Qualitative/Descriptive and Action Research

(CPAR, FGD, Case Study)

A Narrative Report

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the course requirements in

CC20a (Methods of Agricultural Research)
Second Semester, SY 2021-2022

Submitted by:
GROUP # 2
Leader: Kim Alvin M. Dente
Members: Nero M. Dente
Justine I. Catucod
Kathrine E. Damayo
Marivan R. Devara
Jessica E. Depaz

Submitted to:

Dr. Leah C. Tuan

Professor
 Research is the most important aspect in our lives. In our everyday lives we experienced
research. We are curious about something or someone that led us in conducting research.
Research shows us the way to evaluate, investigate, and enable us to solved problems. Research
needs to be process systematically in order to get the exact information or the data being
gathered about a specific topic to evaluate, analyze and improve our problem-solving skills.
These curiosity and inquiries we have in our mind leads to research that eventually that give rise
to many discoveries, accept new ideas and most importantly is to fill the existing gap such as
giving solutions to problems.
In conducting research there are many types of research. These are Qualitative or
Descriptive, Action Research and among other types of research. In the said types of research
there are different methods being utilized in collecting information. These are the Critical
Participatory Action Research or CPAR, Focus Group Discussion or FGD and Case study. In
qualitative research or descriptive research, knows of the individuals or groups that participated
on the study of their reasons and interpret their experiences about the specific phenomenon or
situation. Moreover, it also knows the perception or opinion of the participants about specific
events. Qualitative or descriptive research is all about in-depth understanding the live
experiences of the participant/s. This also follows chronological order in acquiring information
to understand the challenges we encountered. Identifying the reason of the participants faced
some phases in their lives, how did they respond to those phases and among others that needs to
be a well and in-depth interview. On the other hand, Action research has similarities with
qualitative research or descriptive research they both follow systematic or chronological order to
gather the exact data needed. However, Action research is about identifying the problems and
attempting to solve the specific problem in a particular course of time.
Furthermore, this type of research has different methods that are being utilized in
gathering or collecting data needed. FGD or Focus Group Discussion is one of the research
methods in which it is a technique to collect the data. It involves seven (7) to ten (10)
participants who are being selected as they have same or share certain characteristics that are
relevant to the study being conducted. The next methods in gathering data is case study. This
method is also a systematic investigation of a person, group participated in the study. It studies
the person to understand better or by observing the participant. It increases deeper insight of the
situation, validate the results immediately, and gather more data needed in the study. This also
provides solutions based on or connected with the theory. Lastly is the Critical Participatory
Action Research or CPAR, this study that includes the participations of members in the
community and take action to solve the problem. In critical participatory action research, we
collect or gather data to analyze and interpret the given data. This helps to assess the hypothesis
or generate a new one to solve the immediate issue.
Overall, research involves different process that needs to be done systematically or
chronologically to gather the exact information. Doing research benefits everyone to evaluate,
interpret, understand, and solve problems moreover generate solutions. Investigating leads to
many discoveries that help us live convenient and easier life for us to survive in our everyday
lives.
Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is a process of naturalistic inquiry that seeks an in-depth understanding of

social phenomena within their natural setting. It focuses on the "why" rather than the "what" of social
phenomena and relies on the direct experiences of human beings as meaning-making agents in their
everyday lives. Rather than by logical and statistical procedures, qualitative researchers use multiple
systems of inquiry for the study of human phenomena including biography, case study, historical
analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, grounded theory, and phenomenology.

Descriptive Research

The term „Descriptive‟ is self-explanatory; research that describes a situation, an event, an

institution is descriptive research. It describes the nature of a situation as it exists at the time of study.
Descriptive research is defined as a research method that describes the characteristics of the population or
phenomenon studied. This methodology focuses more on “what” of the research subject than “why” of
the research subject.

Action Research Studies

Action research is a type of qualitative research that seeks action to improve practice and study the
effects of the action that was taken (Streubert & Carpenter, 2002). Solu- tions are sought to practice
problems in one particular hospital or health care setting. There is no goal of trying to generalize the
findings of the study, as is the case in quan- titative research studies. In action research, the
implementation of solutions occurs as an actual part of the research process. There is no delay in
implementation of the solutions.

Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR)

Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) is an approach that positions everyday

people as researchers of their own social worlds and life contexts. Whereas traditional social
science research is carried out by formally trained researchers who may or not be participants of
the communities they are researching, CPAR is an approach to research that centers participant
expertise, insisting on the ethic of no research about us without us. Stemming from this critical
notion that experience is a form of expertise that is too often pushed to the margins, CPAR
presumes that critical knowledge is not located among few legitimized “experts,” but rather,
among people whose indigenous, or local knowledge, often remain unauthorized by formal
gatekeeping institutions. Per McIntyre (2000).

There are three principles guiding CPAR:

 The collective investigation of a problem

 The reliance on indigenous knowledge to better understand that problem
 The desire to take individual and/or collective action to deal with the stated problem
Focus Group Discussion (FGD)

A focus group discussion involves gathering people from similar backgrounds or

experiences together to discuss a specific topic of interest. It is a form of qualitative research
where questions are asked about their perceptions attitudes, beliefs, opinion or ideas. In focus
group discussion participants are free to talk with other group members; unlike other research
methods it encourages discussions with other participants. It generally involves group
interviewing in which a small group of usually 8 to 12 people. It is led by a moderator
(interviewer) in a loosely structured discussion of various topics of interest.

Case Study

A case study may be considered as quantitative or qualitative research depending on the

purpose of the study and the design chosen by the researcher. As is true of other types of
qualitative studies, for a case study to be considered as a qualitative study, the researcher must be
interested in the meaning of experiences to the subjects themselves, rather than in generalizing
results to other groups of people. Case studies are not used to test hypotheses, but hypotheses
may be generated from case studies.

References:

http://www.humanitiesamped.org/cpar.html

https://libguides.uta.edu/quantitative_and_qualitative_research/qual#:~:text=Qualitative%20r
esearch%20is%20a%20process,in%20their%20every%20day%20lives.https://www.questionpro.
com/blog/descriptive-research/

https://libguides.uta.edu/quantitative_and_qualitative_research/qual#:~:text=Qualitative%20r
esearch%20is%20a%20process,in%20their%20every%20day%20lives.

https://www.questionpro.com/blog/descriptive-research/

https://www.fivevidya.com/blog/action-research-vs-case-study-know-the-key-difference-
between-two-qualitative-research-methods/