Higher Educa\on
4.6. Strategic Issues in Data Analysis
As noted, the first stage was a ‘soaking and poking’ (George & Bennett 2005, p.89) desk-‐‑based review and in the case of Libya a pre-‐‑study consisting of interviews. Data gathered for case-‐‑studies during fieldwork was then analysed through coding of emergent categories, themes, and patterns. Based on these, a chronological narrative was constructed that provides a broad overview of key facts, events, dynamics, and processes. Due to Iraq being seven years and Libya one year into the ‘post’-‐‑conflict phase during fieldwork the length of the chronological narrative in each case-‐‑study varies. The research framework, derived from the literature review, was applied to case-‐‑studies to ‘frame’ issues, guide data collection, and structure interpretation and analysis of data. However, the framework did not determine the final structure of case-‐‑studies; rather, emergent themes from data analysis led to adaptations of several categories, themes, and factors.
Triangulation is defined by Gerring (2007, p.218) as ‘use of multiple methods, often at different levels of analysis’. It is a common feature of social research, in particular in a post-‐‑positivist paradigm, which views a phenomenon from two or more perspectives, and aims at enhancing the validity, reliability, and generalisability of findings (McNabb 2004, p.366; Tracy 2013, p.40). This process of cross-‐‑checking data from multiple sources and types of source is a principal means of strengthening the data-‐‑collection process and multiple data sources were sought wherever possible. Interviews are the primary data source while published primary sources and secondary literature are employed to strengthen or weaken interpretations of facts, events, and ideas. Furthermore, conferences and workshops provided valuable opportunities to hear many diverse perspectives while news monitoring also informed the study.
King, Keohane and Verba (1994) hold that gathering systematically comparable data is a prerequisite of valid social science inference based on comparative qualitative case-‐‑studies. George and Bennett (2005, p.67) stipulate that a method of ‘structured,
focused comparison’ entails that general questions reflecting research objectives are asked of particular aspects of the historical cases under investigation to ensure cross-‐‑case standardisation and comparability. It must be qualified that the type of data collected in the two case-‐‑studies varies in some respects. First, fieldwork was conducted in Libya for the Libya case-‐‑study and primarily in Jordan for the Iraq case-‐‑study. The dislocation of the Iraq fieldwork entails several interpretive dilemmas; the inability of the researcher to observe Iraqi HEIs directly and the spatial distance of participants from the system they are reflecting upon.
Another difference is temporal; as Iraq was seven years into the post-‐‑war period and Libya one year data on Iraq includes much more published primary and secondary sources.12 Furthermore, Iraq interview data contains more evaluations of
success or failure in HE recovery and its contribution to reconstruction. Given that HE sectors are large and complex institutions requiring time for reforms, changes and many types of outcome, the short time since the end of the Libyan war rendered many evaluations of outcomes premature. Notwithstanding these limitations, HE’s contribution to Libyan recovery is evaluated and assessed in various dimensions, for example, in short-‐‑term conflict prevention and stabilisation. Rather, much data gathered on Libya analyses various perspectives of Libyan actors on HE’s potential to support post-‐‑conflict recovery and forces shaping the post-‐‑ conflict environment. This approach partly resembles Tilly and Goodin’s (2006) definition of a propensity account; an ‘explanation to consist of reconstructing a given actor’s state at the threshold of action, with that state variously stipulated as motivation, consciousness, need, organization, or momentum’. The case-‐‑study thus includes an investigation of Libyan HE’s propensity to contribute to recovery.
Generalisability of findings is a fundamental issue. In research design, case-‐‑ selection influences the scope of generalisation and selection was guided partially by the rationale of extending generalisability. It should be qualified that neither Iraq nor Libya are ‘typical’ post-‐‑conflict cases in all respects and it may be argued that
selection of other more ‘typical’ poor and fragile reconstruction contexts, for example, Liberia or Afghanistan, would have increased the generalisability of findings to the universe of post-‐‑conflict cases. However, as Berdal (2009) argues, while Iraq may seem an outlier case incomparable to other post-‐‑conflict settings it in fact exhibits extreme versions of typical dynamics shaping post-‐‑conflict environments. It should be recognised that Iraq and Libya share significant similarities with other post-‐‑conflict cases plus idiosyncratic and particularistic features. Furthermore, the ‘most-‐‑similar’ and ‘most-‐‑likely’/’least-‐‑likely’ research design strengthens generalisability by controlling for key variables to the extent possible.
Various forms of bias can interfere with the research process and distort the validity and significance of findings, for example, gender, spatial, age, or status bias. To mitigate forms of bias several measures were taken. Furthermore, it is acknowledged that it was impossible to eliminate all influence of bias from the research process. For example, in both case-‐‑studies the proportion of male participants is much larger than female participants; this reflects the larger number of male academics in the Iraqi and Libyan HE systems, in particular in top-‐‑level positions that the sample selection focused on. In Libya, where no female managers at the MoHE and very few Deans of Heads of Department were interviewed, effort was made to interview other female academics and students which partially mitigated this gender bias. Cognisant of this, a reflexive approach was necessary to identify sources of bias and accommodate their significance while analysing data. Moreover, reflexivity enables researchers to mitigate bias related to the position of the researcher and participant perceptions of the researcher.
