KRISCHELLE D.

JADULCO PhD-EDLM
Position Paper September 18, 2022

The Conduct of Qualitative Research in Public Schools of the Philippines

Both the public and private educational systems of the country are vital
to the nation’s future educational success and economic progression. In the
Philippine setting, public schools hold the largest number of students. Despite
this fact, it faces a lot of critics and the most recent is the report from World
Bank which states that Filipino students fall below the minimum proficiency
levels based on the three assessments the Philippines participated in -- the
Program for International Student (Pisa) in 2018, the Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 2019, and the first cycle of the
Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) in 2019 (“World bank
report”, 2021). To combat this issue, Philippine public schools must engage in
extensive researches to improve the quality of the teaching-learning process.
Implementation of the qualitative research per se as medium in interpreting
and generating knowledge from the problems that arise in our educational
system will be of great help to make policies and standards that will improve
our basic education. Much has been published to lay-out qualitative
researches’ advantages and disadvantages and many of them is on the ethical
conducts of its methodology. Conducting qualitative research ethically is
crucial for obtaining detailed and rich information on the phenomena being
examined. It must be given emphasis to generate accurate, legitimate and
trustworthy data. Ethical conducts which includes anonymity, confidentiality,
informed consent and beneficence are given importance in this paper.
Confidentiality and anonymity, as described by McMillan & Schumacher
(2006), simply means that the setting and participants should not be
identifiable in all reporting. We must keep the identity of each participant with
confidentiality being unknown for the purpose of generating knowledge which
is not biased. Researchers can use codes to protect the identity of the
participants and keep their research records secure. In this particular ethical
concern, the researcher collects, analyzes, and reports data without conceding
the participant’s identities (Kang and Hwang, 2021) for a wholesome
construction and interpretation of data.
Informed consent talks about warranting the participants that they are
informed to the best possible extent concerning the nature of the study (Kang
and Hwang, 2021). Researchers must abide by the ethical conduct of
upholding informed consent. In this particular ethical concern, Jefford and
Moore argued that the document to be used in the research should entail
participant name, date, study title, participant’s signature among others. It is
the researcher’s obligation to inform the participants about the parameters of
the study and to let them decide as to participate in it and withdraw from it
anytime. A consent must clearly inform the background and purpose of the
study, the process of how the data will be collected and the possible risks and
benefits that the participants can get upon participating in it.
Beneficence is an ethical conduct that refers to acting in ways that
benefit others while promoting their safety and welfare (Pieper and Thomson,
2016). Beneficence expresses that the end product of that research is geared
towards the welfare of the participants. Through this, the researcher must fully
be immersed on the environment of the research to collect, construct and
interpret data that is going to be beneficial to the participants and not to
himself. The researcher therefore must fully understand the operationality of
the problem and generate data that can further the knowledge of the causes
and mechanisms of such phenomenon.
Hence, ethical concerns in conducting qualitative research plays a vital
role in gathering, analyzing and interpreting the data that will be collected to
produce reliable and accurate research findings that must be focused on
enhancing the system that contributes to the growth of knowledge. It must be
employed by the Department of Education to develop a more thorough
understanding of the causes and mechanisms of the myriad issues of our
educational system.

References

Gita-Carlos, R. A. (2021, July 1). World Bank report on Ph education, 'disturbing, very
alarming'. Phillipine News Agency. Retrieved September 16, 2022, from
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/search?
q=world+bank+report+on+PH+education.

Jefford, M., & Moore, R. (2008). Improvement of informed consent and the quality
consent documents.

Kang, E., & Hwang, J. (2021). Ethical conducts in qualitative research methodology:
participant observation and interview process.

McMillan, J. H., and Schumacher, S. (2006). Research in education: evidence- based

Inquiry (6th ed.). Cape Town: Pearson.

Pieper, I., & Thomson, C.J. (2016). Beneficence as a principle in human research.