Look twice before you LEAP 2.0 Comparing insights from interviews with involved parties with insights from interdisciplinary research. (honoursthesis)

Abstract

The Liberian Education Advancement Program (LEAP) is an intervention in Liberia to improve the quality of education, whereby the government outsources the management of public schools to different operators. The interdisciplinary thesis by Van den Brink et al. (2021) developed a theoretical model illustrating what the program should look like to be deemed effective. This current research created a practical model of factors influencing the effectiveness of LEAP based on six semi-structured interviews with involved parties from three different groups: one researcher, four operators and one principal. In this paper these two models were compared to analyse to what extent they correspond in the way in which they regard the effectiveness of LEAP. Currently, the way the effectiveness of LEAP is viewed by the involved parties does not match the model of effective interventions in education of Van den Brink et al. (2021). Meanwhile, the practical model gives an overview of many other factors influencing the effectiveness of LEAP which were not included in the model of Van den Brink et al. (2021).This might be due to the scope of the interdisciplinary research resulting from the included disciplines or due to the different kind of sources used.