Matamoros, Tam

The selection of cases started at regional level, then to district and finally schools, and how five schools in two districts were selected is elaborated on below (a diagram of this

selection is included almost at the end of this section). 4.6.2.1. Selection of Regions

Two regions – the Northern Region and Ashanti Region – came to mind before I started my fieldwork because of my familiarity with them through my prior work experience at district level in these regions. As explored in the previous chapter, they differ geographically, historically and economically. The Northern Region – one of the “depressed regions” – and the Ashanti Region, as a “resource frontier” (Songsore 2003 p77), have disparities, as shown in brief in table 9.

Table 9 Characteristics of Northern and Ashanti Regions

Northern Region Ashanti Region Climate Dry Savannah Wet Tropical forest Rainy/Agricultural Season

Once a year (April–September) Twice a year (April-July and September- October) Cash Crop Shea nuts and butter Cocoa

Food Crop Yam and grains (millet, rice, etc.) Cassava, yam, plantain, etc. Ethnicity Dagomba and Gonja Akan

Language Dagbani, Hausa and Moshie Akan-Twi Natural resources n/a Gold, timber

n/a= not available.

Source: Atlas for Ghana (1999).

4.6.2.2. Selection of Districts

At the beginning of my fieldwork, I planned to select Aumisoe – one of four deprived districts in the Ashanti Region (table 10) – as one of two districts because of my familiarity with the area.

Table 10 Overall number of districts compared with number of deprived districts in the Northern and Ashanti Regions

Northern Region Ashanti Region No. of Districts 18 21 No. of Deprived Districts 17 4

Source: a list provided by the PBME, MoESS.

The selection of Ponkujaku District – one of 17 deprived districts out of a total of 18 districts in the Northern Region – involved much more deliberation. I narrowed it down from 17 to 8 Dagbanli dominated districts, one of two major languages spoken in the Northern Region, as I had learnt Dagbanli on a five-week cross-cultural studies course at the Tamale Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies at the beginning of my fieldwork.

Two districts close to Tamale Metropolis, namely Savelugu-Nanton and Tolong-Kunbungu, were excluded, despite the recommendation of many people who assumed that I would prefer commuting from Tamale – the regional capital – as many teachers do in order to enjoy access to certain amenities. Yendi was also omitted, due to previous tribal conflict in 2004 and the assumption that this might still affect teachers‟ perceptions and motivation.

To facilitate further selection, in addition to recommendations by the regional education director and his staff, two other factors were considered. One was educational statistics, which included the percentage of trained teachers, the pupil to teacher ratio, the gender parity index, and the results of the basic education certificate examination (BECE) – the basic education leaving examination. The other was the administrative history of the district, the capital of Aumisoe being the capital of the former district. I also had some apprehension that the newly created districts might not have the full co-operation of government agencies, including the District Assembly and the District Education Office of the GES.

A brief description of the two case study districts − Ponkujaku in the Northern Region and Aumisoe in the Ashanti Region − is provided in 4.10.1.

4.6.2.3. Selection of Schools for Ethnographic Research

Five rural schools, 2 in Ponkujaku and 3 in Aumisoe, were selected out of 214 basic

schools – 65 primary and 9 junior secondary school (JSS) in Ponkujaku and 94 primary and 46 JSS in Aumisoe – with the assumption that committed teachers in more challenging situations would demonstrate their relations and interaction with professional motivating factors more clearly and distinctively.

4.6.2.3.1. Preconditions for Selection

Three criteria were employed as preconditions. Firstly, schools were to be rurally located rather than in towns. Although both districts are classified as rural according to the Ghana Education Service (GES), the entire district should not be considered as „rural‟. The district capitals, for example, are more like towns, as their District Assemblies (DAs) and teachers themselves perceive them to be. This is due to their better amenities, such as health and financial services; good communications networks; the availability of potable water and electricity; and a good (at least, better) network of roads. In Aumisoe, schools on trunk or major roads were also excluded for the same reason.

The second criterion was accessibility. Although ideally, all candidate schools would have been visited, this was not feasible due to logistical constraints. In Ponkujaku at the

District Education Office (DEO) officers in charge of the basic schools in their circuits30 – on motorbikes, following one of Twumasi‟s (2001) suggestions in his Social Research in Rural Communities that “it is always good to go to the village with a reliable contact person from the village or at least the district” (p76). However, I soon found that when meeting with teachers, it was rather awkward to have to ask a CS to excuse us so that we could talk in private. Being escorted by CSs also gave me less flexibility to prompt development.

Later, I rode on a motorbike by myself but because of the vastness of the district and its frequently poor road conditions, my movement was not as free as I had imagined it would be. Eventually, I had to choose some schools that met at least one of the following two conditions: a school could be located a long way from the capital, but had to be accessible by public transport; or it needed to be located within 40 km of the capital, so that I could ride to it confidently by motorbike. In Aumisoe, I found public transport readily available. I could not choose any of the „overseas‟ schools, which could be cut off for prolonged periods due to flooding during the rainy season; or those in „bush‟ or „interior‟ communities, as this would have necessitated taking paths away from main roads (including feeder roads) for my own safety. That I was expected to allow children to carry my equipment, including sachet water31 to drink that I bought in town, also reinforced my preference for schools located on roads that were passable by vehicle.

