The English Examining Boards: Their route from independence to government outsourcing agencies

44

Weighing the risks of a limited sample of interviewees

I acknowledge that relying so heavily on interviews for my data risks an imbalance in
the data so obtained. The risk is further heightened by the limited sample of
individuals who fit my criteria of ‘elite’ figures within the examining world. From
each of what had been reduced to just three awarding bodies, I planned to interview
only the individual who had been Chief Executive during the 1990s. From the
regulatory bodies, I planned to interview only the individual who had led the
academic qualifications section throughout the 1990s and one who had been
instrumental in the vocational section during the creation of GNVQs. My plan to
complete the triangulation by interviewing the individual who had been in the
dominant role related to qualifications within the Department for Education and Skills
as it had become, was thwarted by the movement of civil servants into different areas
of responsibility and their resulting unwillingness to speak about their past roles.
There may also have been a degree of reluctance due to the established confidential
status of civil servants.

Nevertheless I decided to proceed with my plan. I took the view that in no other way
could I acquire a range of data on the issues I was investigating. My search of the
literature had confirmed that to date the examining boards had avoided close analysis.
If this closed world were to be investigated, I was convinced that it was essential to
begin the process - which I hope others will continue - by speaking to those most
intimately involved during the period I was investigating.

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