Qualitative data from the students was collected by means of a student questionnaire, administered and collected by the schools towards the end of the first semester in each of the two years of the pilot. Participation was voluntary and care was taken to ensure that the students understood this, and the purposes of the research, and were confident that their decision whether or not to participate would have no implications either for their progress in the course or their entry into the University’s programs in the following year. This was achieved by means of an information sheet80 distributed to the students before the questionnaire was administered to them, a permission form81 which they signed before completing their questionnaires, and by all of this being handled by school counsellors rather than the teachers involved with the course. Additional qualitative data was obtained from an internal evaluation of the first year of the pilot conducted by the University, which used the data obtained from the student questionnaire referred to above and also another sent to the 2002 students after the study year at Para West was over and they had left the school.
Qualitative data with respect to the experiences of the teaching staff in the school and the academics in the University82 were obtained through semi-structured interviews conducted and taped by the researcher and analysed, following transcription, for congruence, differences and insights into the research questions. Permission forms were completed and signed as a part of this process by all interviewees. In addition, the researcher attended and conducted a series of joint meetings with participating school and university staff at different stages of the two-year pilot. This included presenting preliminary findings to one of these joint meetings, at which feedback and analysis was invited which clarified and further elucidated qualitative findings. Another planned method for recording the teachers’ experiences of the pilot83 was abandoned in the first year of the pilot due to the demands it placed on the teachers’ time. Finally regular email contact was established and maintained with the coordinators of the pilot in the schools and within the University throughout both years of the pilot. Within the schools, regular team meetings were held between all of the teachers involved in the pilot and the local coordinators, and significant issues arising in these meetings were conveyed to the researcher through her contact with the coordinators.