the task of meticulously combing through them was left until after the fieldwork was completed. Although being cautioned by Burnham et al (2004) that Hansard debates are 'by and large recorded political talk and do not reveal the mechanisms of administrative acts ... (and) the lengthy mock battles in the Chamber are often dominated by individuals far removed from the policy-making process' (Burnham et al 2004: 184), I still found them to be very useful tools in enlightening me about the education debates and the overall socio-political atmosphere of the time. It was akin to taking a virtual walk through history, with parliamentarians often discussing in great detail past events and socio-economic data, and the circumstances that led to these developments. The reports contained a great deal of information not often found in West Indian textbooks or academic research. Of particular interest were the education debates during the periods of stabilisation and structural adjustment.

Perhaps, because perusing the Hansard Reports is a painstaking and time-consuming task, a researcher might be discouraged from attempting such an exercise. However, the Ministry of Education's administration files, the World Bank project reports as well as the Barbados Union of Teachers' annual reports identified key dates of parliamentary debates which helped reduced

92 the time it took to review the said reports. Similarly, the pilot interview also produced key dates of debates to be reviewed for analysis.

From a preliminary analysis of the previous documents collected and a review of the work published during this period, I was able to frame my interview questions in a more coherent way. The preliminary analysis and the pilot interview also revealed that those policymakers, such as politicians, former ministers and senior education officials, would have to be asked different questions from those posed to the union officials, although there would be some overlap.

In comparison to the other data collected, bearing in mind the difficulties of accessing some documents and the delays that accompanied them, the elite interviews can be described as a less challenging undertaking. Two things are most noteworthy. Initially, I intended to interview 10 persons, but the list grew increasingly long, with the danger of the sessions snowballing beyond what was needed or what was germane to the matter at hand. However, any anxiety was assuaged somewhat when I learned that some of the potential interviewees had either retired and were unavailable, had landed consultative positions and were based overseas, or unfortunately had passed away. In spite of these slight setbacks, I still had ample resource persons to draw on.

The other consideration had to do with the timing of the interviews. The fact that the Ministry of Education was locked in a long drawn-out dispute with the other teachers’ union, the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union, and a much anticipated general election was constitutionally due and would have been called at any time, gave rise to a period of fluidity. Not many persons were willing to engage in serious dialogue that was not of a topical or political nature. This was the election season and it affected my access to some of the interviewees. Although in retrospect, different gatekeepers should have been employed for different political interests.

93 Some of the political entities that were identified as being influential in the education sector in the 1980s and the 1990s proved difficult to contact. It was assumed that this occurred because in some instances a gatekeeper was not used. The absence of such an intermediary stemmed from the belief that since these persons now formed part of the opposition, and had almost fully retired from active politics, they would have been more predisposed to be interviewed; but this was clearly not the case. For example, it proved challenging, and in the end futile, to contact two former minsters of education, one of whom retired from active politics while the other became the leader of the opposition during this period.

What the interviews revealed, nonetheless, was that the retired senior civil servants and union members were more forthcoming and candid in their discussions and less guarded in their responses. Current politicians and civil servants, on the other hand, remained quite circumspect in their responses and gave generalised, vague and restrained answers. In some respects, a few