Methods of Data Collection

The study used qualitative methods of data collection. Nonetheless, data collection was remotely carried out as it resorted to online data collection tools and other remote strategies for gathering data. Thus, the study drew on in-depth online individual interviews, written responses to open-ended questions and an online document from the MoE for triangulation purposes.

Justifiably, due to the global threat of the Covid-19 pandemic and the various travelling restrictions put in place in that light, remote data collection strategies emerged as the surest

practical way of making this research possible. Moreover, since technological advancement, online data collection has emerged and increasingly become a popular research methodology in social research (Granello & Wheaton, 2004).

In-Depth Individual Interviews

The study aimed to draw on informants' experiences by way of in-depth interview engagements.

According to Punch (2014:144), an in-depth interview is an effective way of investigating

"people's perceptions, meanings, definitions of situations and constructions of reality". As already mentioned, some of the study's data emerged from in-depth individual interviews via end-to-end encrypted online instruments: WhatsApp and Zoom.

I planned on using zoom to interact with participants due to its "ability to securely record and store sessions without recourse to third-party software" (Archibald et al., 2019:2). However, I ended up with only two face to face interviews for the study (two teachers), which was quite disappointing for me and posed a severe limitation to the study (further elaboration in the discussion chapter). The first interviewee consented to zoom videoconferencing, whereas the second instead opted for WhatsApp videoconferencing due to convenience. With the second interviewee, he felt comfortable participating on WhatsApp rather than on zoom. Moreover, he did not find it needful to download the zoom application when he already had WhatsApp on his device, which could equally serve the same purpose. Nonetheless, I had no problem agreeing to his request since WhatsApp videoconferencing also had the inherent security feature of real- time encryption of meetings. However, the session via WhatsApp was recorded with a digital audio sound recorder since it does not have a built-in recording feature.

With the two conducted interviews, informants were asked to share their thoughts on all the various dimensions of the study. The interviews were mainly in five parts (check appendix 5.1 for a copy of the interview guide). The interviews typically started with basic introductions, where the purpose of the study was well explained to the interviewees. Here, the intent was to make participants feel at ease with the interviewer without giving room for unintended tensions and anxieties. The interviews then proceeded with the second, third, fourth, and fifth parts.

Participants were asked to share their thoughts on their perceptions of the FSHSP (including the realities of its implementation), their challenging experiences, their coping strategies, and empowerment issues, respectively.

The first and second interviews lasted for about 30 minutes and an hour, respectively. I had intermittent breaks for the second participant throughout his session as he felt exhausted after a stressful day in school. Also, as part of the introductory remarks, participants were made to

consent to the informed consent form and my intention of audio recording the entire meeting.

All the participants agreed to my purpose of recording the entire exercise using either the zoom recording feature or an audio recorder for the WhatsApp meeting.

Written Responses to Open-Ended Questions

The study also employed written responses to open-ended questions as a data collection method. In fact, this particular data collection method emerged as the most prevalent or strategy for the study. However, it is worth noting that this specific method (written responses to open- ended questions) was unintended. It was employed as a creative alternative to both qualitative interviews and a focus group discussion (FGD) as initially planned. In addition to my inability to recruit enough participants for in-depth interviews, the study also failed with its initial idea of running an FGD with the student; hence, the need for an alternative data collection method.

Given the potential data collection challenges one is likely to face as a qualitative researcher, qualitative researchers believe that qualitative studies must be carried out flexibly to allow room for creativity in developing data collection strategies (Hanson, Balmer, & Giardino, 2011). In my study, this creative and flexible nature of qualitative studies was brought to bear when I had to deal with the challenges of insufficient participants for in-depth interviews and the failed FGD. On this account, I decided on using written responses to open-ended questions to gather relevant data until saturation¹⁶ is reached. The usage of written responses to open-ended questions in qualitative research is not new to the literature. Weller et al. (2018:2) explain that written responses to open-ended questions can be beneficial in social research, where it can be used "alone or in combination with other interviewing techniques to explore topics in-depth, understand processes, and to identify potential causes of observed correlations".

This data collection tool was both employed at the first and second phases of the data collection.

It was first used at the first phase of the data collection after I had failed to collect data through the FGD. It was subsequently used at the second phase as the only practical way to gather data from the students in Kumasi. Although this data collection strategy or tool produced lists and short answers, as cautioned by Weller et al. (2018), saturation was reached after gathering 11 responses as few or no new ideas and themes appeared. By operationalising this data collection strategy, participants (students) were asked to provide written answers to open-ended questions just as captured in the interview guide (check appendix 5.2 for a copy of the open-ended

16 The idea of saturation comes from grounded theory that refers to the point when you stop collecting data because the data no longer sparks new insights into the research phenomenon (Creswell, 2014).

questions for students). In this sense, the students were able to share their experiences in writing under the supervision of my two research assistants - the President of the YPG (Accra) and the teacher who had earlier on participated in the study (Kumasi). Except for one participant who emailed her written responses directly, all written responses were scanned and forwarded to me by the research assistants. Table 5.2 presents a description of the distribution of both my interview and written response participants with their pseudonyms for anonymity.

Table 5. 2- Distribution of the interview and written response participants with their pseudonyms.

Secondary Source: Documents

Documentary data is widely regarded as a rich data source for qualitative research (Punch, 2014:158). Therefore, the study intended to resort to documentation reviews to help unravel the documented facts, especially regarding students' performances under the FSHSP and their living conditions. Furthermore, through documentation reviews, I intended to do a comparative

PSEUDONYMS GENDER PARTICIPATION INSTITUTION Students from B Schools

Hilda Female Written Response B1 SHS

Magdalene Female Written Response B1 SHS

Patricia Female Written Response B1 SHS

Annie Female Written Response B2 SHS

Eric Male Written Response B3 SHS

Victor Male Written Response B4 SHS

Solomon Male Written Response B5 SHS

Daniel Male Written Response B1 SHS

Sampson Male Written Response B1 SHS

Clarence Male Written Response B1 SHS

Students from A Schools

Griselda Female Written Response A1 SHS

Mabel Female Written Response A2 SHS

David Male Written Response A3 SHS

Emmanuel Male Written Response A3 SHS

Mark Male Written Response A3 SHS

Paul Male Written Response A3 SHS

Collins Male Written Response A3 SHS

Mathew Male Written Response A4 SHS

The Teacher from A School

Joshua Male Individual Interview A3 SHS

The Teachers from B School

Dennis Male Individual Interview B6 SHS

analysis of examination statistics of students before and after the programme's implementation.

However, the study only managed to review a single online document¹⁷ due to my inability to access participants at the MoE. This online document is the implementation guide of the FSHSP that was presented to the parliament of Ghana by the minister of education, Hon. Matthew Opoku Prempeh.