Case study becomes one of the approaches in conducting a qualitative study. It facilitates understanding of a phenomenon within its context using a
variety of data sources. This ensures that the issue is not explored through one lens, but rather a variety of lenses which allows for multiple facets of the
phenomenon to be revealed and understood to ensure that the topic of interest is well explored and that the essence of the phenomenon is revealed. To deepen the
understanding of the study, hermeneutics was developed in this study in order to discover the nature of “being” and “this is to be found in consciousness and the
type of existence that humans have.” Interpretative hermeneutic phenomenological case study which promotes a deep understanding of the
participants’ experiences was developed from Ignatian pedagogical interpretativism which became the paradigm of this study. Therefore, the
elaboration of Ignatian pedagogical interpretativism and case study research as the chosen approach is discussed further below.
2.2.1 Ignatian Pedagogical Interpretativism as the Chosen Paradigm
Interpretative paradigm or framework, according to Guba 1990 states that it is an appropriate basic set of beliefs that guides the action and later captures
and understands the rich experience of the participants. This paradigm was influenced by Ignatian pedagogical paradigm – the art of teaching and way of
learning adopting the spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola by education the learners within a world view grounded in the particular mysticism of Ignatius
Gallagher and Musso, 2006:1. The Jesuit educational enterprise embraces the
world view that God is in all things by positing the inquiry into human life, human nature and destiny as an endeavor in which God is present. It offers the Ignatian
pedagogical paradigm as a means by which the learners can be a man or woman for and with others. In other words, it tries to help the learners to be able to adapt
themselves with the world’s condition and be ready with any problems that might happen in the future. This paradigm employs five key teaching elements, namely
context, experience, reflection, action and evaluation, in which its step finds its root in the spiritual exercises. These elements dynamically changed from the
original Ignatian paradigm which included only experience, reflection, and action.
Kolvenbach 2005 mentions that within the element of context the teacher
needs to know what needs to be known about learners to teach them well. Personal care and concern for the individual are hallmarks of Jesuit education.
Ignatian pedagogical paradigm requires that teachers become as conversant as possible with the context or life experience of the learner to find out the ways in
which family, friends, peers, and the larger society impact that world and effect the learner for better or worse. Next key teaching element is experience. Teachers
should be able to look for the best way to engage learners as whole persons in the teaching and learning process. They must create the conditions whereby learners
gather and recollect the material of their own experience in order to distil what they understand already in terms of facts, feelings, values, insights and intuitions
they bring to the subject matter at hand. Teachers later guide the learners in assimilating new information and further experience so that their knowledge will
grow in completeness and truth. The experience later will help the learners to be more reflective in deeply understanding what they have learned.
Based on the condition above, the key teaching element of reflection – memory, understanding, imagination, and feelings – is used to grasp the essential
meaning and value of what is being studied, discover its relationship to other facets of human knowledge and activity, and appreciate its implications in the
continuing search for truth. Teachers only lay the foundations for learning how to learn by engaging students in skills and techniques of reflection. The element of
action helps teachers compel learners to move beyond knowledge to action. Teachers provide opportunities that will challenge the imagination and exercise
the will of the learners to choose the best possible course of action from what they have learned. It can be a new way of thinking, a new way of feeling, or a desire
literally to do something differently. For young learners with hearing difficulty, action element can be see through their attitude and physical responses since they
have a limitation in expressing their feeling. After conducting the action, teachers should assess learners’ growth in mind, heart, and spirit. Observant teachers will
perceive indications of growth or lack of growth in class discussions and students generosity in response to common needs much more frequently. The relation of
the five key teaching elements is shown as below.
