Introduction Research design Research Methodology

59

Chapter 3 Research Methodology

3.1 Introduction

This chapter outlines the methods used in the conduct of this research study. It covers the research design, the selection of the population and sample of the study, the data collection and data analysis. The method of handling the missing data is also discussed in this chapter.

3.2 Research design

Quantitative and qualitative research have often been characterized as incompatible. The notion appeared to flourish during a period of time when what has now been called the paradigm wars took place, reaching their peak during the 1980s Tashakkori Teddlie, 2003. The apparent incompatibility of both types of research encouraged researchers at the time to choose either quantitative or qualitative method but not both. More pragmatic researchers now view both research paradigms from different perspectives and have rejected the idea of their incompatibility. From the pragmaticists‘ point of view both quantitative and qualitative research have their respective important contribution to make and very often they require researchers to combine them to arrive at more comprehensive results. 60 More recently Johnson and Christensen 2004, for example, have identified three main paradigms of research commonly used in educational research, the quantitative, qualitative and mixed research paradigms. Although they acknowledge that there are still arguments concerning the nature of those three paradigms, they propose that the three paradigms are situated along a continuum with research being relatively more qualitative or relatively more quantitative, or mixed Johnson Christensen, 2004, p. 30. This present study on the efficacy beliefs in the secondary school English teachers in Indonesian context has drawn on the mixed-method paradigm. To some extent it follows the conception of quantitative method, and therefore uses techniques and procedures of quantitative data collection and analysis. On the other hand it also applies the other techniques and procedures of data collection and analysis commonly used in qualitative research design. Quantitative data of this study were collected using a survey, while the qualitative data were collected using the classroom observation schedule and interview protocol. By employing both quantitative and qualitative research, the researcher aimed to pursue a deeper understanding of the nature of self-efficacy and work engagement among teacher in the sample. Conducting follow up qualitative research on quantitative data collected using the quantitative method was expected to be able to provide more convincing evidence about the findings. Furthermore, qualitative research in the form of case studies on part of the sample might open a wider and deeper insight and understanding of the 61 findings previously revealed through the quantitative data collection and analyses. Qualitative data are also expected to be able to test the findings from the quantitative data, so that they can function to either confirm or question the findings. This research in its own is interesting sinc e so far most research in teachers‘ self-efficacy beliefs has been addressed to investigate teachers‘ efficacy beliefs in general. Numerous research studies have been conducted in this area of efficacy with the specific sample of science teachers, yet none has focused on teachers of a foreign language where cultural background was an important issue as well, because language is bound to the specific culture of the speakers. N o research on teachers‘ efficacy beliefs that has been contextualized within issues of policy changes regarding teaching practices. This research, therefore, was important not only to see the cultural effects related to teaching profession on teachers‘ efficacy beliefs but also to investigate the effect of policy changes on teachers‘ efficacy beliefs.

3.3 Research site