3.1.2.1 Questionnaires
Questionnaires were distributed to a good number of school
entrepreneurs in Kibera, the teachers and pupils in the selected schools. The
structure of the questions was well elaborated based on a «question
type» format (Bell 2005:137-138) so as to enable the researcher to gather
as much accurate information as possible and get to analyze these without any
major problem. They were set in quite simple way taking into account pupil's
level, teachers and entrepreneurs' time constraint. In short, these questions
were detached from all ambiguity and imprecision( Bell 2005:138-139) The
objective of school owners' questionnaires was to find
out the motivations behind their investments in the field of
education especially in a slum, about the facilities offered in the process of
their activities.
Teachers and pupils' questions were centred on their level of
satisfaction of the quality of services provided by these entrepreneurs and
what they thought were the shortcomings of these investments.
3.1.2.2 Interviews
Telephone interviews were carried from the EG West Centre
(Newcastle University) with a small number of private schools entrepreneurs as
well as with George Mikwa, the president of the Kenyan Independent School
Association (KISA). This was done following the standardized open-ended
interview type. The wordings and sequence of questions were determined in
advance and all the school owners were asked the same basic questions in the
same order. (Patton, 1990:288-289)
The questions ranged from main concerns on issues surrounding
their motivations from setting private schools in the slum of Kibera, their
point of view concerning the investment climate in the area, the regulatory
environment and finally what they thought was the major gap in their provision.
The latter gave answers to the same questions which were later on compared and
analyzed.
3.1.2.3 Test scores
In order to instigate triangulation, the researcher requested
test scores from school authorities. The objective here was to scrutinize
pupils' achievements in three subjects, respectively: English language,
Mathematics and Kiswahili, the local language.
It was thought earlier that the information contained in the
pupils' test score would enable us to make a correlation between children
personal assessment of their performances in these subjects and what they
actually achieved within the academic year.
However, it's worth noting that these test scores were not
obtained through standardized test, rather they were obtained thanks to the
collaboration of school heads. These test scores provided meaningful
information and its purpose was therefore useful in adding more knowledge to
our field of enquiry (Best, J &Kahn 2003:248)
3.1.2.4 Documentary
Documentary was equally explored as another source of
evidence. The main documentary that provided useful information for the study
was found in presentations delivered at the CATO Institute, Washington D.C by
private school entrepreneurs under the auspice of Professor Tooley and Dr
Dixon. This documentary was accessible through the E.G West website and
discussions were centred on private school entrepreneurship in India, Nigeria,
Ghana and Zimbabwe. In a nutshell, the entrepreneurs in their talks enlightened
the audience on the background information of their business in the field of
education. It was revealed here that most of these entrepreneurs or private
school owners have had a longstanding experience in the educational field prior
to opening their schools.
This «source- oriented» approach has had the merit
of helping us determine our project as well as it did helped us to generate
questions for the research (Bell 2005:123)
Another set of documentary made up of past and ongoing
research on private education were equally explored. Academic articles,
journals and edited books from scholars such as Tooley and Dixon(2005), Rose
and Adelabu(2006), Lewin(2007), Srivastava(2007) just to name a few served as
guidelines in the preparation of the overall research question and thus opened
an avenue for as many sources of investigation as possible.
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