Research Log 4 - More focus

Focus Groups
A second round of focus groups were held this week. Yesterday’s groups consisted of children between the ages of 12 – 15. The children were divided into Child-Headed Households (CHH) and children from Adult-Headed Household (AHH). Since we are using consent forms for all participants we had to locate guardians to sign for these children. The irony is that it was much more difficult to locate guardians for the children from AHH than for children from CHH. The Secretary of Social Affairs was able to sign for the children from AHH, but we had to locate a parent or guardian for the other children. We were told that the guardians would be available for the children and that in fact they were present. Emily took the adults into a separate room to go over and sign the consent from while a started to explain the purpose of the research and the child’s rights on an individual basis. The problems arose after explaining and obtaining an agreement to participate from the first child. I asked him if his parent or guardian was in the next room. At this point he indicated that he came alone. I showed him the consent from with his name on it and asked who the person was that signed the document. He said he had no idea who the person was. This happen a number of times and because we did not have parent/guardianship written consent for the children we did not allow them to participate. We suspect the Sector Leaders in charge of organizing the groups organized these random adults to sign for these children, however in an effort to retain face on their behalf we did not bring this issue up with them. Thankfully, we had enough children to participate in each group. Emily interviewed children from CHH while I interviewed children from AHH.

Overall I found the children more open and easier to get to participate than the adult focus groups. We played a few games at the start and in the middle of the group meeting. This seemed to help the children feel comfortable and open to the idea of the group. We also provided each child with a Fanta and a muffin at the start of the group meeting.

Since my group turned out to be 5 girls and 1 boy, the information I received was heave on the female perspective. The 1 boy did speak, but not a lot. However, the main purpose of the focus group was to get an overview of the topic and situation in Muko. We also intend to have semi-structured interviews after the household surveys have been completed. We will interview both boys and girls and this will help to create a gender balance research.

Household Surveys
Pilot Household Surveys were held today. As we suspected our surveys are too long and can take over 2 hours to complete depending on the number of people living in the home. After today’s test surveys will modify the survey as needed. We intend to return to the field next week with the modified surveys to complete the household surveys over 2 days.


During my 2nd interview a rain storm hit Muko. We had to stop the interview since the home we were in had a corrugated tin roof and the thundering sound forced us to take a break from the interview. In the darkness of the mud house I pulled out my camera to entertain the children that had been listening in on the interview and showing off by counting, saying the days of the week and reciting the alphabet all in English. They quickly hammed it up and posed all around the room. The photo shows the children in a dugout tree that was in the house. This is a photo on the streets of Muko shortly after the storm passed.

Research Log 3 - Defining Terms

Focus Groups
I held my first focus groups on Monday. With the assistance of the sector leaders 3 groups were scheduled and invited to participate. The groups were Cell Leaders, Primary and Secondary school Teachers and members of the Parent Teacher Association. The purpose of these purposefully selected focus groups was to gain an understanding of the perceived situation in Muko regarding child labor and education. Unfortunately (but unsurprising), the organization and scheduling of the groups was not as planned. Instead of having participants arrive at a designated hours throughout the day, all of the participants arrived at 9 am, which was the first time slot. I had no choice but to apologize to the participants and explain the misunderstanding.

Each focus group lasted between 1.5 and 2 hours. Despite knowing that Rwandans are reserved, we opted for focus groups (rather than semi-formal individual interviews) in order to gain a greater initial amount of data. As we are employing Grounded Theory, this data will be used to adjust our focus and related questions. The focus groups did not generate as much discussion and data as I had hoped, but they definitely opened the door to the understanding the perceptions held by the community leaders.

Defining Terms
The purpose of the focus groups in part was to define terms such as; at what age does a person become an adult, what is a Child-Headed Household, what is domestic (unpaid) labor, and what is agricultural (unpaid) labor. It was relativity easy to define the age of adult hood as well as what considered to be Child-Headed House. It was much more difficult to draw a line between agricultural work and domestic labor. It may prove difficult to differentiate between the two as our research continues as it is very easy for conversation to switch between the two. We will have to consider how to deal with this issue as we move forward.

Children Focus Groups
Hopefully before the end of this week or at the beginning of next week I (we if it is next week, Emily will return to Kigali this weekend) will return to Muko to conduct focus groups with children. As with the adult focus groups, these groups will not be for gaining in-depth information. They will serve as an introduction to the perceptions and realities that the children are facing. I have set aside more time to work with the children as it is important to make them feel comfortable as well as to make sure they understand the purpose of the research. I will also use games at various times of the discussion to keep them interested and active. This will also help create a higher level of comfort and interest.

At this point we have divided the children into children from Children-Headed Households and children from Adult-Headed Households. The ages of the children are to between 12 and 15. I have opted not to divide the children into male and female groups. If this proves to be hindrance on participation I will further divide the groups into male and female groups on any subsequent group discussions.
I am hopeful the children will be less guarded then the adults and more willing to openly talk. Given that the research subject is child-centric they may find the topics more interesting and worthwhile then the adults.

Semi-Structured Interview with Officials
While the Officials of Muko Sector have been supportive and have approved our research they have been a bit illusive when it comes to interviews. We may have to change tactics for gathering the information we hoped to gain from them.

Research Log 2 - A slowish start!

Here is week 2's Research Log. Not a lot has happen since last week, but underneath things are definitely progressing. I'm looking at it as the mega that is about to become the lava of my research.... Maybe I'm just trying to talk myself into all of this!

I hope you find it at least a little interesting. Time permitting I will write another blog non-research related. Also, once I get into the field my logs should be a bit more interesting!

