Research Design RESEARCH METHOD

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD

A. Research Design

Every research has its own purposes which want to be accomplished. In order to achieve the purposes of the research, the research design is importantly needed. This research used qualitative research design. It is because the data of this research are in the form of words, phrases, clauses and sentences embedded in Ellis’ The Breadwinner. Therefore, quantitative research design is impossible to apply because the data are not qualified in the numeric standard. Unlike quantitative research which relies on statistic relationship between one variable and another variable, qualitative research focuses more on the research participants’ researcher’s and the other’s interpretation of particular phenomenon. Vanderstop and Johnston 2009: 167 state that qualitative research has a purpose of descriptive. Since people’s interpretation is the main element of qualitative research, its products are in the form of description. The description is explained based on the participants’ knowledge, background and experience. Therefore, everyone might have different interpretation over one phenomenon discussed. Description can be a means to understand the interpretation of the research participants in a deeper way. Gender inequality is a phenomenon which is still experienced by women generally and female children particularly. Ellis’s The Breadwinner gives the real portrayal of female children who struggle in order to cope with the harms gender inequality does. Interpreting the phenomenon of gender inequality can deepen the understanding over the issue. In order to analyze the data, content analysis was used in this research. Neuman 2007: 20 defines content analysis as the technique of analyzing the content in ‘written or symbolic material’. In other words, content analysis is a method to analyze the data which are in the form of text. According to Kondracki Wellman in Hsieh and Shannon, 2005, text data can be in form of verbal, printed, or electronic material and the data might be obtained from narrative responses, open-ended survey questions, interviews, focus groups, observations, or print media such as articles, books, or manuals. Since the data in this research were in the form of text, content analysis was the most appropriate method to collect and analyze the data regarding female children’s struggles against gender inequality in Taliban society.

B. Data and Sources of the Data