Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter will discuss the methods and procedures as well as the instruments

that will be utilized to fulfill the purpose of this study. This chapter will explain the

methodology used in this study to answer the overarching questions about the lived

experiences of college working students in ASSCAT

Research Design

In this study, we will use a qualitative design of research employing

phenomenology. According to Creswell (2014), qualitative study involves observation,

and or archival data needed for the research. The emphasis put on the natural setting

and the points of view of the research participants. We will use Qualitative research in

our study as we have collected data from our participants from their point of view in a

natural setting wherein they are going to share with us information about our study.

The phenomenological approach is initially the interest of the study as it focuses

on people’s experiences. Phenomenology is a design of inquiry in which the researcher

describes the lived experiences of individuals about a phenomenon as described by

participants (Creswell, 2014).

In our study, the phenomenon discussed will be the lived experiences of college

working students. Their coping strategies and their insights and aspirations will also be

given utmost importance to deeply understand their lived experiences. This

phenomenon will be explored through the researcher’s interaction with the college

working students in ASSCAT.

We will use Qualitative Research with phenomenological approach because we

will be exploring and delving in the experiences of the participants who study while

working through asking them relevant questions about the phenomenon.

The participants of the study will be the ten(10) selected students in ASSCAT. In

here, we will use Purposive Sampling since we only need those participants who will fit

the criterion for choosing the participants.

Purposive sampling is widely used in qualitative research for the identification

and selection of information-rich cases related to the phenomenon of interest (Palinkas

et al., 2015).

Additionally, as a way for phenomenology to have uniformity in the ‘lived

experiences’ of research participants, Polkinghorne as cited in Flynn & Korcuska (2018),

advised that phenomenological researchers should interview between 5 to 25

participants who have all experienced similar events (phenomenon). As such, the

commonality of their experiences can be captured and interpreted. It is for this reason

that we will choose ten(10) participants in our study to get a holistic idea about their

lived experiences in being college working students.

There are criteria for selecting the participants of the study, and these include;

they should be students who are enrolled in ASSCAT; they should be living in Agusan del

Sur; and they should be self-supporting. We believe that these criteria would help us

choose participants who would have a great contribution for our study.

We will have ten participants in the study. There will be ten participants for an

In-depth interview (IDI).

Role of the Researcher

In this study, as researchers, we will embody different roles. We will be

responsible for making sure that the procedures in conducting a research are followed

and fulfilled, such as creation of the concept, data collector, transcriber, data analyst,

encoder and reporter. It is our responsibility to consider some proceedings and measures

in conducting the qualitative research.

Second, we will serve as data collectors by recording the responses of our

participants. We will also be interviewers in the In-depth interview.

Third, we will serve as data transcribers wherein we will encode the recorded

research materials into written form. With this, we will also be translators as we will be

the ones who will translate the responses of the participants from the Visayan language

to English.

Fourth, We will be data analysts as we will look for themes directly from the

responses of the participants which will be used for our study. Fifth, we will embody the

role of an encoder wherein we will encode the whole manuscript along with the

corrections prescribed by the panel of experts. And lastly, we will be presenters as we will

present the findings of our study to the academic community accessible within our reach.

Data Sources

The primary sources of the data will be taken from the answers in the in-depth

interview of ten selected participants from ASSCAT.

Since the goal of this research is to investigate the lived experiences of college

working students, the In-depth Interview (IDI) will be utilized. The in-depth interview is

a tool to determine the individual conditions of the selected students.

Additionally, we will also utilize secondary sources of data from different books,

journals and other related information sources that can be useful to our study.

Data Collection Procedures

In approaching qualitative research plan, the purpose of the data collected is to

maintain the integrity of qualitative data analysis through representation and

interpretation (Creswell, 2013).

that will be needed before conducting our study.

First, we will ask permission from the principal of Father Saturnino Urios College

of Trento, Inc. and from the dean of our target school to conduct our study.

Second, we will identify as to who will be the participants in our study.

Third, we will give an informed consent to the research participants and let them

sign it before we will conduct the study through the in-depth interview. In the conduct of

our study, we will make sure to adhere to the idea of Creswell (2013) that a researcher

should establish the rapport of trust with participants and that a researcher should also

illustrate the interpersonal knowledge and skills such as listening and questioning.

Fourth, we will use notes and voice recorder to record the responses of our

participants in the study. We will ensure that their identities will be kept hidden so that

they will trust us and their safety will be secured.

Fifth, we will thank all the persons involved in our study. Sensible tokens will be

conferred to all of them as they will dedicate their time and efforts for the realization of

this study. Lastly, we will transcribe all the data.

