3.2 Permission and
Ethics
Before engaging ourselves on the field for the research, a
letter of permission for the study and data gathering was sent to the owners of
the selected schools in Kibera. This was done thanks to the collaboration and
support of George Mikwa, the president Kenyan Independent School Association
(KISA). Various principals and school owners received these letters prior to
the investigation. The latter stated in precise words our main objective for
the study, the appropriate schedule as well as the people that we thought could
actively be involved in the process of data collection. . We equally reassured
both the school owners and respondents that the information gathered in this
course shall be treated with strict sense of confidentiality and anonymity,
which are considered the norm for the conduct of research. (BERA 2004, p8)
3.3 Conducting the research
in Kibera
Prior to undertaking this research, a series of reflexion
related to its management and feasibility were conducted with friends and
colleagues. We initially thought of carrying the same research in Cameroon.
Some contacts were already established to serve this purpose. However, due to
time and financial constraints, it was advised by my supervisor that the study
should be carried rather in Kenya. In fact, there was little evidence ahead
that the study, if done in Cameroon would be reliable and valid considering the
fact that we were relying of a journalist in the distribution of the
questionnaires and sending back at Newcastle.
Kenya and Kibera was chosen among other destinations for the
following reasons:
Ø Kibera was known to be one of the largest slums in
East Africa and therefore, there were chances to find private schools catering
for the poor in the locality.
Ø Information at our disposal revealed the existence of
a Union of school entrepreneurs in Kenya, thus offering the opportunity to get
more knowledge on private school entrepreneurs and their functioning body
Ø A good number a research and reports had already been
done on the slum of Kibera and exploring the existing documentation was to be
of great supplement.
Ø Finally, officials of the EG West Centre (Newcastle
University) had very strong ties with entrepreneurs in Kenya and this helped
enormously in the process of data collection.
All the research questionnaires were channelled to George
Mikwa at Nairobi, Kenya and he made sure that these questionnaires reached our
respondents. Upon completing the questionnaires, the same George sent these
back to us at the EG West for evaluation and analysis.
Finally, all the interviews with the president of KISA and
other school owners were carried from the EG West centre with support from my
supervisor and friends.
3.4 Limitation of the
study
No proposed research study is without limitation, this is
simply because due to time constraint and lack of extended financial resources,
it was practically impossible for us to investigate primary education and
Entrepreneurship in all the slums of East Africa. Our study did henceforth
focused on a specific slum, that of Kibera with foci on twenty private school
entrepreneurs, twenty five teachers and twenty five pupils. Though case study
is equally considered flexible, the realities here in these schools would not
necessarily reflect those in some other private schools. This means that our
results cannot to an extent be generalized. The reason for this being that, not
all the teachers and pupils living in and attending private schools in Kibera
did took part in the questionnaire administration. We were aware of the fact
that criticism may arise from population responses as some may consider their
point biased. Further, due to financial constraints, the questionnaires were
elaborated and sent to Kenya through the President of the Kenyan school
Association (KISA) for effective collection of data. This may be considered
another shortcoming of our procedure as it was not done personally by the
researcher. However, specific measures were taken prior to sending the
questions on the field and the analysis equally took note of this aspect.
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