The criteria for inclusion include factors such as age and citizenship, where older adults and non-Ghanaian individuals are excluded from the study. The goal is to obtain accurate information about the prevalent majority of seekers of higher education in the country, who are mostly young and live in Ghana as permanent citizens. The sample size will be in a range of 10 to 20 people because the standardized open-ended interview will be utilized to keep the data collection within the topics of interest without constraining the influx of data excessively (Patton, 2015). Both data saturation and theoretical saturation will be determined by the emergence of a solid pattern of insights in the form of receptiveness as well as deviation from the core topic of social skills, higher education, and retention. The sampling method is justified by a similar study on education with the use of an equivalent interview method, where 12 students were interviewed (Leisterer & Jekauc, 2019). The reason is that such a format is time extensive and resource-intensive, which is why 10-20 students will be sufficient to obtain valuable data without hitting the saturation levels.
In order to ensure that participants will be confident that their privacy will be respected, assurances of confidentiality will be provided. It will be stated beforehand that “the information obtained in this study may be published in scientific or scholarly journals or presented at scientific or professional meetings; however, no identifying information will be used” (UNK, 2022, para. 2). These assurances will be provided in documented and signed formats, where the involved parties will be obliged to adhere to the stated claims. In other words, interviewing process will not begin without providing such information and receiving consent or agreement from the participant.
References
Leisterer, S., & Jekauc, D. (2019). Students’ emotional experience in physical education—A qualitative study for new theoretical insights. Sports, 7(1), 1-15.
Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research & evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice (4th ed.). Sage.
UNK. (2022). Assurance of confidentiality. Web.