Research Sites. The research settings were Batanani junior secondary school in Mapoka and Ramoja junior secondary school in Ramokgwebana in the North East District of Botswana. Batanani catchment area includes Mapoka, Masukwane and Kgari villages while Ramoja catchment area covers Ramokgwebana, Moroka and Jakalasi No. 1 village. Some of these areas are between four to seven kilometers from the schools. Both the schools are “twelve streams,” that is they have four form three classes, four form two classes and four form one classes, hence the term “twelve streams.” Batanani is a boarding school while Ramoja is a day school. The schools were chosen because of their accessibility since one of them (Batanani) is located within the home village of one of the researchers. Xxxxxx also became ideal in the study since it is not far distanced from Batanani and it is one of the old schools within the North Eastern region, hence its rich history was considered very essential to the study. Selection of Participants As earlier reflected, this was a case study which involved a detailed examination of two different settings. Xxxxxx & Xxxxxx (2003) charge that under a case study researchers scout for possible places and people who may be subjects or possible sources of data and then cast a wide net in their attempt to judge the feasibility of the site or data source. One factor that determines the participation of subjects in a study is feasibility or willingness to participate in a study (Yin, 2003). The research data was collected through interviewing and observing participants. The interviews were carried out on a population of fifty eight participants that is Heads of departments (n =6), teachers (n =10), students (n =20), prefects (n =20) and School heads (n =2). Heads of departments, School heads and teachers were interviewed individually; students and prefects were interviewed in groups. Prefects were observed on duty within stipulated times such as study time, meal hours, sports times and assembly times. In conducting the study, we used semi-structured interviews whereby we used an interview guide and also prompted and probed the participants to get more information. Focus groups were used in this study where we discussed the topic on democratization of schools through the use of prefects. Xxxxxx (1997) states that through focus groups, different types of data can be gained because of pronounced interaction of different people within a social group. One advantage of using focus gro...
Research Sites. The study employed six face-to-face interviews with the school principals. As Xxxx (2003) stated, compared to telephone or e-mail interviews, conducting face-to-face interviews makes possible to obtain more “thoughtful” responses When there is a lack of non-verbal and visual interaction this makes interviewing process unnatural, thus, it may have an impact on the quality of participants’ answers. The selection of these schools was based on convenience sampling. For a researcher, this sampling means the accessibility of the study participants in terms of their geographical locations (Dörnyei, 2007). When considering study participants’ and the researchers’ work schedule, it was decided to conduct the study in the schools of two city centers: Karaganda is the city where the researcher lives and works in, while Nur-Sultan is the capital city, which is only two hours away so easy to travel to. It also has to be mentioned that the type of the schools was purposefully selected, since this research considers the views of the principals working in the selective schools with no application fees. Thus, the study was conducted in the secondary schools for gifted children that accept students on a competitive basis and teach them from grades 7 to 12. The number of the students in these schools varies from 300 to 700.
Research Sites. The study was conducted at three mainstream schools in Shymkent, a city in the southern part of Kazakhstan. Previous studies on the role of language in the integration of returnee students mainly conducted in Almaty and Xxx-Xxxxxx cities suggested to conduct further studies in different regions of Kazakhstan to draw convincing conclusions about the role of language in integration. In other words, due to the large territory of the country, language choice and culture of regions differ from one another, which significantly impact the integration of returnees. Thus, considering that the majority of returnees live and study in Shymkent, this city is selected to be the research site of the current study. According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population of Shymkent (2021, as cited in Ernur, 2021), as for July 1, 2021, 689 families, which is 942 returnees, received “Qandas” status from the beginning of 2021. This number considers 12% of returnees settled in Kazakhstan (MoLSPoP, 2021, para. 3). In six months, they are supposed to learn Kazakh and Russian languages, adapt to a new society, find a job, solve housing issues, and receive social support from “Adaptation and Integration Centers” (Ernur, 2021). MoES and NAE (2016) demonstrates that there were 11546 returnee students enrolled at Kazakhstani mainstream schools (4734 primary, 5306 secondary, 1503 high schools). Most of them are residing in Almaty (3218) and Shymkent (1527). UNDP (2005) report explains such choice of location by returnees due to a mild climate and the dominance of the Kazakh language in various domains. The schools were selected from the following districts where most returnees reside within Shymkent, such as Asar, Kainar Bulak, and Saule districts. The site selection is justified with a dense population of returnees that present a good site for the current research. Such an assumption was based on news reports provided on the web portals and TV about returnees’ settlement in Shymkent. For example, the initiative to create districts for returnee families was inspired by the Asar district, in which returnees built brick and cement factories and founded homes for themselves and other returnees (InformKaz, n.d.). All three selected schools are public and follow the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. For relatively equal representation, three teachers were selected from two schools and four teachers from one.
