CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methodology used in this study. This chapter describes the

research design, the study's location, the participants of the study, the sampling technique, the

data collection method, and the data analysis process.

Research Design

The researchers implemented phenomenology as their research design.

Jelle Stienstra. (2015) defines phenomenology as a research design that holds crucial

contradictions with contemporary science and state-of the-art practice and tools in so

far as it aligns with the holistic, continuous, and ever-changing qualities of contextuality.

According to Dildar Muhammad (2023), phenomenology is an investigation method that

deals with human experience in which individuals perceive them as appearing to

consciousness. Phenomenologically, it’s worth should be expressed by its accessibility to

people with highly subjective perspectives. According to Wa-Mbaleka (2018),

phenomenology is the most suitable approach for understanding human experiences.

The research design selected is naturally related to the study because it is broadly based

on why students continue to pursue their academic path despite feeling unfit for it.

Research Locale

This study will be carried out at a public high school in Alangalang, Leyte. Junior

and Senior High School are both available at the public high school. The participants will

be interviewed in the guidance office, or any other comfortable location chosen by the

respondents. The research will be carried out during the second semester of the 2022-

2023 school year.

Participants of the Study and Sampling Technique

 Participants in this study are senior high school students from the 11th and 12th

grades of the school year 2022-2023 at the public high school that served as the

research locale. The Snowball Sampling Technique will be used by the researchers to

find participants who can provide information about the phenomenon under

exploration. The following criteria will be used in selecting the participants: 1) they are

students at the public high school that served as the research locale; and 2) they are

pursuing an academic track that they believe is unsuitable for them. The first participant

was identified through the researchers' personal connections; subsequent participants

were identified through the chain-referral process after some ethical considerations.

The researchers made certain that the participants were completely willing to

participate by carefully explaining the nature and process of the current research

project. The participants were also informed that they could withdraw from the study at

any time and that doing so would not be held against them. Furthermore, the

researchers assured the participants that any information that could be used to identify

them would be kept private.

According to Sargeant J. (2012), in qualitative research, the sample size is not

always predetermined. The number of participants is determined by the number

required to fully inform all important aspects of the phenomenon being studied. In

other words, the sample size is adequate when additional interviews or focus groups do

not result in the identification of new concepts, a condition known as data saturation.

Thus, the data gathering will stop when data saturation is achieved.

Research Instrument

Semi-structured interviews will be used by the researchers to collect all of the

needed data for this study.

This study's interview protocol is made up of interview questions and an informed

consent form.
The informed consent form is the first part of the interview protocol, and it informs

participants about the research's goals, timeframe, privacy and confidentiality details,

the voluntary nature of their participation, the absence of physical or emotional risks,

the use of audio recorders, and the importance of honesty. This is done to ensure that

the participants are completely willing to participate in the interview. Before the

interviews begin, the participants have to sign the informed consent form.

The researchers created interview questions for the second part of the interview

protocol. The researchers prepared questions that cover the research topic derived

from the research question and was further subdivided into simpler questions; the

researchers followed up on the participants' responses to provide more depth to the

information provided.

The interview protocol developed by the researchers will be validated by three (3)

experts, two (2) of whom are behavioral science major and the other (1) is an expert in

qualitative research. The first two experts should ideally be a guidance counselor and a

social worker. They will determine whether a question is phrased in such a sensitive way

that the participants may fail to provide honest answers. The third expert is a research

teacher who will ensure that the interview guide is aligned with the research questions

and the overall problem.

Recognizing the importance of the interviews yielding data based solely on the

participants' perspectives, the researchers will employ "bracketing”. Bracketing means

refraining from passing judgment or avoiding the everyday, commonplace way of seeing

things (Moustakas, 1994 as cited by Weatherford 2019). In practice, (Creswell, 2003 as

cited by Weatherford 2019) identified bracketing as a method for the researcher to

separate his or her own experiences from the research. To accomplish this, the

researchers considered his preconceived notions about the phenomenon under

investigation and set them aside. Prior to conducting the interviews, the researchers
made a list (bracketing diary) of all the expected outcomes and resolved to set them

aside. Furthermore, the researchers will limit his probing questions to those that require

additional clarification.

