A Critique Paper on Qualitative Research

“Voices from Devotional Ritual: Practitioners’ unity of purpose to building

community in Araquio musical tradition”

Elements Influencing the believability of the research

The research article entitled Voices from Devotional Ritual: Practitioners unity

of purpose to building community in Araquio musical tradition" published by

International Journal on Community Music (Scopus Indexed) at the University of

London, UK was so impressive for it has the power to excite attention. It got my

interest to read the whole article. I was able to visualize the scenes particularly on

the findings and discussion. It was very concise, grammatically correct, well laid out

and organized.

Dr. Florante P. Ibarra, the author of the well - written article, a music lover, a

great musician, a very skilled person and a founder of Maestro Singers in CLSU,

was also a recipient of the 2009 Classic Fulbright Scholarship Award to the United

States for his doctorate degree in music and music education at Columbia

University, Graduate School of Education in the City of New York, USA. He finished

his master of music at the University of the Philippines College of Music major in

music education and his bachelor’s degree at the University of Santo Tomas,

Conservatory of Music major in music education and voice with distinct honour of

Cum Laude. A multi awarded music educator and music researcher, his interest

centered on teaching and learning traditions, cultural anthropology, choral pedagogy

and general classroom music teaching and learning. For approximately, twenty (20)

years teaching in CLSU, the author is a full - blown professor handling different

subjects in the College of Education (undergraduates and graduate studies). With

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these abounding talents and experiences, indeed, the author is knowledgeable in his

research conducted.

The title of the article is clear, accurate and unambiguous. The first time I read

it, I felt that there was a “sound of music”.

Elements Influencing Robustness of the Research

The topic was clearly identified by the researcher. At the very beginning, he

stated that the study was an ethnographic - phenomenological study that explores

the holistic nature of araquio tradition in the town of Peñaranda, province of Nueva

Ecija. Consistently, he stated the question or the purpose of his research. He

investigated araquio’s musical tradition as the product of the social behavior of

practitioners and how music - making builds a community. Also, it was stated that its

ethnographic documentation aimed at discovering how those learning experiences

were meaningful to the practitioners of araquio.

In his review of literatures, I believe that there were enough that has been

undertaken and served as basis or foundations in the study. In his theoretical

framework, he utilized a qualitative - ethnographic hermeneutic for this inquiry

centered mainly on practitioners’ araquio experiences and meanings, his theoretical

framework was constructed within the context of Music as Social Behavior (Rice

2001, Geertz 1973; Merriam 1964). These were appropriate and each of them

adequately described to support the investigative study.

It was clearly identified and described the philosophical approach that has

been used, the ethnographic - phenomenological approach. This was chosen to

explore the holistic nature of araquio tradition.

The sampling method and sample size were also identified. Purposive

sampling (Bernard 2006) method was used. The researcher involved eleven (11)

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adult practitioners in his study. He specified four maestros, two female and two

personajes, and three community musicians. Their ages were also varied according

to their respective roles. With these well distribution of number of participants, I think

they were suitable in giving informations for the study. Also, I believe that the

purposive sampling method utilized was appropriate for it generate representative

types of each role in the araquio tradition and to capture the diverse backgrounds

and characteristics of the practitioners, and determine the similarities and differences

that would reveal social behaviors evident in araquio’s musical tradition in the

context of a social phenomena.The reseacher purposively chosen adult native

culture bearers because their experiences had been whetted and nurtured through

the passing of time. Thus the participants/ respondents were be able to share their

meaningful experiences on how to musical behavior had greatly able to affected their

decision in choosing roles for the araquio.

I do believed that the participants were fully informed about the reseach.

Because the answers/responses of the participants, based on the article, were

appropriate and of great help on the fulfillment of the study. Though it was not

mentioned in the article, I belived that the participants were guarranteed that their

answers would be treated confidential; they were protected from harm, and;

permission to conduct the study was granted.

The data collection was described clearly and sequentially. The researcher

conducted semi - structured and open ended interviews with the participants that

ranged from 30 to 40 minutes each. In gathering data, he utilized an interactive

method in the form of participant - observation which served as his investigative tool

to gather data on the participants’ experiences. He immersed himself for three

months in the investigative procedure using a balanced emic and etic, or outsider -

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insider perspective (Bernard 2006; Geertz 1973). He also used three (3) approaches

to analyze his data: Classification of data which was used as an initial approach to

coding but he reconstructed it to fit on his study. Inductive coding was also used for

categorizing the information in the data. Thus, it provided the researcher with a clear

path to identify factors related to the research study. Then, he utilized

hermeneutic/interpretative analysis wherein this analytical approach highlighted the

underlying meaning contained in the texts given by the participants who experienced

the phenomenon under study. I believed that the researcher achieved the saturation

of data for the quality data collected were adequate. Though the researcher did not

discuss directly how rigour was assured, I could see it in the discussion of his study

that there are always review of related literature or study that gives support to every

steps or ideas the researcher wanted to do / explain. These would show credibility,

confirmability, transferability and dependability of the study.

The findings of the study are very well presented. Its importance and

implications of the findings were also identified. The researcher relates the findings

of the study back to the original research purpose.

Conclusion, implications and recommendations were also included in the

article. The conclusion showed an in - depth review of how each step of the research

was undertaken. The recommendations of the study was the preservation of this

tradition for future generations. Further, it was stated that the unspoken tradition

needs the continuous support of each community and the nation, and this treasure,

the unspoken relics and tradition of the araquio, has to be preserved and cherished

as dearly as one would archeological artifacts.

The article has an accurate and correctly written references such as books,

journal, articles, reports or related studies referred to in the study. The lists were

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included at the end of the article. With these correct format, the reader who has an

interest in the topic that was studied, the reference list can be a good source of

further readings.

Overall, this article can be a good source of information to the readers and/or

researchers. It is indeed a very comprehensive one.

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