Data Analysis

Analysis will begin after the data collection period. The collected data will be

reviewed, synthesized and documented in order to keep careful and detailed notes. This

is very important due to the short time frame for data collection. After the completion of

data of the formal data collection period, the analysis of data will begin.

The qualitative data that will be taken out from the interview from the students

will be analyzed and examined collectively to provide a holistic picture. Field notes will

be taken from the interview; the audio recordings and the results will be transcribed and

analyzed according to the research questions.

Coding is a way of indexing or categorizing the text in order to establish a framework of

thematic ideas about it. This is also a process of identifying a passage in the text or other

data items, searching and identifying concepts and finding relations between them

(Gibbs, 2014).

Then, after coding the data, we will use Thematic Analysis to generate themes

from interview data. The purpose of this step is to get the qualitative researcher engaged

with the data and begin thinking about prevalent topics discussed by participants

(Braune & Clarke, 2013).

We will take note of those prevalent topics on a sheet of paper as we read or

transcribe the data. We will take the themes and begin to review them against the data.

Then, we will utilize labels created for the theme and providing a comprehensive name

that describes the relationship or meaning conveyed in the theme. After the themes are

defined and named, we will begin to write up the final report. Then, we will present the

findings and interpretation of the data.

Trustworthiness of the Study

In adherence to the rules of trustworthiness, we will establish the trustworthiness

of our findings as suggested by the framework of Shenton (2004). In qualitative

research, trustworthiness has become an important concept because it allows

researchers to describe the virtues of qualitative terms outside of the parameters that are

typically applied in Quantitative research.

We will employ different strategies to address the four issues of trustworthiness

that demands attention on: credibility, transferability, conformability and dependability

of the study.

Credibility is the quality of being believed or accepted as true, real or honest. In a

research study, credibility is an evaluation of whether or not the research findings

original data (Lincoln and Guba, 1985).

In addressing the credibility of our study, we will provide sufficient

documentation that will illustrate the real proceedings of this research. We will employ

member checking wherein we will share the whole findings with our participants for

transparency and also to get feedback from them.

We will also use triangulation in our study. Triangulation refers to the use of

multiple methods or data sources to develop a comprehensive understanding of

phenomena (Patton, 2001). In this study we will use Participant Triangulation in which

we will be gathering data from the three departments in ASSCAT, namely: Agriculture,

Engineering and Education.

Moreover, we will employ iterative questioning. Iterative process involves a

sequence of tasks carried out in exactly the same manner each time and executed

multiple times to make sure that there will be a relevant information out from the

process being taken (Durepos, Mills & Wiebe, 2010). Through this notion, we will ask the

same set of questions to our participants to check the consistency of their responses and

to identify the common responses from them. The data out from the interview will be

used later especially in coding and thematic analysis.

Confirmability refers to the degree of neutrality or the extent to which the

findings of the study are shaped by the respondents and not based on the researcher’s

bias, motivation or interest (Lincoln and Guba, 1985).

To address the issues of confirmability in this study, we will save a soft copy of

the responses of the participants wherein their identities will be treated with

confidentiality. After transcribing audio recordings, the hard copy of the text will be

given back to the participants for authentication. After such, they will be asked to sign a

verification form.
 We will also use Audit Trail so that the research panel and our adviser could

check to see that the interpretations and conclusions can be traced to legitimate sources.

We will achieve this through keeping the raw data in hard copy and electronic form,

including audio recordings and paper copies of the interview responses. These data could

be reanalyzed by our adviser to confirm the findings and conclusions of this study.

Transferability, as stated by Lincoln and Guba, (1985) is the degree to which the

findings of this inquiry can be applied or transferred beyond the bounds of the project.

In addressing transferability of our study, we will use field notes as a tool to help

us recall different aspects of the study. The field notes on the setting, participants, and

observations will be used to give a rich description of our study. The results of the

research will become transferable to another setting or area in which this study about the

lived experiences of college working students will be applied.

Dependability is concerned with the stability of data over time and under

different conditions. It is an assessment of the quality of the integrated processes of the

data collection, data analysis and phenomenological explanation. The meeting of the

dependability criterion is difficult in qualitative work, although researchers should at

least strive to enable a future investigator to repeat the study (Shenton, 2004).

In addressing dependability of our study, we will transcribe the raw data out from

the audio recorder from the interview we will have from our participants. Afterwards, we

will translate the responses from the raw responses of our participants. Also, we will seek

help from various experts, panel of examinees, our research adviser and other relevant

studies concerning the lived experiences of college working students.