The last criterion was the availability of toilets in the community. I had to consider the possibility that I might have diarrhoea in the night, despite the fact that I am normally not very selective about what I eat. A story a female teacher told about how she fell into a pit latrine in the night acted as a cautionary tale to me. Thus, logistics determined the criteria for selection.

30 _{Each circuit is assigned a circuit supervisor, who is in charge of on average 15 to 20 basic schools.} 31 _{I did not drink untreated water during my field research, although I knew that a glass of water offered,} especially when first meeting someone was a sign of hospitality.

4.6.2.3.2. Selection Strategies

The selection of the five schools involved a combination of four different information sources: District Education Office (DEO), teachers, pupils (academic performance) and myself (my impressions).

Firstly, the views of DEO officers were requested, as they were in charge of the basic school teachers. I sought a list of the winners of the Best Teacher Award (BTA) scheme and of beneficiaries of incentives provided by national and district authorities, as a formal impression of the DEO; and 18 officers‟ recommendations – the names of three

„committed‟ and „hard-working‟ teachers, with the reasons for their choices.

Contrary to my expectation that each DEO organised the BTA scheme at district level, as national selection was made from regional winners and, similarly, regional selection was made from district winners, Ponkujaku DEO had not organised the BTA for three years due to lack of funds. Aumisoe DEO had run it, but winners were selected only from among trained teachers, and were concentrated in town schools or only those rural schools that were close to the district capital. Beneficiaries of incentives provided by the GES were also only chosen from among trained teachers in both districts. Moreover, the selection criteria were not available in written form and information tended to be kept only by the person in charge. Therefore, actual information was obtained through interaction with DEO officers in both districts.

Secondly, information from teachers was gathered from questionnaires sent to them and from direct interaction. Some comments teachers made in the open question section of the questionnaire prompted me to go further. Even the response to closed questions hinted at something different. Why had a young female trained teacher accepted such a rural posting? What made a head teacher organise school-based INSET?

On the other hand, interaction with teachers mainly took place in their schools. However, I also visited teachers who were pursuing the Untrained Teachers Diploma in Basic

Education (UTDBE) or the Diploma in Basic Education (DBE) at teacher training college, during the school holidays. Moreover, I attended workshops and meetings for teachers

organised by their respective DEOs. Needless to say, I chatted with teachers who came to the DEOs for whatever kind of reason. Whenever I had an inkling that a teacher had something to share with me – either in happiness or frustration – I tried to follow it up with him or her in the school for further exploration.

Thirdly, with regard to pupils‟ academic performance – which would be reflected by teachers‟ commitment – the results of two assessments were initially sought: the BECE and the School Education Assessment (SEA). One of five case study schools in Aumisoe was selected because of its impressive pass rate (100% in 2007) in the BECE. However, Ponkujaku had only nine JSSs (as opposed to 46 primary schools). Three had only been established in 2005 or 2006 and thus did not have pupils who took the BECE in 2007. Another four were located in towns. Moreover, parents and guardians tended to send their wards to JSSs in towns, thus the BECE results in Ponkujaku did not provide much insight.

On the other hand, the results of the SEA – the bi-annual national assessment of primary grade two and four pupils in English and mathematics since 2006 – were found to be either unavailable or invalid. There was no raw or collated data available in Ponkujaku. There was in Aumisoe but after entering the raw data, I began to doubt its validity. In some classes, almost all the pupils performed extremely well in English, given that few children at that level could read English words and sentences new to them (normally they recited those taught in class) and I could barely communicate with them in English. Additionally, much later, when I happened to be at a school for the SEA in 2008, I found the administration to be questionable. Therefore, I took only the Aumisoe BECE into account, although I was aware that the results might not correctly reflect the efforts of those teaching there at the time.

Fourthly, I used my own judgment, based on my impressions and findings. How Ghanaian people perceived committed and motivated teachers might have been different from the way I did. There would also be factors that influenced pupils‟ performance other than their teachers. I therefore saw a need to use my judgement, visiting schools and interacting with whoever was concerned in order to learn what was really going on in basic schools. I stayed

all day, observing teachers from morning assembly to their free time after closing assembly. I checked pupils‟ exercise books, as well as the general school environment. I also paid attention to teachers‟ attitudes towards and interaction with pupils, colleagues and members of the community. When I was favourably impressed, I wanted to know why a teacher had behaved that way.

Data and information collected from the four above sources were not always sequential and my visits were more likely to verify information obtained from other sources. Occasionally, more than one strategy was used simultaneously and sometimes I used multiple sources to verify my impressions and findings.