Data Gathering Procedure

The researcher will use semi structured interview to carry out data gathering. Semi

structured interviews will be used for it is an effective method for data collection to

collect qualitative, open-ended data to explore participant thoughts, feelings and beliefs

about the topic. In addition, it allows the participants to further elaborate their

responses which gives a more in depth information for the study. The questions will be

solely based on the interview guide prepared by the researchers. Three (3) senior high

school teachers will validate the interview guide, two (2) of whom have expertise in

behavioral sciences and the other (1) in research. The recorded interviews will begin

after the interview guide was validated. The researchers identified, asked for consent,

and interviewed research participants using the chain referral process of snowball

sampling. The participants were informed that their responses would be recorded and

that they could withdraw any time if they disagreed.

Recognizing the importance of the interviews yielding data based solely on the

participants' perspectives, the researchers will employ "bracketing”. Bracketing means

refraining from passing judgment or avoiding the everyday, commonplace way of seeing

things (Moustakas, 1994 as cited in Weatherford 2019). In practice, (Creswell, 2003 as

cited in Weatherford 2019) identified bracketing as a method for the researcher to

separate his or her own experiences from the research. To accomplish this, the

researchers considered his preconceived notions about the phenomenon under

investigation and set them aside. Prior to conducting the interviews, the researchers

made a list (bracketing diary) of all the expected outcomes and resolved to set them
aside. Furthermore, the researchers agreed that they will limit the probing questions to

those that require additional clarification.

Data Analysis

Thematic data analysis will be used to analyze and describe the collected data.

Following the interviews, all audio recordings will be transcribed. The researchers will

read the transcripts and take notes on the initial ideas. For each transcript, major ideas

will be highlighted and written down (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The researchers will

developed general statements or meanings after identifying significant statements. The

general statements will be sorted and compiled, and all potentially relevant data from

the transcripts will be extracted and organized into themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006). To

help nurse researchers maintain methodological rigor, DeSantis and Ugarriza (2000)

provided the following definition of theme: “A theme is an abstract entity that brings

meaning and identity to a recurrent experience and its variant manifestations. As such, a

theme captures and unifies the nature or basis of the experience into a meaningful

whole” (p. 362). The general statements and themes that had been developed were

then incorporated into an exhaustive description of the phenomenon.

The final analysis consists of selecting vivid, compelling extracted themes,

analyzing selected extracts, relating the analysis to the research questions, and

producing a descriptive report on the analysis. The description of the phenomenon will

then be condensed into denser statements that capture the fundamental structure of

the phenomenon under investigation. Following that, a copy of the interview transcripts

and the detailed description will be returned to the participants to ensure that it

accurately represents their experience (Rowlands, J. 2021).

Ethical Considerations

The study participants were identified through a chain referral process.

This implies that there was no demographic discrimination, and the

researchers strictly adhered the stated inclusion criteria. The first participant

was identified through personal contacts of the researchers who were willing

to help with the current research project. In accordance with the chain referral

process of snowball sampling, the succeeding participants were identified and

nominated by the initial participants.To avoid embarrassment for the

nominated participants from being revealed to the researchers without their

knowledge, the researchers asked the preceding respondents to first consult

their possible participation with their nominated contacts.

All the participants will be fully informed of the purpose procedures, risk, and

benefits of the study before they signed the consent form and they have the

rights to withdraw from the study at any time without prejudice. The

researchers also ensures that the personal information and identities will be

protected from unauthorized access. Researchers will also practice secure

and ethical practices in data collection, storage, analysis, and dissemination.

Participants will be treated with respect, empathy, cultural and gender

sensitivity, the researchers will acknowledge the participants autonomy,

diversity and agency and avoid imposing their biases, values, and agendas

on them.