Scottish secondary schools and their links with developing countries: study

Appendix V – Questionnaire

Questionnaire – School partnerships with Scottish schools

This questionnaire aims to get a better understanding of the experience of Malawian schools who have a partnership with a Scottish school. This research has been commissioned by the International Development Team of the Scottish Government. At the moment there is very little information available on how schools in Malawi, or other Sub-Saharan countries, are engaged in school partnerships. This questionnaire will increase our understanding of school partnerships between Scotland and sub-Saharan countries and give more insight into different schools experiences.

The questionnaire will ask some questions on the partnerships that your school has with a Scottish school. We are interested in your personal experiences of that partnership, and ideas you have on school partnering; the benefits as well as the problems with such partnerships.

All data will be anonymised in any output and no school’s response will be able to be attributed to their participation. Participation in this questionnaire is completely voluntary and you may decide to stop at any point during the questionnaire. You have the right to withdraw the data from the research at any time.

If you have any questions about the research please contact the international development team at internationaldevelopment@gov.scot

The questionnaire consists of 4 section: general questions on the partnership; communication and activities; benefits, difficulties and future of the partnership; and school trips. There are 16 questions and it will take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

When finished filling in the questionnaire, please send the questionnaire back to the Malawi-Scotland Partnership: Area 14, Scripture Union House, P.O. Box 1589, Lilongwe. Or via email: info@malawiscotlandpartnership.org

Thank you for taking the time to fill in this questionnaire

Questions – Section 1: General questions on school partnerships

In this section we would like to ask you a couple of questions about how many partnerships you have, with which Scottish schools and what your motivation was to start the partnership.

1. Name of your school and district:

2. With which Scottish school(s) do you have a partnership and when was each partnership started?

If you had a partnership but it is no longer active, please fill in start and end date.

Name of Scottish School:	Year started:	Year ended: (if no longer active)
1.
2.
3.
4.

If you have a partnership with more than one Scottish school, with which school do you have the most active partnerships?

Please answer all the following questions, in each section, with regards to the school you have the most active partnerships with. If you no longer have a partnership we would still like to hear your views, so we ask you to fill in the following questions in relation to your past partnership.

4. How did your school establish this partnership?

Through personal contact with a teacher in Scotland

Through Malawi-Scotland (MaSP) or Scotland-Malawi (SMP) Partnership

Through another organisation, namely:

Other, namely:

5. What was your motivation for forming this partnership?

Questions – Section 2: communication and activities of the partnership.

In this section we would like to ask you about how you make contact with the Scottish School and what activities are part of the partnership.

6. How often do/did you have contact with your partner school?

A couple of times a week

Once a week

A couple of times a month

Once a month

A couple of times in the year

Once a year or less

7. How do/did you usually make contact with your partner school?

(multiple answers possible)

Via email

Through WhatsApp

Through Skype or FaceTime

Through other organisations

Other, namely:

8. What activities are/were you engaged in with your partner school?

(multiple answers possible)

Shared teaching projects

Scottish teachers visiting Malawi

Malawian teachers visiting Scotland

Scottish pupils visiting Malawi

Malawi pupils visiting Scotland

Receiving resources from the Scottish school

Receiving funds from the Scottish school

Other, namely:

9a. Do/did these activities match the expectations that you had of the partnership?

Yes

No

9b. If No, what different expectations did you have?

Questions – Section 3: benefits, difficulties and future of the partnership

In this section we would like to ask you a couple of questions on how you feel the partnership is beneficial, but also on whether there are some difficulties that come with the partnership.

10a. Do/did you feel the needs and ideas of your school are/were well integrated in the partnership?

Yes

No

10b. If no, what would you feel needs/needed to change?

11. What do/did you feel is most beneficial of having the partnership?

12. What are/were the key challenges in sustaining the partnership?

13. How would you like to see the partnership develop in the future?

If you no longer have an active partnership would you like to re-establish a partnership in the future, and why?

Question – Section 4: School trips

This section is about Scottish students, from your partner school(s) visiting Malawi.

14. Did your Scottish partner school ever visit Malawi with a group of students?

Yes

No

I do not know

If “No” or “I do not know” – questionnaire ends here. Thank you for filling in the questionnaire

If “Yes” – please go through to question 15

15. What activities did the Scottish students do on their visit?

(Multiple answers possible)

Joint lessons

Share activities with Malawian students

Visit the country, seeing the sights

Visit other schools

Build or paint school buildings or houses

Visit other organisations

Other, namely:

16a. Were you, or your school, involved in organising (some of) these activities?

Yes

No

16b. If yes, in what way were you involved?

This is the end of the questionnaire. Thank you very much for taking the time to fill it in.

Please send the questionnaire back to the Malawi-Scotland Partnership: Area 14, Scripture Union House, P.O.Box 1589, Lilongwe. Or via email: info@malawiscotlandpartnership.org

If you have any questions about the questionnaire, or about the research, you can contact the International Development Team of the Scottish Government at internationaldevelopment@gov.scot