LIMITACIONES METODOLÓGICAS

The process of identification and recruitment of participants for my life history study includes deciding what the appropriate sample size should be in qualitative research, by using convenience sampling and snowballing techniques, identifying who should be part of the study using a broad set of criteria, then recruiting and selecting the participants.

3.4.1 Sampling and sample size

Convenience or purposeful sampling is a non-statistical or non-probability technique commonly used in qualitative research. It simply involves deliberate identification, recruitment and selection of participants, who express interest and volunteer to take part in the study (Robinson, 2014; Cohen et al., 2011). As in many other qualitative studies, there was no need for me to have a large proportion of the population of Ghanaian teachers, but I had a duty to look for participants with a certain level of knowledge and experience about the language and literacy policies in lower grade classrooms in Ghana. As such, I used two qualifying criteria for my convenience sampling. First, a potential participant must be a Ghanaian teacher who has taught lower grades for between two and five years. I believe such a participant will have the relevant knowledge of the language and literacy policy and would have experienced its use in the classroom. Second, each participant’s professional experience must fall into at least one historical time period, defined in this study as a decade from 1957 to 2014. This meant that the study spanned six decades: first decade (1957 to 1967); second decade (1967-1977); third decade (1977-1987); fourth decade (1987-1997); fifth decade (1997-2007); and sixth decade (2007-2014). By dividing the years into six decades, it made it easier to track the policy changes. These two criteria have been used to help answer my two research questions on tracking the changes in language and literacy policy from independence and the impact of these policy changes on their classroom teaching.

I used these two qualifying criteria to generate a pool of thirteen potential participants, before eventually selecting seven to take part in the study. The reason behind the reduction in the number of potential participants from thirteen to seven was informed by their availability for

75 interviews and travelling time. Again, the choice of in-depth interviews, which is recommended for a life history study, meant I had to choose a small number of participants so as not to generate more data than I could handle (Robinson, 2014).

I also used purposeful sampling to recruit expert participants for the study. This means I selected these experts based on the fact that they had knowledge that would be useful for this study. Cohen et al. (2011) describe this sort of sampling by researchers as handpicking participants on the basis of the knowledge they possess. The experts I chose for the study were either government or religious officials with expert knowledge on the areas of interest for the study - language policy or the church’s role in education in Ghana.

3.4.2 Recruitment of main participants and experts

When I was deciding on the method to use to recruit my participants, the idea of using a snowballing tactic became the most obvious. After receiving ethical approval for my study from the University of Sheffield Research Ethics Committee, I contacted the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in Accra (Ghana) by email, followed by a visit to the GNAT Office to seek out potential teachers who might be interested. Noy (2008, p.330) asserts that ‘a procedure may be defined as snowball sampling when the researcher accesses informants through contact information that is provided by other informants’. When I arrived in Ghana, I visited the Ghana National Association of Teachers headquarters in Accra to enquire about any progress on my request. I was directed to meet with some teachers who were engaged in a workshop. I met a number of teachers and, after discussing my project with them, they suggested names of colleagues teaching in lower grades who might be helpful. I was given names and telephone contacts and the schools where they were teaching.

These initial meetings had a snowball effect, as those I called also directed me to other teachers, which proved very effective in the recruitment process, as suggested by Goodman (2011) and Walliman (2011). Although calling and talking to teachers whom I had not met before was not easy, I realised those I talked to were interested in my research. In the end, I had talked to about twenty teachers from different parts of the country. Using my criteria, I narrowed the number down to thirteen, comprising of seven females (two retired, five practicing teachers) and six males (three retired, three practicing teachers), who expressed initial interest in participating in the study. These teachers were living in the Greater Accra, Volta, Central, Western and Eastern regions of Ghana so I had to decide on recruiting those living in areas where I could easily travel to. Using my two qualifying criteria for teachers – those who have taught lower grades

76 for two to five years within six decades (from 1957 to 2014) and the cost of travel - I selected seven teachers: two retired male teachers and five practicing female teachers. Chapter Four, which follows this chapter, gives detailed information on each of my participants.

As discussed earlier, I included three other participants who were experts in the government (two from the Ministry of Education and Sports), and from the National Catholic Secretariat in Accra, Ghana, who provided extra information on the research topic. I am not going to outline what their specific roles are because then they would be identifiable. They were selected based on my background search and visit to the headquarters of the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Ministry of Education and Sports, and the National Catholic Secretariat all in Accra. Their expert knowledge on educational policy formulation, implementation and evaluation in Ghana and the role of missionary activity in education was very helpful. Like my main participants, they volunteered to grant me an interview on language policy and other matters relating to the study. The next section discusses how data was collected.