Topping Midterms: Writing Critical Analysis Papers
I’ve been asked how to write critical analysis papers in UP so here’s the sample paper where I scored highest in midterms. I was 2nd year then and lockdown just happened.
Many scholars have defined qualitative research as the inductive use of reasoning to discover potential patterns of a unit of analysis without the assumption that these patterns could be implicated and applied to a generalizable context. Furthermore, a qualitative inquiry involves the politics of evidence (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018) in order to be considered empirical. Much of the socio-political structures in the Philippines, however, prevent and limit the analysis of data through strict laws and regulations that make information inaccessible. Despite that doing research in the Philippines has become one of the important professional development programs for teachers that are emphasized by the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) (Ulla, 2017), there is a lack of sufficient materials to where the analysis would be gathered and applied (Ulla, 2018). This concept paper presents some of the enabling and disabling factors in the conduct of qualitative research in the Philippines.
Enabling Factors of Qualitative research in the Philippines
a.) Teachers as Researchers
The Department of Education in collaboration with the Commission on Higher Education has created initiatives to promote action research to help foster the undertaking of scholarly outputs in different educational institutions. An example of these initiatives is the “enclosed Basic Education Research Agenda” by the Department of Education (2016) which aims to encourage teachers to discover and assess problems in their teaching paradigms in order to better the learning capabilities of students. Although they can incorporate quantitative research in the unearthing of issues in classrooms, only through a qualitative lense will they be able to efficiently understand and realize the underlying phenomena of students’ motivation and learning curves.
Moreover, authorities have also increased the motivating factors for teachers to conduct research such as making research outputs a degree requirement and giving those who have employed successful articles higher chances of getting promoted and having an increase in salary (pp. 802–803). Not only do they have to meet the requirements expected of them as educators, teachers must also ensure the quality and depth of their studies.
b.) Richness of complex cultural texts, artifacts, and productions in the Philippines
Qualitative research involves the in-depth analysis of a collection of a variety of empirical materials — case studies, personal experience, introspection, life story, interview, artifacts, and cultural texts and productions, along with observational, historical, interactional, and visual texts — that describe routine and problematic moments and meanings in individuals’ lives (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018, p. 43). Accordingly, the richness in the Philippine history which involves the convergence of the Eastern and the Western cultures in the Pacific, and the archipelagic nature of the country provide rich cultural and social context for critical interpretive studies. The understanding of many complex abstract concepts that couldn’t be quantified easily such as cultures, ethics, morals, poverty, social justice, terrorism, leadership, and the list goes on, can be studied through the societal and political landscape present in the country.
Disabling Factors of Qualitative Research in the Philippines
a.) Lack of support in the actual implementation
Politicians and hard scientists call qualitative researchers journalists or “soft” scientists. Their work is termed unscientific, only exploratory, or subjective. It is called criticism and not theory, or it is interpreted politically, as a disguised version of Marxism or secular humanism (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018). In consequence, many humanities studies have not been given credit and financial support. There has also been a lack of sufficient reference materials (Ulla, 2018) not only in libraries of educational institutions but even in official institutions in the country because of the strict implementation of the Data Privacy Act as well as the limiting of funding for scholarly endeavors (Fabito, Celis, & Ching, 2018). Scholars are also bombarded by tedious bureaucratic processes before they can get important pieces of information from different institutions in the country. This adds to the time and sample constraints problems in qualitative research.
b.) Debate about the generalizability of qualitative research
In the broader context of qualitative research studies, opposing views on the generalizability of interpretive research are still ongoing. Moreover, there is still a big gap on the applicability of qualitative findings to a larger population, and doubts about its practical use are still persistent. This is discussed by Malcolm Williams. In his (2000) article, he suggested that there is a need to discover the limits and possibility of generalization in interpretive research. In consequence, the conduct of qualitative research in the Philippines is by and large also affected by this limitation.
Qualitative inquiry allows for a deep understanding of abstracts a quantitative analysis cannot sufficiently explain, and enabling its expansion in the Philippine context will allow not only for the increase of public discourses on topois and fallacies — those that are considered irrefutable facts and seemingly logical status quos but also, and more importantly, interpretive research empowers participants as their voices are more observed and heard in the procurement and distribution of research findings.
Reference Link:
Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (2018). The-SAGE-Handbook-of-Qualitative-Research.-pages-10–71. https://tinyurl.com/y4yjnhdr
Department of Education (2016). enclosed Basic Education Research Agenda. https://www.deped.gov.ph/2016/06/10/do-39-s-2016-adoption-of-the-basic-education-research-agenda/?fbclid=IwAR0nm1U46csqfdkofWy-zcG3ZbScAPmDCWGPwFjmTlDCOWLjuhOJN0WRpBU
Fabito, B. Celis, N.J., & Ching, M. R. D. (2018). Data Privacy Act of 2012: a case study approach to Philippine government agencies compliance. American Scientific Publishers. https://tinyurl.com/yxfp5zre
Williams, M. (2000). Interpretivism and Generalisation. Sociology, 34(2), 209–224. doi:10.1177/s0038038500000146
Ulla, M. B. (2017). Teacher training in Myanmar: Teachers’ perceptions and implications. International Journal of Instruction, 10(2), 103–118. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1138329
Ulla, M.B. (2018). Benefits and challenges of doing research: experiences from Philippine public school teachers, Issues in Educational Research, 28(3). https://tinyurl.com/y6yc5lcf
