JUVILYN V.

MATA
MAED-ECE
EDFD-220a- Qualitative Methods in Research

Critique of Qualitative Research 1

This study “Inclusive Education for Learners with Disabilities in Botswana Primary
Schools” was an attempt of a qualitative research investigated on the situations of the classrooms
with inclusive education. It was to improve the inclusive education thereby meeting the
imperative academic achievement. Yes, it allows the reader to either fully understand a support
or not support the data. However, there was one limiting factor, which is the constrained number
of students in classrooms in schools where teachers may be limited to their expertise in the
inclusive education with big number of students.
It was very evident in the methodology that the researcher maintains sufficient
involvement at the site to overcome distortions, uncover people’s constructions, and understand
the context’s culture. The researcher prepared a statement of beliefs and was evident that the
researcher encouraged the peers to examine the research process from multiple perspectives
through focus group discussions, observations and interviews. Each researcher took their part to
gather and collect information to explore the factors that influenced the practices of inclusive
education.
The focus group discussions helped the researcher capture opinions about inclusive
education from various stakeholders. It was also discussed that through observations the
researcher was able to collect in-depth and authentic data to understand the culture and practice
of inclusive education in each school.
The researcher uses peer debriefing to enhance the trustworthiness and credibility of the
qualitative research project. It was stated in the methods that the report is based on qualitative
methods employing a multiple-case study approach wherein it is clearly stated in the data
analysis that the responses of the stakeholder groups were compared within and across the
groups. The researcher uses triangulation, it was clearly stated in the data analysis that the data
gathered from the multiple sites, sources, and methods were triangulated.
This report is based on qualitative methods employing a multiple–case study approach.
Multiple stakeholders, such as school heads, general education teachers, learners with
disabilities, and their peers, from six elementary schools participated in this research. The data
collection methods included focus group discussions, school and classroom observations, and
document analysis.
Qualitative data analysis was conducted in an ongoing fashion during the course of the
study. Participant observations and personal interviews were coded and analyzed according to
the recurring key themes, which in turn refined subsequent observations and tailored the topics
for personal interviews. All field notes were coded using procedures. The coding consisted of an
iterative process that began long before data collection was completed. This process involved
reading the notes numerous times, coding them by topic and theme, studying, comparing, and
contrasting the notes classified under any given code, and finally looking for patterns and themes
that integrated separate codes.
Observations were conducted using the "full field note" method of data collection, which
involves taking extensive notes during or immediately after the events being observed. To avoid
unwarranted inferences made by the researcher, care was taken to make field notes as factual and
as concretely descriptive as possible.
The thoughts I have with this study are: it was quite good and important especially in the
schools with inclusive education. This is also interesting and made sense especially for those
who will benefit from the study. The evaluation of the result of the current study stimulates
action. It was stated in the last part of the discussion that the active involvement of all
stakeholders and positive interaction between multiple systems are important for successful
implementation of inclusive education. Other suggestions were stated in the recommendations
which are useful for other developing countries.