4.6.2.4. Rationale for Selection of Five Schools

In my initial plan, I intended to conduct an in-depth study of two schools in each district, including one male and one female teacher in each. However, after identifying two schools each in each district, I added a third in Aumisoe, Asonbwa. I simply felt that giving up Asonbwa would be a big loss. The following sections provide the rationale for selecting two schools in Ponkujaku and three in Aumisoe. They, whose names are pseudonyms, are presented chronologically according to the conduct of the research.

4.6.2.4.1. Jamune Primary Local Authority (LA) School, Ponkujaku

The two trained teachers at Jamune Primary Local Authority (LA) School – the head

teacher (HT) and the assistant HT – had been mentioned not only by their circuit supervisor, but also by other officers such as the DEO girl child officer and a desk officer of an NGO. The HT won the district Best Teacher Award (BTA) in 2004 (there was no BTA in 2005, 2006 or 2007). Both the HT and assistant HT were said to be regular and punctual. My first – impromptu – visit to the school was on a Monday morning at about eight a.m. The

assistant HT was there, supervising the pupils as they swept the premises. Shortly, the HT joined him and a morning assembly took place. On that day, the two teachers were going back and forth, trying to cover all the classes for kindergarten years one and two as well as primary years one to six (one pupil teacher came back from a funeral in a nearby

community when the school was about to close). The assistant HT, who was from the regional capital, Tamale, said, “I am here because of love for children and others.”

4.6.2.4.2. Lesanyili Roman Catholic (RC) Primary School, Ponkujaku

The untrained assistant HT (former acting HT) of Lesanyili Roman Catholic (RC) Primary was also mentioned by more than one officer. He happened to be one of the teachers whom I had met earlier in a group taking a UTDBE course, and who had expressed his frustration convincingly. Another untrained teacher from the same school also sounded interesting at a focus group discussion. However, what impressed me the most on my first visit were their P6 pupils, who could express themselves well in English in their Citizenship Education class. In Ponkujaku (actually, in both districts), I seldom found pupils, even in JSS in towns, who could communicate well in English.

4.6.2.4.3. Nakaose Basic School, Aumisoe

Nakaose basic School (primary and JSS headed by the same HT) was one of the most remote schools and had a small enrolment. No teacher at this school was brought to my attention. However, its 100% BECE pass rate in 2007 intrigued me, since there were 8 JSSs with a pass rate of less than 10%, including 2 with 0%. Markedly better performance was not only demonstrated by Nakaose, but also other schools in the same rural circuit that had an average pass rates of 98.1%, the district average being 55.4%.

4.6.2.4.4. Manekanto Primary School and JSS, Aumisoe

The female HT of Manekanto Primary was mentioned by more than one officer. She was one of three trained female teachers who had been posted to rural schools, that is, not in towns or on trunk roads. My first visit happened to be on the day of a PTA meeting, in which she and the JSS HT were trying to solve the issue of a volunteer primary teacher who had not been paid by the community as had been agreed. I noted that her lesson plan was open while she was teaching. Moreover, when she was seeing me off, she greeted almost every member of the community she met by name.

On the other hand, Manekanto JSS had performed comparatively poorly in the 2007 BECE, with a 31.2% pass rate. The circuit was not impressive in general, with a 59.1% pass rate, even though half the basic schools in the circuit were on a trunk road, unlike the adjacent rural circuit mentioned above. Why couldn‟t it perform as well as the rural circuit?

4.6.2.4.5. Asonbwa JSS (and Primary School), Aumisoe

As I proceeded with my ethnographic research into the two above cases in Aumisoe, I could not help recalling Asonbwa, where, on my first visit, I had a contrary impression of the relationship between the teachers and the community– the teachers seemed to

Diagram 2 Cases under study

Region District (2 districts) Schools (5 schools) Northern − underdeveloped Ponkujaku Ashanti − developed Aumisoe − Pocket of underdevelopment  „Deprived‟ district

 Familiarity with the district

 Education indicators

Major strategies

 Logistics (accessibility and availability of facilities)

 Schools with motivated teachers through:  DEO recommendation  Student achievement tests  Survey data  Observation  Location of community (geographical and socio- cultural variation)

  „Deprived‟ district

 Recommendation by Regional Education Office

 Education indicators

 Administrative history

 Logistics (accessibility and availability of facilities)

 Schools with motivated teachers through:

 DEO recommendation  Survey data

 Observation

 Location of community (geographical and socio- cultural variation)

appreciate their relationship with the community. All seven primary and JSS teachers I met initially as a group and later individually said that the community was well intentioned and supportive. Indeed, there was a library and classrooms that had been built by the

community. Moreover, located in a remote community, Asonbwa JSS was headed by a trained female teacher of 29. Why had she accepted such a posting? Does the community make allowances for such teachers? And, if so, how?

In summary, two levels of sub-cases comprising two districts and five schools respectively − cases of maximum variation at both levels − were strategically selected for this study. The five school case studies aim to provide context-dependent thick descriptions of teachers‟ lives through ethnographic research; and the two district case studies intend to gather teachers‟ collective and broader views on their jobs through a survey and interviews. In addition, at both levels, teachers‟ relations with others, such as head teachers,

community members, and district officers, are brought into focus and explored.