Evaluating ICT for Education in Africa - Royal Holloway, University of ...

exemplified in stakeholder reluctance to progress beyond simply providingthe basic answers that they anticipated the research team wanted to hear.When simply filling in questionnaires from a distance there was no incentivefor those completing them to deviate from what they expected were therequired „correct‟ responses. This experience demonstrated the importancewithin effective monitoring and evaluation of not depending on quick, farreaching, cheap research methods such as questionnaires which can easily bemanipulated in order to provide misleading data regarding genuineprogramme impacts.Teacher diariesThe teacher diaries also provided opportunities to monitor from a distancethe ongoing process of what was occurring in the schools in Malawi andEthiopia. However the key distinction between the diaries and questionnaireswas that the diaries provided the teachers with a chance to expand on theiranswers in an unstructured manner and also to keep filling in the diary everyweek throughout the research process. Once the teachers had completed thediaries over a period of weeks there was opportunity for dialogue as theyexplained what had taken place. The research team were therefore able totrace the progression of the initiative and what teachers had felt at differentpoints.Certain teachers clearly valued the opportunity to write a diary, and inMalawi there was an element of prestige for those selected to complete thetask. To respect this and further incentivise the teachers, they were allowed tokeep the diaries as a record of their work, with the research team taking aphotocopy and returning the diaries to them. The use of this method instilledvalue in the teachers as they were both familiar and comfortable with thenotion of a written diary. The quality of the diaries was largely dependentupon the motivation of the individual teachers and their inclination to engagewith the process of self monitoring. Following the experience of usingresearch diaries in Malawi, I reflected on their primary value within theexercise (03/03/08):182