Research Method RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

50

Chapter III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research Method

In this research the qualitative research in the form of naturalistic study is applied. This means that qualitative research begins with questions which try to find out the answers to their questions in the field or in the real world. The researcher gathers what he sees, hears, feels, and reads from people experiences and places or environments also from activities and events. It is in line with Fraenkel and Wallen’s statement as follow: Qualitative research is a research studies that investigate the quality of relationship, activities, situations, or material. In this type of research there is a greater emphasis on holistic description—that is describing in detail all of what goes on in a particular activity or situation. Fraenkel and Wallen, 2000: 502 In conducting the research, the research in natural setting is conducted rather than in laboratories or by means of written surveys. The researcher will be also involved in the part of the process and simultaneously seek the answer of the stated problems. It is not a static process but dynamic process. In various cases, the participants of the research also altered Rossman and Rallis 1998: 5. Key states some characteristics of qualitative research as follow: 1 Purpose: understanding—seeks to understand people’s interpretations. 2 Reality: dynamic—reality changes with changes in people’s perceptions. 3 Viewpoint: insider—reality is what people perceive to be. 4 Values: value bound—values will have an impact and should be understood and taken into account when conducting and reporting research. 5 Focus: holistic—a total or complete picture is sought. 6 Orientation: discovery theories and hypothesis are evolved from data as collected. 7 Data: subjective—data are perception of the people in the environment. 8 Conditions: naturalistic—investigations are conducted under natural conditions. 9 Results: valid—the focus is on design and produces to gain ‘real’, ‘rich’, and ‘deep’ data. Key, 2007: 1-7 Furthermore, there are at least two features of the qualitative research that should be taken into consideration. First, the researcher himself is as the means or 51 human instruments to conduct the research. Second, the purpose of the research is to learn about some points of view of the social worlds. As Rossman and Rallis 1998:6 stated as follows: “Qualitative research has two unique features: a the researcher is the means through which the study is conducted, and b the purpose is learning about some facet of the social world. Both of these characteristic are integral to a view of learning activities that sees the researcher as a constructor of knowledge rather than the receiver of it. From this perspective, the learner accumulates data, not reality itself but rather representation of reality. The learner transforms these data, through analysis and interpretation into information. When put to practical use, through judgement and wisdom, to address recurring social issues, information becomes knowledge.” It is the reason why the researcher uses the naturalistic method as stated by Lincoln and Guba 1980 beside human being as the instrument, naturalistic approach have characteristic as follows: 1. Human realities can not be separated from their context their observable parts. They are whole parts, 2. The use of tacit knowledge is valid. The institution and feeling are as valid as the knowledge in the knowledge in the language to express the reality; and also to the human being, 3. The result of the research is important to negotiate and interpreted between the researcher and the target, 4. The interpretation of the data is ideographic or specific, 5. The result of the research is tentative. As it is stated before that it is a naturalistic study. It means that the researchers tries to reveal what happens or events in the fields naturalistically, without any manipulation. In naturalistic study, the researcher observes directly by sitting in during the task; or indirectly which the task is viewed by some other tools such as by using video camera. The contribution of naturalistic study is that it allows the observer to view what the objects of the study actually do in the context. The direct observation provides essential effect as it allows the researcher to focus attention on specific areas of interest. The indirect observation captures activity that would otherwise have gone unrecorded or unnoticed. 52

B. Time and Place of the Research