Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology during the study. We would bring light to the

areas of the study and reasons which underpin the choice of the area are explained. In this

chapter, the research design including the sampling procedures, respondents of the study, and

the necessary research instrument, ethical considerations, and data collecting procedures are

carefully tackled.

Research Design

Generally, the goal of a research design is to offer a study plan that enables accurate

assessment of cause and effect linkages between independent and dependent variables (Jang,

1980). The plan outlines the method and technique of inquiry selected to acquire accurate and

reliable data that met the goals of the study and provided the answers to its open-ended

questions.

In the very beginning, the aim was to adopt the method that would be appropriate,

straightforward, and practical with the limitations of our resources available in concerns with

time, skill, and expertise.

 This study therefore would be using a Grounded Theory approach as it is a collection of

systematic inductive procedures for performing qualitative research with the goal of

developing theories (Charmaz, 2003). According to Noble and Mitchell (2016), grounded

theory is a research method that is concerned with the development of theory that is

'grounded' in data that has been collected and examined systematically. Certainly, our

research follows a framework in which we are systematic and factual in collecting and

analysing our data for the development of our theory.

Grounded Theory makes the most appropriate research approach for our study with the

conditions that it tries to figure out what people's social acts, interactions, and experiences

mean. These explanations are referred to as 'grounded' because they are based on the

participants' own explanations or interpretations (Divya, 2021) since our study would focus

on developing a theory on the basis of financial instability regarding students' academic

decisions and career-path. Another advantage of the grounded theory approach is that

researchers can have their own interpretation of data ( Divya, 2021) which is a crucial step in

developing a theory that is based on the information the respondents have provided.

Research Locale

This study will be conducted in Gingoog City Colleges or other known as GCC.

Gingoog City Colleges is a private school and one of the prestigious schools in Gingoog City.

It is located at Macopa Street, Paz Village Subdivision, Gingoog City.

 The school originated in ____ by _____ and ____. They named the school Teachers

Academy, where (i will just put some info dri when i get home tomorrow because I forgot to

bring the module about our school, thank you.)

We chose the school, Gingoog City Colleges, as our research locale for this is a perfect

location to conduct the study. Since our respondents are students of GCC, the school will be

an ideal spot. Due to this reason, it is very accessible for the researchers to conduct their

interviews with the respondents since they can easily approach and interact with the students

(respondents) after their classes. Moreover, the school is a safe and tranquil place which will

be good in conducting the interview.

We decided to conduct the interview inside one of the available classrooms in the

building. If not, due to miscellaneous interruptions and uncertainty, we will be conducting the

interview inside the library or anywhere inside the campus where it is quiet so that

respondents will focusly answer the questions in the interview.

We are hoping to conduct this interview as early as possible for this requires a massive

amount of time needed to be finished. We are aiming to start conducting the interview within

the first or second week of April 2023 to the last week of April 2023.

Sampling Procedures

Research sampling is one of the major part of conducting a research. It is a way on how

would researchers collect their respondents and gather data. In qualitative research there are

numerous types of methods that can be used in research sampling. Snow Ball Sampling,
Convenience Sampling, and Opportunistic Sampling are the top three mostly used as the

sampling procedure in Qualitative Research.

Snowball Sampling is the widely used method in research. It is also called Referral

Sampling, Chain-Referral Sampling or Network Sampling. This method is done by asking

relevant individuals if they know someone who will be fitting and be willing to participate in

the study. However, there are multiple types of Snowball Sampling. We have the Linear,

Exponential Nondiscriminatory, and Exponential Discriminatory Snowball Sampling.

In Linear Snowball Sampling, a single individual will be asked if he or she knew

someone who is qualified to participate in the study. In turn, the referred individual will also

recruit another individual (one individual). Thus, this creates a chain-like style until you find

the ideal sample.

On the other hand, Exponential Nondiscriminatory is very different. In this method, the

participant or an individual can suggest multiple people. The researcher will include all the

referrals in the study. While in Exponential Discriminatory the participant can refer to

multiple individuals, but this time the researchers will have the opportunity to choose. They

will include those referred individuals who have achieved the qualities of the research.

