Practical Research (Module 5)

Similar to building a house, a research design is your guide for you to finish your research. This may include answering the 5W’s: What? Why? Who? Where? When?

Dawson (2002) explains the importance of these questions on how you are going to get the answers for your research questions.

Knowing how to answer those questions in your own topic saves you a lot of time in thinking about your research as a whole. You need to have a clear indication what your research is all about, why you want to do it, who will be your respondents, where are you going to get the information and when will you get it.

There are 4 approaches in research design:

● Ethnography

● Case Study

● Phenomenology

● Historical Approach

Ethnography - from the word ethno-people and graphy-writing. Ethnography translates to writing about people. This type of approach to qualitative research aims to study a particular group of people in their natural settings. This particular study wants to describe and interpret the behavior of different kinds of people, culture or population. This can pertain to a specific type of culture, community, school, or workplace

For example, you may want to study a particular type of indigenous people, or you may want to study about the behavior of students in a classroom. This type of approach is the most appropriate for your research.

Case Study - If you want to learn deeper and more specific details of a certain situation, group of people or an individual, you may want to use case studies. The difference of case study with other approaches to qualitative research is that it gives a more in-depth analysis to a topic with a use of more data gathering procedures at the same time. The problem with case studies is that it’s more difficult to use especially if it is your first time making a research paper.

Phenomenology - This type of approach to qualitative research wants to study the phenomenon or experiences of people. The purpose of this approach is to give an idea on how individuals or a group of people react or experience a certain phenomenon. A phenomenon can be a rare occurrence or an experience of an individual that is not common.

An example of this can be applied when we want to study about the experiences of teenagers to bullying or physical abuse.

Historical Approach - To give you a proper explanation of this type of approach, think of the 1986 EDSA Revolution; think about World War II or the past presidential elections. Historical approach is a systematic collection and evaluation of information which have occurred in the past. This can be in a form of documents, stories, artifacts, videos, etc. What you want to do is to examine the validity of these documents, or if you want to add more information about a past event that hasn’t yet emerged. You might want to ask questions like “What is the purpose of the document?” “Are there other forms of documents or information that I can add?”

Population - the complete group of people, animals or objects that have the same characteristics that the research needs

Sample - a group of individuals that represent the population.

The process of choosing a sample is called sampling.

Steps in Sampling

1. Identify the population of interest - When choosing your population of interest, you should think WHO will be directly affected from this study and WHO will be the potential respondents.

2. Specify a sampling frame - specify WHO we want to include in our study. You may want to choose your sampling frame to a place where you are residing so that it will be easier to gather respondents.

3. Specify a sampling method - There are many types of sampling method for qualitative research. Here are some of the most common and easiest sampling methods to be used. You can either choose one method to use or have a mix of two or more methods:

a. Snowball sampling - this is done by asking relevant people if they know someone who will be willing to participate in your research. You can put criteria or other qualifications for your respondents. You can use social media for “crowd-sourcing” or ask someone in your community on who is willing and qualified to participate in your research.

b. Opportunistic Sampling - this is a type of sampling that takes sample or respondents that are readily available. For example, you may choose respondents in your community where you can just pick anyone within a close range. This can be people passing by.

c. Convenience Sampling - using this kind of sampling technique involves selecting people that are the most convenient for you as a researcher. You may use someone you already know as a respondent because it will save you time and effort in looking for someone who will participate in your study.

4. Determine your sample size - the sample size is the number of individuals that you are going to use for your study, and it is up to you to determine which approach you are going to use in choosing your sample size. A book on high school research by Clemente R. F., Julaton A. B. E. and Orleans, A. V. discusses how to determine your sample sizes. There can be two approaches to determine your sample size:

a. You determine your sample size depending on whether your data will reach its saturation point.

Saturation point - the point when all participants start providing the same answers without new material. It is the indicator to stop increasing the sample size when all responses and data show repetition and patterns.

b. Depending on the sampling method used.

It was cited by Creswell (2013) that 1-10 subjects are recommended for phenomenology. Dukes (1984) stated that there should be 20- 30 individuals for grounded theory and Charmaz (2006) indicated that there should be 4-5 respondents for case studies and a single culture-sharing group for ethnography.