4.7. Ethics
Adherence to ethical rules is a defining characteristic of social research in academic settings. In line with disciplinary ethical procedures, the fieldwork plans were reviewed by a supra-‐‑departmental ethics board. Full disclosure about the research,
the interview process, use and protection of data, the ability to withdraw from interview at any point, and the option of a guarantee of anonymity was given to participants verbally prior to interviews.
At a minimum, the ethical principle of ‘do no harm’ should constrain social research involving human subjects in conflict and post-‐‑conflict contexts (Goodhand 2000; Wood 2006). Many Iraqi participants displaced in Jordan were subjected to harassment, death-‐‑threats, or attempts on their life. Others witnessed traumatic events including the murder of colleagues. Kubaisy and Kubaisy (2011) estimate that 85% of displaced Iraqi academics suffer from PTSD of various levels of intensity. Zwi et al (2006) explain that in conducting research with participants affected by violence there is danger of ‘re-‐‑traumatization’. As Goodhand (2000) writes, in conflict-‐‑affected contexts ‘researchers may inadvertently re-‐‑open wounds by probing into areas respondents may not wish to talk about’. While conducting interviews signs of distress or adverse emotional reaction were monitored. In one case, a former Dean and Professor while recounting his university’s destruction in 2003 was visibly upset. When asked whether to continue he responded yes and stated that he wanted the world to know the truth about Iraqi academia.
Anonymity and data protection were crucial ethical issues. Iraqi academics have been victims of widespread violence. One Iraqi academic displaced in Jordan for several years was assassinated in 2011 while en route from Baghdad International Airport to his family home in Baghdad indicating that his attackers were aware of his movements. This illustrates the fear which many participants continued to experience outside of Iraq years after leaving. Understandably, many participants were adamant that their names were not revealed, in particular, where sensitive topics including sectarian and ethnic politics were addressed. In these cases anonymity has been granted. In a small number of cases anonymity was not requested. In Libya the converse holds; most participants did not request anonymity although it was offered to all prior to interviews.
Beyond ‘do no harm’, an ethical obligation on researchers to in some way benefit participants or the wider population of the group, community, or society under study can be claimed, or to ‘do some good’ (Goodhand 2000). This can take the form of providing resources and sharing research findings with participants. Moreover, in particular while conducting fieldwork on Iraqi HE, some academics viewed the interview as an opportunity to redress perceived silence on the crisis of Iraqi academia. This raises the further dilemma of raising expectations among participants about potential benefits of taking part in the research.
4.8. Conclusion
This chapter has provided an overview of the research design, data-‐‑collection techniques, and methodological challenges of this thesis. It has been seen that the research adopts a multi-‐‑method ‘composite approach’ that nonetheless prioritises qualitative data-‐‑collection methods, in particular interviews. A multiple case-‐‑study research design is employed with a ‘most-‐‑similar’ strategy for case selection identifying Iraq as a difficult test of the central hypothesis and Libya as a ‘most-‐‑ likely’ case. Data collection was then described introducing techniques and processes utilised, problems encountered, and their mitigation. Next, data analysis was discussed through various core strategic issues including validity, triangulation, sampling, generalisability, and bias. Finally, practical and ethical challenges of conducting fieldwork in a post-‐‑conflict setting were discussed.
CHAPTER FIVE
IRAQI HIGHER EDUCATION: DEVELOPMENTAL ROLE AND
IMPACT OF CONFLICT
5.0. Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to analyse contextual themes important to the case-‐‑ study of Iraq. Analysis focuses on three key points of contextualisation; the developmental contribution of Iraqi HE, post-‐‑war reconstruction, and conflict’s impact on Iraqi HE. To start with, Iraqi HE’s role in development will be analysed. After that, impacts of the Iran-‐‑Iraq war, Gulf War, and sanctions on Iraqi HE will be addressed. Next, the 2003 invasion and immediate post-‐‑invasion environment of Iraqi HE will be examined. This analysis beginning with the Iran-‐‑Iraq war and ending with occupation contributes towards answering RQ2 on the impact of conflict on HE. Furthermore, tracing pre-‐‑2003 Iraqi HE’s turbulent trajectory is vital to understanding post-‐‑2003 reconstruction, the subject of chapter six.
5.1.Iraqi Higher Education and Development
In this section Iraqi HE will be briefly described from historical antecedents to its ‘Golden Age’ in the 1960s and 1970s. This is important to establish the post-‐‑war institutional inheritance of the Iraqi HE system in 2003. Furthermore, the section enables analysis in the next chapter as to whether the historical Iraqi HE model offered an appropriate response to post-‐‑war challenges or rather that it constituted a ‘defective’ model necessitating its replacement with a new model constructed from a ‘blank slate’. This issue is also addressed in the final section of the chapter, where the relative weight of internal and external factors in causing Iraqi HE’s erosion is analysed.