Since it was a case study research on three schools in similar settings, homogeneous groups were used. Homogeneous sampling is used when the purpose of the study is to focus on a particular subgroup (Wiersma & Jurs, 2009; Lodico et al., 2006).
Participants were randomly selected and no particular criteria were used. However, the study involved teachers who were trained to be elementary teachers. Most of these teachers were aware of Papua New Guinea‟s inclusive education policy and had some training in inclusive practices as well. Because elementary schools are located right in the community, teachers were locals from that particular community and had been teaching in those elementary schools for quite some time.
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In terms of the research context, the schools that were selected were all elementary schools located within rural settings in the Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea; furthermore they were all located within the rural part of Goroka District. In all these schools there was a Teacher in Charge, or TIC (the term normally used in the elementary schools), and very few teachers. All schools had volunteers helping from time to time due to teacher shortage. All schools were similar in all substantial aspects, such as: the classrooms were semi- permanent, and did not have enough desks, chairs or tables for all the children. Neither did they have spacious classrooms or even electricity for good lighting. Based on the shared characteristics of both the participants and the school contexts, the homogeneous sampling was appropriate to use for the study (Johnson &Christensen, 2008).
3.6.1 Selection of the Research Participants
A total of seven teachers participated in this study. The initial intention was to interview ten teachers. However, things did not work out the way it was planned. Four teachers were from School Two and they all took part. School One had three teachers. However, one teacher there was a volunteer and did not feel comfortable about being interviewed, therefore only two teachers from that school were interviewed. The third school had three teachers but they did not respond. Another school was selected. Previously it had had three teachers and a volunteer, but unfortunately three of the staff had left and only one remained. This teacher was interviewed.
The schools were selected by the researcher but the participants in the study voluntarily participated after the briefing about the purpose of the study. Not all the elementary school teachers that took part had had experience of working with disabled children, though the schools had records of enrolling disabled children into the school. The reason for selecting not only teachers that had such
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experience was because the researcher also wanted to find out the views of teachers who had not worked with disabled children.
Table 3.4 Profile of Participating Schools.
Name of school Number of teachers Volunteers (not interviewed) Number of participants School 1 (S1) 2 1 2 School 2 (S2) 4 4 School 3 (S3) 1 1 Total 7 1 7
Selection and Description of the Schools
Elementary schools in Papua New Guinea are located in the communities to be accessible for all children. The school caters for children doing elementary preparation and elementary one and two before they can move into primary schools. Most of these schools are located in the rural areas, and are established on a small piece of land that has been donated by someone from the community.
In Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province there is a total of 406 elementary schools. The study was conducted in three rural elementary schools located in rural areas of Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. The idea behind conducting the study in the rural settings was because much of the PNG population lives in the rural areas, so it would be useful to know if all children are included in these schools, including children with disabilities. To protect the anonymity of the schools and participants, they were coded, using numbers and letters.
School One (S1)
School One is a government school which is located twelve kilometres away from town and thirty minutes‟ walk through the village. It has two teachers, a male and a female, and a female volunteer teacher.
Even though the teacher student ratio is 1:30, sometimes the numbers of students exceed 35 or are fewer than 30. Most children that enrol each year are children
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with no physical disability; however, usually one or two children with disabilities enrol. It is unlikely that in all classrooms there would be a disabled child. Research for this study was supposed to be carried out in the second week of May, but, it had to be postponed to the following week because a teacher was not present on the day arranged. When the researcher arrived in the third week, all the teachers had to go to a colleague‟s funeral. The research was again moved, to fourth week of May, but again the study had to be postponed. The only day participants agreed to be interviewed was on Wednesdays, so there was not much the researcher could do, but wait until the second week of June and conduct the interview on Wednesday. However, despite these disruptions the researcher was able to complete the research.
School Two (S2)
School Two is located thirteen kilometres away from town and another one and a half to two hours‟ walk. There are a total of four teachers, of whom three are female and one is male. The research was carried out in the third week of June, on the day appointed. The teachers cooperated well and the research went well.
School Three (S3)
School Three is located 10 kilometres away from town, just beside the main highway. The school had had three teachers and a volunteer teaching there in the previous year. When the researcher went to do the study there was only one teacher left as other teachers had moved to other locations. With the teacher‟s approval the study was carried out in that school on the second week of July.
Since there were not many teachers in each school the researcher was able to conduct the study in a day or two. Interviews were conducted in pidgin/tok pisin as the researcher saw that it was appropriate to use pidgin/tok pisin as it would help the participants to feel relaxed and to express themselves more openly. At the end of each week‟s interviews preliminary transcriptions of the audio-taped interviews were made.
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