The second method is Convenience Sampling. In this method, researchers will recruit

individuals who they know fitted most the qualities of the respondents in the study. These

individuals could be their friends, family, or acquaintances. This method is named

Convenience since the researchers "respondents" are easily accessed and approached.

Researchers can easily ask these respondents to participate in the study.

 And lastly, Opportunistic Sampling is a method wherein you take advantage of the core

respondents who are gradually available.

In this research, our team thought out and agreed to use three methods, which are

Snowball, Opportunistic and Convenience.

In Snowball Sampling, we will ask some of the grade 12 STEM students of GCC who

they know are qualified to participate in our study. In Opportunistic, we would like to submit

a permission letter to the admin office to let us gather the names of the students who are

financially unstable or those who have reached our criteria. And lastly, in convenience

sampling we will ask our friends in grade 12 STEM, whom we find to fit the qualities of

respondents we are looking for to participate in our study.

This method means no harm and is forced on the students. If they are not willing to

participate in the study, we would understand and let them go.

Respondents of the study

 The respondents of this study will be Grade 12 STEM students in Gingoog City

Colleges who are experiencing financial instability and struggling with career decision-

making. The participants will be selected through snowball sampling, which involves starting

with a small number of individuals who meet the inclusion criteria for the study, and then

using them to identify additional participants who may also be qualified (Goodman, 1961). In

addition, convenience sampling will also be used to reach out to social media or nearby

"friends" who know someone that meets the study criteria.

The inclusion criteria for the study will be as follows:

1. The participant is currently enrolled in Grade 12 in the STEM strand in Gingoog City

Colleges.

2. The participant has experienced financial instability, which has impacted their career

decision-making process.

3. The participant has not received any external financial support for their education

(e.g. scholarships, grants, etc.).

4. The participant is willing to participate in the study and share their experiences.

The number of participants will be determined by theoretical saturation, which means that

the interviews will continue until no new themes or insights are emerging from the data. It is

expected that the number of participants will be between 20-30, which is typical for a

grounded theory study.

Research Instruments

It is important to identify the research instrument being used. Furthermore, Ary

(2010) stated that the most widely used research instruments in qualitative research are

analysis of documents,interviews, and observation. In this study , the researchers will use

interviews as the instrument to collect the data. More specifically,a semi-structured interview

would be the designated instrument in conducting the research.

In semi-structured interviews,participants are asked a series of open-ended questions

and probe questions to learn more about their responses and the subject. The semi-structured

interview is an exploratory interview in accordance with Magaldi and Berler (2020). The

semi-structured interview method is used by qualitative researchers to gather new data and

investigate participant’s opinions on a particular subject. Furthermore, semi-structured

interview is appropriate for this study, where the open questions enable the researchers to

freely ask the respondents. However, in this kind of interview, the researcher lets the

participant and questions develop naturally. The interviewer may freely add follow-up

questions that have not yet been prepared during the interview process, in an effort to

examine their experiences through deliberate questioning and conversation through planned

interviews. Semi-structured interviews guide you to perceive your respondents better ,

creating higher interview and survey inquiries for future research.

Data Collection Procedure

Ethical Considerations

When gathering data from people, scientists and researchers must always follow a set of

rules (Bhandari). These factors protect study participants' rights, improve research validity,

and preserve scientific integrity.

Our study adheres to the ethical requirements in conducting the research, therefore we

have chosen Informed Consent and Voluntary Participation as our ethical guidance for this

research to provide security and freedom to our respondents.

We have chosen Informed Consent as one of our ethical guidance for it allows potential

research subjects to freely volunteer their involvement without fear of repercussions or undue

pressure. The potential participant is also given information that an individual would want to

know before joining, allowing them to make an informed decision about whether or not to

engage (Owens).

Additionally, we also included Voluntary Participation for the reason that subjects in a

research project must understand that their involvement in the study is entirely voluntary, that

they can withdraw from the study at any moment without penalty, and that they will not be

damaged as a result of their participation or non-participation in the project (Bhattacherjee).

 This study deeply follows the ethical procedures in conducting the research to assure our

respondents that we do not intend to fall under any research misconduct such as falsifying

data, manipulating data analyses, or misrepresenting results in research reports.

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