5. Implement the plan - select respondents that can be a part of your research. It is important to take note of all the details because you need to write it down in your research paper.

Primary Data - select respondents that can be a part of your research. It is important to take note of all the details because you need to write it down in your research paper.

Secondary Data - data that are gathered from secondary sources, meaning it is not you that have obtained the information but rather, it comes from previous research, audio recordings or books.

Data Collection Instruments:

1. Interviews - the most common type of instrument that is being used. Interviews are done by having a set of questions to your respondents and letting them answer as truthfully as possible

a. Structured Interview - has a set of predetermined questions that are ready to use. If you are using a structured interview as your instrument to gather data, take note that you should not ask beyond what is written in your interview questions.

b. Unstructured Interview - not required to make a set of pre-made questions, but rather make an OUTLINE or what kind of questions you want to ask your respondents. Dawson (2002) calls this type of interview as life history interview. That is because you want to understand the point of view of your respondents, hence it is not advisable to use a pre-made questions. You want them to tell you a story, your respondents are free to talk about what they want to share with a little guide question from you as a researcher.

c. Semi-structured Interview - a mix of structured and unstructured interview. It may be one of the most common types of interviews. You have to prepare a set of questions; however, you are also free to ask to follow up questions to your respondents if you want to clarify something or add information that is not available to you. This type of interview is also flexible that is why it is preferred to be used by most researchers.

2. Observations - used most in ethnography. This happens when a researcher observes and takes notes of the behavior of people that they want to be a part of their research. There are three types of observations:

a. Naturalistic Observation - happens when a researcher observes the behavior of a group of people in their natural setting. For example, you want to observe the behavior of students inside a classroom without putting any external disturbances on them then you are using naturalistic observation.

b. Participative Observation - happens when a researcher takes part on the activities of the group of people that they are observing. Say for example you want to study the daily routine of a Lumad community. To have a better understanding of what their everyday activities are, you as a researcher decided to join a community so that you can immerse yourself in their daily life. This is utilizing participative observation.

c. Non-naturalistic Observation - happens when you take your respondents out of their natural environment and put them in an environment of your choice. You observe how people behave when they are not in their usual settings. One situation for this is taking a group of high school students and letting them attend one or two college classes where you must observe their learning behaviors. Non-naturalistic observation is where you as a researcher decides what is the “ideal” environment for you to complete your research.

3. Questionnaires - most common types of instruments that is being used by qualitative researchers. This is somewhat similar to interviews based on the format of questions that is being used. There are three types of questionnaires:

a. Close-ended Questionnaires - similar to a structured interview. This is mostly used when you want to conduct surveys on your respondents. This is mostly for statistical purposes and the questions are already prepared for your respondents to answer. These types of questionnaires usually have boxes for the respondents to put a checkmark.

b. Open-ended Questionnaires - this type of questionnaire leaves a blank space for the respondents to give their point of view about a specific question.

c. Combination of Both - combines both the close-ended and open-ended questionnaires. For example, you may want to ask a yes or no question to your respondents and also want them to explain why they have answered yes or no.

4. Focus groups - focuses on groups of people being interviewed at the same time. This relies on the respondents to give a discussion amongst themselves on the questions that you, the researcher, give. You will serve as the moderator or facilitator. Put three or more people around a table and give them guide questions for them to discuss among themselves. Your role as the researcher and facilitator is to take note of their discussions.

There are several steps in the observation process as discussed by Creswell (2007).

1. Select where you want to conduct your observation - This can be a classroom, community or a home where you want to observe the different behavior of the participants for your research. To do this, you need to make a communication letter to the concern authorities so that you will be allowed to have access to a particular place of observation.

2. Find the means to gather your observed data - This can include recording devices like cameras or phones or the more traditional recording devices like taking down notes on what you, as the researcher, have observed first-hand.

3. Take your time to write down the important details - You may be overwhelmed the number of things that you will be observing. Try to focus on the important details that relate to your research question. Make sure that you have your field notes with you where you will need to write the things that can be useful for your research.

4. What kind of observation will you be using? - Will it be a naturalistic observation? Non-naturalistic? Or participative observation? You need to have a clear indication on what will be your role as an observer.

5. Politely thank the participants