Ethical Consideration

To ensure that ethics and proper conduct of research will be followed without

compromising the safety of those who will be involved, we will follow the framework of

Belmont Report prescribed by The National Commission for the Protection of Human
Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1979). These are respect for persons,

justice, and beneficence.

Respect for persons involves commitment of the researcher in considering the

wellbeing of the research participants by not exploiting their weaknesses throughout the

data collection. The researcher will uphold great respect to the participant. Thus,

voluntarism will be strictly imposed in this study in which the participants will not be

forced to take part in the study.

As such, we will uphold respect for persons through asking permission from the

students prior to the conduct of the study. Along the way, we will orient them as to the

details of our study, including confidentiality, for them to feel assured that they are safe

amidst the process of the inquiry. We will tell them that we will not force them about the

interview if they feel uncomfortable. We will make sure that there is no coercion in the

conduct of our interview. Before we are going to conduct the interview, we will make sure

that their parents or guardians sign a Parent’s Consent and the participants also signed

an Informed Assent as they are still minors so that we can legally interview them. We will

also assure the participants that confidentiality will be prioritized. Hence, their privacy

and anonymity is of paramount importance and so we will use pseudonyms to hide their

identities.

Justice, on the other hand, refers to the notion that people who will be involved

in this study will be rewarded for the efforts and burdens that they took for the

accomplishment of this study.

In order to address justice, we will guarantee that the research participants are

appropriate for the study by ensuring that the inclusion and exclusion criteria are

considered during the selection. We will exercise fairness among the participants

through the provision of appropriate care regardless of their economic status, sex, race,

or creed. Additionally, in showing the gratitude to the respondents who will sacrifice
plenty amount of time from their working or study hours to participate in the study and

the assurance that the study findings that may benefit them will be made available and

accessible to them. They will be given a just compensation in exchange to their time in

participating this study.

Furthermore, the researchers of this study will be confidently engaging

themselves in this research that involves human participants as they humbly consider

themselves as qualified researchers because they possess moral fortitude, scientific

competence, social awareness, cultural sensitivity, intellectual humility, vigilance, and

preparedness in safety issues. Also, our thesis adviser is highly accessible wherein even

the distance cannot hinder the consultations needed to enhance the content of the study

by scrutinizing all aspects of it to correct the minor and major mistakes of the researcher.

Lastly, the researchers will assure that there is an adequacy of facilities necessary

for carrying out this research which will enable them to provide themselves the necessary

resources to underlie their study. In particular, the researchers can access their schools'

library, and the available database and relevant websites in the internet.

Beneficence relates to the commitment of the researcher to give justifiable

benefits and advantages to the students while limiting the risks especially in data

collection. It should be exercised in several ways such as assessing and taking account of

the risks of harm and the potential benefits of research to participants and to the wider

community (Pieper and Thomson, 2016).

In this study, we will give awareness to the participants about the purpose of this

study for them to know the importance of this research study and their participation

without any risk while being involved in this study. Accordingly, we will provide an

utmost consideration and assurance to the safety and protection of the respondents, the

risks and burdens are also being anticipated such as the possible leaks of the

participants’ profile information and responses from the interview, their inconvenience
as they will sacrifice some of their time to participate in the study, the sensitive nature of

the topic which may affect the respondents emotionally. Thus, we will also ensure that

their participation or non-participation will not affect their academic performance.

To address these risks, the names of the participants and their schools will not be

revealed in any publication or presentation that disseminates the results of this study,

and the researchers will assure them that their responses during the gathering of data

will be preserved as confidential and only the researcher can review them. All research

data or information will be kept in locked files at all times (for material copies) or

password protected folder (for electronic copies). Only the researcher has access to the

files.

This study will be beneficial for the students for this will give them the

opportunity to reflect on the things they should be thankful for and learn how difficult it

could get when employment and education are simultaneously done. In this way, the

concerned people can take actions that will be of great help for the students who study

while working.

In addition, this study will uphold the Data Privacy Act of 2012 wherein we will

strictly adhere to the principles of transparency, legitimate purpose, and proportionality

in the collection, retention, and processing of personal information of the respondents.

In this study, we will provide our best efforts that the data and personal

information that will be obtained from the research participants will be confidential as

we will acknowledge that the protection of their identity is one of our utmost

responsibilities. We will also guarantee that we will respect the privacy of the

participants by allowing them to restrain themselves from answering a certain question

which may significantly affect their well-being.

Overall, this chapter will provide the necessary information before conducting

this study such as utilizing proper research design, selecting research participants using
purposive sampling, employing comprehensive data analysis and ensuring the

trustworthiness of the study. The researchers will also comprehensively explain the data

gathering procedure and the ethical consideration in conducting this study.