Contextualizing Historical Education Policy Formation Through the Use of Online Access to Parliamentary Debates: Managing Documentary Data

Many countries keep official records of parliamentary debates. In the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Singapore, these transcriptions are referred to as Hansard, providing a rich resource for researchers exploring the historical and contextual background of governmental policy and legislation. This case study draws on the original doctoral thesis exploring the experiences and issues of concern of students with special educational needs and disabilities reflecting on their first year at university in Singapore. The historical background and recent developments were examined through data collection and analysis of historical and current local policy documents, parliamentary records, and information collated from university websites. Twenty-six semi-structured interviews were completed with participants recruited from five of the six publicly funded universities in Singapore. This case study focuses on conducting online research of parliamentary debates with the use of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to organize data and assist discourse analysis. 

Citation:
Carlisle, Damaris D. E. ''Contextualizing Historical Education Policy Formation Through the Use of Online Access to Parliamentary Debates: Managing Documentary Data.'' SAGE Research Methods: Doing Research Online Publication, edited by Martin Perchard, London, SAGE Publications, Ltd, 2022, doi: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529600421.