Interview Delays
There have been a some delays in the commencement of interviews this week. I had hoped to get into the field and interview official and community leaders; however, due to coordination and transportation issues this has been delayed until early next week. This is a minor setback, which will have minimal impact on the research schedule. It will actually allow for more time to review the interview questions and structure.

Translators
I have worked closely with our translator this week. Emily and I created a detailed Translator Guide which clearly outlines the rolls of the Translators and Researchers in given situations. We have closely reviewed the research plan, purpose of the research as well as questions for the approaching semi-structured interviews. We have also carefully explained our expectations of them as research translators. This should help us avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings while in the field.

Semi-Structured Interviews
On Monday of next week semi-structured interviews will take place in Muko Sector. We have organized 4 small groups focus groups (2-4) people per group. The 4 groups are as follows, Group 1. Cell Leaders, Group 2. Head Masters and Teachers of Primary Schools, Group 3. Head Masters and Teachers of Secondary Schools, Group 4. Parent Teacher Association Leaders and Members.

The small groups will allow us as researchers to maintain more control of the process. This is preferred at this time as we are still testing out our translators and we are uncertain of their moderation skills. I am however worried that I may have scheduled too many groups for one day. I have estimated that these group meetings will take between 1.5 and 2 hours each. We are not looking for in-depth discussions at this time, but rather a general overview of the situation. Should we need to gather deeper information from these participants we should not have a problem contacting them again.

The goal of these initial interviews is to gain a perspective of the perceived problems/lack of problems and general attitudes related to child labor. We also are looking to define terms such as what is a child, what constitutes (child) agricultural labor, what constitutes (child) domestic labor. These questions will assist us with formulating impeding interviews with parents and children as well as the household surveys.

Participants will be supplied with refreshments. If the meeting were longer we would also supply them with cash (around $6) for their time and transportation. Additionally, since interviews will take place near their homes/place of work there should be no need for transportation reimbursement. However, as of now I am awaiting for conformation of the participants and the location exact of the interviews. I will have this information within a few hours of posting this blog.

While in the field it is my plan to schedule the next group of interviews. Hopefully we will be able to return to Muko later in the week (Thursday or Friday). Emily will return to Rwanda on Monday the 15th and will also participate in these interviews.

Working with Children
As a proportion of our interviews are to be conducted with children (including orphaned children) we must take ethical and legal concerns into consideration. We are in the process of tracking down the laws and procedures for gaining necessary permissions. In addition I will pose this issue to officials while in the field on Monday.

There has been some difficulty tracking down solid advice and methodology concerning child-centered methods, as most of what I have come across is more psychologically based. I will continue to investigate this issue.

Research Log 1

As expected the LUMID program has kept me very busy. I haven't spent much time on the computer that hasn't been work or school related. It also means that my endeavor to keep a blog is dwindling. In an effort to regain momentum I have decided to use my assignments as a jump off for my blog.

Over the next month and a half I will conduct research that will be used in my thesis. As part of research tasks I am required to create log entries regarding my progress. I'm not sure if this will be of interest to my readers, but it is what it is.

The Research Question

The research will look into child domestic labor within child headed households and adult headed households. We will be investigating the gender component and how this may or may not effect educational attainment. As we become more familiar with the situation we will narrow and modify our research question.

Joint Research
Emily and I intend to do our research as well as write our thesis together. However, we have had an early setback, Emily returned to Ireland late last week due to an illness in her family. We are hopeful that she will be able to return to Rwanda before the end of the month of November.

We will conduct this research while simultaneously conducting baseline data collection for a new project area of our host organization. This will allow us to spend more time in field as well as support our access to community we might otherwise have difficulty entering.

The First Visit
On October 25th we visited Muko Sector, where our research will take place, and met with local leaders including Executive Secretary, Secretary of Social Affairs, Police, Village and Cell Heads, Head of Forest Activities, Head Agronomist, Head of Security, and Head Masters of Schools. We were able to explain our research as well as data collection objectives. The community was very accepting of our intentions and welcomed us into their community.

We also had a short meeting with the Secretary of Social Affairs. She was very open and willing to provide us with any data available. We provided her with a list of preliminary data and she agreed to prepare the data before our next visit.

Translators
Since Emily and I speak a very small amount of Kinyarwandan we will primarily work through translation. We used a few translators for our project evaluation in September, however they did not work out as well as we had hoped. One of the girl’s confidence and English skills was not where we would have liked it to be and the second had a poor attitude and was a bit confrontational. Unfortunately this meant we had to find new translators to work with. After interviewing 5 additional possible translators we settled on 2. One of then accompanied us on our trip to Muko, we found him to be patient, easy to understand and even tempered.

Modifying the Research
Emily and I both understand the obstacles we must overcome, but we still intend to push forward with our joint research. Emily and I will remain in close contact as we revamp and adapt our research. We will be able to contact each via Skype periodically. I will keep Emily posted on the progress or lack of progress I am making in Rwanda. We intend to continue to work together on interview questions and surveys.

Emily and I have organized a gantt chart detailing our research schedule, which includes focus groups with children, semi-structured interviews with officials and leaders and conducting a number of household surveys. Given that Emily will no longer be here for most of November I am considering what is most important for our research topic and what is feasible for one person to manage. At this point it is my intention to schedule the semi-structured interview with officials and leaders for next week. This week I will be finalizing the questions for the semi-structured interviews. I will also spend a few hours with the translator reviewing the research purpose, interview questions, discussing expectations and familiarizing him with the research methodology.


So there you have it, my first research log ever! More to come over the next few weeks.