Kankam boadu
Conducting the interviews
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- Limitations to the study
- Data analysis technique
Conducting the interviewsIn conducting the interview, two teacher trainees class leaders of social studies, and Heads of Department of social studies were contacted to arrange a mutually convenient time to conduct the interview. Each interview was initiated based on the overview of the interview including its purposes, significance, and the rights of the interviewee and the importance of recording. A convenient time and place were chosen for the granting of the interview. Before conducting the interview, the tape recorder was checked before starting with a question regarding the interviewee’s professional qualifications in order to gradually prepare for the main questions. Conscious effort was made by the researcher not to bring his personal view to overcrowd the interviewees’ thought. At the end of each interview, interviewees were given the freedom to add, if they had additional comments on the study. The interviewees were assured of confidentiality of using whatever information was obtained for only academic purpose. The researcher used two days for each of the colleges. The interview lasted an average of 40 to50 minutes. Limitations to the studyThere is no worthwhile research without any limitations and the present research is no exception. The major limitation has to do with the travel to the nook and cranny of all the selected eight colleges of education scattered in Ghana. The limitation was even compounded given the fact that the researcher was lecturing and at the same time acting as the department’s examination officer as well. Another difficulty had to do with the fact that the respondents with their tight schedules were reluctant to avail themselves for the exercise. Some of the respondents were putting up conditions of getting gifts before responding to the items. Some of the arguments put up to justify the condition were that the researcher after gathering the data would get promotion and that they wanted to get their own share. They reasoned that they might not see the researcher again after the interview. There was also a problem in the course of conducting the interviews. In conducting the interview, some appointments were declined by few interviewees. For instance, some teacher trainees and tutors purported that they were too busy at the time. A number of phone calls had to be made to reach out to many interviewees. Even though the researcher encountered limitations, he overcame them through constant reminder of the essence of the research and its consequent educational implications. Hence, the outcome of the study would not be suspect. Data analysis techniqueData analysis plays a key role in any credible research and therefore must be done according to the aims of the study. Cohen et al. (2004) emphasise that the prepared researcher will need to consider the mode of data analysis to be employed. Data analysis is a process of making sense out of what the researcher has observed, interviewed, read, interpreted, and reflected upon. It involves categorising, identifying classifying, synthesising, consolidating, sorting, explaining, developing theories, searching for themes, and organising so as to make sense of the data that one has collected (Denzin, 1989). Researchers have made clear distinctions between two types of analysis such as qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis. Borg, Gall and Gall (1993) argue that the results of quantitative studies should be presented in numerical form, while the qualitative studies should be presented as verbal data or visual data. The choice of which statistics to employ is not arbitrary (Cohen et al (2004). For qualitative data analysis, the researchers have at their disposal a range of techniques; for example Hamersley (1979) in Cohen et al. 2004 spells out the following: Coding of field notes Content analysis of field notes Cognitive mapping Seeking pattern of responses Looking for causal pathways and interconnections Presenting cross-site analysis Case studies Personal constructs Narrative accounts Action research analysis Analytic induction Constant comparison Grounded theory Discourse analysis Biographies and life histories (Cohen et al. 2004). Expressing his view on qualitative analysis, Kvale (2008) points out that the analysis proper involves developing the meanings of the interviews, bringing the subjects’ own understanding into the light as well as providing new perspectives from the researcher on the phenomenon. He adds that the five main approaches to the analysis of meaning are condensation, categorization, narrative structuring, interpretation and ad-hoc methods (Kvale, 2008). In this study, the researcher made use of quantitative and qualitative data analysis. With the quantitative data analysis, after discarding the incomplete copies questionnaire, the completed ones were numbered and coded. All the data gathered from the questionnaires were then fed into Product and Service Solutions (SPSS). With the help of this statistical package, descriptive statistics, especially, percentages, frequencies, means and standard deviations that were indicators of the perception of the teacher trainees and tutors of social studies about citizenship education, emerged. Pearson chi-square technique was also used in research questions one and two to analyse the relationships between tutors and teacher trainees on the perceptions of citizenship education and the characteristics of a good Ghanaian citizen. On the part of the interviews that had to do with qualitative analysis, the researcher followed the procedure given by Kvale (2008) in analyzing qualitative research. The researcher first transcribed and coded the data; then the transcripts were translated. After this, topics were read and appropriate quotes were inserted. After these steps, transcripts were generated and coded before analysis and interpretation were made. Following these steps, logical and comprehensive outcomes were obtained. Finally, these steps helped to come out with clear and real views about the status of citizenship education in the teacher training colleges. Generalizations drawn from these processes form the basis for the discussion of findings and conclusions in chapter eight.
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